DC14 6. Developing for the Future (Talent Q)

High Potential and Succession Planning

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L & Q High Potential and Succession Planning Dr. Richard A. MacKinnon, Head of Learning & Development Solutions 14th March 2014


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Contents 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 3

2. About Talent Q .............................................................................................................. 3 3. Our Proposed Solution .............................................................................................................................. 4

3.1 Defining ‘High Potential’ at L&Q ................................................................................................. 5 3.2 A bespoke assessment process ................................................................................................. 5 3.3 A formal succession planning process ....................................................................................... 6

4. Our Way of Working .................................................................................................................................. 8 4.1 Our ethos .................................................................................................................................... 8 4.2 Quality Assurance ....................................................................................................................... 8 4.3 Our Consultancy Team ............................................................................................................... 8 4.5 Insurance .................................................................................................................................. 10

5. Investment Required ................................................................................................................................ 11 6. References .............................................................................................................................................. 12 7. Relevant Case Studies ............................................................................................................................ 13

7.1 JT Global ................................................................................................................................... 13 7.2 London Ambulance Service ...................................................................................................... 16 Other Talent Q clients using Dimensions for identification of potential: .......................................... 18

Appendix A – Additional Services ................................................................................................................ 19


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1. Introduction This document represents a response to the invitation to tender for L&Q’s ‘High Potential and Succession Planning’ project. Our response includes the following elements:

o An outline of Talent Q’s expertise in this area

o Our suggested approach to addressing L&Q’s challenges

o A description of our way of working and quality processes

o Two case studies outlining our work in this area

o A detailed breakdown of the investment required

We also set out a selection of additional talent management services we can provide, which we recognise are outside the scope of this project, but may be of interest to L&Q in the medium to long term. These are set out in Appendix A.

2. About Talent Q We design and deliver joined-up talent management solutions, including innovative online psychometric assessments, training and consultancy, to help organisations make better, more informed decisions about their people.

Our desire to simplify how organisations use and apply talent management assessments and interventions is at the heart of everything we do. This influences the way in which we design and develop our assessments, training and consultancy services. It also affects how we choose to price our services and how we work with our clients.

We have an elegantly simple portfolio of assessments, which delivers valuable insight into the skills and behaviours, abilities and motivation of people at work. All our psychometric assessments are constructed with a commitment to scientific rigour, practicality and flexibility.

We have a wide range of training programmes aimed at equipping HR professionals with the necessary skills to use and implement objective assessment effectively in the workplace.

Our consultancy services provide practical, expert and flexible talent management solutions, covering both selection and development of employees. Our expertise lies in transforming psychological theory into an applied, practical business context.

We believe we have a refreshingly different approach to working with clients – open, committed and passionate – and whilst we have a strong technical and psychometric pedigree, we’re pragmatic and practical in our solutions.

We work with both national and international organisations, across all sectors. With a network of partners in over 20 countries and with assessments in over 40 languages, we’re able to support clients across the globe.


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3. Our Proposed Solution

Based on the invitation to tender documentation, we summarise L & Q’s requirements as follows:

§ A definition of high potential for L&Q

§ A method for assessing high potential at L&Q

§ A process for succession planning at L&Q

Based on our experience at Talent Q, we also suggest that the design and deployment of these deliverables is underpinned by the following principles, which are reflected in the proposal outlined below:

§ The need for specificity: simply put, the skills and behaviours that have brought an employee to one stage in their career are not necessarily those that will take them to the next stage. Performance in-role now should not be confused with potential to succeed in more demanding or qualitatively different roles. Similarly, what represents ‘potential’ in one organisation may not be true in another, so definitions and measurements of potential need to be as organisation specific as possible, reflective of culture and values, as well as strategic direction.

§ Careful and considered use of terminology: many organisations lack their own definitions or talent, potential and leadership. We feel it is crucial for the success of talent management processes that there is clear and unambiguous use of these terms. In particular, when it comes to identification of potential, organisations should reflect carefully on the perceived implications of not being identified as ‘high potential’ and the impact this can have on employee satisfaction, engagement and productivity. Terminology used needs to sit well with the organisational culture, values and norms.

