Right Quarterly 3rd quarter 2013: Talent Assessment

EDITORIAL & FOREWORD

02

by Chaitali Mukherjee

Solution Insight & Case Study

Strategic Leader Development through Talent Assessment,
Personal Mastery and Team Learning
by Derek Estrop

04

Client Reference Story & Interview

Developing Leaders through 4P’s at JSPL
by Chaitali Mukherjee, Dipty Jalan, Ashish Jain,
Vijayant Yadav, Abhinandan Chatterjee & Prerna Mehta

08

POINT OF VIEW

Investing in the right Talent: Revisiting
Talent Assessment Tools
by Dr. Colin Couzin-Wood

13

EVENT UPDATE

Breakfast Roundtable - ‘Leader Assessment in
the Human Age’
by Tuhina Panda

18

Copy Editor
Tuhina Panda

Layout & Design Editor
Ritesh Hellan
For a copy of ‘The Right Quarterly’, write to us at
right.quarterly@right.com

TALENT ASSESSMENT

1

Editorial & Foreword
by Chaitali Mukherjee
Country Manager - Right Management India

There is a new buzz in the air. A change has
come about the workplace where a sense of
purpose is now clearly visible amongst both
organizations and their employees. Even with
the numerous economic changes that have
taken place around the world, ‘Talent’ has
created a place for itself in every organization.
Individuals are aware of where they want their
careers to go, and many are even aware of
what it will take to get there. Organizations
are now focusing on building a long term
association with their employees. They are
doing so by first ensuring that they have the
right people on board with the relevant skill
sets, and then providing them with the relevant
tools to follow their career aspirations and
succeed. Though, the rules of the game have
changed given the dynamic business scenario.
The parameters defining success have been
redefined having become more ambiguous.
Even an individual is aware of this change and
is very focused on working towards his/her
career goals. Organizations as well are aware
of what they would like their ‘talent pool’ to
look like, and are really cautious on who they
would like to hire, as well as promote into
critical roles.
In the last edition of the Right Quarterly, we
spoke about career management, talking
about how its importance has grown in the
current business context. As shared above,
there is now a greater awareness amongst
employees and organizations on what they are
working towards – specific career aspirations
and retention of critical talent, respectively.
For our current edition, we want to explore
the starting point of many HR initiatives –
talent assessment. Talent assessment is the
process of evaluating the potential of an
individual, team or organization, against a
2

THE RIGHT QUARTERLY

given set of competencies. The output from a
talent assessment process is used as a critical
diagnostic data point prior to a strategic
development or business initiative. Without
talent assessment, many organizations would
not have the reference point that they need
to make critical people decisions around
hiring, development, succession planning,
promotions, outplacement, capability building,
and more. Talent assessment is an important
process that is a part of every organization,
and is visible in different forms.
Our first article ‘Strategic Leader
Development through Talent Assessment,
Personal Mastery and Team Learning’,
talks about how the right talent assessment
approach can help create a new breed of
contemporary leaders, who are able to create
and drive their own personal vision. But does
the journey end there? A leader who is selfaware, passionate and equipped with the right
skill set, is better able to contribute to the
team he/she is part of. But even more he/she
will be able to drive the change desired in an
organization with confidence and focus. This
article shares not only the concepts behind
such an approach, but also a case study of a
successfully implemented project with one of
our clients in Singapore.
The second article shares the success story
of a talent assessment assignment where we
partnered with a large steel manufacturing
organization in India. ‘Developing Leaders
through 4P’s at JSPL’ shares the details of
the assignment we worked on with Jindal Steel
& Power Limited, where a unique approach
was used and was well aligned to the ‘Jindal
Leadership Model’. JSPL has defined for itself
a clear strategic goal of reaching an annual
turnover of 4 Billion USD by 2020. With this

objective in mind, JSPL was sure that this
growth can only be achieved through the
support of a strong leadership pipeline with
the right capabilities. Though this journey
started in 2008, to help increase the efficiency
of identifying the right set of leaders who will
drive the desired growth, Right Management
suggested the ‘4P’s Leadership Framework’
for the talent assessment process. But
what is the ‘4P’s Leadership Framework’?
Right Management believes that besides
‘Performance’, there are other parameters
which define and influence the kind of leader
an individual can become. We strongly urge
you to read on so that we can share the ‘4P’s
Leadership Framework’ with you as well!
Talent assessment has evolved over time.
Two of the most important changes we have
experienced are the improvements in accuracy
and efficiency of the process. Technology
has also transformed the process, giving us
a much more robust approach with multiple
benefits. But to begin with, we thought it
would be a good idea to revisit the objectives
and applicability of the talent assessment
process. In our third article ‘Investing in the
right Talent: Revisiting Talent Assessment
Tools’ we go back to the basics. Whether it be
hiring, development, employee engagement or
succession planning, talent assessment can be
leveraged to achieve various strategic business
and people objectives. Hence it is critical to be
clear of the objective and how the output will
be used for important decisions.

true representation of not only how HR and
technology can work together to redefine
the way we do business, but also influence
business outcomes positively. Senior business
leaders from different industries contributed
to the discussion by sharing their perspective
on this evolution of talent assessment into a
virtual, scalable and flexible business-enabling
tool. It was also an opportunity for Right
Management to share its approach and talk
about the Leader Evolution Center, which is an
innovative virtual assessment platform, helping
organizations align their talent needs to their
business goals.
We hope that this edition helps to build on
your perspective of talent assessment. Through
this, we also endeavor to share with you our
passion for this subject that is an integral part
of any talent decision in every organization.
The Talent Assessment practice is one where
we have most enjoyed innovating and
challenging ourselves, while also giving our
client organizations an immediate outcome
that they can benefit from.
Happy reading!

