Fase Eib-F2: Delimitar el Contexto de Negocio y Necesidades en base a las áreas de

The L&D manager explained that finding two successors was a challenge for the critical roles and how they managed this challenge was through firstly making this aspect of TID one of the KRAs for the HRBPs such that they monitored and tracked this process to ensure it happened. Secondly, they also did this proactively during the talent review board’s

calibration process to backfill positions of those in Q1, Q2, and Q3.

“…if I relate to being a HRBP, and that was part of my core role, my KRAs was how I made sure for the core roles there were successors in place… Could I say that it is absolutely 2 deep succession for the positon, no, but the process happens. So when it comes to appraisal time, data gets sent out to all heads of departments stating that you have only got 80% entered onto the system so you need to be 100%.so it was mandatory. The process happened without fail. In return there was a great culture of if you say it will happen, it happens and it will happen” (L & D manager).

“…then there will be a talent review meeting post all the conversations having taken place. So we talk about what’s happening with the function, who is going to back fill all of the various roles,

management positions, specialists, we’ll identify if there are any gaps” (Talent Advisor).

8.8.2 Careers Conversations / Transparency

Even though the career conversations happened during the mid-year reviews, the L & D manager expressed concerns about their quality. ‘’It might happen but is there really the quality of the conversation in every case’’? She explained that this challenged was managed by training managers and designing a sample conversation template:

“The line managers will be trained to have a conversation with you about your position in the 9 box and what that means. So actually if I am in Q8 and in Q8 meant that I was doing a good job and at working at the right level, there is a risk there of asking well ‘what does that mean for me, am I not getting on’? so the conversation should be then about how to motivate and continue to engage colleagues no matter the box they are in. so the talent team would design a ‘talk it’ to say this is the kind of conversation you could be having with someone in Q1, Q2, Q3, Q6. And giving some development solutions” (L&D manager).

There were also concerns about ensuring expectations were managed properly during the career conversations to prevent demotivation and these concerns were expressed by the Talent Advisor, the RPSM and a talent pool member. Management of these challenges is also inferred in the RPSM’s response.

‘’Yes it is really about managing expectations. They do not want to give them false hope. We are very transparent. We do tell people. It is good. Again if this is not applied properly, it can lead to people perhaps losing their motivation because they are expecting that well, I am in this box so I should be promoted but there is nowhere to go or there is no vacancy and so problems like that…’’ (Talent Advisor).

184 ‘’And then the career conversation is really important. We actually, a) capture what an individual wants to do as opposed to what we think they want to do. But at the same time, how we help them to achieve their aspirations but then also to help people manage their expectations. For example if a colleague comes along and says ‘I am a colleague and I would like to be a GSM in 12 months’ for example. How we have a very honest conversation that says, that is not going to happen. You may want to be a GSM of the future and we will help you to get to that but your timescales are unrealistic. And I am exaggerating the point for the purpose of explanation as you can imagine. But on the flip side how do we really help people that we can see can absolutely see can make GSM but lacking in confidence. How do we put our arms around them and let them know that they can absolutely do this and we will help you to do that and give them that push that they need’’ (RPSM).

Organisationally, there were plans underway to refocus the midyear review more on career conversations and less on performance and potential assessment in alignment with the Retco global practice to facilitate the process.

8.8.3 Quality of Assessments

Manager Misinterpretations/ Inflated ratings: There were some challenges with managers choosing their own interpretations of the meaning of potential and 9 box positions by line managers and some inflated appraisal ratings for fear of the impact of scoring an employee low on the team and also fear of push back and having an honest conversation with

employees. The calibration process discussed above, allowed the re-assessments of employees where there doubts to enable credibility of assessments and the Talent Advisor talked about regular briefings with different levels of managers to further support them with the assessment processes as described below:

“We are currently going through a series of briefings for all heads of department level and directors so that they understand how it applies to them and how they apply it to the teams. And then when we go to roll it out next year, we will do further cascades via senior managers and then roll it out. So it is a very personal way of doing it rather than doing it by e-learning”.

8.8.4 Technological challenges

The Talent Advisor mentioned how the talent review system had malfunctions at some point which resulted in some manual collation of records and report but that this problem was resolved through purchase of new technology.

185

8.8.5 Inconsistencies

8.8.5.1 Appraisals

Interviewees commented about the hourly paid employees not being included in the

appraisal process in stores but not so with those at Headquarters. Retco as a start managed this challenge by including all hourly paid staff in career conversations process for capturing career aspirations for individual development plans. The regional operations manager (ROM) also explained that the hourly paid staff still make up the talent pipeline in store as successors for next role and deputise for section managers. Information on training and development in Retco’s intranet website also confirm that opportunities exist for any hourly paid employee to become salaried based on their interests, performance and behaviours and the career path existed for section Leaders to become managers once they were identified as potential.