§ The need to assess for multiple factors: while cognitive ability is the best predictor of future success in organisations, we also need to be sensitive to behavioural style, specific aspects of potential (rather than a single ‘score’) and very importantly, employees’ appetite for advancement and development. The latter are frequently ignored and/or assumed.

§ Objective and transparent assessment: whether it be the assessment of potential or for succession planning, it must be objective and transparent if it is to be accepted across the organisation. Objective assessment is characterised by an absence of personal subjectivity, bias and assumption. It is facilitated by clear guidelines, robust frameworks and the involvement of trained talent management professionals.

§ Clear and consistent communication: clarity of communication to all stakeholders, including individual employees, their line managers and senior leaders, facilitates a shared understanding of both what potential is in the context of the organisation, but also how it will be assessed and how this information will be used for activities such as succession planning.

§ ‘High’ potential versus succession: while closely linked, these are separate concepts underpinned by separate organisational processes. In other words, high potential employees may leap-frog colleagues, taking on more senior roles than might otherwise be expected – purely as a function of their potential and present performance. Succession planning can be thought of as a broader topic, where upward moves include both high potential / high flyers and more senior colleagues concurrently. As such, the proposal below addresses these as separate but complimentary activities.


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3.1 Defining ‘High Potential’ at L&Q

Our proposed solution for the development of an L&Q definition of high potential will include the following steps:

§ A review of L&Q values, competencies and L&D framework: we will begin this phase of activity with an examination of L&Q’s values and competencies, along with the existing L&D framework. As noted above, alignment with values and cultures is essential for adoption of any definition of potential in an organisation. This will allow us to evaluate the competency framework for inclusivity of potential indicators and the L&D framework for development opportunities in alignment with factors predicting potential.

§ Stakeholder research: this stage will focus on gathering perspectives from a range of organisational stakeholders, at both strategic and operational levels, as to what potential means, looks like and bneeds to be for L&Q’s continued success and planned growth strategy. This activity will be characterised by combining a future focus with an understanding of what “excellent” looks like across a variety of roles.

We will start with a ‘straw man’ of commonly-identified high potential abilities, personality characteristics and behaviours and use interview and focus group methodology to build an L&Q-specific picture of potential. This allows organisations to set out a template for what “excellent” looks like, combining personality and ability. Our goal will be to identify what is commonly referenced at L&Q now, along with what is anticipated will be required as L&Q continues on its path of growth and development.

Outputs and contribution to the process

The main outputs from this stage of the process will be as follows:

§ A summary of stakeholder input and observations, illustrating a clear picture of what ‘excellent’ looks like at L&Q now and what will be required from high performers in the coming years. This will answer the question “what does potential look like at L&Q?”.

§ A review of existing L&Q frameworks and their overlap/alignment with predictors of potential, to facilitate a better understanding of what L&D interventions exist to support development of those with potential and whether or not the existing competency framework requires an update to accommodate high potential indicators/behaviours. This in turn will answer the question “what can we do with the potential we identify?”

3.2 A bespoke assessment process

This phase of activity will focus on how to effectively and objectively assess for potential in L&Q employees. It will constitute the following activities:

§ Creation of an “L&Q high potential” Dimensions profile: based on the outputs from the first phase of activity, we will map our Dimensions personality questionnaire to the factors indicative of potential at L&Q, creating a bespoke profile for use in assessment contexts. This report will indicate the extent to which an employee’s behavioural preferences are in alignment with the definition of potential used at L&Q. This can contribute to decisions regarding selection onto high potential development programmes, for identifying specific individual development needs or, at a group level, for identifying the shared development needs of a cohort of employees within L&Q. This report will be available alongside the other 12 outputs that come as standard with Dimensions.


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§ Briefing on use of the bespoke report: we will provide a complimentary briefing on the use and interpretation of this report for members of the HR community at L&Q who will be most likely to use this.

