UGM talent management Case Studies
Meeting the specific needs of clients means that UGM embarks on a wide array of assignments. Our Case Studies represent a small cross-section of our portfolio of experience, providing brief insights into how we have helped many clients. Contact us to learn about the numerous other projects we've worked on over 30 years in business.
Developing A Better Performance Management Framework
A division of a government agency confirmed through an engagement survey that its performance management system required improvement. UGM conducted a grounded-theory type study of performance management issues in the division. Data collection included interviews, focus groups and documentary analysis. Data was continuously analysed using the constant comparison approach. Themes were generated as data was collected, with newer data strengthening, diminishing or having no impact on each theme. The end of the data collection/analysis phase was reached when additional data collection did not provide any new insights. A new performance management framework was then designed and tested with several focus groups and small refinements made. The senior leadership team of the division not only accepted and endorsed the proposed framework for implementation, but also requested that relevant components be applied agency-wide.
Strategic Talent Management For Growth
A large Australian company approached us to develop a People Plan, including how talent could best be managed to provide the constant pipeline of leaders the company recognised it would need to drive its growth objectives. This involvement spanned five-years, giving us an unrivalled opportunity, most unusual for consultants, to trial some new approaches and follow them through in the challenging setting of a large, fast growing company. It enabled us to put into practice and evaluate cutting edge ideas from around the world about how companies can best:
- integrate talent management activities
- align them with company strategy
- ensure they deliver maximum business impact.
Our integrated plan was presented to the CEO and the Board, after some small-scale trials in particular parts of the company during the previous year. Key features of our approach included:
- Integration of talent management activities within an overarching Strategic Human Resource Management Plan
- Strong alignment with company strategy and adjustment of the Plan as company strategy evolved and was adjusted over time
- A stepped movement away from simply ‘controlling personnel’ and ‘developing people’ towards managing the company’s human capital in ways that secured measurable value to clients and shareholders i.e. a focus on what people can do and can deliver to support the key drivers of value and profitability in each business.
The effort included (but was not limited to) a focus on the following integrated suite of initiatives:
- building a leadership culture
- linking the human capital strategy to the business strategy
- coaching on the job to deliver performance improvements in the job
- action learning through authentic business challenges for cross-business, cross-functional teams (‘ventures’) that must deliver outcomes directly to the ‘C’ suite
- setting up talent pools and defining success
- analysis of key roles
- establishing an on-going ‘educative’ dialogue with the ‘C’ suite and the Board
- creating a results based road map for the company’s high potentials/future leaders
- measuring and evaluating the company’s ROI on the above investment
Once the program had run its course we conducted a thorough evaluation of the talent management strategy, assessing its impact and the benefits derived by the company. This is something rarely attempted and the methodology we developed has attracted the attention of Oxford University’s Business School who are conducting an international study of how talent management efforts are measured to determine business (as opposed to personal/professional development) outcomes. From a quantitative and qualitative data collection, we identified results in the key areas of:
- strategy
- high performance
- communication
- leadership brand
In this way a key legacy we have left the company, after an extended period of intense involvement, is to show how it can learn from its experiences in order to make progressively better, and more strategic, human capital decisions. The client was very happy with the outcomes of the intervention and return on investment, with a senior executive commenting that it ‘will leave an enduring legacy of business leadership capability in this organisation, well into the years beyond the life of the current executive team. That legacy is something that fills me with pride and gratitude’. The client also remarked that the talent plan and leadership development work had not only developed critical leader pipelines but also developed valuable intellectual networks across the business. Praiseworthy of the outcomes, the client stated, ‘We are now seeing the capacity of these networks to deliver innovative business outcomes, well beyond the formal component of particular programs.’
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