TALENT MANAGEMENT IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT: A STRATEGY FOR COMPETITIVE
ADVANTAGE.
I have always been an advocate for
people (team) development, maturity, mentorship and retention in the workplace
because it carries the highest cost in terms of salaries, remunerations etc, in
the built environment. In the facilities management industry for instance, the
people make up the 4P’s (people, place, profit & planet) and the
appropriate management of this determines the realization of the organizations’
vision, mission, values and reputation.
I wish to recall the definition of
facilities management as provided by IFMA and BIFM to elaborate and drive home
my points. The International Facilities Management Association (IFMA) defines
Facilities management as “a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to
ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people,
place, process and technology”. The British Institute of facilities management
(BIFM) also explained that Facilities management is the “integration of
processes within an organisation to maintain and develop the agreed services
which support and improve the effectiveness of its primary
activities”. Therefore, this brings me to provide my own simple definition
of FM as the profession for the people (end users) with good processes and
technologies executed by motivated people. It is people-centric
because it always considers the provision of comfort for the workplace and
occupants in order for them to realize their laid down strategies.
Canaty & Chavan (2010) suggested
that “if businesses managed the money as carelessly as they manage their
people, most would be bankrupt”. They further explained that “the great
majority of companies that control their finances masterfully don’t have any
comparable process for developing their leaders or even pinpointing which ones
to develop”. I quite agree with their thoughts because I have seen top
management focus so much on their balance sheets, budgets, cash flow and
profits with lots and lots of strategies without having a single strategy for
workforce development not to even mention talent management. But they easily
forget that it is still the same people that make the decisions and take
actions that produce the numbers.
Now, we cannot discuss talent
management and retention without explaining what motivation, reward,
recognition, reinforcement and relationship can do for an organisation to
retain the best brains in the system. Aubrey (1999) explained that “few
organisations are satisfied with their reward and recognition system and every
change in these system results in someone else becoming unhappy. Most often,
top management becomes cynical, because no matter what they try, nobody is
satisfied’’. Although, this may be true and realistic, but it is still very
important to have an effective and efficient reward and recognition system in
place to keep the good hands in the organisation.
Recognition can be defined as a
“symbolic way of showing appreciation for some accomplishment (including
plaques, trophies and letters of commendation)” (Aubrey, 1999). Reward is also
defined as a tangible item, usually money or exchangeable for money, that is
intended to influence behaviour in a particular direction. Aubrey, (1999)
further asserted that “because most rewards are not tailored to the person
receiving them, it is not surprising that it does not motivate everyone”.
Another definition that is important is incentive and is explained to be an
inducement to perform.
All the aforementioned definitions
are key to the level of motivation received by the people driving the vision of
the organisation to its realization. It is often much more than just receiving
pay cheques or salaries at the end of the month. It is far beyond that and the
hierarchy of needs is triggered whenever the mind of the people expands and
they continually search for answers and solutions to them. In view of this, I
will like to identify four models and explain only two which we will be using
to explain the reasons why top management need to have a strategy not just for
competitive advantages in terms of operational activities, cost advantages,
technology leadership but a strategic approach for workforce development and
talent retention. The models are; Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Mc Cleland’s
Achievement & Acquired Needs, Herzberg’s motivation & Hygiene Theory
and Vroom’s Expectancy Theory).
1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Maslow’s pyramid represents a
hierarchy of needs that must be satisfied in a sequential order from bottom to
top. Mc Grath & Bob Bates (2013) suggested that failing to satisfy a need
at any level will prevent progression to the next level.
We can divide this pyramid into two
categories. Basic Needs include physiological and safety. Growth
needs include affiliation, esteem and self fulfillment. Maslow argues that
people die if their basic needs aren’t satisfied and feel inferior and
dissatisfied if their affiliation and esteem needs go unfulfilled and if they
cannot achieve self-actualization.
Considering the practical application
of this theory in the built environment for me as a facilities manager. My sole
need as graduated from basic needs years back and my focus is self fulfillment.
Salaries, incentives, recognition, self belief, reputation and respect are no
longer the catalyst that motivated me in the workplace. I am not inferring that
these things are not good or important, but their presence alone does not
motivate me to continually add value in the workplace. There is more that I
sincerely feel will do the magic. A smart and forward looking top management
should have systems and strategies in place to periodically check the needs of
their best hands and provide such for them so that they don’t leave. Richard
Branson said recently that employers should deliberately train their staffs
so well that they’ll be the best, but motivate them such that they wouldn’t
want to leave. This is talent management in its simplest form.
- Vroom’s Expectancy Theory
The other theory that I’ll be
considering here is Vroom’s Expectancy Theory. Victor Vroom suggested that an
individual will behave in a certain way based upon the belief (expectation)
that a specific act will be followed by a desired reward (valence) once the act
has been completed (instrumentality), (Mc Grath & Bates,2013)
He expressed his expectancy theory of
motivation in terms of mathematical formula: Motivation= Valence X Expectancy X Instrumentality.
If any one of the three factors is nil, the overall score will be zero, and
there will be nil motivation. This means all the factors are dependent on each
other to be able to achieve true motivation.
