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Through the concept of a seven-stage employee lifecycle, Aon Assessment Solutions has provided ideas for collecting and utilising employee data for better decisions in a whitepaper titled, Achieving productivity and engagement through data-driven talent decisions.
Some of the ideas provided in the research on making data-driven talent decisions throughout seven stage of the talent lifecycle are provided below:
Stage 1: Talent planning
- Know what you are looking for - Clearly define the roles in your organisation, specifying not only the tasks, but the exact competencies, abilities and job-related behaviours.
- Don't be lured into looking for individuals who 'tick all the boxes' - The danger in doing so is that you may miss out on candidates who may not currently have the right set, but can learn.
Stage 2: Attraction
- Look for candidates in the right places - Use the data identified in your job analysis to strategically place your job postings, including tapping into your current employees for referrals.
- Conduct a pre-application screening - Help potential applicants make an informed choice by introducing realistic job previews to allow them to assess their self-suitability.
Stage 3: Selection
- Choose the assessment tool specific to your requirements - For example, a personality questionnaire measures the finer details of job-specific competencies, while aptitude tests are better for determining cognitive abilities.
- Keep your process free of bias - Ensure "face validity", i.e. every test or tool you use must look to candidates like it measures what it is supposed to measure.
Stage 4: Onboarding
- Prepare a personal development plan - Use the data gathered during selection assessment to match new employees to the right mentor, based on their personality and abilities.
- Ask questions - Survey new recruits on what they thought of the assessment process.
Stage 5: Ongoing development and succession planning
- Create 'organisational heatmaps' - This is to highlight the jobs, geographical areas, departments and teams where specific development is required.
- Provide data to coaches and mentors - So that they can better understand the strengths, weaknesses, and progress of the employees they are coaching.
Stage 6: Performance management and engagement
- Optimise your performance management process - It should help you understand people's capabilities, how they are performing, their potential, and exactly what motivates them.
- Conduct engagement surveys - Use the data to create action plans for improvement in specific teams or business units.
Stage 7: Retention
- Keep every job challenging, interesting and fun - Employees want to constantly feel a sense of accomplishment and that their time at work has been worthwhile.
- Don't over-hype your employer brand - This may result in creating a false expectation of what it's like to work at your organisation, causing a retention issue in the long-term.
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