Derby Business School

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Developing and Managing Performance

9. Developing performance

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By the end of this session you will be able to:

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Performance Management Survey

(2005) CIPD

Can Talent development improve performance?

Workforce development (WfD)

can help to raise labour
productivity and increase social
inclusion. Higher skilled workers
are more productive, more
innovative and better able to
adapt (Performance and

Innovation Unit, PIU 2001:5)

5 Drivers of Productivity Growth:

1. Human Capital
2. Investment
3. Innovation
4. Enterprise
5. Competition

Who gains when workers train?

(Dearden, et al 2000 cited in PIU 2001:18 and 2006)

Training significantly boosts productivity

The effect of training on productivity is around twice as great as the
effect of training on wages
The results demonstrate a sizeable effect e.g. raising the
proportion of workers trained in an industry by five percentage
pointsis associated with a 4 per cent increase in value-added per
worker and a 1.6% increase in wages

1. Competitive advantage: Human Capital and RBV

Achievement of sustained
competitive advantage through
human capital
IF
1.Valuable
2.Rare
3.Can not be imitated
4.Non substitutable (Wright et
al, 1994)

A subject approach
to talent development
human talent is a
renewable resource
not easily copied or
stolen by competitors
(Dries 2013: 273)

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Training and
development

Recruitment
& selection
Pay
satisfaction
Work life
balance

Performance
appraisal

Career
opportunity

Job
security

Ability and
skill
Motivation
and
incentive
Opportunit
y to
participate

Front line
management
- implementing
- enacting
- leading
- controlling

Organisation
commitment

Discretionary
Behaviour

Motivation
Job
Satisfaction

Performance
outcomes+

Challenge/
autonomy
Teamworking

Involvement
Communication

The People and

Performance Model
(Purcell et al 2003)

Is ability the root of the problem?

Reasons why people do not perform:
Theyve forgotten how to do it
They dont know what is expected
They do not have the authority, tools, time or space
They dont get feedback
Documentation is poorly designed, inaccessible
Work station is badly designed
Punished or ignored for doing it right; Rewarded for doing it wrong;
Nobody notices If they do it right of wrong
Organisation makes desired performance difficult or impossible

Gibb (2008: 28)

The systematic training model

Evaluation
Identify
Evaluate
TL&D effectiveness TL&D needs

Deliver
TL&D
Implementation

Planning

Design TL&D
activities
Design

Establishing TL&D Needs

Training and development professionals will only be effective to the extent that
they seek to help others to meet their own needs. (Simmonds 2003: 32)

Current level
of professional
competency
What knowledge &
skills are needed?
In what order?
Parker & Stone (2003)

Level of
competency
required to
achieve
excellence

Where are we now?: Analysing the Job

holder (see Reid et al 2004 Chapter 8)
Person centred or training needs
analysis (TNA)
Recruitment and Selection
information
Performance Appraisal
(one:one, 180 and 360 degree)
Development centres
Personal Development Plans
HR records ( e.g. disciplinary
investigations/ accident
reports)
Line manager/supervisor
observations and feedback
Self Assessments
For a basic discussion see Hackett 2003
Chp 2

M.B.W.A!

Warning! Historical v Future Needs

Doing new things?

Doing things in new ways?

Performance Development Planning (PDP)

a self organised learning framework (Tamkin et al 1995)

To do the current job

better
To develop the potential
to do higher level jobs in
the future

Development becomes
primary responsibility of
employee
A continuous process

Their value lies in creating the cultural

ethos of ownership; ownership of
development, of decisions and of action
(p34)

Preparing a Personal Development Plan

1. Identify development
needs
2. Identify means of
satisfying needs
3. Plan action
4. Implement
(Armstrong and Baron 2005 p97)

e.g.
Coaching
Work shadowing
Projects and special
assignments
Presentations
Reading/Internet
Open learning packages
Action learning (groups)
Secondments

Barriers to PDPs

Time consuming
Culture of passive learning
Learner isolation low commitment
Greater line manager responsibility
Public v private plan conflict
Organisation abdication

Ability: The Skills Agenda

Comparisons of Productivity 2000
(UK=100)
150

There is a well-established
relationship between skills
and productivity, supported
by both theoretical and
empirical research

(SU 2002:7)

(Source: PIU 2001:18)