Please see diagram below;
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This model assumes that it is
possible for top management to score these factors when in reality they are
subjective and may be different to assess in ourselves. However, we can see the
basis of what Vroom is trying to bring into such as what do I want? How likely
is it that I can get it, will the organisation delivers on its promises?
For the employers who want to
consider this model, Mc Grath & Bates (2013) suggested that they should
“forget about the scores, rather focus on what your employees want from their
job and provide work that is economically beneficial and/or intrinsically
motivating for them”. This will have the effect of creating rewards that they
really want. In addition to this Mc Grath & Bates (2013) suggested that if
expectancy is all about effort and results, then make sure that you create an
environment where effort is both encouraged and rewarded and employees have
access to the resources, equipment and materials they need to get results.
These can be classified as critical success factors, also strengthen the
instrumentality link in the chain by keeping your promises and distancing
yourself from those that don’t.
The two theories were important to
provide a background about the expectations of the people and other motivating
factors in the workplace. Following this thoughts, Conaty & Charan (2010)
argued that talent is the leading indicator of whether a business is headed up
or down. They further suggested that it is a company’s most important resources
and a spread sheet full of numbers is a lot easier to praise than the
characteristics unique to a human being. In the same vein they explained
vividly that talent management will be the big differentiator between companies
that succeed and those that don’t. This also is in tandem to the result of the
business confidence Monitor research carried out in the UK and UAE in 2015 by
BIFM, where they concluded that factors like financial stability, technology
may be factors that will influence the FM market, but capability development
with rare skills will be the differentiating factor that will create a
competitive edge for most FM companies.
Sometimes I ask myself lots and lots
of question about the fortune 500 companies and how they have managed to
sustain value over the years and maintain their market share? Conaty &
Charan (2010) gave a simple answer to my question by explaining that
organisation that will win will be led by people who can adapt their
organisation to change, make the right strategic bets, take calculated risks,
conceive and execute new value-creating opportunities and build and rebuild
competitive advantage.
For the facilities management market
in Nigeria where there is no barrier to entry to start-up an FM business, the
only differentiating factor is still the unique skills and capabilities owned
by the workforce and that can bring innovation and create a new market in the
industry. More explanations revealed that the only one competency that lasts is
the ability to create steady, self-renewing streams of leaders. As
suggested by Conaty & Charan (2010) again is that money is just a
commodity, talent supplies the edge. In relation to this, Ron Nersesian the
head of Agilent Technologies Electronic Measurement Group: explained that
developing people’s talent is the whole of the company at the end of the day.
Products are all time- perishable. The only thing that stays is the
institutional learning and the development of the skills and the capabilities
that we have in our people’’.
The background knowledge and
explanations on motivation, incentive, and talents is important for clarity,
but not to lose focus on how retaining talent in the built environment can
create competitive advantage for an organisation, we will continue to explore
ideas that can be utilised in achieving this fit. In the facilities management
industry for example; quality, speed, reduced cost, efficiency and satisfied
customers and as increased profit are the characteristics of a good and
performing company.
The focus now should be on how to
realize these and carve a niche for themselves. These criteria are good, but
they will not happen without putting systems and structures in place in order
to a achieve them. The most important resource that will ensure they are
achieved are the “People’’. Owning to this premise, the
question to ask is what can we do ensure our people are well endowed to
continually measure to the ever changing needs of the customers? Lindell’s CEO
explained that the only one thing he is serious about is creating a pipeline of
future leaders. Therefore, top management should identify high-potential
leaders early and give them experiences that will develop them to their fullest
potential.
Consequently, we need to understand
what we should be looking for in our people to even suggest that they have the
small flame of rare skills and capabilities in them. Conaty & Charan (2010)
opined that for one to know this as suggested above, we need to assess and
express what each person is in reality, not against some predetermined
checklist. They continued that insights can also be obtained through observing
the person’s actions, availability, and passion for excellence, decisions and
behaviours. In addition to this, it is also important to get the core of the
people/person’s values, beliefs. This might seem like a lot of work and most
top managers may not want to commit to this, but the return on this kind of
investment is really huge. They explained and I agree more that it is like
analyzing a business problem or opportunity: it requires drilling down to find
the causes, understand the context, and assess options.
A word of advice to my colleagues out
there is that, fat pay cheques are good as well as promotion from one
department or level to the other with promises from employers that tomorrow
will be better. This may sound good, but the most realistic thing to consider
is to follow your passion especially if you have one for the built environment.
In addition to this, learn rare skills that will help build and prepare you for
the future challenges and position you for more opportunities and success.
References
- Aubley C. Daniels (2000), "Bringing out the best in
People: How to Apply the Astonishing Power of Position
Reinforcement". MacGraw-Hill, USA.
- Harvard Business Review (2011) "On Managing
People", Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation USA.
- Mc Grath and Bob Bates (2013),"The Little Book of
Big Management Theories and House to use them". James, Pearson
Education Limited, UK.
- Bill Conaty and Ram Charan (2010) “The Talent Masters’’
Crown Publishing Group, USA.
- Michael E. Porter (1980)," Competitive
Strategy" The free Press, USA.
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