Our final article is an event update from a
recent breakfast roundtable we hosted in
India on ‘Leader Assessment in the Human
Age’. As shared above, we are all aware of
how technology has transformed the process
of talent assessment. This integration is a
TALENT ASSESSMENT

3

Solution Insight & Case Study

Strategic Leader Development through
Talent Assessment, Personal Mastery and
Team Learning

The Assessment Process and
‘Personal Mastery’
Personal Mastery (Peter Senge, 2006, P.7) is
“the discipline of continually clarifying and
deepening our personal vision, of focusing
our energies, of developing patience, and
of seeing reality objectively.” It is more than
just about competence, skills or spiritual
growth. It is about creating a desired future
and moving towards it. People exhibiting
high levels of Personal Mastery are skilled
at creating a personal vision and accurately
assessing their current reality with respect to
that vision. The gap between current reality
and personal vision propels them forward.
This gap is often referred to as ‘creative
tension.’
Through a recent assignment with one of
our clients, we were able to kick start the
process of Personal Mastery for its senior
leadership team. To help any employee start
on this journey, it becomes essential for the
organization to provide them with a platform
that allows them to understand themselves
4

THE RIGHT QUARTERLY

first, and then plan their developmental
goals basis the priority areas. The client is a
leading global provider of flow equipment
products, systems and services to the
worldwide oil, gas and process industries.
Based on the good work done earlier with
their Asia Pacific corporate office and the
feedback from one of its senior leaders
who had experienced an assessment and
leadership coaching program, we won an
assignment with their Singapore team. Right
Management recommended a blended
program design that had elements of
individual assessment, coaching, and team
learning components, which were conducted
over several months. Right Management (US)
and our Singapore team implemented the
program for the client from 2012 to 2013.

Leveraging Leader Assessment
for Strategic Development
The project was implemented in three
phases. A brief on each phase is shared here
to detail out how the assessment process
helped to provide valuable insights for

• Key Relational
Activities
• Skill Practice and
Feedback
• Apply New Skills
to the Job

PHASE 3

• Program Kick Off
• Pre- Assessments
for Development
• Learning Team
Formation
• Community
Building

PHASE 2

PHASE 1

Reference 1.1 Program Model

• Apply New Skills to
the Job
• Report Results and
Lessons Learned
• Community
Building
• Prepare for
Coaching with
Manager

1:1

1:1

1:1

Group Session 1-2

Group Session 3-4

Group Session 5-6

Cohort –Based Learning

building self-awareness, encouraging team
learning and achieving Personal Mastery.

Phase 1: Assessments and
Introduction of Key Concepts
The process started off with a Community
Building and Learning Team Formation
meeting. Here the coaches and participants
met to get to know one another, exchange
information, and generally map out the
development process and activities. This was
followed by the in-depth Assessment and
Development Planning step. Assessments
were used to identify and prioritize
strengths and development areas, and to
help establish a professional development
action plan that the individual leader
initiated and stewarded. The assessments
were coordinated by Right Management,
incorporating a 360 tool and a set of
personality inventories. These were purely
for development and confidential to the
relationship with the coach. What the
assessment process was able to do was
to give a picture of the ‘current reality’ to
the individual. Hence, the combination of
feedback from peers, bosses and direct
reports, along with an understanding of
individual personality, gave much needed
insight as to where each leader was and
his or her learning journey ahead. Career
enablers and derailers often featured in
discussions and key themes emerged

as leaders planned their priority areas
for development. Feedback from peers
was considered as invaluable as leaders
attempted to validate their profiles and
results. Individual coaching sessions
leveraged the opportunity provided by the
group forums, where leaders could seek
additional feedback in a safe and somewhat
regulated learning environment.
Following the assessment process, the
coaches worked with each participant to
ensure that the development plan was
actionable and likely to be implemented
effectively. The development plan was then
shared with the manager and all parties
agreed on how progress would be tracked
and monitored.

Phase 2: Individual Coaching and
Team Learning Forums
This phase utilized a series of customizable
tools and models that addressed the
learning needs of the team, based on their
assessment results and what the individual
leader and the team, as a whole, chose
to work on. Through group forums and
individual coaching sessions, the coaches
worked with all leaders to ensure that goals
were being achieved, that learning was
on-going, and new issues were being dealt
with effectively. During the team learning
forums, the Right facilitator checked on the
TALENT ASSESSMENT

5

progress relative to individual development
plans, discussed new challenges and how
they might be handled, and used role-plays,
videos, group simulations, and reflective
dialogue and discussions to help the team
with key challenges. The insights from
the assessment process helped them to
keep track of the priorities they wanted to
achieve.

