Dana Washington

When HR takes a strategic role to guide critical talent decisions, what is the payoff? They report 33 percent more high-quality leaders and are twice as likely to achieve top-tier financial performance. Yet most organizations still rely on gut instinct or general perceptions when making high-stakes decisions like promotions, succession planning, and identifying high-potential talent. Every leader believes they “know their people.” But the data says otherwise. If your pipeline depends on instinct or perceptions alone, you’re taking unnecessary risks. Here’s why your talent decisions need less gut instinct and more data starting now. The “I Know My People” Delusion Most of us walk every day, yet we’re surprisingly bad at estimating our daily steps. The same over- or under-confidence plagues talent decisions. Leaders are experts in their field but often struggle to evaluate their teams objectively.Consider the quiet contributor who rarely speaks up in meetings but has hidden strategic skills. Who’s more likely to get development opportunities and a promotion: the one with hidden strategic skills, or the charismatic underperformer who commands the room?Three common biases often disguise themselves as experience:Halo effect: Like being an eloquent speaker, one trait colors everything.Similarity bias: Leaders favor and promote employees who act like themselves.First impression bias: Early perceptions can overshadow actual performance.The cost of falling prey to these biases is steep. The Department of Labor estimates that bad hires can cost anywhere from 30 to 200 percent of their first-year salary.The Talent Strategy Trap Most Organizations Fall Into Picture this: After the latest talent review cycle, the same employees are still marked “ready in one to two years”—for the third year in a row. These high potentials are frozen in place.Why? Because potential and readiness were assumed, not objectively measured. Without objective data, the 9-box grid becomes a holding pattern.This lack of data also leads to generic development programs that target what leaders think people need, rather than actual skills gaps.Because of the disconnect between ratings and performance, executives lose trust in talent data, and the leadership pipeline stalls.Organizations with strategic HR teams use assessments to break this cycle.The Assessment Advantage: Insight That Drives DecisionsAssessment reveals what instinct misses: which directors are ready for VP, which high potentials will succeed if promoted tomorrow, and which managers need support to make the next career step.Assessment data transforms promotion decisions from popularity contests into objective evaluations. You know exactly who’s ready and who needs more time. And for those who aren’t ready yet, assessment pinpoints precisely what to develop, turning vague feedback like “lacks executive presence” into clear, actionable steps.These personalized insights are magnetic. When leaders see their blind spots, development feels urgent, focused, and personal. For talent development professionals, they replace generic training with targeted growth. If assessment shows a high-potential lacks strategic thinking, you know exactly where to focus. The benefits extend to hiring, too. Assessments uncover external candidates’ true capabilities and development needs from day one, helping hiring teams make smarter decisions and lead effective onboarding.The real ROI comes when assessment and development work together. Organizations that pair them are nearly two times more likely to be top financial performers—because assessment makes every talent investment smarter, faster, and more effective.Conclusion Will you remain the HR partner who enables expensive gut decisions, or will you equip leaders with the objective insights they need? Your best talent is planning their exit, your high potentials are stalled, and your succession plan could collapse with one surprise departure. Without assessment data, every decision is just a guess. Stop being the talent professional who reacts. Start being the strategic enabler who transforms how leaders see, select, and develop their teams.

