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Unlocking the potential of your organisation through your Executive Team;
An evening with industry leaders to discuss the benefits of Talent Benchmarking attracting and retaining the (Top 10% - T10’s).

Edward George partnered with Greigs Consulting and Lawyers at Tomkins on Swan in Alfred Cove on Wednesday in a seminar that brought together industry leaders across the health, aged care, communications, IT, manufacturing and the not for profit sectors. The event, entitled ‘Unlocking the Potential of Your Organisation Through Your Executive Team’, canvassed the importance and supporting strategies required to extract the highest potential from your current employees and at the same time, build a team that attracts a healthy pool of ‘A graders’.

Simon Stibbs, Managing Director of Edward George, and Rob Greig, accomplished workplace relations lawyer and Consultant, shared with the group their first hand experiences of the way organisations can better position themselves to achieve a predominantly ‘A’ grade team (T10’s.) They delved into why it is so important to create a workplace environment that allows high performers to flourish and continue to be challenged and it was discussed that many organisations fall short when it comes to prioritising effective internal performance measures. Simon made the point that as employers we need to measure the success of our hiring and promotion practices and make Manager’s accountable for failures. He suggested that allocating B/C Grade Managers to recruit for new positions for the organisation is destined to lead to mediocre hiring results. The Law of Attraction applies – like attracts like.

What became an interesting point of discussion was the definition of ‘A’ grade for the individuals in the group and whether too many high achievers could upset the balance of innovation and exceptional results versus having a solid core of ‘doers’ to carry out routine tasks and provide a consistent output. Rob and Simon agreed that this was certainly not a one size fits all and that each organisation needed to establish their own benchmarks for what an A grader looked like. Simon added that A graders could, and should, form part of every tier in an organisation. They do not all have to be leaders, but just be the best at what they do in the role they are doing.  

In terms of building an optimal team, Rob Greig talked about the real cost to an organisation in having a high turnover of staff, and equally the practical reality of sometimes having to let people go. He reviewed the process of termination from a legal perspective and highlighted some examples of the complexities of IR law which HR professionals needed to be aware of.

The evening was a great success and prompted generous discussions about how to achieve that perfect workforce balance and what that would look like for different organisations. Where the group seemed fairly unanimous was in acknowledging the benefits of understanding your teams and playing to their strengths. Simon said a good place to start was for the Executive to have a clear line of site on how many A, B’s and C performers in the organisation and for the Executive to have clear objectives of what the ideal mix actually is and then to foster an organisational culture that has Manager’s being rewarded for recruiting and promoting T10’s and being held accountable for hiring and promotional failures (C-Grade) appointments. 

Please have a look at our gallery of photos from the night, and regularly check-in to find out about future events... Unlocking the power of your organisation through your Executive Team - Gallery.