Imagine a world where
your people problems
don’t keep you up at night.
Talent Diagnostic:
Level Up by Getting Back to the Basics
coLeague’s Talent Diagnostic is a unique approach to assessing an organization’s talent strategy and infrastructure through a radically people-centric lens.
We created the Talent Diagnostic in order to increase the impact coLeaguers can have on an organization from day one. By starting with the Talent Diagnostic, coLeaguers and clients can rapidly assess the root of many challenges and create a roadmap to tackle the issues in the order that’s best for the team.
For example, if a client comes to coLeague because they want a better performance management system, the Talent Diagnostic might uncover that most employees don’t have an up-to-date job description, which could severely hinder any effort to implement an effective performance management system.
The coLeaguer might recommend doing some basic competency work first, followed by a JD workshop for managers, and then designing a performance management system that meets the organization’s needs.
What is the Talent Diagnostic, Exactly?
Leaders come to coLeague for many reasons, but it usually boils down to one thing - there is a lot to do, talent-wise, but they don’t know where to start. CEOs, Executive Directors, COOs - they’re running themselves ragged trying to address the cultural and operational needs of the organization, often at the expense of the highest priority work on their plate (let alone their highest non-work priorities like family and health).
We have a great solution for many of these leaders - an embedded, fractional Chief People Officer who can step in and start building sustainable solutions from day one. That’s our standard offering at coLeague and we love it when we can match one of our coLeaguers to an organization.
Many leaders, however, aren't quite sure what they need, let alone what to do first.
It also becomes clear that attempting to implement “higher-level” talent initiatives without a solid foundation is not only likely to fail, but potentially poses an existential threat to the organization.
Because this challenge is so common, at coLeague we’ve developed a suite of products that is designed to quickly assess the talent infrastructure of the organization, identify the areas of highest risk, and create a plan that bolsters the most foundational needs first.
When we first started this work, we thought we could use our combined hundreds of years of talent experience to develop a rigorous assessment of talent infrastructure and quickly identify what was missing. We even started with the theory that things should be implemented in a certain order, avoiding complex talent initiatives until the basics are in place. The more we worked, however, the more we realized that this was all from an organizational perspective, and not the people-first perspective that we know is actually required for organizational effectiveness.
We wanted to flip the script and come at it from a people-centric perspective.
To this end, we developed a unique model, the Employee Hierarchy of Needs, which starts with a foundation of safety and purpose and makes its way up through the pyramid to autonomy and incentive. Like Maslow’s pyramid, if the foundation isn’t in place, things higher up can feel at best aspirational, or at worst frivolous. If an employee doesn’t feel safe at work, can we expect them to comfortably have a future-focused career conversation with their manager? If someone doesn’t have a job description, can they successfully participate in a 360 review process? These types of gaps can foster resentment, leaving employees feeling detached from the organization.
When we put these two things side by side - solid talent strategy/infrastructure and the Employee Hierarchy of Needs, the picture becomes clear - There is a truly people-centric way to build your organization.
