Local yet International How Seco Tools Manages the Balancing Act in Talent Management

Transcription

1 44 SCHWERPUNKT INTERNATIONALES TALENTMANAGEMENT Local yet International How Seco Tools Manages the Balancing Act in Talent Management For international companies, globally oriented talent management presents a big challenge. International company standards have to be considered as do the social and cultural circumstances on a regional level. PERSONALFÜHRUNG spoke about this with the individuals responsible at the Swedish tool manufacturer, Seco Tools. The company specializes in metal cutting and has more than 5,000 employees in 50 countries. Per Norell is responsible for the company s global HR and Martin Bovens is responsible for HR management in Germany. In an interview which we conducted in a telephone conference in mid- March, both men provide us with exclusive insight and report on what holds talent management at Seco together across so many countries and the extent to which it is characterized by corporate values, also with regard to local needs. PER NORELL Vice President of Group Human Resources at Seco in Fagersta, Sweden, since April 1, Since 1998 he has been responsible for learning and the company s global strategic HR. MARTIN BOVENS Manager Human Resources in Erkrath, North Rhine- West phalia High tech is a key attractor to get in contact with talented young professionals. Photo: AILA, or Artificial Intelligence Lightweight Android, pictured during a demonstration of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH (Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz, DFKI) at the 2013 CeBIT technology trade fair in Hanover, Germany.

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3 46 SCHWERPUNKT INTERNATIONALES TALENTMANAGEMENT Mr Norell, Mr Bovens, how would you rank talent management in the HR activities at Seco? PER NORELL It is definitely one of the top priorities, but, of course, it is very hard to measure exactly how much time we devote to that locally or globally on an annual basis. We have a few global priorities that we are working with which are part of our HR strategy. Talent management is one of them, as an integrated part of our strategy. The importance of talent management has increased over the last few years. Whenever we talk about globalization you hear the mission statement think global act local. To what extent does global HR deal with local thinking and acting? NORELL In our work method and core HR strategy our corporate shared values are the main aspects for us, and this foundation is truly a global one. We base our strategy on those values and on our prioritized leadership capabilities. We have made those our priority. How they are adapted and interpreted locally can and does vary to some extent. We have to allow for the fact that cultures are different. But our shared values form the basis of our company and the prioritized basis for our global HR strategy. That s what holds us together. You have described your international talent management as an important part of HR. Can you give us an understanding of how large your team is and the structure you are working within? NORELL To answer this, we have to start with the structure of our company. We have more than 5,000 employees worldwide, and we truly work on a global basis meaning that there are several smaller units out there, too. We operate in approximately 50 countries and within the organization there are units as large as 1,500 people and then we have very small units in smaller markets. A BOTTOM-UP PROCESS We have a global acting network of HR professionals which we call our Global HR Council. These are seven local HR managers who have the extended responsibility for one region within our company. Mr Bovens, who is HR manager of Seco Germany, is also the contact for other countries like Austria and Switzerland. And the same applies to the others. With this network of eight people and a few local HR advisors we cover our whole organization. It s quite a tight HR network which focuses on talent and global talent management, as examples. Identifying talents within our organization is a bottom-up process, and the HR network drives the process using our criteria. Then we aggregate the information which involves evaluating the identified talents within our organization. Ultimately, we end up with a talent pool, indeed a global pool of talented individuals who we promote with development programs. Can you describe the situation at Seco for identifying and developing talents? NORELL We have identified many talented people, and we are building on them. But there is always a desire for more. Being a company like ours and operating in so many countries are facts that do present us with challenges that are rather extensive when it comes to attracting people to our company, especially to units and countries with few employees. We really have to look after the employees in our organization. We are happy that we manage to keep our retention rate quite high. The word talent has become very popular and can be interpreted in various ways. How does Seco define it? NORELL Our definition of talent is three-fold. All three aspects should be met to qualify as a talent, and they are quite generic. First: A stable high performance is needed. Second: Our high potential category combines pro-activeness, curiosity, and the communica-

