I Thought Carswell Partners Just Did Outplacement….

That is a phrase we have actually heard a lot over the years.  Many people know us for providing career transition (outplacement) support and we are proud of our long history in this field.  And to be clear, outplacement is still very much a part of what we do. 

So what is all of this other chatter about Talent Management that has been emanating from us over the last couple of years? 

Simply put, at the core of what we do is strategic career management.  Our focus has always been on what people can and should do; i.e., what is their personal strategy?  When this strategy is combined with implementation, we are really helping individuals create “personal business plans”.  We believe this focus is what makes us different when it comes to career transition support.  And it is this fundamental focus on strategy that drives our work in other areas of Talent Management, from employee engagement to leadership development; from assessment to building effective teams.  In all cases, strategy rues the day for us.

So what is Talent Management all about?

At its core, Talent Management is about balancing the supply and demand equation as it pertains to people in your organization.  It is all about managing the flow of talent so as to get the right talent in the right place at the right time and at the right cost.  At the same time, it is about ensuring high levels of employee engagement, all with an eye to meeting current and the future demands of your business..

In a nutshell, good talent management is:

• Deliberate- like business planning, it is consciously planned and intentional.  It is not random or  reactive.   
• Forward Thinking- proactively seeking out talent and opportunities that optimize the development and deployment of talent, based on future trends and current needs.   
• Continuous- A long-term view that talent is key to business- Talent Management stays top of mind and doesn't end just when a process has been implemented.  

Our Model

Our approach to Talent Management first takes into consideration your business strategy.  At the same time, we are respectful and mindful of organizational culture and values.  The model is presented in circular format for a very good reason; that is, there is no definitive starting or end point for effective talent management.  Those that get talent management right recognize that it is a continuously evolving process.

Today’s new business reality is that the only competitive differentiator left in most industries is people.  Rampant skill shortages are either here or are right around the corner.  These shortages will lead to immense competition for talent.  Recruiting external hires will not be enough to meet future labor demands and competition is growing for new graduates.  There is now increased risk of organizations emerging from economic crisis without the employees they  need.  Therefore, investing in talent management is like investing in R&D- you can’t grow, be profitable or adapt without it.

Need further proof? Consider the following:

• For most organizations, 60% of overall costs of doing business are tied up in labour
• Your top performers contribute at a rate 2 to 4 times the performance of average employees – can you really afford to lose these people?
•  The cost of losing any talent is 1.5 times the annual salary for the position
• And if you hire poorly?- the average cost of a poor hire is around $300K
• When employees don’t leave, keeping them engaged in critical - those who are most committed perform 20% better and are 87% less likely to leave the organization
• For new managers the breakeven point (where the manager has truly become productive in a new job is, on average, six months). And what will these new managers be doing?
• 20% of the time they will be dealing with the poor performers no one has dealt with before. 

Talent Management is the new business imperative.  Our experience suggests that it is quickly moving up the corporate agenda and taking a front-row seat at board tables across the globe.  It is becoming an integral part of the business strategy and companies are making serious investments in it.  A top priority is building/buying talent with a wide range of leadership skills. At the same time, organizations are responding to higher expectations people have for their development.  Therefore, traditional approaches don’t suffice - out-of-the-box thinking is needed to attract, develop, engage and transition the most competitive differentiator…employees.

What is the bottom line?

When business leaders use talent management practices, they are better able to solve business problems, support the strategy and meet pressing business needs.

When employees use talent management practices, they are more likely to experience career success and higher levels of engagement.

We look forward to discussing your talent management strategies with you and determining how our vast array of skills, tools and experience can help you build your competitive strategy going forward.

Celebrating by growing again!

Carswell Partners is pleased to announce that our international partnership, Career Partners International, has grown to be the largest talent management firm in the world.  Recently, Career Partners International hosted its Annual General Meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and celebrated its 25^th Anniversary! The company, established in 1987 to provide outplacement services primarily in North America, was founded by seven. Today, the original seven founding firms remain equity owners of Career Partners International and have been joined by 62 other firms from around the globe to create one of the world’s largest and most successful talent management consultancies recognized for its excellent services.  The expanded footprint was achieved by welcoming Reach Human Capital and Career Compass Canada to the team! Reach Human Capital will provide services in the greater Memphis area of Tennessee while Career Compass Canada will service Hamilton, Ontario.

