Boost Employee Retention by 31% (Aug 09)

Best-in-Class companies increased employee retention on average by 31%.

Best-in-Class companies improved employee performance on average by 27%.

Best-in-Class companies increased employee engagement on average by 25%.

Human Resources (HR) executives are under more pressure than ever to ensure that their activities are aligned with business priorities, and to deliver consistently higher performance without increasing their budget.

Everyone is looking to get more from less - more from their people, their processes and their technology. According to research firm The Aberdeen Group. Pragmatics provide best in class performance and talent management consulting services across people, process & technology.

Making Training Work in 2009 (Jan 09)

People learn in different ways, and different learning experiences are more appropriate for different roles and environments. Company learning departments must continually explore ways to engage employees with the right content, in the right form, at the right time.

"Encouraging managers to help employees choose learning that best meets their needs and preferences is a much more effective approach" says Lek Tisanthiah Senior Talent Consultant at Pragmatics. Options include classroom-based training, simulated role-playing programmes, e-learning, books and one-on-one coaching.

Effective organisations are using line managers to help employees structure experience-based learning paths. This approach increases the need for managers to become learning coaches, not just project managers and supervisors and to really spend time understanding the needs of their staff.

Pragmatics partners with GoldJobs.com (Nov 2008)

GoldJobs is a company specialising is supplying executive level candidates in the £100,000 per annum salary bracket to industry. As part of its succession planning and blended talent management architecting programme Pragmatics are pleased to offer this service to help companies better manage and reduce risk within their talent management pool. For more details contact Mike at Pragmatics on 07785238251 or drop us a line at info@pragmatics.eu.com

Pragmatics Partners with SumTotal Systems (Nov 2008)

Pragmatics partners with SumTotal a global supplier of Talent Management Systems and Gartner’s 2008 Corporate Learning Systems Magic Quadrant leader. Our combined offer strengthens performance and profitability through the management, optimisation and deployment of learning, performance and talent management solutions. Our innovative software products, category leadership and applied insight help us understand the critical success factors for your business – no matter the size or industry.. For more information contact Mike at Pragmatics on 07785238251 or drop us a note on info@pragmatics.eu.com

The Benefits of being Best-in-Class. (Nov 2008)

• Best-in-Class companies increased employee retention on average by 31%*
• Best-in-Class companies improved workforce capacity utilisation on average by 31%*
• Best-in-Class companies increased employee performance on average by 27%*

The future is never easy to predict, but organisations increasingly realise that they must do a better job of anticipating what lies ahead, in order to improve their ability to recruit and to retain the talent they anticipate they will need. This is especially important in light of the pains that organisations already report with finding skilled talent in the workforce today, and with the impact of turnover of current staff. But preparing today's workforce to meet tomorrow's needs requires that an organisation have a clear picture of the skills and capabilities in the organisation currently; what gaps exist at present in terms of needed skills; and how that picture will be impacted by changes that lay ahead. Pragmatics TM Architects can help your company define and impliment a best-in-class strategy.

Source: * Aberdeen Group

What is Talent Management? (Oct 2008)

Talent Management (TM or HRTM) is a relatively recent term used to refer to strategic HR programmes primarily focused on increasing workforce productivity. Talent management programmes can be contrasted to more administrative HR programmess designed to support companies with the legal requirements and accounting processes related to employing people.

Both types of programmes are important, and many HR processes support both strategic and administrative HR goals. However, the focus of the Pragmatics team is solely on strategic HR programmes whose goals are fundamentally to increase workforce productivity through improving employee effectiveness.

Sustainability Through Talent in Uncertain Times (Sept 2008)

If your business is experiencing decreasing revenues, shrinking budgets and increasing uncertainty …
you cannot afford to focus on strategic talent retention.

Right?

Actually, wrong!

This is the time when new market leaders emerge and fortunes are made. Everyone in your industry shares in the pain.

This is your organisation’s opportunity to think strategically and invest in order to make relative gains against your competition and avoid knee-jerk or ineffective responses to external pressures that destroy value.

Based on our work with leading businesses on maximising people performance and optimisation of talent management systems and processes , Pragmatics recommends the following 4 strategies that deliver superior results in adverse economic conditions:

1. Establish clarity of goals and rapidly align your workforce to execute the new strategy —
When change is forced upon your business by the external environment, you cannot afford to lose focus or to delay the necessary course shift.

2. Cut with precision, if you must, but not bluntly — if layoffs become necessary, view them as your chance to weed out the low performers and let your best talent grow. Optimise the workforce!

3. Focus on your core talent and invest where it counts — identify the talent that will be essential for your new strategic direction and invest heavily when others are cutting. Turmoil is when leaders emerge.

4. Be transparent — Avoid the rumour mills. During uncertain times, transparency drives trust and employee engagement. Companies with high trust financially outperform those with low trust.

For more information or to engage a Talent Optimisation Architect give us a call.

What will drive the success of your business? (Sept 2008)

Aggressive top-line growth?

Entering new global markets?

Launching the next trail blazing product?

No matter which future course you plot for your business, success will rely on flawless execution.

