Developing a Talent Management Program – Part III

Results (High Level Summary)

Leadership team

• Lack of trust in decision making of management reporting to them.
• Lack of accountability in management staff.
• Too much done “by the seat of the pants” rather than strategically planned and implemented.
• Lack of time to effectively plan for the business.

Many of these respondents felt that they spent too much time “overseeing” their direct reports (mid-level management).

Management staff
(mid-level management)

• Learned how to manage “on the job” – limited professional development opportunity.
• New hires to their department were a drain on the others – too many questions, slowed down progress, etc.
• Lack of strategic direction and communication of vision from leadership team.
• Unsure how to direct staff on a regular basis (how to provide guidance to them).

Many of these respondents felt that work was consistently “dumped” on them from their managers without consideration for other projects in progress.

Employees: less than 2 years

• Feel uncomfortable in role initially: lack of understanding of what to do, when to do it, and who he/she should interact with/get information from on a regular basis.
• No guidance when first joined organization (more than half responded that they needed to take the lead in understanding their role, responsibilities and who to “go to” to get information).
• Took a long time to learn how to “get around” the organization (on average, it took 8 – 12 months to learn how to get around).

Employees: 2 – 5 years

• Felt there was no clear career path and insufficient professional development opportunities (1/3 of respondents noted that they had never taking a training class offered by the company but rather sought out their own training. They did note, however, that their managers would approve external training).
• Felt like they were finally completely comfortable with their role and the workings of company (most noted it took 2 – 3 years to feel fully comfortable).
• Believed that they wouldn’t be where they are today if they hadn’t figured it out themselves (who to go to for what information, etc.)

Employees: 6 – 10 years

• Would like to have more opportunities to develop skills and work within other areas of the business.
• Would like to have opportunities to move to other positions. (A number of the participants in this category said that when they applied for internal openings, they did not get the job. Two individuals noted that they were told by their direct manager they were too good to lose and therefore they couldn’t let them move to another role.)
• Didn’t feel like their direct supervisors knew what they did – certainly didn’t feel like their hard work was acknowledged or appreciated.

On a side note – a few respondents in the survey noted that they were job hunting because they felt there was nowhere for them to progress to.

Employees: 11+ years

• Felt stagnant in role
• Some (not all) were interested in learning about what opportunities might exist for future roles.  (In fact, some expressed an interest in a leadership role within the company)

On a side note – many of the respondents commented that they were still in the job simply because the money was good and they were comfortable (these were not the same individuals who expressed an interest in leadership roles).

Ex-employees (voluntarily left org.)

• Felt that they had no support when they started the job and had to learn everything “by the seat of their pants.”
• Given that there was no career path opportunities, they wanted to find opportunities (in other companies) where they had a chance to move into management roles or roles with increasing responsibility.
• Lack of acknowledgement by their managers of the work they do made them feel under- or unappreciated.