Reference 1.2 The Wheel of Team Learning
(Peter Senge and others. 1994. The Fifth
Discipline Fieldbook, Ch. 8)

more
concrete

Coordinated
Action

Public
Reflection

more
abstract

Joint
Planning

Shared
Meaning

more
active

more
reflective

Phase 3: Integration and
Application of Learning
As the project is still on-going, the sessions
continue to reinforce the application of
learning on the job. Participants share
stories of successes and challenges, with
support and feedback provided by peers
and coaches. The coach and participants
discuss on-going development and involve
the manager in the follow-through on
coaching to the development plan.

So what is the Team Learning
Process?
Team Learning is viewed as “the process of
aligning and developing the capacities of
a team to create the results its members
truly desire” (Senge, 1990, P.9). It builds on
Personal Mastery and Shared Vision – but
these are not enough. People need to be
able to act together. When teams learn
together, Peter Senge suggests, not only will
there be good results for the organization,
but members will also grow more rapidly

than could have occurred otherwise. Also,
insights from an assessment process
can help ensure that the team goals are
aligned and complement the individual
development plans of employees.
“The discipline of team learning starts with
dialogue, the capacity of members of a
team to suspend assumptions and enter into
a genuine ‘thinking together’. To the Greeks
‘dia-logos’ meant a free-flow of meaning
through a group, allowing the group to
discover insights not attainable individually.”
(Senge, 2006, P.10) It is with these premises
in mind that we designed and implemented
both the group forums and individual
coaching sessions.

“

People don’t
resist change;
they resist
being changed

”

- Peter Senge

6

THE RIGHT QUARTERLY

From the first two sessions itself, the
team was encouraged to build their own
curriculum, given their 360 feedback,
personality results and team trends.
The Right consultant played the role of
facilitator/coach, while the team engaged
in rich dialogue and often, debate. The
individual coaching sessions were also
leader-centered. Each leader set the agenda
and led (or at least co-led) the session.

A Needed Balance - Structure
and Fluidity
From Phase 2 onwards, each group session
started with reference to the data made
available through the 360 reports and
personality tools. Individual and peer/
team reflection followed, with a focus
on the current reality of their leadership
effectiveness and what they aspired towards,
for themselves and the organization. Team
members, as peers, validated each other’s
development focus and helped structure
action plans moving forward. As the group
sessions ensued, leaders built in the content
or frameworks covered (concrete) into
their action plans eg. to use the ‘retention
dialogue’ framework with key staff. Session
topics or themes for the forums were
changed or modified somewhat, if the group
so chose to, as needs evolved or became
more specific.

Moving Forward
We are currently working with the next two
levels of leaders in the organization using
the same approach, and are indeed thrilled
at having the opportunity to impact the
organization in this way. We have worked
closely with the client team to make
some changes to the program basis our
experience and feedback received from
the first senior leadership group. To allow
the individual assessment and learning
process to be leveraged, only one coach
is involved now with each team and will
also take on the facilitator role for all group
forums. This is helping us to maintain the
continuity between individual coaching and
group forums, and integrate the learning
experience overall.

Bibliography
Senge, P.M. (2006). The Fifth Discipline:
The Art and Practice of the Learning
Organization. New York: Currency,
Doubleday.

by Derek Estrop
Principal Consultant
ASEAN

TALENT ASSESSMENT

7

Client Reference Story & Interview

Developing Leaders through
4P’s at JSPL
In the Human Age that we are in today, a
key question that progressive organizations
lose their sleep for is, are my existing people
ready to reinvent themselves and meet the
challenging business needs of the future?
Do we know who is the best fit for a critical
role / a new opportunity or is personal
judgment the best answer to it?

According to a recent research, 37% of leaders
fail after moving into a new leadership role and
91% of business leaders say today’s business
challenges are significantly more complex. Are
we pushing leaders to take on roles that they
are not ready for or are we simply pushing the
wrong leader?
The answer lies in understanding the depth
of your talent. What are the key strengths
at different levels and what are some focus
areas at an individual or organizational
level. The right way to achieve this is to
follow a systematic process year on year
which becomes a part of the culture of the
organization and encourages people to
adopt the behaviors that the organization
values.
A brilliant example in this case is Jindal
Steel & Power Ltd. (JSPL). Jindal Steel and
Power is one of India’s major steel producers
and is part of the USD 18 Billion O.P. Jindal
Group. As a company that has constantly
looked to scale new heights, JSPL aspires
to move to the next phase of growth by
realizing a turnover of 4 billion USD by 2020,
having a current annual turnover of USD 3.6
billion. To drive this growth, JSPL intends to
have a class of leaders who have strategic
and operation excellence capabilities, and
are able to lead people in this dynamic
and ambiguous environment. To build
this capability, the organization started a
journey in 2008 of formally assessing the
potential of its leaders to be able to plan
8

THE RIGHT QUARTERLY

the development intervention for them.
While they have been doing the same for
some time, they wanted to increase the
effectiveness of the initiative by doing
things differently.
It was with this context that Right
Management presented its approach, which
was appreciated by them and thus began
our partnership through a holistic talent
assessment project. JSPL had a ‘Jindal
Leadership Model’ which summarizes the
leadership behaviors and values that a
Jindal Leader needs to demonstrate. The
engagement began by first validating the
existing Jindal model and converting it into
a framework that details the behaviors and
scales for us to consider as the base for
assessments.
Considering, that the talent in
consideration was at the senior leadership
level i.e CG1 and CG2 (AVP and above),
Right Management suggested their 4P’s
Leadership Framework, to holistically
assess a leader.
Right Management’s 4P’s
Leadership Framework
Exploring Right Management’s ‘4P’s
Leadership Framework’ to understand
what it means to be a leader in the
Human Age
What classifies as ‘good’ and
‘great’ performance
Exploring the ‘stickiness’ of
perceptions and why they matter
Leveraging the Birkman Method to
learn more about our personality
styles. Understanding how to
manifest our innate potential
Leveraging our understanding
of the 4P’s to define a Personal
Brand

Different tools were mapped with an
objective to give a leader a holistic
perspective about himself/herself.