§ Recommendations on use of other assessments: based on the outputs from the stakeholder research phase, we will recommend what method of assessment should accompany Dimensions. For example, measures of cognitive ability are usually deployed in these contexts and we can advise on the most relevant test(s) to include, as well as appropriate cut-off scores and benchmark groups for comparison purposes.



§ A bespoke, mapped version of Dimensions for use in the selection and development of ‘high potential’ employees.

§ A recommended assessment process (including use of Dimensions) for the assessment and development of potential, including the role of stakeholders, sources of relevant.

§ In combination, these outputs will answer the question “How do we assess potential at L&Q?”

3.3 A formal succession planning process

A formalised succession planning process is closely interlinked with the assessment of potential. However, succession planning is normally focused on more senior or critical roles. The advantage to having an inclusive definition of both talent and potential is that succession planning can be applied across multiple levels of seniority concurrently.

Our approach to creating such a process for L&Q would include the following elements:

§ Stakeholder research with senior leaders: mirroring the approach to identify factors relating to potential, this research will help us identify how succession planning can best be achieved within the culture, values and strategic direction of L&Q, as well as the structure when it comes to levels of seniority and fuctional responsibility. This phase of the project will assist us in identifying the most suitable model of succession planning, critical roles to be supported/filled and quantifying the ‘gap’ between the present context and the ideal for L&Q.

§ Creation of a succession planning model: this phase of activity would build on the above to set out a bespoke model for L&Q referencing present and desired talent pipelines, criticality of gaps and development opportunities to expedite advancement from one level to the next. This model will also set out key stakeholders and decision-makers, standards/expectations to move from one level to the next and how data will be gathered and used to make these decisions. Based on the initial stakeholder research, additional factors such as transparency will be elaborated and made explicit.

§ Creation of an assessment process: to compliment the agreed model of succession planning, this output focuses on the data used to make talent decisions and would include the types of assessments to be used, sources of internal performance data, development needs analysis and how to conduct a ‘Talent Board’.




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§ A summary of stakeholder perspectives on talent pipelines, expectations for advancement, present role criticality and development opportunities (and any apparent gaps vis a vis development needs).

§ An agreed and comprehensive model for succession planning, including required experience and performance for each critical level of seniority.

§ A formalised and documented assessment process to inform succession plan decisions, including what data can be used and combined, by whom and for what role(s).


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4. Our Way of Working

4.1 Our ethos

Our approach to all client engagements can be summarised by the following points:

§ Working in partnership with our clients, maintaining close proximity and ongoing communication. We are always keen to build deep and sustainable relationships with our client organisations and open and respectful collaborative partnership is the best way to achieve this. We seek to understand out client’s needs and get a deep understanding of their perspective, challenges and context.

§ We work on the basis of sharing our knowledge with clients, making clients self-sufficient as soon as possible. We seek to share our expertise and provide advice in a way that leaves our clients feeling confident and competent to manage the solutions we have put in place.

§ We are practitioner-scientists and are always mindful of the need to demonstrate the utility of our solutions. As such, we seek opportunities to evaluate our own work and quantify its impact on our clients’ success.

4.2 Quality Assurance

Based on the above working ethos, our day-to-day activities are underpinned by:

§ Assigning consultants to projects based on a combination of core skills, experience and interests. We want our consultants to enjoy their projects and get a sense of fulfilment from their work. We also want out clients to enjoy working with our consultants!

§ Rigorous quality assurance processes, including peer reviews of documentation and data analysis, formal proofing of reports and the support of a dedicated design team to ensure our outputs are brand-aligned and usable.

§ Application of formal project management methods to all our projects, so we have an agreed and quantifiable plan and deliverables, a measure of where we are at any time and a shared reference point between our team and our clients.

We are always happy to learn from our clients and should L&Q have additional processes to which they would like us to adhere, we would be delighted to discuss these.

