Case study four – SB

SB is a financial services organization providing a range of consumer services. It has a history of strong financial performance with organic growth and some acquisition. At the time of the research they employed approximately 3500 people, mostly in the UK, but some in Northern Europe. The Head of Talent was recently appointed (joining from another organization). SB had a reputation for its fast pace, people took pride in the agility of the organization and the speed at which change was introduced. They had consistently had very high engagement scores (measured through an independently run employee survey), but like MT, they tended to be marked lower on questions relating to career development opportunities. Whilst people spoke positively of much of the culture, there was a dislike of what was seen as a generally status driven and hierarchical approach. The position of SB on the HR Architecture model (Lepak & Snell, 1999) was not clear. People were certainly seen as high value, but the uniqueness was sometimes communicated as high (for example, messages that ‘it is such a strong culture that it is easy not to fit in – some people just won’t survive’, IS), and yet a significant external recruitment into senior roles indicated a lower level of uniqueness.

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Talent management was viewed by the Head of Talent as an inclusive term, so that ‘all people have the opportunity to accelerate’. One segment of talent was the people deemed to have high potential and the executive team had expressed concern about having a ‘narrow pipeline’ of talent for the future. The aims of talent management were positioned in terms of becoming an employer of choice and having greater insight into employees’ wants and needs to help drive performance. Enablers of this were seen to be increasing the levels of trust and transparency. The Head of Talent felt that the current approach needed to shift to be more involving of individuals;

‘the conversation [at the moment] is about the individual rather than with them – and it covers a snap shot in time rather than an ongoing dialogue – we need the individual driving more of the agenda about their wants and needs’

SB Head of Talent She was concerned that whilst some processes had been developed to support this, managers still had a mindset that it was not their role to develop talent. Furthermore, she felt that some even saw developing talent as detrimental to them personally and professionally. She indicated that they felt that if people were developed and then left it could limit their personal ability to meet their objectives. Her views on this highlighted a potential role conflict as indicated by Purcell & Hutchinson (2007).

Nine people were interviewed. The length of service ranged from 2 years to 10 years, with an average of five and a half years.

Conversations at SB

A feature of the conversations at SB was the high percentage which were triggered by personal development (as shown in Table 7.3). These represented 48% of the conversations compared with less than 33% for the others (with the exception of the IH case study). The results also showed that a high percentage of the conversations were self-instigated, representing 40% of the reported conversations compared with an average of 22% for the other case study organizations. Furthermore, a high proportion (78%) were described as informal, which was counter to the generally formal approach taken within the organization. SB also had the highest number of collaborator conversations with six being described by participants.

The above results seemed counter to the picture shared by the Head of Talent. However, the general comments people made about career conversations within the organization were more consistent with her view and highlighted some interesting cultural dynamics and their perceived

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impact on career conversations. Within this case study it seems as if the reported conversations were not typical of how participants saw things generally operating within the organization. This could be partly due to the group of people who were interviewed. The majority of them were active in managing their career and felt that they understood ‘how to get on round here’. Many of them also felt that they had a strong line manager, and were keen to highlight that a lot depended on your particular line manager. Therefore, this sample may not have been representative of the wider organization. The observed discrepancy could also be partly due to a gap between the perceived culture as held in the stories of how things happened and the culture as experienced through day to day work. For example, the organization was consistently described as highly demanding and fast paced and this belief was widely shared. However, there was less evidence regarding the ways this manifested.

One visible cultural indicator (Schein, 2010) was the large number of external senior recruits. This was attributed to a focus on high delivery, creating a perceived risk when appointing internal people, who may not be seen as quite ready. This was interpreted by some as unfair, with ‘external hires coming in at lower quality in senior roles, despite them having unknown weaknesses’ (RM). The proportion of external senior recruits was seen to limit development opportunities for existing employees. Furthermore, the delivery focus and high demands were seen by some to reduce the time available to invest in personal development. There were also examples of people’s career progression being blocked as they were considered ‘too valuable’ (IS) in their current role. These cultural examples indicate a potential breach of the psychological contract (Conway & Briner, 2002; George, 2009). Employees described joining the organization expecting a different deal with more opportunities to develop, grow and progress. Furthermore, the lack of perceived fairness and consistency, with few formal processes could further reduce satisfaction (Slay & Taylor, 2007).

