There are a number of talented people who are not performing at their maximum potential. It may be that they are not making that extra effort, or that they do not feel connected to their managers, or they do not feel fully developed yet.

Forward thinking organisations, want to gain a deeper understanding of their employees’ potential, as well as gaining more thorough insights into the HR needs of their organisation.  The future direction, and strategy as well as the rapid market changes must be taken into account.

Indeed, many organisations have not invested in defining, capturing and analyzing workforce data to the same extent as in other critical business areas and a lot of companies find themselves with a lack of human capital insight around a number of areas, such as:

• Defining the competencies needed: Organisations must have a firm understanding of what skills and capabilities they have in their company by using psychometric assessment and other forms of assessments.
• Evaluating employees’ performance: organisations need to differentiate high from low performers by using performance appraisals or 360 performance appraisal which can give them a better insight of each employee’s capabilities.
• Retaining talented people: Organisations should have retention and development plans to keep high performers motivated and engaged by providing them coaching and mentoring
• Creating development and succession plans: Formal development plans and succession planning are vital to accelerating performance and minimising productivity losses due to high turnover.

There are tools that can assist you in this procedure. You can combine different methods in order to have a better picture of your staff’s capabilities such as:

1. Competency frameworks:
 Offer a highly descriptive means of discussing job performance. They go beyond traditional job  descriptions because they focus on how employees perform their jobs, not simply on what they  do. While job descriptions detail specific tasks, competencies encompass the tangible and  intangible abilities employees possess
2. Psychometric Assessments:
 Provide a measure of individuals’ abilities and how they work with people, approach their tasks,  communicate, approach change, and deal with stress. Differences between people in these  various areas can make them more or less effective in different jobs. Psychometric assessments  can be a very valuable tool for a company since they can create a framework for the development  of  human capital, the formation of stronger teams and help managers to support and manage  their staff.
3. 360 Performance Appraisal:
 An electronically managed 360-degree instrument for the understanding of an individual's  perceived performance. Applications are primarily in assessment and individual development.  Give an insight into the strengths and development areas of each employee and the culture of  the company as a whole. This procedure usually takes place once a year.
4. Coaching:
 Primarily focuses on enhancing performance and development. Performance coaching is an  effective intervention for employee development, particularly in the area of helping employees  understand their personal styles and response patterns, and the issues that arise from these.
5. Development Plans and succession planning:
 A process for helping employees and their supervisors proactively deal with change in the  workplace. It involves assessing the employee’s skills and expertise in relation to current or  future job requirements and then identifying appropriate training and other developmental  experiences. This deliberate planning process provides a good framework for development  discussions between employee and supervisors, ensuring  that the employee will participate in  development activities. It also provides supervisors with a valuable tool for refocusing the  workforce to meet future organisational requirements.

To help your company bring order, out of what can be chaos within its Human Capital, Peopleachieve provides a holistic, integrated solution. You can find out more by emailing Elena Pantazidou on elena@peopleachieve.com