Talent Management at Parnassia Group

Parnassia Group is the largest provider of mental health care in the Netherlands. With approximately 12,500 employees, it offers support to individuals suffering from psychological issues. Parnassia operates on a vision of recovery-oriented thinking and acting, which means leveraging the patient's own strength and ensuring the patient is explicitly in charge of their recovery process, supported by professionals and caregivers.

Parnassia extends the concept of patient-led recovery to its internal organization. Just as recovery involves taking leadership in one's personal life, teams within the organization are expected to take charge of their work processes. The introduction of self-organizing teams necessitates a new type of leadership with a greater focus on coaching. "Believing in the patient's own strength is inseparable from believing in the employees' strength." Just as the therapist stands beside the patient and supports their personal recovery process, the leader stands beside the team. This led to a new setup for talent management programs.

INTERMEZZO: Vision on Modern Leadership in Literature

We see that the heroic leader who oversees everything, directs, and controls the situation is no longer contemporary. Learning to reflect, engage in dialogue, and lead new developments are becoming important leadership characteristics. The learning and creating attitude is now required of a leader. This instills in employees that a learning mindset is a must. An open and learning attitude is a necessary condition, as well as the quality to connect people and stimulate flexible cooperation. This requires more attention to informal learning, spontaneous solutions, and consciously facilitating co-creation.

Source: Leadership as we speak by Marcel Wanrooy and Jeroen Winkelhorst, O&O No. 3, 2014.

We have brought selection and development closer together, utilizing insights from the assessments more effectively in the leadership programs.

The job profile and the renewed competency profile form the starting point for the new learning programs and the selection process. Central to this approach are self-direction and personal responsibility for learning and development. We chose a modular setup, employing various instruments and methods at different stages of the selection process. Learning from and with each other is also a key principle. This applies not only to participants in the learning trajectory but also to the collaboration between Parnassia Group and GITP during the design and execution phase of the selection process. It was truly a co-creation trajectory. An important benefit of the new setup was that insights from the assessments were much better utilized in the learning pathways. We brought selection and development closer together."

What Did the Selection Process Look Like?

APPLICATION

Previously, the responsible director would nominate potential talent with a motivation. Now, potential talent is encouraged to apply themselves with a motivation letter and a recommendation from their team, aligning with the principle of self-organizing teams. Based on the outcomes of a motivation interview with MD advisors, it was decided whether to proceed to the next phase: the online assessment.

THE ONLINE ASSESSMENT

Especially in the first year, it was uncertain how many participants would apply as management talent or be recommended by the teams. In the online assessment, participants took a capacity test to determine their work and thinking level and a personality test (Big Five Personality). No suitability advice was given, but Parnassia Group’s MD advisors were trained by us to interpret the test results. Important criteria at this stage were: at least HBO work and thinking level, stability, and open-mindedness (curious and eager to learn attitude and motivations). Almost everyone was admitted to the real-life assessments.

THE INDIVIDUAL ASSESSMENT

The individual assessment built on the online assessments, consisting of a control ability test, a practical simulation, an interview, and a leadership game where management style and style flexibility were measured. This development-oriented suitability assessment provided ample room for self-reflection. This occurred before the interview in the form of a self-evaluation document, during the conversation with the advisor, and during the practical simulation with time-outs, interim feedback, and opportunities for experimenting and learning. This also allowed the advisor to see how the participant handled feedback and whether they could effectively translate it into effective behavior. This, along with cognitive abilities and learning motivation, provided a significant indication of the development potential. Afterward, all results were discussed with the participant, who received a report with advice on the best strategy to realize their potential during the training program.

After the assessments, the reports were discussed by the team of GITP assessment psychologists with the MD advisors (only with the participant's permission). Based on these discussions, the final learning group for the leadership program was established. Not only the assessment results were considered but also the spread of all companies, gender ratio, and regional distribution.

THE GROUP ASSESSMENT

Once the final group was determined, the last phase of the GITP development process began, marking the first phase of the leadership program: the group assessment. This was a dynamic day with various elements where the talents could get to know each other and actively engage in their personal and professional development. Learning from and with each other. For instance, an escape game was included where we, as assessment psychologists, observed the talents' behavior with the MD advisors and provided feedback afterward. Who takes the lead? Who seeks collaboration? And how? We observed groups that started calmly and composedly, made democratic decisions, but could coordinate more with each other. A group assignment was also part of the program. In groups of four, they worked on a strategy and improvement assignment presented to a jury of two managers/executives from the Parnassia Group. Finally, individual development conversations took place. The talents formulated their development themes and learning goals as a start for the leadership program. These themes and goals were based on the assessment report and feedback during the group assessment.

Bringing Selection and Learning Closer Together

Management talents were explicitly encouraged to take responsibility for their learning. The rich material from individual and group assessments was optimally used for the subsequent learning trajectory.

Making Talent Management Measurable and Predictable

These leadership talent management programs took place in 2018 and 2019. Additionally, we collect data in this way, enabling us to measure and eventually predict the effect and success of our efforts in the leadership program. This process remains about having conversations, evaluating, and reflecting. We have learned a lot from different perspectives. Participants said in their evaluation: "So far, I am very enthusiastic, partly due to the inspiring leadership. The pleasure is evident. Also nice to see that the selection resulted in a very diverse group." The MD advisors were also very enthusiastic about the new form and noticed that the return on the assessments for the learning trajectory had significantly increased.

We are also proud and satisfied with this beautiful project and look forward to next year.