I came across this article on ERE.net a few days ago and thought how relevant and timely it is to remind us about some of the perils of the Peter Principle when it comes to redeploying staff, in these credit-crunched downward facing times.

During restructure, whether people are moved upward, downward or sideways we always need to keep in the back of our minds that past performance - if not appropriately and accurately measured or linked to personal development plans, is no sure sign of success in a new role.  Especially when that new role requires behaviours or competencies from the individual that they have not needed to demonstrate previously.

If you are not using performance management techniques to give you that background knowledge, then you need to use assessment tools to inform your decision making but how often do these tools ever form part of the mix - especially in a sideways or downward move?  

By not using the right tools you run the risk of rebuildiing your organisation with the wrong people in the wrong places.   If the restructuring plan involves outplacement then you run the risk of outplacing good people and opening your organisation up to legal challenges on the criteria for outplacement.  

With that in mind, what tools will you use to inform your decisions?  

   

Tags: redeployment, right sizing, succession planning, Talent Management

This entry was posted on Friday, November 28th, 2008 at 4:54 pm and is filed under Talent Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.