1.
Building a
Talent-Ready
Organization
Prepared for
MindLeaders
March 19, 2012
Prepared by
Hall Johnson
(614) 880-1645
hjohnson@mindleaders.com

2.
Building a Talent-Ready Organization: Results
What is a Talent-Ready organization?
A talent-ready organization is one that is prepared and motivated for the next challenge. Challenges are met by
people, and the talent-ready organization has the human capital infrastructure in place to give them the right skills
to work on the right projects in the right roles. They do this through a focus on three key talent management areas:
goal alignment, skills development, and talent mobility.
1. Goal Alignment: Strategy execution fails in large part due to differing goal priorities. When your best people
spend their valuable time doing a fantastic job on all the wrong stuff, success will be elusive. Getting everyone
on the same page is a high-impact process.
2. Skills Development: You want your employees to do and build great things. But are you building great
employees? Great employees are built by great managers who make development a priority.
3. Talent Mobility: Moving employees from role to role across leadership and functional areas is common practice
among organizations that understand the need to quickly transform as business needs change. Talent mobility
planning must strike a balance between the needs of the organization (making sure key roles have fully
developed pipelines) and the employee (your best performers will leave if they do not see new challenges).
These three processes are tightly intertwined. Talent mobility planning without subsequent development is useless
paper-pushing or wishful thinking. Goal alignment without talent or development planning might mean you don’t
have the people equipped with the skills necessary to get the job done. Development that’s not driven by organiza-tional
or career goals is likely to go unused and be a waste of time.
The outputs of these combined processes are nothing short of higher employee engagement, higher productivity,
and higher profitability for the organization. With four out of five employees not working to their potential, the need
for these practices has never been greater. The MindLeaders Talent-Ready Assessment (TRA) is a high-level evalu-ation
tool designed to help you fine-tune your talent practices and get the most out of your employees.
Content
LMS
Strategy Align Develop Deploy Execution
Talent Management
2

3.
Building a Talent-Ready Organization: Results
Building a Talent-Ready Organization
The MindLeaders TRA recognizes four key practice levels:
Gearing Up: The Novice Organization (TRA score <35)
Practitioners at this level simply do not have the foundational processes
in place to engage employees and deploy them effectively. If your organi-zation
is in this situation, the good news is that there are likely many
productivity gains on the table, waiting to be grabbed.
Equipped: The Intermediate Organization (TRA score 36-70)
These organizations are employing some best-practices in goal alignment,
skill development, or talent mobility, but they are likely siloed and/or limited
in scope. What processes are in place are manual in nature. Many employees aren’t sure of what’s expected of
them at work, and development and career opportunities are hidden or limited. Managers believe they simply don’t
have the time or resources to develop employees to their potential.
Prepared: The Advanced Organization (TRA score 71-85)
A Prepared organization is on its way to driving future returns on their talent investments. Multiple processes are in
place, such as development plans, performance reviews, or high-level succession plans, but they are not well-integrated,
limiting visibility into results and stunting continuous improvement efforts.
Talent-Ready: The Expert Organization (TRA score 86-100)
Organizations at this level are getting the most out of their employees. Employees in Talent-Ready organizations
are focused, enthusiastic, proactive, and committed. Employees know exactly how their jobs relate to organiza-tional
objectives, have good relationships with their managers, are growing their skills and responsibilities, and see
a career path within the organization.
www.mindleaders.com 3

4.
Goal Alignment
(50 out of 100)
Skill Development
(57 out of 100)
Talent Mobility
(26 out of 100)
Your Talent-Ready Scores
Goal Alignment
Score for MindLeaders:
Equipped: The Intermediate Organization (50 out of 100)
Skill Development
Score for MindLeaders:
Equipped: The Intermediate Organization (57 out of 100)
Talent Mobility
Score for MindLeaders:
Equipped: The Intermediate Organization (26 out of 100)

5.
Building a Talent-Ready Organization: Results
Recommendations
Goal Alignment
Employees who know how their efforts fit into the organization’s big picture are more likely to be actively engaged.
What can you do to make this happen?
• Cascade/align goals between employees and managers. If an employee goal can’t be linked to one from a
manager, it is likely not one that is contributing to a core organizational initiative.
• Encourage, frequent, meaningful conversations between managers and employees around goals. Organiza-tions
must ensure that their greatest asset, their people, is employed most effectively to achieve challenging
organizational initiatives.
• Teach employees best practices around goal setting, and the importance of setting the right goals and holding
oneself accountable to them.
• Keep managers and senior leadership informed of progress. Through an online system, give them real-time
ability to see the status of all goals tied to a particular initiative.
Skills Development
Another factor that drives employees in talent-ready organizations is development. Employees who feel that they
have grown their skills over the past year tend to be more engaged. This also holds true for employees who have
individual development plans. They believe the organization is investing in them, and are therefore more committed
to reciprocate. What can you do?
• Teach managers to focus on development and to hold regular development conversations with employees.
• Develop competency models for job roles and identify performance gaps.
• Create targeted individual development plans to provide meaningful context for development activities.
• Provide visibility into target jobs for employees, and give them a development path to get there.
• Benchmark organizational competency “health” and use to drive organizational development efforts.
• Pilot a coaching and mentoring program.
Talent Mobility
Employees who believe that there is a career path for them in the organization are more engaged. If there is a path,
think about letting them know. If not, there are still ways to help employees feel that the organization is behind their
career growth. Here’s how:
• Be sure to have a complete profile on each employee to help drive your talent planning conversations. Include
work experiences, certifications, languages, etc.
• Ask employees about their career aspirations, and whether they are willing to relocate, if applicable.
• Create stretch assignments and stretch goals for employees
• Look at bench strength in your organization and use to help inform potential next moves for employees.
• As appropriate, give employees a development plan toward a target job.
• Use a 9-box grid to gain insight into your workforce and inform talent decisions. Your high-performing and
high-potential employees should have target jobs, developmental assignments, and a retention plan in place.
www.mindleaders.com 5

6.
CHANGING LIVES THROUGH LEARNING
Catch Up with Us
blog.mindleaders.com
Follow Us
@mindleaders
Follow Us
company/mindleaders
MindLeaders, Inc. USA MindLeaders, LTD UK MindLeaders Asia Pacific MindLeaders Ireland
5500 Glendon Court, Suite 200 36 Windsor Street Level 1, 1 Queens Road No 1 Deansgrange Business Park
Dublin, OH 43016 USA Uxbridge, UB8 1AB UK Melbourne Victoria, 3004 AU Blackrock, Co Dublin IE
800-223-3732 +44 (0)20 8843 5500 1300 308 826 +353 1 289 1989
info@mindleaders.com info@mindleaders.com info@icdl.com.au irlinfo@mindleaders.com
www.mindleaders.com www.mindleaders.com/uk www.mindleaders.com/uk www.mindleaders.com/uk
2012 MindLeaders, Inc.® All rights reserved. All marks relating to MindLeaders, Inc. ® products and services referenced herein are either
trademarks or registered trademarks of MindLeaders, Inc.® or its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Connect with Us
facebook.com/mindleaders