Don’t Let Gut Instinct Sabotage Your Leadership Pipeline

(Alexandria, VA), October 4, 2019 – The Association for Talent Development (ATD) honored 59 organizations from Australia, Canada, China, India, Korea, Russia, Singapore, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States as winners of the 2019 BEST Awards. Rosendin, headquartered in San Jose, California, won the first-place ranking. IBM, Tata Consultancy Services, TELUS, and Wipro Limited received ATD’s Best of the BEST Award, which goes to organizations that have won the BEST Award 10 or more times. Companies were recognized during a ceremony held at MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on October 3, 2019.“These 59 organizations are driving impact and solving business challenges through talent development practices, and they are doing it in innovative ways,” said Tony Bingham, ATD president and CEO. “Senior leaders in these organizations understand the critical strategic role learning has, and they are committed to investing in the growth and development of their people.”ATD’s BEST Award is the talent development industry’s most rigorous and coveted recognition. The global program acknowledges organizations that demonstrate enterprise-wide success through talent development.The 2019 BEST Award winners shared their winning strategies at the Learn From the BEST conference preceding the ceremony and are profiled in a special section of the October issue of TD, ATD’s flagship magazine.ATD received entries for the BEST Award from 142 organizations. These organizations submitted quantitative and qualitative information about their talent development practices and programs. Applications were assessed in a rigorous blind review by members of the BEST Awards advisory committee comprised of experts in the field.The 2019 BEST Award WinnersBest of the BEST:14-Year Winner: TELUS—Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada13-Year Winner: Wipro Limited—Bangalore, India10-Year Winner: IBM—Armonk, New York10-Year Winner: Tata Consultancy Services—Mumbai, India2019 Rankings1. Rosendin—San Jose, California2. BMO Financial Group—Toronto, Canada3. Consumers Energy—Jackson, Michigan4. Valvoline Instant Oil Change—Lexington, Kentucky5. Tan Tock Seng Hospital—Singapore6. Samsung Electronics—Suwon, South Korea7. Optum Global Solutions India—Gurugram, India8. Persistent Systems—Pune, India9. Florida Blue—Jacksonville, Florida10. Black Knight—Jacksonville, Florida11. Verizon—New York, New York12. Aditya Birla Capital—Mumbai, India13. DISH Network—Englewood, Colorado14. Tata Consultancy Services—Mumbai, India15. Haier Group—Qingdao, China16. AARP—Washington, D.C.17. First Hawaiian Bank—Honolulu, Hawaii18. NTPC Limited—New Delhi, India19. Hilton—McLean, Virginia20. Paycor—Cincinnati, Ohio21. Asurion—Nashville, Tennessee22. NTT (formerly Dimension Data) —London, United Kingdom23. Busey—Champaign, Illinois24. Danone Academy Turkey—Istanbul, Turkey25. Gilbane Building Company—Providence, Rhode Island26. Ryan—Dallas, Texas27. Memorial Health System—Springfield, Illinois28. Procore—Carpinteria, California29. C&A Industries—Omaha, Nebraska30. Sberbank—Moscow, Russia31. UST Global—Aliso Viejo, California32. Infosys BPM—Bengaluru, India33. Cochlear—Sydney, Australia34. Deltek—Herndon, Virginia35. Fisher Investments—Camas, Washington36. Jindal Power—Gurgaon, India37. Papa Murphy’s International—Vancouver, Washington38. Signature Consultants—Fort Lauderdale, Florida39. Navy Federal Credit Union—Vienna, Virginia40. iCIMS—Holmdel, New Jersey41. Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company—Columbia, South Carolina42. Rapid7—Boston, Massachusetts43. UL—Northbrook, Illinois44. IBM—Armonk, New York45. Lupin Limited—Mumbai, India46. Booz Allen Hamilton—McLean, Virginia47. ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company—Mumbai, India48. Hitachi Vantara—Santa Clara, California49. North Highland—Atlanta, Georgia50. Aimco—Denver, Colorado51. Medidata Solutions—New York, New York52. Krystal—Atlanta, Georgia53. Western & Southern Financial Group—Cincinnati, Ohio54. Walmart—Bentonville, Arkansas55. Plante Moran—Southfield, Michigan56. University Health System—San Antonio, Texas57. Gap—San Francisco, CaliforniaTwenty-two companies on this list have been BEST Award winners for three or more years:BMO Financial Group, Booz Allen Hamilton, Busey, Consumers Energy, Florida Blue, Haier Group, Hilton, Hitachi Vantara, IBM, ICICI, Infosys, Lupin Limited, NTPC Limited, Persistent Systems, Ryan, Samsung Electronics, Tata, TELUS, University Health System, Valvoline Instant Oil Change, Verizon, and Wipro.More information about the 2019 BEST Award winners may be found in the October 2019 issue of TD magazine. Details about the 2020 program will be available in January 2020.ATD thanks program sponsors GP Strategies and Artisan E-Learning for supporting excellence in talent development.About ATDThe Association for Talent Development (ATD) is the world’s largest professional membership organization supporting those who develop the knowledge and skills of employees, improve performance, and help to achieve results for the organizations they serve. Originally established in 1943, the association was previously known as the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD). ATD’s members come from more than 120 countries and work in public and private organizations in every industry sector. ATD supports talent development professionals who gather locally in volunteer-led U.S. chapters and international member networks and with international strategic partners. For more information, visit TD.org.###

59 Organizations Win Prestigious ATD BEST Award

The Public Manager, ATD’s premier publication for federal managers and professionals wrapped up its third successful Government Workforce: Learning Innovations conference in Washington, D.C., last week. Keynoted by three agency directors—Carolyn Colvin, Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration; John Koskinen, IRS Commissioner; and Beth Cobert, Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management—the event attracted nearly 300 federal employees, 25 private-sector sponsors, and 45 panelists representing more than 50 different federal agencies or government working groups. “We’re very proud of this year’s event,” said Ron Sanders, Booz Allen vice president and board chair of The Public Manager. “There was so much enthusiasm on display. It was a real testament to the passion and commitment that government workers bring to their jobs every day.” Government managers and professionals are facing unprecedented challenges, said Sanders, adding that cultivating their knowledge, skills, and capabilities is essential in an environment where engagement levels can be notoriously difficult to quantify. What’s more, building a fully engaged, innovative, and productive workforce in the midst of austere budgets and ever-increasing workload can seem like nothing short of an impossibility for many agencies. Yet every day, dedicated government managers and professionals and their staff come to work, sit down, and do just that, said Sanders. The 2015 Government Workforce: Learning Innovations event put the spotlight on those leaders, with 16 concurrent sessions that examined state-of-the-art human capital and learning practices in the public and private sectors, and covered everything from using workforce data analytics to deliver on agency missions to managing volatility and change to get results. Meanwhile, the release of the new, digital format of The Public Manager magazine was timed to coincide with the event, featuring a cover interview with the conference’s keynote, Acting Social Security Commissioner Carolyn Colvin. “This community of dedicated managers and professionals from federal, state, and local agencies is working to address the public sector’s talent needs,” said Sanders, “and we want this conference and the newly released digital TPM magazine to become two of the essential tools in their toolkits as they tackle government’s many challenges.” (Check out Ron's video detailing the relaunch of the all new The Public Manager.) You can subscribe to The Public Manager magazine today! Click here****, and then click on the September cover image to access the free September issue.