And—in turn—flawless execution will largely depend on your organisation’s ability to choose and prepare the best possible leaders for tomorrow.

Organisations achieve sustainable success when they focus on talent management strategies. Yet while a handful of organisations are making progress, most still need to close the gap between their current leadership bench strength and the sought after talent to drive future success.

Consider the research below:

1. A study by the Human Capital Institute involving over 700 HR professionals shows that 83 percent expect "retaining the right leadership talent to drive their business” will become far more difficult.

2. A recent McKinsey study revealed that 54 percent of senior leaders are not spending sufficient time on talent management issues

3. And, according to a recent study by HR.com, a survey of over 800 organisations found that about 50% did not have an effective way to track high potential leaders.

Pragmatics is here to help those companies that see Talent management as a key strategy in achieving ongoing success.

Latest Survey - More training Needed (Sept 2008).

In a recent survey about training and development it was revealed that of 300 IT professionals, 68% felt that their organisations are not offering enough training for their employees to get the job done.

How important is training to you?
Despite 80% of respondents saying that they see the value of training for companies nearly 60% of organisations are only offering training and development courses once a year. Is this enough?
• IT professionals see training as a priority to get ahead with a staggering 45% holding at least 2 qualifications and 27% holding 3 or more. Of these we found that 70% have been self funded.
• 96% felt that IT professionals in particular need more training to keep up to date with changes in technology. Whilst 76.3% felt varying degrees of pressure to continually update their skills in this fast paced industry.
• Research also showed that organisations employing less than 50 people provide far less training then larger organisations. This is despite the fact that training budgets have decreased by 30% in the last year.

What does this mean for the companies?
Training incentives rank as the third most important factor when looking for a job next to salary and location. Despite this employers are perceived as providing few opportunities to develop IT staff. This could have strong implications for staff retention if employees feel that they don’t get the training they need. However as an employer, loyalty is a key consideration for organisations to weigh up when investing in people. With the high degree of movement in the workforce, should organisations be expected to invest in developing skills for staff to take to a new employer?

Regardless of who should be responsible the question remains - Is the lack of emphasis on training stifling IT departments from moving forward with the innovation of new technology?

Original survey appeared in article on the IT Job Board and is reprinted with their permission.

Workforce Readiness: Meet Business Goals (Aug 2008)

Talent managers say the workforce is not where it needs to be to meet global business challenges. Effectively managing HR processes can help by connecting efficiency, process improvement and talent management strategy.

Demands on a rapidly changing workforce increase dramatically in a recession-leery economy. Improved employee productivity and effectiveness are paramount. Companies are pressured to achieve more with less and often struggle to keep pace with the workforce measurement and preparation necessary for growth.

Softscape's 2008 "State of the Global Talent Nation" survey of more than 250 human resources professionals from around the world corroborates this. Some 94 percent of respondents do not feel their personnel are adequately prepared to meet future company goals. This percentage has increased 30 percent in the three years Softscape has conducted the survey.

The primary reason HR professionals are less confident about workforce readiness is because more than half of survey respondents are not confident their businesses effectively manage HR processes. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that companies' top concerns are related to employee retention, development and performance.

New Leaders Don’t Get Coaching Needed for Success, Says Survey (Aug 2008)

Only 23 percent of new leaders — or employees who have advanced from being individual contributors to supervising or managing others — receive the coaching they need to reach their full development potential, according to a survey conducted by Right Management, a provider of integrated human capital consulting services and solutions across the employment life cycle.

“While organisations see value in providing coaching to strategic and developing leaders, coaching is not offered as frequently to new leaders,” said a spokesperson for Right Management.

Most new leaders advance in their careers due to their proficiency with technical skills, but they don’t necessarily have the leadership abilities needed for success in their higher-level positions according to the survey authors.

“New leaders need as much development as strategic and developing leaders. They are the future leaders of the organisation. Smart organisations focus their resources to develop these individuals and ensure they deliver on their much-anticipated success.”

New leaders don’t need coaching in technical skills as much as they need guidance in how to treat others - Soft skills development can be the key to improved retention, motivation and performance.

Customising Talent Management - every person counts (Aug 2008)

The Coventry Building Society, moved five of its 50 call-center employees into full-time manager-coach positions. In this new role, the manager-coaches provide two hours of coaching each week for every employee by listening to calls and providing immediate feedback and suggestions for improvement.

Although the number of people taking calls went down, the call center's performance went up. Active manager involvement is key to creating customised talent management solutions for an increasingly diverse workforce.

Customised Learning (Aug 2009)

People learn in different ways, and different learning experiences are more appropriate for different roles and environments. Company learning departments must continually explore ways to engage employees with the right content, in the right form, at the right time.

"Encouraging managers to help employees choose learning that best meets their needs and preferences is a much more effective approach" says Lek Tisanthiah Senior Talent Consultant at Pragmatics. Options include classroom-based training, simulated role-playing programmes, e-learning, books and one-on-one coaching.

Effective organisations are using line managers to help employees structure experience-based learning paths. This approach increases the need for managers to become learning coaches, not just project managers and supervisors and to really spend time understanding the needs of their staff.