According to Price’s law, 50% of the work done by any team is done by the square root of the total number of people involved. If your company has 100 employees, then 10 of them are responsible for half of all productivity.
It pays to know where the natural talent lies. Keep reading for a bite-size overview of why team talent reports are essential.
What Are Team Talent Reports?
High-performing teams are created through trust, communication, clearly defined responsibilities, and collective action. Talent reports are a crucial yet underutilized aspect of talent management.
They are in-depth employee surveys to give managers an overview of a team member’s strengths and weaknesses. This allows them to be assigned roles and projects with the most substantial impact.
Talent reports tell managers information like:
- How effective an employee is at working from home
- Where an employee’s core strengths lie
- How an employee’s personality affects their productivity
- What skills are underused
- What skills need further development
How Team Talent Reports Help Teams Perform Better
Savvy managers habitually find those hyper-productive employees and consolidate them into high-performing teams.
But more than simply putting those people into a team is needed to ensure productivity. Team talent reports are a vital cog in the machine, and there are four components to any talent report:
- Providing honest feedback
- Identifying places to grow with achievable targets
- Demonstrating why and how decisions are made
Talent reports offer transparency on the business side while giving managers actionable data to use the best skills employees have in their arsenal.
Crucially, managers need to understand the following:
- Who works best alone
- Who needs regular guidance and supervision
- Who is effective at delegating
Giving Feedback
Feedback is essential for any employee. It tells them where they are performing well and shows them their shortcomings. Nobody likes to be chastised for failing in ways they weren’t aware of. Feedback tells an employee what habits to keep and what to ditch.
Good feedback is also a form of constructive criticism that addresses specific situations rather than making general judgments about an employee’s performance. Through feedback, employees can identify the strengths they possess, as well as the areas they need to work on.
This knowledge can be useful when it comes to making decisions and setting goals that correspond with the overall goals of the business. Ultimately, feedback helps employees to gain a better understanding of the quality of their work and to know what practices need to be improved to give their best performance.
Identifying Room for Growth
Employees need to grow as much as their employers do. The difference is that they’re looking for personal and professional growth: Talent reports can push them in the right direction. Identifying knowledge gaps – and following them up with training and development opportunities – helps keep employees satisfied and productive.
Managing With Accountability
One of the most challenging aspects of managing people is getting the point across without causing frustration. Most people are receptive to criticism when it’s given correctly. But making demands that employees see as unfair or overbearing only fosters hatred and, ultimately, reduces the desire to perform.
Detailed talent reports sidestep this problem by outlining where an employee is succeeding and failing. Employees aren’t left in the dark by laying out a manager’s thought process alongside expectations and results.
In other words, their managers are made accountable for their decisions.
Grow Your Executive Toolbox
Team talent reports give managers an extensive overview of their employees. That allows them to use employee skills best, reduce productivity drains, and cut costs without cutting corners.