4.3 Our Consultancy Team

The consultants who would lead our activity on this project should Talent Q be selected are as follows:

Dr. Richard A. MacKinnon – Head of Learning & Development Solutions

Richard heads the Learning & Development Solutions offering at Talent Q and has overall responsibility for projects focusing on training, development programmes, identification of potential and provision of coaching. Richard is a chartered occupational psychologist (CPsychol), registered as a Coaching Psychologist with the British Psychological Society and a Chartered Scientist (CSci), registered with the Science Council.

Richard has over 13 years of experience working as an occupational psychologist, in a range of public and private sector environments. He started his career as a consultant psychologist at Royal Mail Group, where he focused on topics as diverse as employee wellbeing, employee engagement and culture change. He has also worked at the Psychometrics Centre at City University, focusing on the application of


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psychometric assessments in the workplace and at Kenexa, focusing on the quantification of employee engagement and interventions to improve this.

He has spent the last 6 years at Talent Q, where he has since built up the Learning and Development Solutions practice. This offers a range of technical and personal effectiveness training courses, bespoke development programmes and provision of coaching at a range of levels in our client organisations.

Richard’s clients have included include Royal Mail Group, Lambeth Council, VTB Capital, DCC Group, Petronas, Lloyds Banking Group, Carlsberg and:

§ JT Global, where he worked with the client over the last 3 years to create three streams of coordinated development activity (Leadership, Management, Emerging Talent). A case study outlining this project is included at the end of this document.

§ London Ambulance Service, where he designed and deployed a development centre to identify suitable candidates for a high potential talent management programme. A case study outlining this project is included at the end of this document.

§ Spirax Sarco Engineering, where he designed and deployed a leadership development programme, which is in the process of an international rollout in Europe, South America and Asia after a successful UK pilot.

§ Virgin Atlantic, where he introduced the use of objective assessments into the cabin crew promotions boards.

Richard is particularly interested in coaching high potential employees and development themes such as emotional intelligence, self-management and work-life balance. The latter was the focus of his doctoral studies.

Sarah McLellan – Principal Consultant

Sarah is a Principal Consultant in the Talent Q Professional Services team focused on designing and delivering solutions for clients across the employee lifecycle, from assessment and selection to succession planning and development.

Sarah is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist with over 10 years’ experience working across a variety of industries and sectors. She began her career working in a research and development role at Saville Consulting, before moving to SHL where she held a number of consulting roles helping key clients across the Globe to attract, assess and develop the best talent. Sarah has experience working internationally as well as in the UK, having developed solutions for many Global and European organisations and spent a year working in Australia as a consultant for SHL. The solutions she has deployed span roles and levels; from customer assistants to first line managers, train drivers, lawyers and senior leaders and executives.

Sarah has worked with a variety of organisations across both the public and private sector. Recent clients include: Vodafone, AS Watson, AXA, Skills Funding Agency, Lloyds Banking Group, BT, Rio Tinto and John Lewis Partnership.

Sarah has a real interest in succession planning and helping organisation’s understand how to identify high potentials, how to develop and motivate them, and how to ensure individuals are ready to transition into critical roles. She also enjoys linking talent challenges to business issues to demonstrate measurable business results.

Our consultants would be supported by colleagues in our Products & Innovation (P&I) team, who would create bespoke assessment outputs and map the agreed model of potential to our Dimensions questionnaire. This team is led by Alan Bourne.


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Dr. Alan Bourne – Director of Products & Innovation

Alan leads the development of Talent Q’s core product offering as well as customisation activities for clients across our network around the globe. This includes developing new psychometric assessments

and continuous improvement of our existing capabilities. He was previously Director of International Operations, and prior to that Director of Consulting for Talent Q UK.

Prior to Talent Q, Alan worked internally as a psychologist with Royal Mail, having begun his career initially with SHL. He has worked with a wide range of clients and partners across multiple territories and sectors including Citi, Royal Bank of Scotland, Merrill Lynch, Arcelor Mittal, Royal Mail, Orange and Britvic. Drawing on both his research background and industry experience Alan focuses on delivering solutions which are both innovative and meet practical business needs.

Alan is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and brings a strong evidence-based focus, having completed a PhD in Organisational Psychology in 2007, which focused on understanding the processes through which HR practices impact on bottom-line business performance.