8.8.5.2 Career paths

Some interviewees raised challenges concerning the higher earnings of employees in stores who were on the same career grade as those in Headquarters and sometimes these

irregularities also occurred amongst employees on same career grade but working in different stores as the RPSM explained below:

“...another thing is career path. So you get to a level and ask what opportunity is there that I can move into. What job should I go into that will get me the best of my potential we have just launched a career path with clear mapping recently. The grades in the fields they have in the store are sometimes different from what they have in the head office for example. So there’s a bit of sometimes,

opportunities where salaries could be different and grades are different because the grades actually mean different things. They could be for example at a store level, running a small shop and doing a similar grade in Retco house, that actually your salary could be a lot less because your position isn’t clear as agreed to roles as it is in retail out in the field.… So yes, there are grading and

inconsistencies in terms of the compensation for those. This creates a bit of a barrier because why would you go into a different role, with less incentives. Because you may be earning less to do a bigger job. Higher risk for the same package”.

8.8.5.3 Promotion Process

A talent pool member expressed frustration with this process as it appeared demotivating due to inconsistencies mentioned in their remark below about the transparency of the process and the length of time it takes to be assigned the promotional grade even after being identified as a successor for a role. The step up or ‘unlocking potential’ process could take between 6 to 9 months.

186 “And I don’t think we are consistent about the way we offer our opportunities. We don’t know because no-one ever explains it. So if they can justify why so and so’s got this position is about TM and thinking of who is gonna go in there, succession planning and that’s what it’s about rather than just giving someone that job. I think if you are identified as being talented and ready for the next move then start your unlocking potential program and start working towards it so if a job comes up then you are ready for it rather than having to wait even longer and getting frustrated… It’s basically a

promotions so you won’t ever get promoted straightaway. You go into this development program called unlocking potential. The majority of colleagues would apply for a role that is above them and get offered the role and then do unlocking potential whereas some others would first do unlocking potential program and then get found a role...” (Talent pool member 2).

8.8.6 Job Mobility or lateral Moves

The Regional People service manager (RPSM) expressed this challenge as ‘hitting a brick wall’ and another People Service Manager (PSM) of a store expressed this challenge as a ‘barrier’. Sometimes identified talent pool members/successors resist job moves due to the likelihood of earning lower wages and / or incentives as well as having to travel without compensation and be away from home on regular basis. All of these, plus having a higher responsibility that could endanger performance and initiate foreseeable demotion. The manager expressed that they proactively managed this challenge during career

conversations and though this resolved the issue but sometimes it remained a persistent challenge as expressed in the anecdote from the ROM:

“So I will give you an example from Miss X’s point, ‘I ran a store well ran 7 stores actually at different points as a store manager, somebody offered me a role which basically meant that I was in charge of looking after a part of a business’s agenda for facilities management and cleaning for half a company as well as writing the statutory and clear working and that for the business I was also in charge of ensuring that I was coaching the individuals that I looked after at a regional level and I was spending time away from home at the same package I was on with maybe just a little more than an entry salary. For a lot of people they would say ‘no, I don’t fancy spending two nights a week away from home, be writing all these and coaching all these people when I can just run a shop, be home every night and do the small roles that I am responsible for. Actually that’s something a lot of people wouldn’t have fancied. It was a risk but it was one worth taking because it was a bigger potential profile and exposure it gave me. And I think that’s the point. When you take on a bigger role, there’s higher profile and exposure and if you aren’t cut for it, you will be found out quicker. So it’s a risk”.

“…Sometimes we do hit brick walls. The main brick wall is more to do with travel. So where people don’t want to travel to the stores that we have asked people to go to. And that’s not necessarily at GSM but middle management level. Where cost of fuel is so much where if we can’t cover that cost of fuel for travel, people are reluctant to move and travel to further distances. So travel will be one that we come up against and could be a brick wall. And sometimes people may be saying that yes they want to do something next but actually when it comes along, will say ‘I am quite safe where I am, I don’t want to move’. So it doesn’t always go swimmingly well but it is a good process that does work but naturally there is always going to be the odd flying… (RPSM).

187 An unresolved challenge is how subject specialist were managed. They were according to the talent team very important in the business and formed part of the potential talent but there appeared to be a challenge on how to progress them if they were not willing to step up into management positions.

“…the business partners will then work with the function to say what the balance of our 9 box matrix is. Who have we got in the top talent boxes, who are our experts and how can we retain them

because they don’t want to progress but how can we retain them that’s the big issue… So if someone in Q6, have you thought about how they could mentor others because they are an expert ...” (L& D manager).

The Talent Advisor also expressed same:

“The other side of the spectrum is that we have subject matter experts. So those are the people that are performing really high and are absolute experts in what they do. And the next level would be for them to manage people or a team but that’s not necessarily the right step for those people. So it’s about how also we retain and motivate that population and they fit into the Q6 box on the grid. So we have particularly in head office an awful load of roles. So we have Legal people, we have property and construction department. So we have some real specialists. We have like a town planning department, construction managers, we have a lot of specialist in our IT. We have some real specialists in HR, e.g. reward specialists and we wouldn’t particularly want to move them into a different area of the business or lose them. So there are lots of areas in the business that have technical expertise. All of them would go into Q6 unless there is potential for them to grasp upwards”.

8.9 EMERGING THEMES