Managing Your Talent Portfolio: Positions or People Marco Nozicka Human Resource Talent Manager Walgreens
Who Will Take the Baton?
What If? An airplane crashes in the desert, killing all on board. Among the passengers are top managers of Acme Engineering in Palm Beach, Florida. When the VP of Human Resources at Acme is summoned to the phone to receive the news, she gasps, turns pale, looks blankly at her admin and says the first question that enters her mind: Now who s in charge?
What If? Georgia Meyers, supervisor of a key assembly line, has just called in sick after two years of perfect attendance. She personally handles all purchasing production scheduling in the small plant, as well as overseeing the assembly line. The reduction manger, Mary Rawlings, does not know how the plant will function in the absence of this key employee, who carries in her head, essential, and proprietary, knowledge of production operations. She is sure that production will be lost for the day because Georgia has no trained backup.
What If? Marietta Diaz was not promoted to supervisor. She is convinced that she is a victim of racial and sexual discrimination. Her manager, Wilson Smith, assures her that this is not the case. As he explains to her, You just don t have the skills and experience to do the work. Gordon Hague, who was promoted, already possesses those skills. The decision was based strictly on individual merit and supervisory job requirements. But Marietta remains troubled. How, she wonders, could Gordon have acquired those skills in his previous non-supervisory role?
Filling Positions or Developing Leaders for the Future? Best-in Class Companies do both: tracking pivotal roles that are emerging as resource pressure points, and.. proactively source & develop a strong talent pool of future leaders.
Aditya Birla Group..Winner Aon Hewitt s top leadership company award In order for succession planning processes to be impactful and deliver value to the business, they need to be formalized and institutionalized. All key stakeholders need to invest adequate time and energy to ensure succession planning lists are refreshed and it remains contemporary.
The woodpeckers might have to go!
Execution Priority: Gain (and maintain) Commitment from the Top Requires ongoing involvement at board, CEO, senior leadership level Senior leaders need to drive and promote SMP Board sees SMP as a form of risk management
Execution Priority : Ensure Multiple Ownership Across the Organization HR can guide the management of SMP but failure of line managers to share ownership is lethal. Managers must be clear about the relationship between SMP and long-term success of the business. Managers increase ownership of the process when they are expected to support, coach, and monitor individual development plans.
AON Hewitt.. Top Companies for Leadership in this study.. Succession Planning ranked as priority for 60% of global Top Company boards of directors, compared to only 31% of all other organizations.
Competencies As the business landscape changes, companies need to think beyond traditional competencies and experience when considering a potential candidate s readiness.
Four A s Alignment Accessibility Assessment Advancement
4 A s Alignment An aligned succession process ensures both the current and future business needs of the organization. Leading companies integrate succession management with hiring, performance management, development and retention systems.
4 A s Accessibility: Simple, transparent, flexible, diverse, and robust succession management process that overcomes administrative hassle for the end user. Keep it uncomplicated to drive consistency.
4 A s Assessment: With well defined competencies developed.best practice companies put their best qualified talent in the most mission critical roles after having deployed a variety of review methods to determine skill and readiness potential.
4 A s Advancement Long-term bench development and advancement is the cardinal rule of succession management. Strive to provide enterprise wide development to the talent pool.
Execution Priority: Measure Progress Regularly SMP must be continuously monitored, measured, and refined against stated targets. Best-in-Class programs continually adjust their systems based on user feedback, new developments in the environment, etc. Inspect what you expect. Talent metrics include: retention, engagement, diversity, plan execution, development goal audits.
Talent Management is a Discipline Walgreens decided to build fewer stores and invest in building better talent Talent and Portfolio management requires a dedicated function and position to drive it and make it successful The process of introducing and maintaining Talent programs must be consistent, with maximum buy-in over time and continuous demonstration of its value to the business
Walgreens Experience Build or refine competencies which had become obsolete based on how the business was evolving. Made the talent assessment process more comprehensive and increased training to management in applying this tool. Performance Management process was standardized across the business to drive consistency and calibration.
The Walgreens Experience Integrated Systems were built to track SMP compliance, individual development plans, performance review processes, tracking tools, succession grids (9 box), retention risk, unplanned exit impact, career profiles, workforce planning exercises, etc.
Development Planning Individual Development Plans (IDPs) were created on line and must remain as a living document reviewed and updated routinely. Projects that support the IDP are discussed, designed and revisited on a quarterly basis. Top Talent are expected to present the status of their projects and impact on the business, to leadership.
Aligning the Talent Strategy Consistently Link the talent strategy to something bigger than itself: Diversity and Inclusion Employee Engagement Cultural Beliefs Better Business Results
How Do We Measure Success Bench Strength Measures: (examples) Average # of candidates ready now for key positions Number of vacant key positions % of positions without a ready now candidate Total number of district successors in the pool per key position
Measures Plan Design Measures: (examples) # of days dedicated by senior staff to talent reviews % of key positions filled according to predetermined succession plans Ratio of internal hires to external hires in key positions
Talent Development Measures: (examples) % of development plans completed among successors % of manager population participating in development programs Utilization rate of development programs by top talent population
Retention Measures Designated successor retention rate % of HiPos who are high retention risks Voluntary and involuntary top talent population turnover Voluntary and involuntary key position turn over
marco.nozicka@walgreens.com