• PhD Human Resource Management

• Chartered Occupational Psychologist

• MSc Occupational/Organisational Psychology

• Executive Member of British Psychological Society’s Division of Occupational Psychology

4.5 Insurance

As requested, he following summarises our Professional Indemnity and Public Liability insurance:

Professional Indemnity Insurance: Limit of indemnity, £5m

Public Liability Insurance: limit of indemnity, £5m

Copies of certificates available upon request


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5. Investment Required

The following represents a breakdown of professional fees required to deliver the work outlined above. Please note, these figures exclude VAT and any expenses incurred as part of consultant activity directly related to this project. Such expenses are normally limited to travel and subsistence claims where travel on behalf of the client is required.

Stage Activity Day Rate Days Cost

1 – Defining High Potential

Review of Values, Competency Framework and L&D Framework

£1750 1 £1,750

Stakeholder Research £1750 2 £3,500

Creation of L&Q model of High Potential £1750 4 £7,000

2 – Creation of a bespoke Assessment Process

Create of bespoke L&Q High Potential Dimensions report

Fixed cost Fixed Cost

£20,000

Briefing on the use of the Dimensions report

Gratis 0.5 £0

Recommendations on assessment process £1750 1 £1750

3 – Creation of a Succession Planning Process

Stakeholder Research £1750 1 £1750

Creation of Succession Planning Model £1750 3 £5250

Creation of assessment process £1750 3 £5250

Creation of documentation of the above and delivery of a client briefing

£1750 2 £3500

Total £49,750


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6. References

1. Nicola Reeves

Head of Performance and People Development | Human Resources Division

DDI: +44 1534 882972 | Mobile: +44 7797 790 061 | email: [email protected]

JT, PO Box 53, No 1 The Forum, Grenville Street, St Helier, Jersey, JE4 8PB

2. Jo Lynn

Head of Learning and Development

Young Epilepsy, St Piers Lane, Lingfield, Surrey RH7 6PW

T 01342 831531 www.youngepilepsy.org.uk | E [email protected]


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7. Relevant Case Studies

7.1 JT Global

Main activities:

§ Operationalising a new competency framework forleadership development activities

§ Creation of a bespoke set of psychometric assessments based on these competencies

§ Design and deployment of a bespoke assessment and development process

§ Evaluation of behavior change resulting from development interventions

JT Global (formerly known as Jersey Telecom) has adopted a pioneering, assessment-focused approach to embed the skills needed to continue to deliver global growth. We have created bespoke assessments which are being used before and after development interventions. The process started with 24 senior leaders who are the chief drivers of growth in JT’s business. The approach will then be cascaded down to different levels, to enhance the skills of the entire organisation and support JT in its ambitions and growth over the next five years.

Background

Jersey Telecom re-branded to become JT in 2011, to reflect the fact that its operations, products and services, had moved beyond Jersey and beyond telecoms. Since being privatised and deregulated in 2003, the company has shed its civil service-led culture to become a commercially-orientated, global communications business.

A five-year growth strategy outlines JT’s plans for expansion and this has acted as a catalyst for change in the organisation.

“Our old way of working was methodical and process- driven and we now need a new level and depth of leadership skills in the organisation to help us to work more dynamically and compete on an increasingly global stage,” said Nicola Reeves, Head of Performance and People Development at JT. “Our 24 senior leaders are the ones who will drive the growth in the business. It was logical to start a development initiative with them, as they set the example for everyone else.”

JT’s HR team facilitated a discussion in which the senior leaders debated what type of leadership would be needed to meet the challenges of the future.

Nicola continues: “We agreed on five core leadership competencies. They decided which behaviours should be included, so the resultant competency framework is theirs, not something that has been imposed upon them.”

Assessment focus

In favour of a more assessment-focused approach, the conventional solution of simply running a training course around these competencies was disregarded.

