Talent Management applications are often closed and secretive systems for HR and business managers to log and track employees’ experience and performance, without the employees ever seeing what’s entered. Keeping them up to date is a manual and tedious process, and often the information is entered by an HR gatekeeper who’s several steps removed from the actual employee. But the gatekeeper’s in control, fiercely guarding the data, to ensure that no prying eyes ever get to see the jewels of information that lie within.
But why is the data viewed as such a closely guarded secret? Surely there’s all sorts of information in there that can be hugely valuable to many members of the enterprise, as they set about their daily tasks to add value to the business.
The question of transparency, and whether it’s a good thing, is a hotly debated topic in many HR circles:
“Surely it’s dangerous to let other employees see information about their colleague’s skills and experience?”;
“What if it reveals that we’ve put the wrong person in a role?”;
“What if it shows that an employee is better qualified to do their manager’s job than their manager is?!”;
There are certainly many things that need to be kept under wraps. You don’t want one of your employees seeing how you were assessed in your last annual review and you don’t necessarily want them to be able to see the ticking off you got from your manager last month for missing your target by 50%.
But there are also many ways in which you can empower your employees and get them more engaged in their own career progression. If they can see the skills and experience in the role or job level above them, they can more easily reveal the areas in which their own resume is deficient, and therefore identify what they need to learn or work on to get that elusive next career step.
What if it turns out that we’ve got the wrong person in the wrong role, or someone below them in the org chart with better experience? Well, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?! I’d want to know that as soon as possible, to ensure I can give the person in that role all the support and tools they need to develop the right skill set, to perform their role effectively and efficiently. The sooner you can identify the gaps or problems in the business, the sooner you can go about solving them!
Anyway, isn’t a bit of internal competition a good thing?! I for one would want to make sure that I’m in the best possible position to win that next promotion over and above my colleagues, and if that makes me competitive in acquiring the skills and experience, I’m going to be in a better position and the business is going to benefit from my enthusiasm.
The real issue is how HR is perceived within the company. Historically it has often been seen as a lumbering and tactical department. Bogged down and overwhelmed in processes, this slow moving beast is a cost center that stifles innovation by overloading the employee with forms and processes, with spreadsheets and databases full of data that never get to see the light of day.
But today’s HR animal is starting to emerge as a trim and sprightly animal – strategic in it’s approaches and able to really add value to the business by identifying ways to improve efficiency and performance. And if this can be achieved by sharing information with (and therefore empowering) the employee, all the better. if the HR department can effectively outsource some of its work to the employees, not only will the employees get a better understanding of where they fit into the business (and how they can grow within it), but HR costs will also be kept down!
Seems like a win win – Transparency helps HR play a more strategic role in the business and the employees are engaged, better understanding how they can manage their careers.
