Achieving business goals is easier when you know where your management strengths lie. Bank of Ireland worked with Pearn Kandola to benchmark people in its talent pool and map out clear development paths for them. It is now confident that it’s investing development resources in the best candidates, and in the most effective way.
Aveen Batt, the Bank’s Head of Leadership and Talent said the process works well, particularly in matching people’s development to business projects.
“This was the first time people at this level had really held a mirror up to themselves and measured how they personally rate against what we expect from our executive leaders. I’ve been bowled over by the response. Now potential leaders are intent on building their careers, open to feedback and very proactive in developing themselves.”
The Bank was already committed to building a pipeline of up and coming talent – people with the global outlook, flexibility and diversity skills to move the business forward. What was missing was a consistent way of selecting high performers in different geographic and functional areas for its Ingenium senior management development programme.
Pearn Kandola’s approach focused on increasing the self-awareness of Ingenium nominees and motivating them to take their careers to the next stage. Managers were initially asked to complete a 360 degree process and online personality and aptitude tests, and provided with feedback on the results and coaching. The development centre involved them in various business simulations and meetings, as well as development planning and workshops on career and leadership issues.
Using Pearn Kandola’s database of over 1200 senior managers from different industries, the bench strength of the talent pool and how the group stacked up against an external norm group were evaluated. The Bank was also alerted to a number of external market issues that they addressed through skills master classes.
Said Aveen: “The benchmarking data has given us a good handle on the senior management population, and helped us to uplift the quality of development. For every individual we know where the development need is and what they’re good at so can expose them to strategic change initiatives where they can make a real difference.”
Senior executives also got a lot out of being trained by Pearn Kandola to guide people’s development planning – gaining valuable coaching skills and experience for their everyday roles and establishing working relationships.
She added: “Pearn Kandola psychologists are very effective coaches. I’m impressed by their professionalism and flexible approach.”