Feedback from the Participants
“This is a really excellent opportunity to display
situational management. It also allows one
to do an introspection of one’s strength and
behaviors.”

• Performance: What is the individual’s
achievement on the defined KRAs/KPIs?
Assessment Mode: Performance
Appraisal by Manager

“Very well managed, well explained, it was
more of interactive and participative coupled
with good questions. The process was
interesting and informative wherein I was able
to introspect and could understand myself
better.”

• Perception: How do multiple
stakeholders experience/ view the
leadership capability of the individual?
Assessment Mode: 360 Degree
Feedback Survey

“It has been done very professionally. I found
the process to be interesting as it gives you
time to think and analyze the past and prepare
you for future.”

• Personality: What are the leadership
traits, personality attributes which guides
the individual behaviors? Assessment
Mode: Birkman Psychometric Tool

“The techniques adapted and tools used have
enabled me to reflect on my performance, my
success and failures and the need to create
a strategy to become an effective leader.
The assessors have been very cordial in their
approach.”

• Potential: What are the individual
leadership strengths and areas of
development? Assessment Mode:
Development Center
Post the pre-work of Birkman psychometric
and 360 Degree feedback, the development
center process was run parallel across 3
locations covering 76 participants. The text
box to the right showcases some of the
feedback received from a few participants
during the development center.

The intended outcome from the process
was twofold.
First being the outcome for the
Participant: a detailed talent profile was
created for each leader which was followed
by a structured one-on-one feedback
session. The talent profile report and the

Reference 2.1 Right Management’s Suitability Mapping Profile Snapshot
Participant
Name

XYZ

Current
Designation

AVP

Department

Marketing

CG

CG2

Next Role

VP
Readiness for next Role

Recommendation

Immediate – Clear High Potential
Ready after short term development intervention - Good Potential but needs some development
Needs Development

Potential (Max Score = 5)
1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Perception

Gap

360 Feedback

-0.5

4.0

Personality
Birkman

DC Score
Desired Score

Strategic
1. Thinking &
Innovation

DC & Desired
Score is same

2.

Process
Excellence

0.5

4.2

3.

Drive for
Results

0.0

4.2

Fair Level of
Proficiency

4. Meritocracy

0.5

3.9

Low Level of
Proficiency

0.5

4.1

-0.5

4.1

Collaboration &
5.
Care
6.

Change
Leadership

Key Strengths
•
•
•
•

Displays sound business acumen and conducts in-depth
analysis of data and applies market knowledge
Comes across as an action-oriented individual who also has
high achievement orientation
Displays clarity and confidence while communicating, enabling
him to effectively influence people
Is likely to set stretch targets for his team, providing them
with necessary guidance when required

High Level of
Proficiency

Note: The desired score
is for the next level
Key Developmental Areas

•
•
•
•

Could gain from further developing his orientation towards
customers
Could gain from taking a long-term view, especially when
planning and assessing risks
Could enhance conflict management skills by attempting to
discover the root cause and addressing the same
Could benefit from proactively aligning people to the vision
of the change initiative and create ownership for the same

TALENT ASSESSMENT

9

one-on-one feedback session encapsulated
the 4P’s in detail. Potential and Personality
are internal factors that are innate to an
individual. Performance and Perception
are external factors that depend on one’s
dealings and interactions with others. The
talent profile reports, along with the analysis
from the 360 degree feedback survey and
the online psychometric tool along with
the development center output provided
a robust understanding of a participant’s
assessment on varied aspects. During the
one-on-one feedback session, the assessor
and the participant involved together
formulated an Individual Development Plan
(IDP). The IDP thereby created had details
of the strengths and improvements of the
participant along with the way forward.
The Second being the outcome for
the Organization: the organization
was provided with two critical outputs
viz-a-viz Suitability Mapping Profile and
Overall Analysis. The Suitability Mapping
Profile provided comprehensive data and
information on Personality, Perception and

Potential. Further to this, the profile also
had recommendation on the readiness of
a leader for the next role along with the
key strengths and development areas as
identified on the basis of the 4P’s. In addition
to the Suitability Mapping Profile, Right
Management created an overall analysis
that provided imperative data on Potential,
Perception and Personality. The Potential and
Perception data shared overall inferences
on all the competencies on the basis of
outcome from the development centers and
the 360 degree feedback survey respectively.
The Personality data shared inputs wherein
all the leaders were categorized under task
orientation, people orientation, strategic
thinking and process orientation.
The intervention benefited the organization
as they received the inputs on all 4P’s along
with other imperative inputs that were
critical in identifying the developmental path
for the participants. The key stakeholders
found the Suitability Mapping Profiles to be
extremely useful for them to be able to take
decisions on individuals.