“In the past, we’ve invested in leadership development and it has been enjoyable – but nothing has really changed as there’s been no measurement, no metrics and no consequences,” said Nicola. “We wanted to instil in people a real desire to improve through an active engagement process which focused on long-term and ongoing assessment and support. We felt the best way to do this would be to measure them at the start of a process, put specific development goals in place, allow them to choose their own interventions and then measure them afterwards to see the improvement.”

JT chose to partner with us to create its new assessment- focused approach to development.


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“Having used various assessments from other providers in the past, I’d become quite disillusioned but Talent Q have a fresh, ‘new school’ approach to psychometrics and a strong track record of success,” said Nicola. “Their assessments are frighteningly accurate, easy to use and more dynamic than anything else out there. As a company, they’re a dream to work with.”

We mapped JT’s leadership competency framework against our Dimensions personality questionnaire and designed a bespoke 360° feedback questionnaire to assess the actual behaviours and performance of the senior leaders. The company also helped to identify the specific behaviours that sit underneath each competency.

Dimensions shows how closely aligned an individual’s preferences for behaviour are to the competencies.

“Because it is mapped to our framework, it expresses personality data in the language of our organisation. The 360° feedback enables senior leaders to compare both how they perceive themselves, and the behaviours that they think they portray, against a ‘reality check’ of how they are seen by others. This gives them a much more rounded picture and helps to drive real change” said Nicola.

We worked with JT to create a template and ‘gold standard’ role profile of an ‘ideal’ JT leader.

“We deliberately made our ideal leader profile highly aspirational, as we didn’t want our senior leaders to think they didn’t need to change,” said Nicola. “We wanted gaps between each person’s profile and the ideal profile, to give them areas for development. The ideal leader profile has proved invaluable as we can also use it as a benchmark in recruitment and succession planning.”

Development activity

Together with JT, we ran a leadership development event where the senior leaders undertook the assessments. Our Head of Learning and Development, Richard MacKinnon, worked with Nicola Reeves and JT’s HR Director to run one-to-one sessions with each senior leader. Feedback was provided on their strengths and development gaps, as well as support and guidance to create their own development plans. Each senior leader then sat down with a director to prioritise their areas for development.

“The senior leaders are choosing their own development interventions to plug their gaps – such as learning resources, coaching or training programmes – and this highly tailored programme allows them to effectively do this, whilst still supporting the overall JT framework,” said Nicola. “Where common needs exist across the group, we’ll run focused development sessions. The senior leaders are also working together informally to share knowledge and ideas.”

Cascading the approach

JT is cascading this process down to the 35 managers who report to the senior leadership team.

“Our management population will go through a similar process but they’ll be mapped against different competencies specific to their level,” said Nicola.

“They’re keen to participate because they know the leaders have been through this process. We’ll then move on to a third stage for employees further down the organisation – in particular for ‘young talent’. This will help us to embed key skills and to identify candidates for succession planning.”

Partner of choice

In the same way that Jersey has established itself as a world-class financial services centre, JT believes that the Channel Islands has the potential to be a world-class telecommunications hub for Europe and beyond.

“Our vision is to become the partner of choice for global telecoms innovation,” said Nicola. “Talent Q’s assessments have already provided us with invaluable data and the insights we need to up-skill the


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organisation and support top-down cultural change. This will enable us to continue to deliver a world-class service and to achieve our five-year growth targets.”

Evaluating JT’s leadership development initiative

JT’s pioneering approach to leadership development – which involved deploying structured interventions with an individual focus – has instilled the leadership behaviours required to enable the group to become a more dynamic and commercially-orientated business that can achieve its five-year growth targets.

The 24 senior leaders who took part in the programme have become more engaged, more enthusiastic and more proactive as a result. Having previously worked in their silos, they’re now working much more as a cohesive team, sharing success stories and learning points with each other.

“The impact of the programme has been greater than we originally hoped for,” said Nicola.“The leaders have benefited enormously and we’re now much further down the track in achieving the cultural change that we’re trying to create within the Group.”

Reassessment

To assess the programme’s impact six months on, we re-ran the 360° feedback process and the personality questionnaire for the 24 senior leaders.

