CASE STUDY

Technology Client

THE CHALLENGE

A fintech client’s talent management had lost its way. Spotting leadership potential and developing its 12,000 employees had taken a backseat. Succession matrices had taken over, and the process was dogged by internal politics.

At the same time, the company was going through period of change. Sales of its key product were in decline, though market share was holding up through the launch of new products

Leadership continuity was essential in this context. But the senior management team was aging, and the talent pipeline was weak. There were few obvious successors to retiring executives, and little focus on preparing the company for the future

THE DIAGNOSIS

We began with a series of internal interviews to discover what good leadership looks like at the firm. We asked the COO, chairman, and leaders at all levels about real-life cases of effective leadership in action at the company.

One thing was clear: a strong belief in the company vision was essential.

We mapped the results of the interviews to what we know about exceptional leadership in similar organisations.

The next step was a frank discussion of our analysis with the senior team. What was the data saying? What did it mean for the firm? What would really make a difference to its talent management? What were managers willing to do to improve it?

From there, we worked out a detailed plan to transform the company’s talent management, and put it into action.

THE SOLUTION

The first step was obvious. The firm needed a competency model to identify who was ready for promotion, and what development they’d need to thrive at the next level.

We created this by setting out:

Core Attributes: standout traits an employee must have to be a successful leader at the firm.

High Potential Behaviours @ four management levels: individual contributor, supervisor, manager and senior manager.

The model needed to go further, however. A generic talent process wouldn’t work in a dynamic sector like tech, where everything moves at pace.

A tailored process

Succession planning often relies on the nine-box model. Managers are asked to highlight team members with general leadership potential and rate them on the grid.

In this instance, however, it was proving a futile exercise. The industry moves too fast to make leadership decisions for too far into the future.

Instead, we decided to focus solely on high performers. We simply asked: can this person move up one level? And we designed a bespoke talent management process to get the answer. The processes focuses managers on development and yet allows HR to get a solid picture of leadership potential:

1 – Managers answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a straightforward question about their high performers: do they have all four of the core attributes?

2 – Managers assess the strengths, weaknesses and development needs of those with all four attributes against the leadership potential behaviours.

3 – HR gets together with managers by team in a Talent Forum. They discuss each high-performer’s development potential: who is worth the investment? How can the development budget be put to best use?

4 – HR collates the results, and the system categorises each employee by where they need to focus their development – on taking the next step, focusing on leadership development, focusing on developing the core attributes, or focusing on their performance in role.

These categorisations give HR a long-term view of leadership potential at the organisation and managers tools to talk about development. It moves managers to truly focus on development whilst giving them guidance on where to focus. This allows them to plug plan ahead in order any talent gaps – by hiring, stepping up development, or both.

“We were delighted to work with YSR Consulting to find a more effective approach to talent management. Yvonne brought her trademark blend of robust research and pragmatic solutions. Her collaborative approach led to a unique process that really delivers what we need. I can’t wait to see how our new leaders will grow in the future.” ~ Richard, head of leadership and talent