Talent Reviews, Horseshoes, And Hand Grenades

By Martin Lanik, PhD, Pinsight? CEO

Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. For most things in life, “almost” is not good enough. If you miss your flight, it doesn’t matter that you almost got to the gate on time. If you almost pull off a bank robbery, you’re still going to jail. Horseshoes and hand grenades are a bit more forgiving - you can get close and still score points or hit your target. But for some reason we got comfortable with this “almost syndrome” in talent reviews.

On the surface, talent reviews sound like a worthwhile process: reviewing employees’ performance, identifying high potentials, building talent pools, confirming successors, etc. All-important talent management processes! The problem is, however, that talent reviews don’t work—they almost work.

Few organizations actually see any payoff from talent reviews. Despite widespread use, a recent poll revealed an overwhelming 88% of organizations were still unable to effectively plan talent for future business needs (Hanson, 2011). Even worse, research has shown that managers are barely better than a coin flip in identifying employees’ potential (Martin & Schmidt, 2010). In the end, talent reviews are typically a waste of time and money—but they don’t have to be.

Take talent reviews from almost useful to actually useful.

Start With More Accurate Data.

The chief problem with talent reviews is that they start with managers’ ratings (or even worse, multiple managers’ ratings), and managers almost get it right. I discussed the problems with performance reviews in my previous blog, and talent reviews suffer from many of the same issues. Most managers simply cannot distinguish between performance and potential despite hours of calibration discussions. It is hard enough to get managers to agree on a meeting time, much less on ratings of employees’ potential! This is why so many low-performers make it into high-potential programs and succession plans (Martin & Schmidt, 2010).

Wouldn’t you rather start with accurate data and stop bugging your managers with performance reviews? With an annual assessment program, you can easily gather accurate data on employees’ performance and potential. Bring the assessment data to talent reviews, organize it into a 9-box grid, and confirm the analysis with managers. Starting with accurate data will result in accurate identification of high-potentials and successors.

If They Matter To You, Make It Matter To Them.

Here’s the truth about high-potential employees: you need them more than they need you. If your organization doesn’t give them what they need to thrive, then they will take their talent elsewhere. The average worker stays with a company for about 5 years, but high-performers are likely to move on after just 28 months (Fottrell, 2014; Hamori, Cao & Koyuncu, 2012)! Now, how will you keep them engaged?

Go beyond the typical talent review checkmarks and hone in on what those talented employees need from your organization. Instead of agonizing over which one of the 9 boxes they belong in, discuss what opportunities you can create for them. Find out what motivates them, what matters to them, and what they need to develop to better support your strategic goals. Turn the talent review into a real conversation about building and retaining the talent to help you achieve your strategic goals.

Talent Review Is The Starting Point—Not The End.

It’s not enough to simply fill out the 9 boxes and expect a talent review to pay off. Think of the talent review as the start of a conversation, not the end of it. Now that you’ve aligned your talent with your strategic goals and identified your high potentials and successors, how will you retain and develop them? What stretch assignments will you assign to them? Who will mentor them? How will you track their progress? How will you know when they are ready for a promotion? How will you keep them engaged until a position opens up?

Replacing calibration discussions and performance reviews with an annual assessment program will streamline your talent reviews. Have managers nominate their bright starts to an annual assessment program, then review the results with managers. Use the assessment data to identify high-potentials and successors, and focus majority of the meeting on discussing retention and development strategies.

Talent reviews are not like horseshoes and hand grenades: you won’t score if you almost get it right. Don’t start with the almost accurate manager ratings, implement an annual assessment program instead. Otherwise, you’ll have a lot of stories about how your company almost reached its strategic goals—and we all know what that’s worth.