The Differentiated Workforce - Becker, Huselid and Beatty

A good friend Alan had introduced me to the first book in the series - the HR scorecard. Which I tried my best to complete, but found great difficulty - which I think owes to the fact that my dearth of HR experience makes it hard for me to relate to the concepts in the book. And also, as he had warned, the book may have been written with a slight academic slant.

After that tough struggle, I made the commitment to go back to that book again someday. As fate (or my winding along the aisles of Times bookstore) would have it, I came across and decided to pick up the third book in the series - the differentiated workforce. It was a very insightful read, and one which will be very beneficial for my upcoming posting. The crux of the book is as follow (mixed in with some of my interpretations):

• Instead of putting people first, organisations should put strategy first, and then recruit / place people according to strategy
• To achieve this, the organisation would need to learn how the different positi0ns map to its final strategic outcomes, and then determine which are the "A" positions that contribute disproportionately.
• The rest of the positions are identified as "B"s - where they perform supporting functions to the "A" positions, in contributing to the strategic outcomes and "C", where the strategic impact is minimal.
  
• The characteristics of "A" positions are employee performances have huge variations, implying that talent can then be fully exploited in such positions.
• An organisation's positions aside, employees can also be grouped according to "A, B,Cs" by their talent and performance.
• Studies show that "A" employees contribute disproportionately and positively to KPIs in his/her role, while "C" employees can sometimes have negative impact.
• The differentiated HR strategy works when "A" employees are placed in "A" positions - and this process must first be led by a firm understanding of what the strategic positions are.
• To achieve this, the responsibility of HR staffing cannot reside only within the H. function. Line managers have to be held accountable for developing the workforce under his charge, giving appropriate assessment and rewards, and designing work to maximise the returns from each position.
• On the compensation framework, pays used to be differentiated on experience and performance solely. Now the authors propose that given the recognition that certain positions are "A" list strategic positions, compensation be differentiated on the basis of positions as well.
  
• Once this architecture is in place, there has to be constant emphasis to the workforce on the organisation's strategic outcomes and how they contribute to it.

There are many other useful information (esp on how to implement this architecture tactically) in the book, but I hope I have brought out the key running theme.