The results show that leader’s direct managers – the board members of JT – gave them higher ratings in all five of the core leadership competencies. Interestingly though, the leaders gave themselves lower ratings against four of the five core competencies.

Nicola continues: “This was an ideal outcome. It shows that their direct managers recognise and appreciate the improvements they’ve made. However, it also shows that the leaders themselves have re-set the bar in terms of what it means to be a leader at JT. We didn’t want them to be complacent and to feel that they no longer needed to develop now that they’ve reached the top. They have realised that they are not a 4 out of 5 or a 5 out of 5, against our leadership competencies, but maybe more of a 3.5 or a 3.75. The programme has given them a ‘reality check’ and helped them to understand the distinct behaviours required to be a more effective and high- performing leader within JT.”

Another finding that’s indicative of the cultural change JT is pursuing is that the leaders actually received lower ratings from their direct reports after the programme.

“The fact that the scores given by their direct reports have dropped is a reflection of the new action-focused approach to leadership,” said Nicola. “The leaders have been successful at pushing things through and making change happen but the downside of this is that their direct reports have been driven harder. The fact that leaders are no longer hand-holding the management level beneath them is a positive step forward. However, we’re now cascading the development approach down to the 35 managers, who report to the senior leadership team, to empower them and to provide them with greater support.”

A key insight, stemming from the reassessments we conducted, is that JT’s senior leaders now have a clear goal to improve the ratings given by their direct reports.

In summary

The assessments have helped JT to drive real change, by giving the leaders objective data on exactly where they need to develop and how they’ve progressed.

“The leaders have been focused on driving high performance and managing upwards and they now need to divert some of that energy to motivating and engaging the people below them. A real benefit of this initiative is that they now know that they need to make a conscious effort to do this” said Nicola.


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JT recognises that its leaders and managers are on a continual journey of learning. The group will conduct annual reassessments of its leaders and managers, as part of the appraisal process, to monitor their ongoing behaviour and performance.

About JT

With over 130 years’ experience in telecommunications, JT is a global provider of mobile, fixed line, broadband and hosting services. Through locations in Jersey, Guernsey, London, Melbourne, Boston, San Diego and Oslo, it serves over 300,000 customers and has revenues of £110m.

7.2 London Ambulance Service

Main Activities:

§ Mapping of client competencies to our assessment platform and creation of bespoke reports

§ Design and deployment of assessment process to identify high potential candidates

§ Review of assessment data, provision of assessment feedback

London Ambulance Service (LAS) is using a custom- built assessment process to select participants for its prestigious two-year talent management programme.

We combined our Dimensions personality questionnaire and MultiView 360° feedback process, and designed an assessment centre, to identify the candidates who have the highest potential to become future leaders of London Ambulance Service. Internal assessors at London Ambulance Service have also been trained so they can undertake the assessment process independently in the future.

Background

Imagine trying to cope with a 20% increase in demand for your service – with the additional cost that would entail – while having to make savings of £53m over the next five years. That’s the reality for the London Ambulance Service.

“Like everyone else in the NHS, we’re trying to improve the quality of care we provide to our patients while working to a much tighter budget,” said Jo Lynn, Learning & Organisation Development Manager at London Ambulance Service. “The world is changing and we need to change to work effectively within it. A key challenge for us is to develop future leaders who can go beyond established thinking. We also want to engage our talent, show them we’re prepared to invest in their future and help them achieve their potential. That’s why we decided to supplement the personal and professional development we already provide by creating a new talent management programme.”

After gaining stakeholder approval, London Ambulance Service created a two-year development programme which the selected participants undertake in addition to their regular work. They learn more about the different roles and functions of the service, they undertake strategic projects and they receive one-to-one mentoring support from a director or deputy director.

“From the outset we knew that identifying the right people for the programme would be a real challenge,” said Jo Lynn. “We were determined to create a selection process that was objective, fair and relevant. We created a competency-based application form to sift down the applicants into a shortlist and we decided to look for a partner who could provide a rigorous and effective assessment element.”

