We're delighted to announce that the Emerging Talent programme we developed with EDF Nuclear Generation and Quest Partnership was awarded Highly Commended at the CIPD Talent Management Awards, just pipped at the post by Fujitsu.
From Engineers to Leaders - Emerging Talent at EDF
"T&P provided true thought leadership that massively shaped the way EDF Energy now manages its emerging talent." - Françoise Woodward, EDF
The problem
“As the only UK Nuclear Operator, nuclear leaders with a strong engineering background cannot easily be ‘bought in’. We needed to identify leadership potential early on, but this is challenging – the primary motivation of most engineers is acquiring technical expertise. EDF Nuclear Generation recognised the need to ‘awaken’ early career engineers to the benefits of a leadership career.
A key challenge was to identify people with the talent to undertake fast-track leadership careers, without demotivating those who needed a slower pace, or a different career route. A traditional talent programme – with a Development Centre as the gateway to entry – ran the risk of demotivating people who were not selected. We wanted to encourage all engineers with the desire to be potential leaders, to develop themselves for leadership.
The Emerging Talent Programme also needed to support 2 key business cultural ambitions: greater inclusiveness, and personal ownership – self-driven development and careers.”
A key challenge was to identify people with the talent to undertake fast-track leadership careers, without demotivating those who needed a slower pace, or a different career route. A traditional talent programme – with a Development Centre as the gateway to entry – ran the risk of demotivating people who were not selected. We wanted to encourage all engineers with the desire to be potential leaders, to develop themselves for leadership.
The Emerging Talent Programme also needed to support 2 key business cultural ambitions: greater inclusiveness, and personal ownership – self-driven development and careers.”
Approach
“The key principles of our Emerging Talent Programme took their inspiration from T&P’s article, The Hare and the Tortoise. T&P acted as subject matter experts and helped us take an innovative approach to self-directed programme design, working in collaboration with Quest Partnership, who provided the online portal and assessment aligned to the programme.
- We used self-nomination and self-selection throughout the programme Every stage of the 12-month programme requires participants to be self-driven. The programme was designed to make a differential investment in people based on their commitment. Only if people make good use of early investment in them, will they qualify for further investment.
- All participants attended a Drive Your Career programme - which meant that there was a motivational result for all who wished to attend.
- An innovative feature was our decision to turn traditional Development Centre practice on its head! Instead of a assessment followed by development, we used the DC to drive 3 months of preparatory workplace learning. Cohorts attended a Think Development workshop. They were then challenged to collaborate to drive workplace learning that resulted in the whole cohort outperforming expectations at DC. The DC became a motivational end point and learning experience for all, rather than creating ‘winners and losers’.
- The Development Centre itself was self-driven; participants took the initiative to contract with observers, extract feedback on their performance, and write their own reports and development plans. The 3 months of preparation also gave introverted engineers, and those who will put in work to be well-prepared, a better chance to shine when ‘on stage’ at the DC.”
Results
“The Emerging Talent Programme has delivered compelling results for the business.
- Encouraged talented engineers to want to lead (17% shift).
- Transformed culture; a self-report 26% shift in self-driven development and career management; managers reported a 32% increase.
- Senior Leaders reported a 41% positive shift in the visibility of the emerging talent in their locations
- A 30% increase in the quality and quantity of people available to take up first leadership roles.
- Increased gender diversity in the leadership pipeline, with 19% women completing ETP to date, compared with the 10% of women currently in managerial roles.
- EDF Energy NG Award for Best Practice and Innovation in People Development.
- 2 AGR Awards - for Post-Programme Development for graduates, also Supplier Contribution to the Business, awarded to T&P.
- Highly Commended, 2013 CIPD Talent Management Award."
My View
"T&P provided true thought leadership about talent management that shifted the way EDF Energy now manages its emerging talent. What is outstanding about T&P as a supplier is the way in which they provide innovative thinking coupled with pragmatic tools that gained immediate buy-in from the line.
Working with T&P has helped EDF make a great leap forward towards a self-driven culture. It has also created excitement about leadership careers in our engineering/technical environment.”
Francoise Woodward, Talent and Leadership Development Manager,
EDF Energy
Working with T&P has helped EDF make a great leap forward towards a self-driven culture. It has also created excitement about leadership careers in our engineering/technical environment.”
Francoise Woodward, Talent and Leadership Development Manager,
EDF Energy