Cherish the talent you have

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Making sure your own staff get promoted and stay in your company is vital for its future.

But too often, and especially in this industry, the best people can be hidden away on site, scattered like pebbles on a beach – or sheltering under a larger rock.

You may be focused on halfyearly results or other pressing matters, but have you considered who is going to replace you when you get promoted, leave or retire, or indeed when your boss does?

It is part of what human resources people call 'talent management' and according to a study by management consultant McKinsey & Company, managers say that finding talent will be their biggest challenge over the next five years.

Add to this the fact that the cost and availability of these people is the second biggest constraint on growth (hot on the heels of the number one, which is competitive environment) and it becomes an issue that is highly relevant.

These statistics apply across all industries, meaning that construction, like all the rest, is competing externally for good people, as well as with itself.

And it is not simply related to finding top management, it applies to specialists too.

Emily Lawson, a partner at McKinsey, encourages firms to get a strategy written down. Speaking at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development annual conference, she said: "It should look different in every organisation. Do companies have a talent strategy? Not really – not a written strategy.

"Broadly, it is a long-term aim and may not be thought of as urgent, especially when it is results time, for example."

Internal recruitment

One firm which has radically changed how it finds the best people is support services company
Amey, which has around 8,000 people spread across 100 locations in the UK.

Head of talent Scott Hobbs explains that chief executive Mel Ewell wanted to hire more people internally, rather than spending a lot of money on agencies to find them.

"Seven out of every 10 management hires into Amey were external and cost a lot to bring in. We really needed to address it as quickly as possible," he says.

Mr Hobbs was working as a consultant to the firm and joined permanently in 2006, when he launched 'Talent Tracker', which got people to nominate themselves for promotion.

They then applied to the programme and went through an assessment, where they were interviewed by senior management.

Once assessed, they would be categorised as 'fast track' – where they could be promoted within two years or 'on track' – ready to move up in three to five years. They could alternatively be classed as 'emerging talent' – ready for a move in five years, or 'matched' – where they are reaching their potential as they are. Of 260 who applied in the first year, 40 were then put on the fast track scheme.

Fast track people are put on a training programme and matched to new opportunities as they come up. But it is not all about the top people, says Mr Hobbs. "There is a tremendous temptation to say that the fast tracks are where it's at. But there is a timeframe for everyone to develop.

The people who aren't fast track – we ask how they are doing now and we want to give them the same support and a good way through the pipeline," he says.

Self-suggestion

Getting people to suggest themselves is one of the biggest benefits, says Mr Hobbs. "You find people you would not have seen. You bypass normal processes. It is interesting to see how the talent has risen to the surface.

"The most common way is that managers nominate people, but this way it's almost saying 'this is your own career'," he says. He adds that it is good for networking and that people are not interviewed by their line managers, but they are given feedback by them separately.

And it is good for retention as people own their careers. "Who ever trains you on how to develop your career?" says Mr Hobbs. "This encourages self-directed learning and makes people think about what is best for them."

But his main worry is that people will get the training and then leave. "The nervousness we have is that the help people get goes outside the organisation. How do you make sure that they are moving up the ladder?" he says.

In the first year of Talent Tracker, roughly 20 per cent of fast track people moved on to other firms in their area. But he says the company is trying to counter this by giving more support at the start of the programme.

About £1,500 per person will be spent on training over two years. People who do not apply to the scheme still go through the company's learning and development process which is separate to the Talent Tracker programme. Mr Hobbs says: "It's one route that needs to be part of an overall picture, but there is a lot of potential for this type of approach. It pushes the onus back on to them, they must be the ones to drive their career."