4 47 regions and their cultural and social requirements and specialties? NORELL We spend most of our time dealing with performance management, talent, leadership, and shared values, combined also with the aspects of diversity and inclusion. We decide on action plans each year in these areas. But there are different challenges in different areas in different regions. MARTIN BOVENS From the German perspective, Seco s talent management as a development program and as a frame is as unique as Seco is here in Germany. We use talent management as part of our recruitment strategy to recruit young engineers from well-known universities. Because we are relatively small in Germany, we can t compete with the big players. But, because of our international talent development program, we are able to give young talents and engineers a perspective and that s a really good tool for us, and one part of the global HR tool kit. The global development program makes it much easier for me and my team to recruit high potential engineers locally or catch them in the interview process. For us as a local unit it is important that we have these talent management processes in place which enable us to live the management program as opposed to just showing it to people on paper. A visitor holding a hand of AILA at the 2013 CeBIT technology trade fair. Human-like hands and an innovative software developed at DFKI allow AILA to perform semi-autonomous work requiring fine motor skills. tion skills necessary to be a talent as well as entrepreneurial thinking. A talent also has to be open to change and willing to seek better solutions. Third: This is the dynamic part which we call readiness. Our notion is that there is potential for more or bigger challenges, there is excess capacity, a broader understanding, and, of course, the willingness to broaden one s horizon into other areas or adjacent areas of operation. When we started developing programs for talents in our company, we used the emotional intelligence, the EQI, as one of the development tools because we believe a talent and future leader to combine high cognitive ability and emotional intelligence. PART OF A GLOBAL HR TOOL KIT You mentioned the Global HR Council. What are the most strategic and operational issues with regard to certain What exactly do you mean by this? BOVENS Our family spirit is one of our core values. People see and feel this when they become part of our recruitment process. Then we can use talent management as an ad-on topic. Do you identify most of your talents on the basis of internal development or external recruiting? NORELL We identify talents internally. We don t have an annual recruiting process whereby we aim to attract 10, 15, or 20 young talented people into some kind of a trainee program or to start a talent development program the day they enter the company. We don t do that.

5 48 SCHWERPUNKT INTERNATIONALES TALENTMANAGEMENT FEEL THE SECO VALUES Qualified employees are the key to a company s success. Help me to understand what Seco does differently than other companies. NORELL Talent management tops the agenda in most companies. Definitely. But there s no way for us to compete with the attractiveness of large, well-known companies such as VW or BMW. We really need to focus on trying to develop the people we have. Of course, we also have to find very talented people externally, too. The main thing here, again, is that we build on a set of core values and leadership principles that reflect the way we act and behave in our company. That is what makes our company attractive. We have a common corporate value basis, and that is reflected in the way we work. People need to feel Seco s culture with Seco s core values. BOVENS If you discuss talent management in detail with HR colleagues, you find that most companies have some kind of talent management program. It all depends on the way you go about these programs. At Seco, it s referred to as Group HR meaning that we have a combined understanding of these talent programs, that these programs really are lived, and people see that and in the end also feel that. And I think that might set us apart from other companies. What are key tools to systematically manage talents and to make sure the right people are in the right place? NORELL Seco is a very technically driven company. The challenge is to add the talent s very important soft skills to the technical skill set. The combination of building soft skills and working with complex business challenges within the talent development program is a new experience for most participants. But that s also why we think people from inside the company are more likely to have huge development potential. Most of them have based their performance and career on being good technicians. Do you find it hard being less well-known than the typical big names? NORELL In our business Seco Tools is very well-known. We are one of the largest and most successful ones in the machining tool market. We attract a lot of talented people from our customers due to the fact that we have a lot of people out there in the market: 1,500 people, technicians and salesmen who are meeting with our customers every day. Customers or suppliers see the way we are working, and their employees find it attractive to work not only with us but for us. Finding talents from outside is handled locally. There are very different ways of working with this. In our operations in the US centered around the Detroit area, the colleagues have been able to profile themselves as an attractive employer. They ve done a lot of activities and established a very successful and attractive operation based on our values. DRIVING CHANGE THROUGH LEADERSHIP How are you dealing with the actual discussions on work-life balance and women in leadership roles? BOVENS On the one hand, there are young engineers with different wishes about what the company has to offer regarding working conditions. On the other hand, you have the market and competitors in business. I think it starts from the top, referring to the global organization. It s all about leadership. It starts with how you as a leader model the values. In the end it all comes down to that. The employees more or less look to their direct manager. And if he is not practicing the work-life balance, how can employees be expected to model the balance? You can have many programs in place, but if they are not lived by the direct manager you will never be successful in living the spirit. Of course, these leaderships are aligned to the HR tool kit or many HR processes. NORELL We can see the differences very clearly in our organization. Especially given that our largest organizational unit is in Sweden with the headquarters. The culture is different from the German, the American, or the Chinese organization, but we commit ourselves to the basis of our core values and a common set of leadership principles that we act and behave by. It s a slow change to fully implement a common way of leading, organizing, and empowering people. So, this is what we are focusing on now, and in the years to come we will do so even more to drive the cul tural change through leadership. Do you expect every manager to be a talent scout, especially locally? NORELL That is something that we need to further improve. Over time each manager should become a talent scout. And this meshes with many different processes. It all starts with the way we run the performance management process which is complete-

