Emerging Talent Programme for Aligning Assessment & Development Interventions
Quest Partnership’s Emerging Talent Programme utilises Assessment & Development Centre approaches in delivering wider talent management strategies and objectives, aligning the process to the commercial drivers of the business.
£ = People
We took the concept of financial capital i.e. the £ worth of your business and translated it to a people perspective i.e. Bill Gates stated: “The value of my company walks out the door every evening”, clearly understanding that his people are his business.
Viewing individuals as customers i.e. they can decide on the pace of their development to suit their personal circumstances, hence demonstration of valuing diversity and individuals. We built in appropriate support and ‘push’.
Diagnosis of longer-term potential rather than a ‘snapshot’ assessment to sort out current needs.
Self-nominations for attendance; a process that is inclusive and engaging.
Open rather than secretive about the AC exercises e.g. making the Written Case Study Exercise a real business assignment; and one-to-one exercises that does not put individuals on the spot and therefore do not favour extroverts who can ‘blag’ it.
Multi-media Case Studies that brings the exercise alive and simulates the ‘real world’ better to achieve experiential learning. The exercise measured analysis, strategic perspective, creativity, and initiative – effectively teasing out the leadership potential. The exercise is also designed to achieve efficient and more accurate marking.
Using a web portal to achieve a fully integrated solution and data management process, including Personal Development Plans (PDPs).
Utilising a wide range of diagnostics e.g. Workplace Review; bespoke 360 tool; a comprehensive personality profiler i.e. collecting information that supports the individual rather than just feeding back pass/ fail assessments.
A bespoke expert system report that provides very specific career development advice.
Using all the information in a 1 day ‘Discovery’ workshop that supports them to drive their own development. This progressed to a ‘Deep Dive’ career discussion with the line-manager and HR representative. The discussion supports the individual to choose the most appropriate development stream offered by the company that meets their current career expectations.
This programme is relatively new but already many opportunities have been identified and succession plans in place, where previously there were none. The self-driven ethos does rub off, and leaders have strong evidence of participants being more proactive and taking on greater responsibilities outside of their day-jobs. It is the first time there is a large collective database of all the PDP entries – which provides a strong base for evaluation, and planning appropriate support and intervention going forward.
The ‘Emerging Talent’ programme won the Association of Graduate Recruiters award for Best Post Programme Development, and was short-listed for a Training Journal award; was ‘Highly Commended’ by the CIPD; and won the Association of Graduate Recruiters award for Best Post Programme Development.