Client Speak
Praveen Kumar
Head – Steel Business
HR & Group OD
Mr. Praveen Kumar shares his experience of the intervention and working with Right
Management.

context when JSPL began initial conversations
Q What was theon partnering together for Development Center with Right
Management
initiatives?
JSPL as an organization has witnessed a phenomenal growth in the past ten years. Our
growth has been in variety of portfolios as well as in terms of intensity in a given business.
We have to develop leaders both in terms of number and functional competencies
to handle this growth in fast changing business scenario. We have consistently been
investing efforts towards preparing ourselves for the same. We have introduced a
mechanism Talent Ownership in which organization-wide talent related decisions are
taken in a very structured manner.
JSPL’s Apex body, Group Executive Council (GEC), takes the decisions on the following
critical aspects:

• Leadership Development

10

• Succession Planning
• Career Planning

THE RIGHT QUARTERLY

To ensure that the decisions take all the imperative factors into consideration, detailed
leadership profiles of all the senior members of the organization are prepared. The profile
includes inputs from techniques such as assessment/development center, 360 degree
feedback and psychometric test, which together form a participant’s potential assessment.
This data is then presented to the GEC to take the talent related decisions.
In this regard, we partnered with Right Management to conduct the intervention and seek
support in preparing the Talent Profile for each senior leader of the organization.

JSPL go ahead
Q What madeengagement? with Right Management as the partner for this
significant
When our conversations with Right Management were initiated, Right Management
presented a proposal for the intervention. The proposal had the philosophy of the 4P’s
(Performance, Potential, Personality and Perception) wherein an individual’s profile would
incorporate inputs on each of the P. The philosophy was close to our requirement and the
alignment with the organization’s approach helped us in deciding to go ahead with Right
Management.

process, development centers have been well institutionalized
Q As asystem. How was your experience in implementing assessmentsby you in
the
this year
different than the previous years?
JSPL has been growing rapidly especially since the last 5 years and the CAGR is more than
30%. The rapid growth threw a challenge on the HR function to build and develop the
capability of the leadership in the organization. With this intent, we initiated developing
a leadership pipeline and developed our leadership design. The first step in this journey
was to map the capability against the requirement for a competency. We had started
conducting development centers in 2008 and since then, it has been challenging to
ensure participant’s availability for the exercise. But nevertheless, we are in the process
of institutionalizing the process. Last year in particular, we started working with Right
Management and with their support, we re-calibrated our competency framework. We
felt and realized that getting people this time around was a bit easier than the previous
time, as people had accepted the development center process to be a robust one as it
gives the right feedback to the participants. Every individual wants to grow including the
people who have been working for 20-25 years with JSPL as the process helps them
identify certain future-oriented behavioural training that they would like to undergo.
Agility is a critical factor and ensuring that the participants are engaged for the day during
the development center is challenging, but with Right Management, we have now been
able to do so. People in the organization have realized that it’s an important exercise
and the premise of undergoing various simulations that are robust has been beneficial
in enhancing people’s interest. This realization has helped us in making this process an
institutionalized one.
How has been your
Q Management on thisexperience with the team that has been working from Right
to support you?
I would like to share a few factors that made the experience of working with Right
Management a journey worth cherishing. The flexibility, the ease and the adaptability
of the team at Right Management is commendable. It gets quite challenging to ensure
availability of our senior leaders for the pre-determined dates and hence I am thankful to
Right Management that they were extremely flexible and supportive to this end. Secondly,
the team at Right Management definitely helped us with their insight and knowledge.
They were robust in their approach for recalibrating the competency framework of our
organization and the 4P’s approach that we have introduced basis Right Management’s
suggestion is remarkably exceptional. The 4P’s are Perception, Performance, Potential and
Personality. We have an apex body named GEC in which every individual is assessed for
the future role and their performance for the last year is considered. The recommendation
by Right Management for employing the 4P’s approach was extremely beneficial and has
been liked by our top management. The approach has given a strong 360 degree view
and the multi rater has helped us in correctly reviewing the performance, capability and
perception of the leaders in the organization.
TALENT ASSESSMENT

11

How
Q Righthas the overall feedback from stakeholders been on the services provided by
Management?
The overall feedback of the stakeholders has been exciting and positive. It has helped us
in taking organization-wide talent decisions along with preparing the organization for the
future.

Q On a personal note, could you share about your key learning from the journey.
My key learning from the journey is as follows:

• The communication to the senior management with regard to convincing them about
the intervention being developmental rather than an assessment program

• Selection of relevant and contemporary tools for the program for the right group of
people

Project
Team

THE RIGHT QUARTERLY

Dipty Jalan
Program Manager
India

Ashish Jain
Project Leader
India

Vijayant Yadav
Team Member
India

12

Chaitali Mukherjee
Country Manager
India

Abhinandan Chatterjee
Team Member
India

Prerna Mehta
Team Member
India

Point of View

Investing in the right Talent: Revisiting
Talent Assessment Tools
Right Management defines talent assessment as the scientific process
used to improve the quality of decision making for talent investments
made across an organization. A favourite rule of thumb for me is that
more data enables a better decision. Further, decision accuracy improves
as data quality improves. This underscores the benefits of using talent
assessment tools to support selection and development practices. In this
article, I will explore the applicability of talent assessment to each for
making effective talent decisions and share my advice on best practice.
Talent Assessment for Selection
Recruiting a new employee is a great
example of the benefits of using multiple
data points. However, failing to add talent
assessment tools to your toolkit is an
opportunity wasted. At Right Management
we work with individuals who access our
Career Management services to help them to
understand themselves, their values and the
job market (internal or external) to transition
into the right roles based on clearly defined
work targets. I particularly enjoy working
with these individuals because it provides
me with the perspective of the applicant and
allows me to view the recruitment process
through their eyes. After all, these applicants
could be the very talent you are seeking to
attract.
I often tell my candidates that recruitment
is an exercise in assessing an applicant in
terms of:
1. CAN they do the role?
2. WILL they do the role?
3. Do they FIT in?