The organizational environment and propensity for recruiting externally had impacted on the career world-view of some of the participants. They described a career self-management strategy of networking (Sturges et al., 2002) to help them to progress. The function of this approach was also recognised by the Head of Talent;

‘if someone is highly ambitious they hope to get the attention of someone senior who will give them development opportunities’

SB Head of Talent In practice, many sought patronage, with a senior person acting as a gatekeeper and advocate. For example, one participant actively cultivated her relationships with senior stakeholders and recognised

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the value that had created for her in terms of an extensive network of senior advocates. She summed it up saying;

It is important to be aware of the cultural and political context… part of that is working hard, profile raising and getting visible. Because of the structure being in business units you need to network to get visibility – there are lots of bright and proactive and determined people. You need to think how to get noticed beyond working hard and this is another dynamic you have to use’

BM Another participant had not adapted her career world-view to the SB environment. She did not identify the importance of networking within the culture and had not been helped to understand what she could do to grow her career. There was a sadness in her description of her recent career;

‘Since joining SB [eight years previously] I have not been promoted. I have some frustration at not having anyone in the business I could seek advice from about this about my career but I did speak to HR. I do observe others moving around not necessarily having seen a role that’s been advertised, I can’t see how it happened but some people do seem to move’

LH

A number of participants described mixed messages regarding the culture generally and career development in particular. It was described by the Head of Talent as ‘schizophrenic’. One of the other individuals described messages that the individual was accountable for driving their career, but the organization was seen to be taking control.

‘At the moment it’s parent child ‘we think this will be good for you’. We tell people that they need to plan, but people observe that the organization takes control – it’s a bit dysfunctional’

OA This was positioned by this participant as being connected to the low risk environment, such that despite talk of empowerment and innovation it was difficult because of a ‘philosophy that you need to get things one hundred percent right’ (OA). Furthermore, there were stories within the organization of people who had tried and got it wrong who had then left, creating a culture of ‘play it safe’ (OA). It has been suggested (Holbeche, 1995) that if the organizational style is autocratic then it is very difficult to encourage staff to take accountability for their career. This appeared to be part of the challenge at SB.

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Seen to be working well Challenges or could be improved

• People observe a lot of strong talent around them

• Increasing number of development opportunities

• HR seen as supportive

• Financial support for qualifications • Fast growing and moving business with

interesting opportunities

• Hierarchy and business structure makes it difficult to progress upwards

• Little movement between business units • Appraisal focuses on delivery and short-

term issues not career

• Inconsistent approaches to assessment and development depending on line manager • Business units can have parochial view and

want to retain their talent

• Some people have more to offer but felt it was not being tapped into

• Lack of development opportunities and visibility of career opportunities

• Patronage favours those with networking skills and makes it difficult for those who don’t invest in this

Table 7.9: Participant perceptions of career development at SB.

A summary of what was seen to be working well and opportunities for improvement is given in Table 7.9. Given this cultural background it is interesting to note that there were some examples of very positive career conversations. This would seem to indicate that despite a seemingly unconducive prevailing culture, when the local dynamics (between the line manager and the individual) were aligned, then positive career conversations could take place. Furthermore, this case study indicated that whilst there was a stated desire to understand more about employee wants and needs and respond to them, this was not currently aligned with the organizational dynamics. For example, the existing culture seemed to limit promotion opportunities for internal candidates. Furthermore, the ‘career deal’ seemed based on patronage and competition rather than transparent processes. Moreover, there were examples of the organization’s strategic needs taking clear priority over individual needs through the blocking of career moves.

188 7.7 Case study five – IH

IH is a large NHS Trust, employing over 11 000 people across a number of sites. According to the Head of Learning and Development, the Trust had ‘a big OD [Organizational Development] agenda’. As part of this they had invested time thinking through and rolling out work on values and behaviours. It was described as a positive and energetic place, with a shared commitment to do the best for the patients. Part of the work on values was an emphasis on having quality conversations, which was seen as an important message to improve the employment experience of teams which had been shown to link to providing a good experience for patients. The focus on quality conversations was seen as more important than the development and implementation of policies (for talent management and other people management areas). Indeed, the Head of Learning and Development described them as ‘still in the early stages’ on implementation of talent management. The conversation approach was being encouraged through training and briefings, with some more in depth work taking place in collaboration with areas which had a specific interest in working on this. Some of the work was also supported by NHS wide resources on maximising the talent conversation.

The Head of Learning and Development described two workshops he had conducted within the Trust on talent management. He also shared some feedback from an employee survey. These both illustrated the variety of perspectives and sub-cultures operating within the Trust. These findings were supported in the current study. For example, in some areas feedback indicated that development and career opportunities were shared and everyone had access to them. However, in other areas some indicated that the process for progression was opaque and based on patronage rather than capability. For example, LC stated, ‘it’s sheer luck, sometimes it’s about who you know’. The Head of Learning and Development indicated that local leadership had a big impact on the culture and access to development opportunities. Furthermore, he described the lack of formal structures and reporting arrangements which could make things feel chaotic, making it difficult for people to know how they could get on.

