A retrospective on the TTS Client Conference 2018

Recently, TTS held its third client conference at Butlers Caterers in Midrand. In an ever-increasingly complex environment, it was good to see how we are still able to provide simple, easy-to-implement solutions in our clients’ organisation and help them to make better talent decisions.

Below are a few highlights and learnings from the conference:

Competencies are not dead

Despite claims to the contrary, we saw no evidence of recent claims that competencies are dead or outmoded. Indeed, our keynote speaker, Prof. Juan Sanchez gave a fascinating talk on how competencies can add strategic value to organisations over and above their normal function inside job analysis.

Some of the key reasons competencies are still so relevant (and becoming more so)? Organisations have a strategic imperative to explain what on-brand behaviour looks like. In addition, you cannot measure what is not defined. In assessment work, getting as close to the job’s competencies is essential.

The rise of organisation-wide competencies

Many of our presenters at the conference shared case studies in applying competencies across their organisations. Often, such projects came about because of increasing frustration and challenges experienced in selecting and managing talent without the benefit of a universal language that describes what good looks like.

In creating an organisation-wide competency language, our speakers were able to standardize assessment processes across the board, which in turn lead to marked improvements in talent sourcing and selection.

High fidelity competencies for high risk jobs

 In our aviation panel discussion, it became clear that competencies are essential in defining and assessing for high-risk roles such as commercial pilots and cabin crew. Despite economic pressures on the airline industry, our panel members felt strongly about maintaining high standards in such selection tasks.

One critical element of ensuring good talent decisions in this space was to prefer actuarial or mechanical decision-making and limiting the impact of traditional or subjective judgements.

Innovations in assessments and reporting

The field of IO Psychology is never static, and at the conference, delegates had the opportunity to learn about the latest technologies in assessment and assessment reporting.

It seems a certainty that mobile and gamified assessments will be adopted more widely, especially in screening and high volume assessment projects. There definitely are still gaps in our knowledge on how to best utilise such assessments, and TTS along with its clients will be at the forefront of such research project in the coming months.

Despite the need for further research, we remain optimistic about new innovations within the assessment space that can assist clients in making better talent decisions.

Perhaps even more exciting is the rise of better, more interactive assessment reporting that will emphasise data security, best practice data visualisation, and enable actuarial decision making. In this regard, we were delighted to show delegates some of our latest developments that are pushing the envelope of best-practice reporting to be more aligned with the realities of the 4th industrial revolution.

Final thoughts

 The TTS Client conference of 2018 highlighted yet again how vibrant and exciting IO Psychology and talent management are as disciplines. Our delegates were united in their commitment to making more scientific, more business-centric talent decisions, and the talks and innovations revealed at the conference certainly spoke of that.

We look forward to our next conference in 2020, so watch this space for more details! To connect to us, drop us a line at info@tts-talent.com.