“We are excited about our continued strategic growth to support our clients globally,” commented David P. Hemmer, President and Chief Executive Officer of Career Partners International “and we look forward to the next 25 years!”

Like Carswell Partners, Career Partners International has expanded its depth and breadth of capabilities over the 25 year span to support its clients and now helps organizations effectively assess, engage, develop and transition employees.

“We are excited to reach this significant milestone,” said Elaine Varelas, Chairman of the Board for Career Partners International. “Our success can be attributed to the passion of our equity partner firms and their staffs for helping our clients succeed in the development and implementation of effective talent management strategies.”

“Clients and their employees are at the epicenter of all that we do,” added Hemmer “Helping them achieve their strategic business objectives is our primary goal.”

Hemmer, who has been with the organization for more than twelve years, has seen a number of changes. “We’ve had to be responsive and resilient to the ever-changing marketplace. Through strategic growth, we’ve expanded both in size and capabilities over the last 25 years to become a significant international consultancy with expertise in assessments, engagement, executive coaching, leadership development and career transition,” said Hemmer. “We look forward to continuing our evolution in support of our clients and their business demands.”

A Case for Coaching: Why Executive Coaching is the Best Leadership Development Strategy in Today's Turbulent Times

Organizations are caught in a dilemma.  The recent global economic meltdown has required many companies to cut back drastically and tighten belts wherever possible – including cutting their commitment and resources dedicated to leadership development.  At the same time, a majority of CEOs across industries and geographies view maximizing the productivity of their current leaders and developing the next generation of leaders as mission critical.  A recent survey found that 56% of employers in the US are experiencing a leadership shortage that is impeding their organization's performance. In addition, succession planning is taking on a new urgency in many organizations as the baby boom generation of managers heads toward retirement.

How can companies reconcile their need to develop leaders while still managing costs and ensuring a return on investment?  We believe that one-on-one executive coaching is the best answer to that question.  Business school programs meet certain development needs, but tend to be generic and at times academic.  More targeted in-house leadership initiatives help to align leaders with corporate culture and strategy, and have the added advantage of building internal networks.  But once again, large leadership programs tend to be a shotgun-type approach to development with potentially uneven and difficult to measure benefits.  Only executive coaching provides:

• Development that is specific to the individual leader and their unique needs at this point in time
• Clearly defined measurable objectives and outcomes that are collectively agreed to by the boss, the leader being coached, and the coach
• Observable behavioral change and business impact in four to six months

DEVELOPING THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS

Leaders used to be developed internally by progressively moving up the middle-management ranks.  Incremental promotions allowed them to be tested in lower risk assignments and to develop skills over a more extended period of time.  Their direct managers were often available to provide hands-on coaching and mentoring along the way.  In today’s flatter organizations, mid-management jobs have been eliminated and more traditional career paths have become a thing of the past.  Greater demands mean that bosses are no longer able to give more junior executives the time and attention they feel they deserve.  Global and virtual organizations provide less visibility and less one-on-one access.

An external executive coach can help fill the development gap.  Coaches help the aspiring leader understand what is required to be successful in organizational terms, develop their own leadership template, and create a goal oriented development plan that will increase the probability that they will move to the next level of the organization.  As an objective third party, the coach can provide necessary feedback, appropriate encouragement, and a sounding board for grappling with management and leadership challenges and opportunities.  Collaborating with the leader’s boss, the coaching engagement ensures milestones are measured along the way and the end goals are clearly met.

INTEGRATING EXTERNAL HIRES

As much as we all want to develop and promote internal talent, we sometimes need to look outside the organization for the executive competencies and experience that we weren’t able to anticipate.  Bringing in talent from the outside has its own difficulties. Research shows that there is an approximately 50% chance that an executive who is hired today will ultimately be considered a failure. 

When we do hire from the outside, the challenge is to integrate new executives and maximize their contribution in the shortest time possible. Sixty percent of senior executives see the inability to "develop or adapt" as the number one de-railer of aspiring leaders.  One-on-one coaching helps the new leader avoid derailments by providing an experienced but unbiased thought partner in grappling with the challenges of a new organization, identifying the relevant success metrics with the new team, and quickly building credibility with the colleagues that are critical to achieving strategic business objectives. 