Typically, multiple sources of information
about the candidate are collected during the
recruitment process to answer these three
questions as shown in the table below.
Did you notice that assessment tools tick
all the boxes? Did you also notice that tools
is plural? As there is not one tool that can
measure CAN + WILL + FIT. The table below
demonstrates well that multiple data sources
enable better decisions: across and within
data sources. When the cost to implement
talent assessment tools is compared to the
time and labour costs associated with the
other methods, assessment tools provide
genuine value.
What about my second rule of thumb, the
quality of data? There are many metastudies that combine the outcomes of
published research. One such line of
inquiry relates to the question of which
assessment tool is the best predictor of job
performance? A summary of some findings
is presented in the Reference 3.2 on the next
page.
Consistently, meta-analytic studies such as

Reference 3.1 Candidate Evaluation Matrix

Source

CAN they do the
role?

WILL they do the
role?

Do they FIT in?

Resume and Cover
Letter
Interviews

?

Reference Checks
Assessment Tools
TALENT ASSESSMENT

13

Reference 3.2 Improved Reliability of Talent Decisions

Validity Correlation of Talent Assessment Methods
Job Performance Criteria
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7

Right’s multi-assessment approach –
work samples, critical thinking,
structured interview, personality (0.68)

0.6

Cognitive tests (0.61)

0.5

Structured interview (0.50)

Using a selection
process with multiple,
proven assessment
methods significantly
increases overall
predictive validity of a
leader’s success.

0.4
0.3
0.2

References (0.26)

0.1

Years education (0.10)

0.0

Age (- 0.01)

References: Hough & Oswald, 2001; Robertson & Smith, 2001

those informing Reference 3.2 highlight the
utility of using multiple assessment methods
or tools; and using tools that are:
• Valid – they measure what they say
they will measure on factors that are
relevant; and
• Reliable – they measure a consistent
outcome over time or between
observers
Another advantage of using assessment
tools for recruitment is that you are able to
compare applicants beyond your immediate
applicant pool. Assessment tools enable you
to make comparisons to test takers who are
applying for roles:

regularly to keep in step with changes to
the labour market. Why wouldn’t you use
them to improve the accuracy of your hiring
decisions?

Talent Assessment for
Development
Many of the principles and benefits of using
assessment tools for selection described
above also apply to development objectives.
The only difference is that we are viewing
existing employees through a slightly
different lens.
Thus, the question we are asking is what is
required to support the employee to:

• Region or Country – in the same
region or country
• Level – at the same level of role

2. Progress to the NEXT LEVEL

• Industry or Sector – in the same
market segment

3. Progress rapidly to the next level and
beyond as a HIGH POTENTIAL employee

This enables you to determine how your
applicants stack up to the broader market
for your key selection criteria or success
profile for the role. Further, comparison or
norm groups are statistical representations
of these populations that contain less bias
than an applicant pool and are refreshed
14

1. Develop AT LEVEL in same role or
alternate role (a lattice organizational
structure)

Each pathway will require a measure of
the employee’s potential (not constrained
by their current role or position within the
organizational structure) and performance
(how they are currently performing). A
typical example of such a set of measures
follows.

THE RIGHT QUARTERLY

Reference 3.3 Performance-Potential Matrix

Potential

Performance

• Behavioural
preferences or
work style
(the why)

• Actual observed
behaviour
(the how)

• Cognitive ability
(the capacity)

• Performance or
KPI ratings
(the what)

Other assessment methods and research
models can be used (supplemented or
substituted to the above), however it is first
important to understand the purpose for
development. For example, when working
with clients to develop their leaders, I
typically apply the ‘Four Filters’ approach
(Naddaff 2010) to select a set of leadership
behaviours that are most relevant or
pertinent for the:
• Organization – desired behaviours
for leaders to deliver strategic business
objectives (by cohort)
• Role – desired behaviours to be
successful in role (by function)
• Situation – desired behaviours
for leaders to face the immediate
challenges of the role (by context)
• Individual – understanding and
levering the diversity of individual
leaders (by person)
Understanding why the assessment is
being conducted enables a success profile

to be created so that employees can be
measured against this profile or leadership
competencies required:
• AT LEVEL
• AT THE NEXT
• Against a validated model of HIGH
POTENTIAL

The Significance of Talent
Assessment Tools
Understanding the purpose of the
assessment (selection, development or
career management for that matter) and the
success profile required enables the choice
of appropriate talent assessment tools.
Right Management has conducted
significant due diligence through our
global Center of Excellence and entered
global agreements with a number of talent
assessment tool providers. This allows our
clients to benefit from the negotiated global
terms and pricing for tools we consider
reliable and valid.
Furthermore, we have the ability to offer
multiple tools and Talent Management
consulting expertise to our clients for
the areas outlined below. I really enjoy
discovering the needs of our clients,
the outcome they are seeking and
recommending an assessment tool that
will enable them to make effective talent
decisions.

