Talent Management Process Design

Prompted by growing appetite from senior leaders to engage in meaningful talent management activities, this organisation sought support from Curve Group with revitalising a number of “tick the box” talent processes, beginning with the annual Talent Review. The goal was to inject the existing approach with greater rigour, relevance and alignment to local business needs, while remaining cognisant of reporting requirements mandated by the company’s HQ.

A review of existing practices and resources revealed the opportunity to simplify and enhance their user-friendliness, making it easier for senior leaders to make informed decisions in relation to succession and development. The Talent Review was reformatted to encourage robust conversations regarding people matters, and cross-business unit calibration sessions were introduced to drive greater consistency in talent assessment, validate succession plans for business critical roles and identify targeted development opportunities for key talent.

Agendas and facilitator guides were developed for HR to lead the sessions, and engaging quick reference guides were created for senior leaders to assist them with having career conversations with their teams.

Much more than a “band-aid” fix, the enhanced Talent Review process surfaced rich data in relation to the key people challenges facing the business, serving as valuable inputs to the development of a longer term talent strategy. With one senior leader going as far as to say the sessions yielded “the best conversations about talent they’d ever had”, additional benefits included reduced siloed thinking and greater commitment to an enterprise approach to talent management, more realistic succession plans and the identification of talent development solutions that could be owned and implemented locally.