Talent Q helps to energise talent at npower

THAME, U.K. - April 27, 2015 - PRLog -- Assessment specialist Talent Q has helped energy company npower to develop 168 talented individuals who have the potential to step up to senior leadership roles.

“We wanted to create a fair and transparent way of identifying and developing our top performing people,” said Victoria Buckenham, Senior Talent & Succession Lead at npower’s parent group RWE. “We asked Talent Q to help us to better understand their strengths and development needs.”

Senior leaders at npower nominated a group of 168 people as having potential, from a population of around 2,000, using the standard nine-box grid talent matrix and RWE’s four additional ‘indicators’ of potential: motivation, curiosity, resilience and learning agility.

“We gathered information on aspects such as their experience, performance ratings and career aspirations, as well as their mobility and desire to work in different parts of the business,” commented Victoria. “Talent Q then helped us to objectively assess their cognitive ability, individual ‘style’ and motivation, to give us a fuller picture of their capabilities and personal preferences.”

The group of 168 each completed Talent Q’s Elements adaptive verbal and numerical reasoning tests, Dimensions personality questionnaire and Drives motivational assessment. Talent Q created individual feedback reports, analysing their assessment profile against their current role and their career aspirations.

The company then held 90-minute, one-to-one feedback/coaching sessions with each individual, to discuss their skills, strengths, motivations, preferences, development needs and any behaviours that might be holding them back.

“Talent Q’s feedback/coaching sessions were very effective and very well received,” said Victoria. “Our people really liked the fact that they had time to reflect on what was important to them. They loved the accuracy of the feedback reports, and felt the impartial expertise offered by Talent Q gave them great insight. It raised awareness of their strengths and focused their attention on how they could make the most of the new development opportunities that we’ve created for them. The whole process has showed them how much they’re valued.”

Talent Q’s insights enabled npower to create a bespoke development programme, called Perform, of focused and appropriate learning solutions, to help each individual achieve their potential. The data is also used by npower for workforce planning and career mapping, to place talent where it’s needed internally.

“Now that we have a better understanding of people’s skills, motivations and aspirations, we can ensure that the right people are in the right roles,” continued Victoria. “By aligning our Talent Q data with the skills and competencies required in a certain role, we can create a shortlist of appropriate individuals who might want that job and who are well-matched to its requirements.”

As its most talented people move through the organisation, npower will continue to identify, assess and add others to Perform and its succession plans.

“We’re committed to this now and it will be an ongoing process,”  concluded Victoria. “The lesson we’ve learned is that paying lip service to talent management isn’t enough. You have to bring it to life and show it’s not just a tick-box exercise. This is particularly important for us because the energy industry is very competitive. If we’re going to achieve pole position in our market, keeping people motivated and driving talent through the ranks will be vital.”

For further information, please call Talent Q on +44 (0)1844 218980 or visit www.talentqgroup.com

About npower:

npower, part of the RWE Group, is a major UK energy company serving around 5.4 million residential and business customers with electricity, gas and energy services.  RWE UKalso operates and manages a flexible portfolio of coal, oil, biomass and gas-fired power stations, producing more than 10% of the electricity used in Great Britain. It also manages a portfolio of cogeneration plants. For more information on careers at npower, please visit www.npowerjobs.com

About Talent Q:

Part of the global management consulting firm, Hay Group, Talent Q provides personality, ability and competency assessments, as well as learning & development programmes and consultancy services. It works with over 500 clients worldwide.