[IPAC-List] Talent inventories

[Blair, Michael D[EQ]]

Bryan -

I been involved in a few of these over the years.  I'm not aware of an off the shelf tool designed specifically for a talent inventory, however, this is essentially the KSA side of a job analysis or needs assessment survey.  The primary difference being a focus on level of competency, rather than importance, frequency, and needed upon hire versus learned on the job.  If you already have a detailed competency model, then it's pretty much plug and play.  If not, then you'll need to either develop a competency model or otherwise roll up KSA data across the various jobs within the organization.

A word of caution.  Communicating, in fact over-communicating, the purpose of the study will be key to getting reliable results.  Employees and supervisors tend to overestimate or inflate competency levels, especially if there are concerns about re-organization, compensation, or future opportunity, etc..  Regardless of how well you communicate, there will be a percentage that will not understand the purpose of the study and will be fearful of how the results will be used.  I have done several similar studies as part of a gap analysis and the employee and supervisor ratings have been significantly higher than the assessment results, especially for non-technical skill sets.  The more tenured the workforce, the wider this gap tends to be.


Michael D. Blair
Manager, Recruitment, Selection & Assessment
EMBARQ
Voice: 913-345-6334  |  Cell: 913-832-6130  |  Fax: 913-345-6417
Email: Michael.D.Blair at embarq.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/blairmichaeld



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-----Original Message-----
From: ipac-list-bounces at ipacweb.org [mailto:ipac-list-bounces at ipacweb.org] On Behalf Of Bryan Baldwin
Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 5:34 PM
To: IPAC-List at ipacweb.org
Subject: [IPAC-List] Talent inventories

Our organization is considering conducting a talent inventory (which I've also seen described as a skills inventory, skills database, or skills tracking) as part of our workforce planning and training effort.  As I envision it, this would allow employees, possibly with supervisory approval, to identify competency areas and the organization could then see a rolled up version.
 
Has anyone done something like this and/or does anyone know of a product or tool that has been successful at doing something like this?
 
Thanks-
 
Bryan Baldwin
Staff Services Manager II
California Department of Justice
Division of Administrative Support
Personnel Programs
(916) 322-5446


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