Four people from IH took part in the research. Six other participants had agreed to be involved, but cancelled their meetings at short notice. Unfortunately, my host was unable to support rescheduling these meetings as he was about to leave the organization on a six month secondment. However, I decided to proceed with the research and to include this information as one of the case studies. Despite the low numbers, the case study does provide some additional insights on the contextual influences on alignment.

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Each of the participants worked in a different area of the Trust, three were in support functions and one was in a clinical role. The length of service was from 4 years to 13 years with an average of just under eight years.

Conversations at IH

The four participants shared ten specific workplace career conversations that had taken place at IH. Of these, 60% were described as positive and 50% were triggered by personal development. Two of the conversations took place as part of appraisal and both were viewed as negative. Given the small number of conversations it is difficult to draw any conclusions from these data. However, the general comments did provide some interesting insight as outlined below.

The power of sub-cultures and the impact of local leadership was demonstrated by some of the comments. For example, JH worked in a support area which had no defined career path. Aware that this made things difficult for his large team, he had proactively developed a training programme to provide greater structure for personal and career development. He was also keen to work collaboratively with other Trusts and encourage a cross-organizational career pathway. He felt that such a pathway would make it easier to attract professional staff and also easier to develop and retain them. He was working on this with some input from his boss, but he did not mention any involvement of HR or Learning and Development. Interestingly this idea of cross organizational collaboration on career pathways had also been raised by an HR Director in one of the other NHS Trusts involved in phase one of this research.

Corporate strategy was highlighted by one participant as an influence on career. She worked in a support area which was under pressure to reduce costs. She described the impact of this on her career self-management;

‘having a career conversation can feel selfish when others are losing their jobs. You have to tread carefully and be aware of not putting yourself at risk… I can’t afford not to have a job, so to an extent I need to self-protect’

IM The impact of cost pressure was also raised by UM. She felt that those who were able to cope were given more to do and this gave them less time to invest in their own development and growth.

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The lack of formal career support and structures was seen as a challenge by two of the participants. VM had previously had a boss who had been a catalyst for her career. He had challenged her and proactively given her new opportunities. However, she now had a boss who was not proactive and she didn’t know how she could influence things. She knew there were lots of opportunities but the lack of formal structure meant she had no visibility of the opportunities and therefore felt unable to access them. LC had been able to attend lots of development events, and learn through a variety of secondments, but she was also frustrated by the lack of structured support. She wanted to know how the Trust could use all of her learning;

‘The Trust have spent a lot of money on me and I’ve had study leave. But they’ve not said where is our five year plan with you…I would like to give more back…I do question how it all links up, there’s lots of opportunities in an organization like ours that don’t seem to be realised. It would be reasonable for the organization to demand more from me, more payback’.

LC Whilst accepting she had some accountability to work this out, she wanted help with this and was unsure where to turn for this help.

Due to the small sample size and varied experiences there were no consistent themes on what was seen to be working well and challenges /things to improve. A table of these data for IH has therefore not been produced. Similarly, consistent with the observation regarding sub-cultures, there was no common description of talent management or career development in IH which could be reviewed with reference to the contextual map.

7.8 Summary

Taking a view from the different case studies has shown considerable differences in the types of career development and career conversation reported by participants in each organization. In particular, there were differences in the trigger, the setting (formal or informal) and the perceived contribution. This supports the findings from the HR and OD professionals that ‘organizational dynamics’ will influence the nature of talent management and career development. The HR and OD participants had identified influences in terms of strategic imperative, cultural alignment, transparency and structural opportunities. The data from the individuals and line managers reinforced the view that these parts of organizational context influenced the experience of career development. Furthermore, specific examples of these influences were provided. These data were used to refine

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the descriptions of the organizational dynamics elements of the contextual map first described in Table 7.2. The updated descriptions are shown in Table 7.10 below and an updated diagram is presented in Figure 7.3. An additional heading has also been identified, to capture the formal talent and career processes which were part of the individuals’ and line managers’ experiences (albeit largely through appraisal and generally not particularly positive).

Organizational Dynamics

Elements

Strategic imperative • Availability of skilled people to meet future resource demands (internally and externally)

• Strategic time horizon

• Risk taking appetite for development opportunities in deployment • Desire for employment continuity

Cultural alignment • Availability of people to talk with • Feedback quality and regularity

• Degree of formal or informal people processes

• Level of interest in career development and personal development Structural opportunities • Size of the organization

• Opportunities of role changes

• Number of levels and ‘gaps’ between levels