Reference 3.4 Use of Talent Assessment Tools

Purpose

Talent Assessment Tools Areas
Safety
Simulations
Personality and work style

Selection

Cognitive Ability
Drive/Motivation/Mobility
Development

Sales Effectiveness
360 (Leadership Behaviours)
Leadership Potential (HIPO)
Team
Emotional Intelligence
Impact

Career

Self Discovery

TALENT ASSESSMENT

15

Reference 3.5 Our Talent Assessment Approach

Right Management’s practical approach starts with a validated competency model,
delivers talent assessments and results in powerful insights that help drive the talent
management strategy forward.
Aligning Talent Strategy to Business Strategy
INPUTS
Competency Model

Business Drivers

Talent Management
Strategy

Talent Assessment

OUTPUTS

Hiring
Hiring

On Boarding
On Boarding

Developing
Developing

Promoting
Performing

Coaching
Promoting

Review
Deploying

Integrated with Talent Management Processes

Greater than the sum of its parts
Until now, I have positioned using a talent
assessment tool to support a decision or
outcome in the context of a single event:
selection of an applicant, development of
an employee or the self discovery of a job
seeker.
The power and utility of talent assessment
tools increase when we think of them as an
input of a broader process or system. This
highlights the importance of considering
talent assessment tools as an integral part
of the broader Talent Management Process
(see Reference 3.5) and viewing them at
multiple levels of analysis to:
• Individual – help understand an
individual
• Team – help understand team dynamics
• Organization – help support strategic
objectives
The above discussion demonstrates that
talent assessment tools enable better
decisions. Are you using them to maximum
effect? The following checklist highlights the
different objectives that talent assessment
can support to:
Optimise Talent Planning and
Deployment
• Ensuring the right people, with the
right skills, are in the right roles, in
the right locations
16

THE RIGHT QUARTERLY

Improve Quality of Hiring Decisions
• Mapping tools to role success
profiles during the hiring process
ensures far more accurate hiring
decisions
Strengthen and Deepen the
Leadership Pipeline
• Accurate identification of high
potential leaders and targeted
development to accelerate
readiness for next level leadership
roles
Increase Employee Engagement
• Improving the consistency of hiring
the right people who are job-ready,
and fit well in the company culture;
resulting in more engaged and
motivated employees
Grow the Right Workforce
Capabilities
• Successful companies win in the
market by delivering differentiated
value to customers; accomplishing
this requires a specific set of
workforce skills aligned to deliver
that value consistently.

A Final Note

1
2
3

3

best
practice
tips

Consider when talent assessment tools are used in the selection process
Assessment tools provide insights into the CAN + WILL + FIT parameters. Yet, many people use
them at the very end of the recruitment process as a final hurdle. In many cases, the recruiting
manager has already made up their mind and is seeking confirmation to hire. A dilemma occurs
when the assessment tool highlights an area that the recruiting manager did not consider and
wishes they could clarify further. If timed well, assessment results can be used to inform interviews
and reference checks.
Provide feedback to job applicants
My time spent with individuals accessing our Career Management services has highlighted how
the reputation of an organization can be shaped by something as simple as providing feedback
on talent assessment tools completed as part of a recruitment process. Consider the effort and
interest an applicant has invested in applying for the role, providing feedback acknowledges this
investment. Consider also the power of informal networks to promote you as an employer of
choice in a tight talent market.
Work with an expert to help tailor a solution that meets your needs
I advise my clients to tailor their feedback to job applicants as follows: provide feedback to
unsuccessful job applicants as a courtesy and in respect of their interest and efforts towards the
role (see tip 2), provide development focused feedback for successful applicants (to help them to
onboard) and internal applicants regardless of outcome (to help retain them).

Summary
Whether for selection or development,
make sure that you are making the
best decisions possible by using talent
assessment tools. Consider the costs of
poor hires in terms of salary, cost to rehire
and productivity lost during the transitional
period. Further, consider current hires
that promised much on paper but have
not progressed or developed to the level
you had expected in the time you had
anticipated. We’ve all felt that niggle
of doubt about a hiring or a promotion
decision – talent assessment tools can
inform that niggle. A small investment
upfront can pay off in the long term.

Naddaff, T. (2010). Assessing the
Effectiveness of a Leader Through Four
Filters, Management Research Group.
http://www.mrg.com/education-resources/
articles-findings
Robertson I.T., Smith, M., (2001). Personnel
Selection. Journal of Occupational and
Organizational Psychology, 74: 441-72.
Schmidt F.L., Hunter J.E. (1998). The
Validity and Utility of Selection Methods
in Personnel Psychology: Practical and
Theoretical Implications of 85 Years of
Research Findings. Psychological Bulletin,
124: 262-274.

Bibliography
Global Talent Management Center of
Excellence (2012). Guidelines for Talent
Assessment Services. Right Management.
Hough, L. M., Oswald, F. L., (2000).
Personnel Selection: Looking Toward the
Future – Remembering the Past. Annual
Review of Psychology, 51: 631-64.

by Dr. Colin Couzin-Wood
Senior Consultant
Melbourne, Australia

TALENT ASSESSMENT

17

Event Update

Breakfast Roundtable - ‘Leader
Assessment in the Human Age’

Chaitali Mukherjee
Country Manager - India
Right Management India Pvt. Ltd.

