Q Should talent be measured by performance or potential?
A I think talent should be measured by both criteria. Both of them go hand in hand but potential is for building the future and performance is for changing what they are doing in today’s context.
Performance is measured by talent being given a particular opportunity, a certain responsibility of a function and the set of measures you put for that function. To measure potential, we sponsor talent, groom them through personal coaching, mentoring, formal coaching and by giving them responsibility across the organisation spectrum. By enabling them to perform at their best, they grow into positions of importance.
Q How do you identify emerging leaders in your organisation?
A We look at good technical and domain knowledge, followed by a strong focus on managerial skills in the emerging leader. We also look at how they deal with business challenges and multiple geographies, not just in India as we have globalised and multicultural teams. How do you work with such a team to deliver customer requirements? How do you motivate a multicultural and globally dispersed team? How are your line managers holding onto the organisational overall goals and how do they measure up against it? It is a measurement-based and continuous improvement-based system. That is how we bring the best out of all type of persons who can be groomed.
Q How do you leverage on HR to develop this core group?
A HR is implemented into all strategic thinking at both India and global levels. The HR functions continuously have one-on-one meetings with the employees. During open houses and town hall meetings, they engage senior leadership to go out there and meet with these potential leaders or potential connections we need to establish. The HR role is very clearly one of our talent facilitators since they understand the culture of the organisation well and they are able to spot people whom can be groomed as future potential leaders.
There are three tiers of leadership which we look at. One is from an operational perspective and tactical value which takes our key and high performers and prepares them for leadership roles. Second tier is strategic skills for senior leaders. In addition to in-house training, we would be training them in special programmes at the various management schools or the Tata management training centre. Finally, we have the ambassador core, a leadership development programme which checks the high performers and prepares them for global leadership in sales, marketing and search functions.
Q Why is engaging talent in an informal setting important?
A Engaging talent in informal setting helps a lot in terms of the retention, value system and engagement as a family. We have a programme known as Maitree, which essentially means extended family and employee engagement beyond the employee himself or herself. We have role models, through the facilitation of Maitree coordinators, who take talent on social activities such as hiking, music clubs or join volunteering programmes together. Essentially we call them to build caring, sharing and nurturing qualities together.
Q Why is listening to the feedback of peers, customers and management important when assessing a talent’s value?
A It is critical that we get feedback from all avenues. This ensures a 360 degree evaluation on the talent so we have a thorough understanding of the employees’ capabilities. There are no biases from employees themselves, the clients whom they are working for, HR as well as my leadership team who reports to me on some of these people. For me, even if there are biases, there are triple meetings with the same person so the checks and balances are not through one input, but through multiple inputs.
A review from multiple parties also guarantees all feedback on stellar performance is recognised, reinforced and adopted as a best practice. On the other hand, areas of improvements can be targeted and amended through proactive engagements and a comprehensive skills development training programme.
