The HR Daily Advisor® research team conducted the 2016 Talent and Performance Management Survey in January 2016. Talent and performance management is one of the most important and rigorous tasks any HR professional has to deal with. We asked participants everything from how they identify high-performing employees to how they reward those employees to what survey participants think about performance appraisals in general.
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Highlights of the Talent and Performance Management Survey:
- When survey takers were asked if they expect to face shortages of talent in areas that will impact their productivity or success in 2016, the majority (71.4%) answered “Yes.”
- When asked where shortages were likely to occur, 40.1% of participants answered, “management.”
- The majority of participants were asked if they have a formal succession planning program in place. The majority (67.3%) indicated that they did not.
- Executive jobs were the least likely to be filled internally, with 46.9% of respondents saying that only 0%–10% of executive job openings were filled internally.
- The overwhelming majority of respondents (90.2%) said that they offered their high-potential employees “new responsibilities or challenges.”
- Participants were asked what they thought about performance evaluations. The number one response was, “they accomplish the intended goal most of the time” (46.9%).
- When asked about whether their supervisors are disciplined for poorly conducting performance evaluations, respondents were most likely to say “rarely” (35.8%) and “never” (35.1%).
Predicting Staffing and Talent Requirements
When asked if they maintain a system for predicting staffing or talent requirements, most respondents (68.8%) answered “No.” Only 31.2% said “Yes.”
Prediction Timeline
Survey takers were asked over what period of time they maintain a system for predicting staffing and talent requirements. The two most common answers were “annually” (38.5%) and “quarterly” (28.2%). The third most common answer was “monthly” (19.7%). Only 7.7% of respondents answered “More than 1 year.”
Prediction by Employee Type
The majority of respondents (74.1%) answered that they maintained a system for predicting staffing and talent requirements for all of their employees. Only a fraction of respondents (6.9%) indicated “all exempt employees” and a smaller group (3.4%) indicated “director/VP and above.” Less than 1% answered “C-suite only.” Among those polled, 14.7% answered “other.” Here are some of the most common “other” responses:
- Hourly employees
- Seasonal employees
- All nonexempt employees
Maintaining Prediction System
Over one-half (54.8%) of respondents indicated that they maintain their system for predicting staffing and talent requirements manually. Just above one-quarter (27.0%) answered that they maintain that system as “part of the human resources information system.” Only 12.2% indicated that theirs was a “stand-alone system.”
Predicting Talent Shortages
When survey takers were asked if they expect to face shortages of talent in areas that will impact their productivity or success, the majority (71.4%) answered “Yes.” Only 28.6% of respondents indicated “No.”
Shortages by Employee Group
Participants were asked where they expected to see talent shortages. The most common response (40.1%) was “management.” The next most common responses (29.2%) were tied between “tech-exempt” and “tech workers.” “Executive” (12.6%) and “nonexempt office” (12.3%) were nearly tied for the least common response. Just under one-quarter of the participants (23.8%) answered “other.” Here are some of the more common “other” responses:
- Nursing and health care
- Restaurant staff
- Direct caregivers
- Educational staff
- Consultants
Managing Shortages
The majority of participants (60.6%) indicated that they would deal with talent shortages with “training programs for current employees.” Furthermore, “high school/college relations programs” constituted the second most common answer (44.6%). Other answers included, “training programs for new employees” (39.0%), “engaging agency/search firms” (37.5%), and “hiring recruiting specialists” (29.7%). The least common answer was “other.” Here are some of those “other” responses:
- Job fairs
- Job boards
- Internal recruiting
- Advertising
- Pipelining candidates
Formal Succession Planning Program
Survey takers were asked if they have a formal succession planning program in place. The majority (67.3%) indicated that they did not. Approximately one-third (32.7%) of respondents answered “No.”
Succession Planning Coverage
When asked whom their formal succession planning program covers, the majority of respondents (67.5%) answered “executive level.” Almost as many participants (65.9%) answered “top management.” The answer “managerial” was the third most common response (61.9%), and “key contributors” was the fourth most common response (45.2%). The least common response was “supervisory” at 42.1%.
Formal Career Planning Program
Exactly three-quarters of respondents said they do not have a formal career program. One-quarter of respondents indicated that they do.
Career Planning by Career Group
The majority of respondents (61.5%) indicated that all of their employees are covered by their career planning programs. One-third of respondents (33.3%) indicated “management.” Around one-quarter of respondents (24.0%) answered “line supervisors.” Other groups, like tech workers, tech-exempt workers, and executives all hovered just above 12%.
Career Planning Meetings
When asked how often their career planning meetings are held, survey takers were most likely to respond “as needed” (46.9%). One-quarter of respondents answered “annually.” Only 21.9% of respondents indicated “quarterly.”
Talent Development Program
The overwhelming majority of respondents (88.2%) indicated that they have no development program that focuses on protected groups. Only 11.8% said that they do.
Formal Mentoring Program
Most participants (77.9%) answered that they do not have a formalized mentoring program. Only 22.1% of respondents answered that they do.
Identifying HiPos
When asked if they have a system for identifying high-potential employees (HiPos), the majority of respondents (63.6%) said “No.” A little over one-third of respondents (36.4%) said that they do.
HiPo Identification Methods
Respondents who answered “Yes” to the previous question were asked what system they had for identifying HiPos. The majority of respondents (63.2%) answered, “managers keep an eye out for HiPos.” Over one-half (54.9%) of respondents indicated “It’s built into our normal performance management system.” The third most common response (45.9%) was “an informal process involving either discussion or managerial input.” Dedicated software and paper solutions scored the lowest, with 7.5% and 9.0% respectively.
Managing HiPos
The overwhelming majority of respondents (90.2%) said that they offered their HiPos “new responsibilities or challenges.” The second most common answer given by respondents (57.6%) was “special training.” The least common response given by participants (26.5%) was “attractive compensation incentives or perks.”
Employee Potential and Advancement
Survey takers were asked what methods they use to assess employee potential for advancement. Two responses towered over the others. The first, selected by 82.7% of the respondents was “management judgment.” The second, selected by 70.2% of the respondents was “performance review results.” The other three choices all scored just above or just under 20%. Only 5.0% of respondents answered “other.” Here are some of these “other” responses:
- Employee interest
- Job interviews
- Attitude and willingness to do the extra tasks
- Client feedback
Get the full set of results here. Tomorrow we’ll take a look at some more results from the Talent and Performance Management Survey, plus an introduction to