Connecting Talent to Value

April 4, 2022 – As the world changes, so too does “value” change. What consumers willingly paid for yesterday becomes passé overnight. What they will willingly pay for tomorrow just as quickly becomes today’s business imperative. To keep up with these value shifts, senior leaders move financial capital at lightning speed from points of lower return to points of higher return. Obviously, they also need to assemble the right talent at these “value hotspots” if their companies are to win, according to CEO.works, a consulting firm known for delivering results through precise, value-driven business transformations with a talent edge.

The problem? The traditional tools of HR are fixated on the talent side of the equation to the exclusion of the value. They can’t connect talent to value fast enough or dynamically enough. To address the issue in detail, CEO.works’ Michael Barriere and Shefali Salwan have teamed up with Hunt Scanlon Media for a highly anticipated webinar tomorrow. The session will focus on ‘Connecting Talent to Value’ – a process designed to rapidly deliver business value by mobilizing the roles and talent that have the greatest impact on returns. During the event, Mr. Barriere and Ms. Salwan will share real-world examples of the talent to value process applied in a PE context.

Ms. Salwan says that the current PE environment is pushing the HR function to challenge its assumptions on many fronts. And there are two meta themes.

“Theme one is focus on the demand side of talent,” she says. “This requires a shift from longer term and traditional talent supply processes to talent interventions that create tangible value today (focus on the demand side of the talent equation and be very close to the investment thesis of the portfolio company).”

“Theme two is to link HR interventions to value,” Ms. Salwan said. “Look at HR interventions in a container of time. This is different from corporates who tend to look at longer term talent issues that are often disconnect from the value agenda. For example, the assumption in public companies is that HR will need to work on making the basics of talent supply great – including entry level and will create value in the long term. In PE, the HR function is being pushed to examine what critical capabilities are required at this point in time to create value.”

“Keeping in mind the above, heads of HR have to be acutely aware of how the business will create value, and how to connect great talent to the points of value creation,” said Mr. Barriere. “The tools to select (and de-select), to allocate talent and to mobilize talent in specific areas quickly is the biggest difference in the PE context.”

“Understanding the five-step talent to value framework and how it is applied in the PE context is essential,” said Mr. Barriere. “The application in the PE context will be shown through a walkthrough of a portfolio company case study.”

The five-step process includes:

• Illuminate the Value Agenda – What value is the company creating? What work has to be done to deliver all that value?
• Identify the Critical Roles – Which roles will enable value? Which roles will execute the work?
• Begin Connecting Roles & Talent – What are the Jobs to be Done for the role? What evidence is required to assess the Role/Talent match?
• Sequence the Transformation – What risks are inherent in the design of the role and the talent match? What is the value-at-risk for the whole company?
• Mobilize the Returns – Which talent interventions have the greatest positive impact on the value agenda? What will be the ripple effects of the role interventions we are considering?

“In short, the talent to value process supports the leadership (typically the CEOs, CHROs and CFOs ) to create an execution roadmap to mobilize the value creation plan,” said Mr. Barriere.

Free registration … Click here to sign up!

The Speakers

Michael Barriere led McKinsey & Co.’s global platform for linking talent to value. For five years, he oversaw the alignment of top teams with the value agenda, the identification of critical roles, and the filling of those roles with best fit talent at over 50 companies spanning retail, manufacturing, healthcare, and financial services.

Previously, while chief talent officer for Walmart, Mr. Barriere coached and advised high-potential executives and accelerated the development of the top 100 NextGen leaders, enabling the enterprise’s business strategy while effectively improving the slate of “ready now” candidates for the top 50 critical roles. As CHRO at Alcoa, he developed and applied predictive analytics that linked the compensation of executives to employee engagement, diversity, workplace safety, and sustainability goals. As SVP of HR at New York Life Insurance, he prepared the company for entering into more complex business markets by designing and implementing a talent assessment and planning process that closed key gaps in the top 100 critical roles.

Shefali Salwan has 25 years of experience in cross-cultural and global talent management, leadership development and assessments, and diversity and inclusion. She has coached and advised C-suite leaders in multinational companies across five continents. Ms. Salwan’s conversations with C-suite leaders go beyond traditional HR concerns to cover creating value for the organization as a whole. Her involvement as an investor in various HR technology startups and as a board member for Knolskape, a developer of digital training platforms driven by machine learning, adds a unique dimension to her understanding of leading-edge human capital practices.

Ms. Salwan holds an MBA in HR and is a certified executive coach (Academy of Executive Coaching), and a Professional Certified Coach (ICF). She is also certified in multiple assessment tools (including Hogan, MBTI, StandOut), ontological coaching (Newfield Network), and accredited in a range of psychometric tools.

Attendance is free. To learn more and register to attend, click here

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media