100
50
0
UK

Germany

France

USA

Output per worker

Output per hour worked

skill is a way of competing rather than the way of

competing (Grugulis and Stoyanove 2011)
Cost based
strategy

Low
skill
Jobs

Low
pay

Buy low price

Low quality
Weak
Purchasing
power

Essentially a high skills

economy requires not
only skilled workers but
also skilled work, together
with sufficient power and
discretion for those skills
to be exercised
(Grugulis 2003 p4)

Low skills equilibrium: Finegold and Soskice 1988

Developing Talent

In house development programmes

Coaching
Mentoring and buddying schemes
Cross functional project assignments
Internal Secondments
External secondments
Action learning
Succession Planning
Graduate development programmes
High potential development
programmes
Educational courses
Assessment and development
centres
360 degree feedback
Job rotation and shadowing
(Clake and Winkler 2006:5)

Key Focus Areas:

Developing HIPOs
(67%)
Growing future senior
managers (67%)
But
Focus on strengths or
weaknesses?
Accelerated path or
bespoke development
pathway?
Organisation v self
directed learning

Most effective talent management activities

(CIPD 2011)

Coaching (49%)
In-house development programme (28%)
High potential development schemes (25%)
360 degree feedback (24%)
Internal secondments (23%)
Job rotation and shadowing (19%)
Cross functional project assignments (15%)
Mentoring and buddying schemes (19%)
Development centres (12%)
Graduate development programmes (15%)
Action learning sets (11%)
Courses at external institutions (12%)
Courses leading to a management/business qualification (6%)
Assessment centres (6%)
External secondments (5%)

Location
On the Job
Risk of error/mistakes
Expensive in time and
resources
May not enable
learner to achieve
desired outcome in
real time
Learning distractions
BUT
Clearer indications of
relevance and
importance (transfer
of learning)

Off the Job

Practice in a safe
environment
Distraction free
learning conducive
environment
BUT
Artificiality (transfer of
learning)

Choice of Methods e.g.

On-the-job methods
Action learning
Coaching
Mentoring
Sponsorship
Role-modelling
Job enrichment
Job rotation
Secondment
Special projects
Task forces
Deputising
Networking
Visioning

Off-the-job methods
Management education
Qualifications
Short courses
Seminars
In-company management
training
Workshops
Seminars
Academies
External providers
Specialist packages
Outdoor development

Off-the-job techniques
Lectures/presentations
Case studies
Syndicate/discussion groups
Distance/open learning
Work-related projects
Games and simulations
Role-plays
Individual/group
Presentations
External speakers

Woodall and Winstanley 1998 cited in Simmonds 2003

Transfer of Learning
(See Simmonds (2003) Chapter 7)

Succession planning
Identifying possible successors
and/or assessing potential
Collective challenge
Input from and feedback to
each identified individual
Career & skill development
plans for individuals
Regular review of individuals
and development progress
Informing wider workforce
planning
using plans/ pools as
appropriate in resourcing
(Hirsch, 2000)

In an organization with a high

proportion of high-value, highuniqueness employees
continuity (i.e. the retention and
succession of pivotal
employees)is expected to be
at the top of the agenda as high
turnover, under these
conditions, would pose a
serious threat (DeVos and
Dries 2013:1818)

Succession Planning

(Conger and Fulmer 2003:78 - 80)

Focus on
development
succession
management must be
a flexible system
oriented toward
developmental
activities, not a ridged
list of high-potential
employees and the
slots they might fill

Deploying Talent
talent management is not just When competencies become
about upward career moves.
imprisoned the people who
Horizontal career moves that
carry the competencies do not
broaden an individuals
get assigned to the most
experience are also an integral
exciting opportunities and their
part of many processes
skills begin to atrophy.
(Clake and Winkler 2006:2)
(Prahalad and Hamel 1990:79)
E.g.
Job rotation
Job enrichment
Secondments
Special projects

Further Reading

Conger A, Fulmer RM (2003) Developing you leadership pipeline, Harvard

Business Review, December pp76-84
Grugulis I, Stoyanova D (2011) Skill and Performance, British Journal of
Industrial Relations, Vol 49 No 3 pp515-536
Tamkin P (1997) Practical applications for personal development plans,
Management Development Review 9:7 pp32-36

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