Completing the organizational puzzle by optimizing employee potential
Assembling a winning team is a bit like completing a complex puzzle. While the right pieces might already be in place, sometimes they are not in the right positions to optimize organizational performance. At other times, top performers have individual goals and objectives that clash with the growth strategies and key initiatives of the business.
In this blog post, we take a closer look at the concept of talent alignment, and the reasons why it can be a catalyst for business success and long-term viability. We also review some recent case studies that demonstrate how talent alignment tools developed by Valesco as part of the Actio performance program have produced tangible results.
What does talent alignment mean?
The idea of talent alignment originated as an offshoot of the right person, right seat principles aimed at finding talent that embodies the company culture and goals, then taking tangible steps to ensure ongoing development, job satisfaction, and productivity.
As organizations began to recognize the value of human capital more acutely in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, people managers and human resources teams developed strategies and systems to ensure top performers were recognized and retained. While this approach was a positive first step, talent alignment practices have since evolved to link employee strengths and objectives with the overall business value by incorporating:
- Targeted mentoring opportunities leveraging both in-house and external experts
- Employee survey tools to understand employee sentiment and enhance company culture
- Effective use of strategic business plans and mapping techniques to identify gaps and synergies
- Personnel evaluation tools to complete unbiased assessments of employee skills, competencies, and motivational factors
Why is talent alignment important?
The implementation of holistic talent management practices is not yet universal, but the results are difficult to ignore. McKinsey research shows that individuals who are top performers in highly critical roles deliver 800% more productivity than average performers in the same role. These benefits are amplified when critical roles are aligned with a well-defined company mission.
When employees understand how their role impacts the overall objectives of the company, they are motivated to go the extra mile, and their contributions are more likely to be recognized and valued by senior management. Well-aligned teams operating within a winning company culture also make more informed decisions, since the alignment with key objectives makes it easier to weigh and prioritize options.
Tools for optimizing talent alignment
With so many puzzle pieces to unscramble, talent alignment can become a formidable task, especially for organizations lacking effective leadership in key positions. Over the years, new tools and practices have been developed to streamline the talent alignment process. Some of the more effective and versatile techniques include:
- Workforce planning tools to analyze current and projected business needs and avoid future talent gaps.
- People analytics with KPIs and metrics to track employee progress and improve their focus on strategic priorities.
- Succession planning tools to ensure today’s top performers become tomorrow’s leaders.
By training leadership teams how to utilize employee evaluation and planning tools, value-added partners can help to instill more effective team management practices, especially when these leaders use the tools to evaluate their reports and identify additional opportunities for growth and improvement. This top-down approach empowers management teams to adapt their own responsibilities and improve their personal alignment before propagating the practices throughout the organization.
How private equity partners can help
How private equity partners can help
Value-added partners bring the financial, social, and human capital many businesses need to reach the next level. Valesco’s Actio performance program distills capital and decades of experience in promoting business excellence into a methodical process to accelerate mid-market growth-oriented businesses.
Act · io: A Latin term meaning ‘action, execution, process & performance’
The Actio approach begins with a Value Blueprint exercise to assess company financial, market, and leadership opportunities, and extends through mutually beneficial exits for private equity partners and clients. Talent alignment is an integral part of this process, with gap assessments and expert insights providing a catalyst for constructive personnel adjustment and strategic recruiting.
Resources for accelerated talent alignment
Talent alignment tools are highly transferable between organizations, but the involvement of a dedicated partner makes it easier to overcome resistance and inertia with the help of:
- Collaborative roundtables for CEOs, CFOs, and other key stakeholders to share their learnings and align on best practices with other portfolio companies.
- A deep well of expertise and industry connections to facilitate executive recruiting and hiring processes.
- On-demand subject matter experts (SMEs) to fill key knowledge and resource gaps during the talent alignment process.
Valesco’s Actio program also leverages metrics to remove subjectivity and guesswork, tracking performance vs goals at regular intervals. In the same way, our portfolio organizations measure tangible growth and revenue just as they experience intangible morale, teamwork, and innovation improvements. The Actio program is validated by results that include revenue growth rates averaging 54% and employee base growth of 34% during the holding period.
Talent alignment in action
The Actio name conveys a sense of urgency and heightened activity, and these traits are leveraged each day to turn optimized talent alignment into measurable results for our partner organizations. A growing list of success stories represents a cross-section of industries, locations, and specialties.
Principal LED
As a leading component provider to the electrical sign industry in North America, Principal Lighting Group and Affiliates was already a major player in the fast-growing LED industry when the two co-founders chose Valesco as their minority equity partner. Rapid expansion plans endorsed by the partners required an overhaul of operations, marketing, and sales strategies, along with improved talent alignment to ensure the ambitious objectives could be achieved.
The results were nothing short of astonishing, with sales increasing by 396% as employment grew by 162% during the holding period. The company also completed major improvement projects to support the expansion, including product line rationalization, warehouse optimization, and the adoption of a right-sized ERP system aligned with cross-functional workflows.
Waterblasting Technologies
Located in Stuart, FL, Waterblasting Technologies is a leading manufacturer of ultra-high pressure water blasting systems for pavement marking, airport runways, and road surface safety applications. Earnings for the business more than doubled during the Valesco holding period, as they developed new products and platforms to position the company for long-term success.
Transitioning the business from an entrepreneurial operation into a more structured business capable of sustainable growth and innovation was an important strategic initiative. Talent alignment was a prerequisite for this transformation, as the established Waterblasting Technologies team adapted their culture and responsibilities to support the new company mission.
Conclusion
Completing the complex talent alignment puzzle takes time, but the results make the effort worthwhile. Talent alignment is a win-win for businesses and employees, with the success and growth of each individual guiding the trajectory of the entire organization as new challenges and opportunities are encountered each day. By understanding in advance what good looks like, Valesco helps partner organizations demystify talent alignment and put the right people in the right seats consistently. The Actio performance program has distilled this art into a science, using proven tools, strategies, and resources to deliver predictable growth.