Misplaced Talent
A Guide to Making Better People Decisions

Misplaced Talent takes a hard look at the cluttered field of Talent Management, and offers a clear guide to making better people decisions in any organization. Deliberately challenging practitioners to do more, this insightful discussion sorts through the tools and techniques developed over the last century to examine their true relevance to the modern workplace. You'll learn which activities show the greatest potential to improve the lives of employees and the organizations they work for, and identify which of your existing practices don't really add enough value to be worth the expenditure of time, money, and potentially lost talent. The author asks you to make up your own mind about which approaches work best for your own specific talent decisions, but provides the best theory and practice available today as a foundation upon which to formulate a more relevant strategy.

In a world of big data, the potential to understand employees and react appropriately has never been greater. So why is Talent Management as an industry relying on outdated theory and practices? This book is a guide to bringing HR up to date, giving you the tools, techniques, and perspective you need to demonstrate more value to your organization.

• Adopt the tools and techniques most effective in today's workplace
• Identify and discard methods that don't add value to the organization
• Implement critical changes that can transform the HR function
• Make better people decisions based on psychology and research

Fundamentally, not much has changed in what constitutes good people practice. Practitioners must demonstrate the value of Talent Management, but the solutions implemented often fall short of the rigor and discipline they deserve. Misplaced Talent provides the insight you need to refocus attention and engage your organization about the value of better people decisions.

Foreword ix

Preface xiii

Chapter 1. Frameworks 1

Origins of Job Analysis 2

The Art and Science of Job Analysis 8

Behavioral Simplicity 13

The Tradeoffs 17

The Good and Bad of Frameworks 21

Chapter 2. Talent Acquisition 27

More Than a Single Brand 29

Let’s Be Realistic 35

Compelling Themes 40

From Message to Market 46

How It’s Done 50

Chapter 3. Capability Assessment 57

Evaluating Value and Risk 59

Legal Requirements 66

Assessment by Interview 68

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities 77

Work Simulations 88

Where to from Here? 94

Chapter 4. Psychometric Assessment 97

But First, an Experiment 98

Employee Needs 101

Personality Traits 104

Shared Values 112

Motivated Employees Are Engaged Employees 115

Changes in Motivation with Age and Generations 118

Restoring the Balance with Person-Environment Fit 122

Chapter 5. Employee Development 127

Psychological Contract 129

Assessment for Development 133

Developmental Challenges 140

Support Through Coaching and Mentoring 146

Moving Together or Apart 151

Chapter 6. Change 155

Breaking the Psychological Contract 157

Succession Planning 159

High Potentials and the Learning Agile 163

Driving Performance 168

Big Data and Monitoring Change 173

From a Balanced to a Transactional Contract 175

Conclusion 177

About the Author 181

Acknowledgments 183

Resources 185

Index 195

JOE UNGEMAH helps his clients identify and implement critical transformations in the HR function and has led professional services groups for CEB in the US, Australia, and Ireland. Using his background as a registered psychologist, Joe translates the science behind selection and development decisions into easy to implement actions. He is also a skilled trainer, facilitator, and speaker.