Misplaced Talent

Misplaced Talent takes a hard look at the cluttered field of Talent Management, and offers a clear guide to making better people decisions in any organization. Deliberately challenging practitioners to do more, this insightful discussion sorts through the tools and techniques developed over the last century to examine their true relevance to the modern workplace. You'll learn which activities show the greatest potential to improve the lives of employees and the organizations they work for, and identify which of your existing practices don't really add enough value to be worth the expenditure of time, money, and potentially lost talent. The author asks you to make up your own mind about which approaches work best for your own specific talent decisions, but provides the best theory and practice available today as a foundation upon which to formulate a more relevant strategy.

In a world of big data, the potential to understand employees and react appropriately has never been greater. So why is Talent Management as an industry relying on outdated theory and practices? This book is a guide to bringing HR up to date, giving you the tools, techniques, and perspective you need to demonstrate more value to your organization.

• Adopt the tools and techniques most effective in today's workplace
• Identify and discard methods that don't add value to the organization
• Implement critical changes that can transform the HR function
• Make better people decisions based on psychology and research

Fundamentally, not much has changed in what constitutes good people practice. Practitioners must demonstrate the value of Talent Management, but the solutions implemented often fall short of the rigor and discipline they deserve. Misplaced Talent provides the insight you need to refocus attention and engage your organization about the value of better people decisions.

Foreword ix

Preface xiii

Chapter 1. Frameworks 1

Origins of Job Analysis 2

The Art and Science of Job Analysis 8

Behavioral Simplicity 13

The Tradeoffs 17

The Good and Bad of Frameworks 21

Chapter 2. Talent Acquisition 27

More Than a Single Brand 29

Let’s Be Realistic 35

Compelling Themes 40

From Message to Market 46

How It’s Done 50

Chapter 3. Capability Assessment 57

Evaluating Value and Risk 59

Legal Requirements 66

Assessment by Interview 68

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities 77

Work Simulations 88

Where to from Here? 94

Chapter 4. Psychometric Assessment 97

But First, an Experiment 98

Employee Needs 101

Personality Traits 104

Shared Values 112

Motivated Employees Are Engaged Employees 115

Changes in Motivation with Age and Generations 118

Restoring the Balance with Person-Environment Fit 122

Chapter 5. Employee Development 127

Psychological Contract 129

Assessment for Development 133

Developmental Challenges 140

Support Through Coaching and Mentoring 146

Moving Together or Apart 151

Chapter 6. Change 155

Breaking the Psychological Contract 157

Succession Planning 159

High Potentials and the Learning Agile 163

Driving Performance 168

Big Data and Monitoring Change 173

From a Balanced to a Transactional Contract 175

Conclusion 177

About the Author 181

Acknowledgments 183

Resources 185

Index 195

[The book] provides the best theory and practice as a foundation for you to refocus and redesign your own strategy so as to make better people decisions. (B2B Marketing, October 2015)

JOE UNGEMAH helps his clients identify and implement critical transformations in the HR function and has led professional services groups for CEB in the US, Australia, and Ireland. Using his background as a registered psychologist, Joe translates the science behind selection and development decisions into easy to implement actions. He is also a skilled trainer, facilitator, and speaker.

More than ever before, organizational leaders are hungry for concrete information and useable data about talent. Yet too often, the hiring, promotion, development, and turnover decisions we make are based on fuzzy logic, trendy ideas, or outdated frameworks. Joe Ungemah sees this sub-optimal situation as a massive opportunity for businesses. In Misplaced Talent, he thoroughly explores the ideas and tools most commonly used for making people decisions. With a unique combination of practicality and scientific rigor, this book reveals what works, what doesn't, and how we can sell crucial investments in human capital to stakeholders. The result is a set of ideas that can lead to happier people, healthier organizations, and enhanced productivity at all levels.

There are countless techniques, assessments, and processes for managing people decisions at every stage. This proliferation of options can be a good thing, because it allows us to create practices that work best for our environments. The problem, as Misplaced Talent shows, is that not all options are created equal. Some work well, leading to increased efficiency and good return on investment (ROI). But others can actually harm organizations by failing to establish person-environment fit and creating workplaces that will inevitably lose talent. This book explores all the most common strategies, showing which talent management practices are valid and which aren't.

Equipped with this information, readers are empowered to:

• Identify and repair dysfunctional employment environments
• Adopt proven strategies for identifying and attracting talent
• Deploy talent effectively to maximize productivity and growth
• Avoid HR trends and strategies that fail to yield results
• Employ assessments that improve person-environment fit
• Engage leaders with metrics that demonstrate human resources ROI

Imagine the change that would take place in an organization that began to think comprehensively about its people decisions, transforming talent management into a streamlined process linking tasks, skills, experience, motivation, and growth. This is exactly the innovative approach outlined in Misplaced Talent. We have finally reached a point where human resources has the opportunity to become a significant driver of business outcomes. With this book, HR and other business leaders can reimagine talent management and discover a monumentally untapped source of growth potential.

Lead the Way to Optimal Talent Management and Organizational Growth

In today's organizations, human resources and talent management are major sources of unrealized value. Business growth, productivity, innovation—all of these can be direct results of putting the right talent in the right place. Misplaced Talent is the story of how and why so many organizations fail to capitalize on these opportunities, and it's your guide for unlocking the potential of talent.

With this book, you'll be able to sift through the mountain of assessments, tools, and frameworks out there, separating what works from what doesn't. Author Joe Ungemah is a top thought leader in the world of talent management, known for bringing scientific insights from organizational psychology into the real world.

"In his book, Misplaced Talent, Joe scratches beneath the surface of talent management, encouraging a holistic view of people decisions that are focused on creating impact and value for employees and organizations alike."
—KIMBERLEY SEVERINSEN, Head of Assessment and Selection ANZ, Korn Ferry Futurestep

"If we can accurately identify high potential talent, it becomes not only a competitive advantage, but also an engagement, retention, and attraction tool. With Joe as a partner it actually makes it feasible to have a systemic way to differentiate talent and not rely solely on 'gut decisions.' His book is a must read for any HR professional."
—MILENA GASHKEVICH, Global Director Talent Attraction, Anheuser-Busch InBev

"You are guaranteed to be enlightened by the practical tools and insights into how best to place the right people in the right roles. Joe has worked across the globe in multiple sectors which clearly comes across in his one size definitely does not fit all approach."
—VANESSA FLYNN, Head of Human Resources at Air-Tec, Inter Ocean Aviation Finance Corporation

"We know that talent management activities can bring huge benefits to individuals and to the organizations they work for. We also see numerous examples where these processes have lost their value and are mere 'tick in the box' activities or are perceived as being an 'HR thing.' This book can help managers and HR experts to design and introduce the solutions that can release the power of well-designed talent management processes."
—PER CARLSSON, Managing Director, CEB Talent Management, Nordics

"The talent we support and develop are innovating technology with unprecedented velocity. We must use the most effective solutions and approaches to ensure their continued rapid growth and development. Joe will expertly guide you to making the right decisions for your company and culture. The next best thing to having Joe as your partner is having his practical knowledge and wisdom from his book in your back pocket!"
—SHAWNA ERDMANN, Executive Talent Management, Intel Corporation