Four key factors that lead to derailment:

• Not understanding the culture and/or lack of political savvy to navigate the culture
• Lack of clarity about their new boss’ expectations of them
• Inability to build effective relationships with peers and subordinates
• Reliance on what worked for them in the past rather than what is needed now

UPPING THE GAME OF CURRENT EXECUTIVES

The number of executive competencies required for success has grown exponentially.  Talented leaders – smart, sophisticated business people who are technically literate, globally astute, and operationally agile – have been identified as the most important organizational resource over the next 20 years. This means that the ongoing development of current leaders has to be a priority.  They are prone to the same derailments as leaders brought in from outside the organization.

Coaching helps experienced leaders redefine their success metrics, reassess their leadership style, realign their priorities, prepare for an uncertain future, and lead their new multigenerational teams to success.   As Fortune Magazine has correctly noted, “Coaching bridges the growing chasm between what managers are being asked to do and what they have been trained to do.”

SELECTING LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT VENDORS AND EXECUTIVE COACHES

Organizations that are using coaching to maximize leadership bench strength and get the best return on development dollars are increasingly looking for coaching vendors who can provide:

• a cadre of pre-qualified coaches
• consistent coaching services across organizational boundaries
• validated and appropriate coaching tools and techniques
• an understanding of global leadership issues
• partnership with the organization in defining, tracking and measuring success

Executive coaches should be highly credentialed business executives and senior practitioners in the areas of leadership development and organizational performance.  Coaches must be able to demonstrate a balance of diverse and relevant business experience, an understanding of organizational dynamics, and proven executive coaching capabilities.

In choosing a coach, it is important to understand the types of assignments the coach has done in the past, the methodology and tools they use to ensure coaching assignments produce meaningful and measurable business results, and that they are committed to the highest standards of professional ethics.

Qualifications for Executive Coaches:

• 5-10 years business management experience
• A level of business acumen that creates instant credibility with senior leaders
• Over 5 years of corporate coaching experience
• Graduate level education in the behavioral sciences and/or business management
• Proven capabilities in the use of assessment, feedback and coaching tools
• Broad experience and expertise in organizational change  and leadership development 

IN CONCLUSION

Futurists tell us that there have been more changes in our world in the last fifty years than in the previous 50,000 years – and that in the next fifty years we can expect even more radical changes.  The recent global financial crisis is just one example of what may be ahead.  In this environment successful organizations will not be able to leave leadership development to chance.  Executive coaching provides a development strategy that meets today’s needs while preparing your leadership team for the future.  The results can be clearly defined and measured.  ROI can be directly observed in changed leadership behavior, increased leadership competency, and greater organizational impact.  Organizations providing executive coaching can be your strategic partner in preparing your leadership team for today’s and tomorrow’s turbulent times.

Are your managers meeting the current challenges of disengaged employees, declining performance and rising turnover?

We all know that just as investing in R&D sharpens technical excellence and sustains a competitive advantage; investing in an organization’s learning and development (L&D) sharpens and sustains the competitive advantage of your human capital.  But the question remains how to do more with less?

And here are some other chilling stats (according to the Corporate Leadership Council’s research - March, 2011?):

• One in four of your employees plans to quit within the next year
• One in three of your high-potentials are not putting their full effort into their job
• High potential pools have shrunk by 50% over the past several years

That’s pretty daunting stuff!

To make matters worse, middle managers are growing frustrated with performance reviews, reporting that employees are not self-directing at a time when training and development budgets and initiatives have been reduced. 

Carswell Partners believes the solution to this problem lies within the organization – within your own managerial ranks.  Leadership now occupies the top spot as the largest driver of employee engagement (according to the latest Towers Watson Engagement Survey.  Therefore, it makes good sense to enhance this competency in your organization.  When organizations improve their level of employee engagement, their financial performance is three times better (as measured by operating margin) than companies with low employee engagement.  Some recent studies have suggested that organizations highly effective at teaching and supporting ongoing coaching behaviors are:

• 130% (approximately) more likely to state strong business results;
• 33% more effective at engaging employees;
• 26% more effective at holding costs at or below competitors; and
• 42% higher with regards to employee productivity      

How can this be achieved?  Imagine your managers becoming transformational coaches who can successfully engage top talent, accelerate performance, direct energy toward leveraging core competencies and retain the best talent by creating a compelling value proposition.

