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Talent Managers and Organisation Designers -

The last factor that forms part of the Talent Manager/Organisation Designer competency domain is that of designing reward systems. The results of the HRCS reported by Ulrich et al (2008) showed an interesting discrepancy in how this factor is perceived by different respondent groups. HR respondents viewed compensation and rewards as a part of their day-to-day operational duties, while the non-HR respondents viewed it as inseparable from the strategic part of managing talent and designing organisations. Research by the Corporate Leadership Council (2004) also showed a discrepancy between the factors that HR professionals thought were important to engage and retain staff, and those that non-HR staff thought were important. HR tends to play down the importance of compensation and reward. From a talent perspective, reward and compensation is used firstly to attract the right talent to the organisation and secondly to retain and encourage the right culture and behaviour. Kerr (2009) is of the view that setting up an efficient reward system is not inherently complicated. The idea is to use reward to leverage optimum performance from employees. Yet many organisations reward the wrong behaviour or fail to clearly define the parameters of positive behaviour. Executives complain that employees are underachievers and lack motivation, when the problem is actually a defective reward system. Kerr (2009) mentions for example, that some corporate leaders claim they want to be innovative but discourage employees from taking risks and may even penalise those who make mistakes. Or an organisation’s managers say they want honesty and open communication but they value employees who do their jobs quietly and don’t cause trouble. Effective reward systems are based on three fundamentals:

• Defining performance: Turning the mission, values and goals into actions;
• Measuring performance: Creating metrics to track progress toward your stated goals; and
• Rewarding performance: Establishing a system that recognises and rewards actions and behaviours that are aligned with organisational objectives (Kerr, 2009).

The biggest challenge for HR professionals is to understand the importance of reward in managing talent effectively. The competency domain of Talent Manager/Organisation Designer impacts on business results as well as the individual effectiveness of the HR professional. By developing this competence, the HR professional will ensure that the attraction, development and retention of talent are balanced with the organisation’s development and design and will ultimately guarantee a sustainable business.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lydia Cillié-Schmidt has more than 24 years of experience as an industrial psychologist and has established and now manages The Talent Hub; the focus areas of which are the design and implementation of talent management processes and systems, including acquisition, deployment, development and engagement. She can be contacted at lydiacs@yebo.co.za.

Resources used

• Capgemini Approach to Organisation Design, http://www.us.capgemini.com/ 2005
  
• Deloitte.  Boosting business performance through organisation design http://www.deloitte.com/
  
• HRCS White Paper, 2008
  
• Kerr, S. Reward Systems: Does Yours Measure Up? Harvard Business School. 2009
  
• Laff, M. The Hidden Talent Retention Strategy. T+D, December, 2007
  
• Managing for High Performance and Retention: An overview of key drivers of employee engagement. Corporate Leadership Council, 2004
  
• Quirke, B. and  Bloomfield, R. Developing a consistent planning approach: at Vodafone, Diageo, Amersham and Rolls-Royce,  Internal Comms Hub, http://www.melcrum.com/
  
• Talent Management State of the Industry Report 2009 Executive Summary
  
• Ulrich, D. Brockbank, W. Younger, J. and Johnson, D. Human Resource Competencies: Responding to Increased Expectations
  
• Wyman, O. Strategic Organisation Design: An Integrated Approach. http://www.oliverwyman.com/. 2008

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