6 49 ly aligned with our values and leadership principles. What are these principles? NORELL The leadership priority has three main areas: coach, communicator, and decision maker. They may change in years to come, but for the time being we have a lot of work to do here. I think it s quite important for us that we come back to these principles to ensure consistent leadership and endurance. It s not a quick fix. The different organizational cultures and new generations of employees are a big challenge for any company. We are no exception, and we are trying our best to understand it, live it, and change it. Can you outline the changes you had in management? NORELL We are talking about the basic foundation, the attitude towards leadership, and the empowerment of people. We have a group management executive team and over the last few years, 70 percent of its members are new. A large production unit in Sweden has also undergone some significant changes in top management, and it s a hard process. Our advantage is that we are profitable, so we are not in a desperate situation where we have to change within three quarters for instance. I think that is a very attractive situation for us. But we cannot rest. This company has a history of being very successful and that might sometimes lull people into complacency. That s a dangerous situation. OTHER WAYS OF THINKING Do you have a special development program for your leaders? NORELL We have a global top management program where we convene top managers from all over the SECO world, also based on our leadership principles. This is also a way to expose people to different ways of thinking and leading. When you gather people together from different parts of the organization with different backgrounds and cultures and start sharing and reflecting together on leadership, management, and company development, all of a sudden there are other ways of thinking and doing things. You discover that when you get people together. We are going to emphasize that in the future. We will focus on being even more aligned in our leadership and put great efforts into training managers in ways of behaving that reflect everything we have talked about. How you align the organization and empower people are the two main areas. That will be the focus area for the coming years. HEADING UP A REVIEW PROCESS Are there special tools to identify high potentials on the way to top management, and can they be applied to different countries? NORELL When we re recruiting or selecting people for top global management positions, we have a set way of evaluating candidates. And that is the same regardless of the country. These are test tools to make selections from the candidate pool, an advantage to have the same tool on a global basis which makes it a lot easier to communicate between the regions and countries in question: That means we speak the same language, and that is a great strength. But I will say that professional interviews are perhaps the most important ones. We work together with consultants and psychologists. Our global selection tools speaks a common language and also turns out to be good pieces in the jigsaw puzzle that you re trying to lay when recruiting people and that is predicted in there. BOVENS It s interesting to see that German applicants aren t too familiar with the tools we use in our recruitment process. For example, a cognitive ability test. In the US, applicants are more familiar with this. In Germany, applicants are more familiar with assessment centers. We really use technical tests here in Germany combined with structured interviews for technical positions. With good technicians we can be sure to have enough potential for further talent management. How do you know if you are making any progress? NORELL The big question is: Is what we do worth the investment? I don t have a clear answer. We know where the talents are. We develop them, yes. Then you have to keep that going. This point is maybe what we really have to struggle with: You found them, you developed them, but how can you get the most out of them for the company? We are working on heading up a management development review process which is trying to address the different areas of this point so we get a structured way of evaluating and also getting the right people in the right place. That is a challenge for us because we re a stable company. But you can t have it too stable. Then you lose momentum you can wind up in a position where people are not tapping into their full potential, and there are no new challenges. That is an issue for us. We can come back to that in five years and see how it went. Mr Norell, Mr Bovens, thank you very much for the interview! The interview was conducted by SABINE SCHRITT freelance journalist in Frankfurt/M.