Partnership ethos


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We were appointed by London Ambulance Service to help with their talent management challenge following a competitive tender. “They offer a winning combination of great products, credibility, expertise, a partnership ethos and value for money,” said Jo Lynn. “They also have strong experience of working in our sector.”

Prior to attending an assessment centre, the shortlisted candidates completed our Dimensions personality questionnaire, which we mapped against the London Ambulance Service’s competency framework. They also undertook our MultiView 360° feedback process.

“Dimensions shows an individual’s work preferences and MultiView shows how they operate in practice,” said Jo Lynn. “Having used tests from several other providers, I can say that Talent Q’s assessments benefit from being specific and pragmatic. They’re firmly rooted in the work environment.”

We designed bespoke exercises to be run within the half-day assessment centre and Richard MacKinnon, our Head of Learning and Development Solutions, served as an independent invigilator.

“Because the candidates for this programme could come from anywhere within our organisation, Talent Q had to design a process that could accommodate a very diverse group of people,” said Jo Lynn. “Anyone who has ever run an assessment centre will tell you that the amount of work involved is huge, both in terms of the administration and the analysis. Talent Q provided all of this seamlessly for us and that was a huge benefit.”

Insightful feedback

All candidates were given one-to-one feedback on the results of their personality questionnaire and 360° feedback as well as their performance in the assessment centre.

“The insights gained from the combination of assessments, together with the assessment centre, give you a complete and rounded picture of each candidate,” said Jo Lynn. “We can use all of this information to probe candidates at the panel interview stage. It is also extremely helpful to be able to give specific feedback to those who are unsuccessful in getting onto the programme, about what they can do to improve in order to be considered in future years.”

Six participants are currently undertaking the talent management programme, which is now in its second year.

“The programme has successfully advanced each person individually and expanded their thinking,” said Jo Lynn. “They’re becoming more rounded professionals which clearly benefits them but also helps us to develop as an organisation. Although it’s about retaining our talent, and supporting and challenging them to fulfil their leadership potential, the programme has proved to be surprisingly beneficial for the mentors too. We’re now introducing external secondments to other businesses with comparable objectives. This will give the participants a chance to analyse how other organisations resolve similar challenges to the ones we face. It will be invaluable in giving us fresh insights and helping us to develop more forward-thinking and innovative working practices.”

We provided training for internal assessors at London Ambulance Service, to enable them to undertake the assessment process independently in the future.

“Our intention was always to develop our own capability and Talent Q have given us everything we need to run the process indefinitely by ourselves,” said Jo Lynn. “They’re an excellent sounding board and it has been very helpful to have their external viewpoint. Anything I’m uncertain about, I can always talk it through with them.”

Future leaders


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© Talent Q UK Ltd

London Ambulance Service’s vision is to run a world-class operation that meets the needs of its patients and the wider public.

“To achieve our goals, we need to attract caring and enthusiastic people and we can only do that by offering them a rewarding and challenging career where they can develop their potential,” said Jo Lynn. “The talent management programme takes this a step further: it gives us an opportunity to recognise and reward key people who could shape the future of our service. Thanks to Talent Q, we now have an established and objective process for selecting the participants for this important programme.”

About London Ambulance Service

London Ambulance Service NHS Trust is the UK’s busiest emergency ambulance service. Its 5,000 staff serve more than 7.5 million people who live and work in the London area, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Last year, it handled over 1.5 million emergency 999 calls and attended more than one million incidents.

www.londonambulance.nhs.uk

Other Talent Q clients using Dimensions for identification of potential:

§ UK Power Networks

§ VTB Capital

§ Royal Mail Group

§ The Scottish Government

§ Thomson Reuters

§ Volkswagen


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Appendix A – Additional Services

While we recognise the scope of the present tender for services, we would also like to take this opportunity to share a summary of the other services we can provide in this space, which include:

§ One-to-one coaching

§ Team development facilitation

§ Chairing of ‘Talent Boards’

§ Design and deployment of development programmes

§ Evaluation of training and development interventions

Business

DC14 6. Developing for the Future (Talent Q)