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In a recent article I outlined some of the issues with organisations recruiting people because of their skills and experience rather than ‘growing their own’ talent within the organisation. Over the last two weeks we’ve been running a survey which gives an interesting snapshot of how prepared organisations may be to grow their own talent to meet future demands, rather than rely on ready-made skills being available in the recruitment market.

The findings of our research in some way mirror that of the CIPD’s Learning and Talent Development Survey – a much larger and more comprehensive study published in June this year. The results of this research showed that there was an increased focus on talent management processes but in the main this was the preserve of large organisations seeking to develop senior managers and so-called high potentials. How are the likely senior managers and high potential employees identified? Well that seems to be the issue.

The results from our survey were very clear. For two thirds of respondents, experience in undertaking a similar role elsewhere was the main factor in whether an individual was recruited or not. The second most important factor was organisational fit – whether the person under consideration had an attitude and outlook aligned with the organisation’s values and culture. Interestingly, qualifications were far and away the least important factor considered at recruitment. Half of all respondents said this was the least important consideration when making a hiring decision. That teacher who threatened you with shelf stacking at Tesco’s was clearly wrong when he or she said you’d make nothing of yourself without that GCSE (or ‘O’ Level for those of you of a similar vintage to me!).

When we moved onto examining recruitment practices, experience again came to the fore. When asked to choose between experience, qualifications or potential (regardless of qualifications or previous work history) a broad range of work experience was most important for four out of five respondents.

Taking these responses into account, it would seem that individuals are primarily recruited on the basis of their experience – preferably doing something similar or in a similar field – and the extent to which they have shown they have the potential to move up, ideally into senior positions in the organisation. The third most important factor in determining whether a candidate should land that job seemed to be their enthusiasm to work for the organisation and perform the required role.

On a positive note, an enthusiasm for an organisation – especially one which elaborates its training and career development credentials during the recruitment process – would seem to offer some support for the idea of ‘Growing Your Own’. In the CIPD survey, almost a quarter of respondents (24%) said that “recruiting and attracting key staff” was a stated objective of their talent management programme. I don’t think we could really infer from this, however, that organisations have confronted all the challenges which they face in the battle for talent and the need to prepare for an uncertain future. Nor do we know that they have selected a Grow Your Own strategy as part of future proofing their people.

For specialist positions, qualifications were slightly more important. Around one third of respondents primarily look for qualifications first amongst specialists but experience of a similar role elsewhere was still the most important factor for half the survey respondents.

Training and Development

In the Grow Your Own piece, I put the emphasis on a skill set which prioritised preparation for future roles by having the current capability to develop the skills required for the future. It would have been thought that having qualifications at a certain level would have been one of the factors which organisations would use to determine that individuals were skilled learners. As I have outlined, the relatively low priority placed on an individual’s educational qualifications would not seem to bear this out.

However, internal competence frameworks do put some emphasis on learning skills alongside other core capabilities. Almost all our respondents said that learning skills were specifically mentioned within the competence framework. A further two thirds also include an ability to utilise disparate sources of information – though whether this includes the ability to be media literate and a skilled information seeker to the extent I advocated last month is a moot point. Trend spotting, change and creative problem solving were less likely to be included in the competence framework in respondent organisations. This focus on only part of the required skill set for the future is somewhat concerning. While recognising change as a constant, it would seem that organisations still prepare strategically for a world in which business as usual continues ad infinitum.

One of the sources of development opportunities outlined very strongly in the CIPD report is coaching. Alongside on the job training, coaching was cited as the most effective for employees (non-management grade staff). In 43% of cases the CIPD survey found that coaching was the responsibility of line managers. In just over a fifth of cases (21%) coaching was used specifically to support learning and development interventions. In response to tighter budgets, coaching (along with e-learning) has seen an increase – especially in the public sector. Internal knowledge sharing events have also increased in more than one third of all respondent’s organisations. It’s a shame that these practices are linked so closely to restricted budgets in the CIPD report, but whatever the drive for a more holistic approach to learning and development, these moves should be welcomed. However, if internal knowledge sharing, e-learning and line manager coaching are perceived to be low cost options, won’t learners also perceive them as low-value options? Certainly, the effectiveness of e-learning – perhaps reflecting inadequate levels of investment in these straitened times – is not considered high. CIPD respondents rated e-learning as the most effective delivery option in only 10% of cases – a 2% fall from 2010. Whether the burgeoning interest in informal learning via the web is factored into this consideration of e-learning is not disclosed.

Attitudes around induction are extremely hopeful. Around half of our respondents have a company-wide induction programme, with a further third having a standard induction developed by each function. In only 16% of cases is induction left to individual line managers.

The picture about an individual’s career aspirations being a driver for their learning and development planning is slightly more mixed. In our survey, around half of the organisations which responded said that an individual’s career aspirations and ambitions drove their learning and development. This figure was broadly mirrored in the CIPD survey, where 70% said employees have a significant role in defining learning and development options across the organisation. However, in the remaining 30% of cases, individuals have little or no involvement in defining what training is available. Perhaps this reflects the low value placed on the skill of trend-spotting and anticipating future needs which was evident in our own survey of competence frameworks. If we don’t ask people to look to the future, perhaps it is unsurprising when we don’t trust their insights into what skills and learning might be needed to respond to the changes on the horizon.

Conclusion

In the Grow Your Own article I advocated the need for future employees to be skilled information seekers, independent learners and to possess an enquiring mind. I am heartened by the presence of some or all of these capabilities and attitudes in the core competence frameworks of organisations. I am also delighted that people are being inducted in a robust way and have a significant role in driving their own development in sync with their own career ambitions.

But I am somewhat concerned about how fully these issues have been embraced. Organisations still seem to focus recruitment on previous experience. Quite clearly they favour those who have done something similar somewhere else over those who have proven they are skilled learners (through achieving qualifications) or those who have the potential to grow in the business. It may be that employers simply don’t trust school, college or university earned qualifications as an indicator of learning skills, but it’s difficult to see what measures are being assessed if these skills are considered important.

Through our own short survey and the more lengthy and robust survey from the CIPD, I am left with the unavoidable conclusion that there may be evidence of a short term tendency to solve yesterday’s problems now, by buying in a ready to go employees rather than by equipping our current workforce with the skills required in the future. Growing your own talent to work in a world we cannot accurately predict is not yet an established practice. However, an enthusiasm for an organisation and the desire to grow within it is clearly a desirable characteristic amongst those we want to recruit. But will they still display this characteristic after they have been passed over in favour of those with more experience (and perhaps reluctance to change) who have been brought in from the outside?