3 Reasons to Optimize Your Internal People Development System

Practically all organizations practice workforce development. In many instances, these systems can be underdeveloped leading to less than stellar performance. Here are three compelling reasons to enhance this very important system.

The PDS Supports Culture.

“Talent acquisition and retention are as critical to culture as fuel is to a combustion engine.”

Throughout their book, Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch, Coffman & Sorensen describe the attributes and qualities of high-performing cultures and how these are established and sustained. The tools and processes that enable and empower such cultures form a connected system; one that can be continuously improved.

The optimized PDS understands that the people brought into this culture are on a journey that begins with recruitment, gains momentum at onboarding, is propelled by training, and enhanced by performance management. Retention begins at the recruiting stage and ushers those people along their journey.

The PDS Supports all Other Organizational Systems

“How we manage our people is the fluid that connects all the working parts and brings them the oxygen and nutrients to keep them all working as they should.” Toyota Culture; The heart and Soul of The Toyota Way

Jeffrey Liker & Michael Hoseus explored Toyota’s HR philosophies and practices that support their famous Toyota Production System. These researchers described culture as the “blood flow” that makes the TPS operate.

A reliable system to manage this “flow” hangs on a framework supporting systematic recruitment, robust onboarding, deliberate training, and dynamic performance management. Long-term retention anchors the whole process.

The PDS Aligns

“The visionary companies translate their ideologies into tangible mechanisms aligned to send a consistent set of reinforcing signals. They indoctrinate people, they impose tightness of fit, and create a sense of belonging…” Built to Last.

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras follow this statement with a list of ways these visionary companies accomplish this. Their list describes training and onboarding practices, communication methods, and tools that include incentives and advancement criteria along with relationship-driven dynamics.

All of these require a PDS that is visible to all stakeholders, clearly connected across the organization, and in lockstep with organizational goals and objectives.

The system that organizations use to find, train, and retain people is a system within a system. This PDS serves as the connector and communication mechanism. It facilitates relationships and in so doing, directs the fuel that drives culture, provides needed substance and support to help sustain it, and ensures that important signals can pass through the system consistently.

Such a critical system can offer great rewards from continuous improvement and optimization.