Our recently launched Manager as Coach Learning Series will help you and your organization:

• Discover the value and rationale for becoming a coach;
• Learn mentoring skills and develop the qualities needed to be an effective coach;
• Identify both formal and informal one-on-one development/performance coaching opportunities;
• Gain courage to initiate difficult coaching conversations by using the Carswell Partners Five Step model  to evoke excellence in others through powerful coaching;
• Break down barriers that inhibit risk-taking and continuous learning for employees; and
• Foster competent, aligned, self-directed, adaptable managers and employees.

Our approach goes far beyond the workshop experience.  We offer a variety of modules that involve the Managers/Participants’ direct supervisors before, during, and afterwards to ensure new knowledge and skills are applied, reinforced, measured and sustained.  After the modules conclude, Managers/Participants walk away with practical coaching and action planning skills that can be applied immediately having built a coaching toolkit that can be linked to performance goals. 

Our new Manager as Coach Series means leaders can translate good coaching & development intentions into continuous focused “best practices”.   What’s the bottom line ROI?  Manager as Coach will lead to increased employee engagement, satisfaction, productivity and retention.  The benefits of this program include:

• Immediate results
• Easy, quick to implement
• Impacts large audience at different levels
• Supports and sustains a coaching culture
• Serves as a foundation for all other development

But don’t just take our word for it.  Here is what others are saying…

SVP/Key Sponsor:

“Everyone is so enthused about the program and the energy and camaraderie at dinner last night was filled with positive energy. I want to get more (Resnik) projects going.”

Training Director:

“This is the most encouraging and exciting project I have been on in my career. I thank you for opening the doors to growth!”

Attendees:

“Great workshop! This is the best leadership program our company has offered. Being a better coach is going to make me a better leader. The tools will help me plan and practice my coaching skills. Thanks so much for a great session!”

Tailoring Your Resume and Cover Letter- It Makes A Difference!

A couple of weeks ago, one of our team members, Philippa O’Brien received an email from an alumni Carswell client.  The client had been underemployed for years and was on the hunt for a new opportunity.  So, she had emailed Philippa to seek some advice on how to apply to job postings.

Just last week, Philippa got a follow up email from the client.  She was thrilled because she had taken Philippa’s advice to heart and it had paid off!  Out of the 500 applications that the company received, she had been one of the five selected for an interview.

What a success story!

This is a common mistake that many job seekers make- not tailoring their resume to the job that they are applying for.  Instead, they try to use their resume to suit a variety of jobs even though each job can be quite different. But, this strategy won’t really separate you and make you stand out from the pack!

In today’s technological age, resumes are usually scanned into a resume tracking system which captures keywords.  These keywords are then matched against the buzzwords and job descriptions of the open position.  The more matches, the faster you resume moves to the top of the pile!  Neglecting to include keywords from the position in your resume will increase your chances of going unnoticed.

Even if your resume ends up being manually scanned by a person, he/she is trying to make a quick determination whether your resume has the skills and experience that they are looking for. You don’t want this person to have to work to hard!  The more your resume matches the job description, the more likely they will consider you for an interview.

Besides, updating your resume for each job does not mean you have to make major modifications.  You just need to make small adjustments to customize your information to the job specifications.  This really doesn’t take a lot of time to do!  And, if you have a multi-page resume, spend the most time on the first page.  You want to grab the attention of the person reviewing your resume as quickly as possible.

Consider these suggestions to tailor your resume:

- Begin by stating a specific objective

- If you use a qualifications summary, make it specific to your job objective

- Put the most important facts on the top two-thirds of the first page

- Use accomplishment statements instead of a list of job titles and duties

- Quantify results whenever you can

- Lead with your strong suit- when you’re listing your current or previous job title, company and dates employment, think about which would be most impressive to the reader and put that first or in bold or italics

- Include continuing education along with your degree(s)

- If you have volunteer work or a hobby that you are passionate about, mention it- you never know…you could strike a cord with the reader by having something in common.