Talent matters, especially
leadership talent
Successful companies have shown
tremendous commitment to talent
management, knowing that talent is
the only competitive advantage. The
accelerative and disruptive forces of
technology have encompassed and turned
many business processes on their heads.
Interestingly, leader assessment, a critical
component of talent management, has also
been influenced and radically transformed
by technology.
With this context in mind, Right
Management, along with People Matters
hosted a Breakfast Roundtable on ‘Leader
Assessment in the Human Age’ on 1st
Oct 2013 in Gurgaon, India. Through
an interactive discussion, we tried to
understand how the transformative power
of technology has altered the paradigm of
leader assessment.
The key themes discussed were:
1. A contemporary and forward looking
approach to assessing and developing
leaders
2. New age leader assessment practices
3. Enhanced focus on identifying personal
potential to unleash leadership
potential
18

THE RIGHT QUARTERLY

Ester Martinez
Co-founder & Editor-in-Chief
People Matters

Senior business and HR leaders from many
companies across industries participated in
the event and contributed with their views.
The discussion was moderated by Chaitali
Mukherjee, Country Manager – Right
Management India and Ester Martinez, Cofounder & Editor-in-Chief - People Matters.
To set the context, the discussion started
with a conversation around the current
reality in which we all operate. Right
Management spoke about how the world
is experiencing a global readjustment in
which powerful forces that have been in
play over the last few years, are converging
to create a new reality where business
models will have to be redesigned, value
propositions redefined and social systems
reinvented. In this new reality, called the
Human Age, people will take their rightful
place at the center stage as the world’s
only source of inspiration, passion and
innovation and the driving force behind
endeavor and enterprise. Hence, to win in
the changing world of work requires a new
breed of contemporary leaders with a new
approach to the workforce. An assessment
center is the essential process required to
build consistency in talent requirements
and quality for current talent in the
organization, as well as for the talent to be
hired.

Participant quotes:
• The role of the Head HR/CXO is to ensure the objective of
the assessment/development center is driven from the top
• Leader assessment in the long term, must help to identify
if the personality of the leader matches that of the
organization
• Time consumption and resources used for leader
assessment in one place at one time is a challenge.
Hence the need emerges for leveraging technology in this
process

The key questions that we put across to the
participants were:
1. What is the relevance of assessment centers in the current
talent market?
2. What are the key challenges you face in the traditional
approach to leader assessment?
3. What would be the next phase of evolution in an assessment
process – ‘The Picture of Success’?

Some of the key insights that emerged from the
discussion were:
• Technology based assessments can provide a level of
scalability, flexibility and global standardization that overcome
the challenges accompanying traditional assessment centers,
especially saving on travel time and cost
• A virtual assessment platform should allow you to flexibly
integrate globally validated psychometric tools or clients’
existing assessment tools
• The virtual assessment platform should allow you to measure
competencies like agility, virtual leadership, global mindset
and many more, using a more realistic business simulation
which is closer to the actual work environment of the leader
• Providing the leader a more realistic business environment
through the virtual simulation allows for an increase in
stakeholder involvement, while also giving a more accurate
prediction of a leader’s future performance
• Riding on the benefits of technology, assessment centers
are being used to unleash human potential and to create the
organization’s Talent Balance Sheet. They can be the critical
step to link Career Aspirations and Individual Performance /
Potential with the Organization’s Vision and Strategy
In this context, Right Management introduced the Leader
Evolution Center to the participating leaders, which merges the
strengths of an assessment center with those of technology. The
Leader Evolution Center provides an innovative, virtual assessment
platform involving standardized tools designed to provide real
TALENT ASSESSMENT

19

Clients who attended:
Agilent Technologies India Pvt Ltd. • AIS Glass • American Express India Pvt Ltd. • Caparo
India • Dabur India Ltd. • Darcl Logistics • Fedders Lloyd Corporation Ltd. • FIS Global
Solutions India Pvt Ltd. • Fiserv India Pvt Ltd. • GE India • Giesecke & Devrient India
• Hewlett-Packard • Isolux Corsan India • Nec India Pvt Ltd • Relaxo Footwears Limited
• Sapient Corporation • SRF Ltd. • T&T Motors Ltd. • Voyants Solutions Pvt Ltd.

world business simulations reflecting today’s
environment where work is done remotely
or virtually. This platform can be delivered
fully virtually across regions to save travel
time and cost.
The Leader Evolution Approach is a
sophisticated, scalable and easy to
administer approach towards evaluating
the increased complexities of leadership
in the Human Age. It can assess executives
or middle management leaders against
competencies like agility, global mindset,
strategy, virtual leadership, collaboration

20

THE RIGHT QUARTERLY

and more. The Leader Evolution Approach
is configured to the organization’s business
objectives, leadership competencies and
corporate culture/business requirements;
allowing to create a Strategic Accelerated
Development Plan for their leaders.

by Tuhina Panda
Project Leader & Internal Change Manager
- Right Management India

Right Quarterly 3rd quarter 2013: Talent Assessment

Right Quarterly 3rd quarter 2013: Talent Assessment

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