Talent Reviews and Succession Planning Matter More During Tough Economic Times

In the current economy, some companies are choosing to maintain their highly targeted leadership development programs to retain their best talent. But in an era where the media highlights charismatic leaders such as Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison, JDS Uniphase has chosen to build broader and more sustainable leadership within the company.

Almost three years ago, the company's then-CEO made it a priority to invest in building a rigorous vice president and director-level talent review and executive succession planning process.

These programs continue to enjoy strong executive support and play an even more important role in driving people investment decisions during the current financial downturn. With shrinking development budgets, talent reviews and succession planning provide a robust and highly targeted method to decide which leaders to invest in for maximum return-on-investment.

The CEO and his staff review the vice president and director-level talent annually. Business segments have the flexibility to review their talent more frequently. Vice presidents and directors are assessed on their track record of results and leadership in the last three years:

• learning agility and potential to stretch into a bigger job or a lateral rotation
• strengths and development opportunities
• retention risk.

Managers plot their vice presidents and directors on a nine-box grid to assess overall leadership capabilities and to target individuals for development. The executive team holds several meetings to review all leaders on the grid. The prework and grid are merely tools to create a high-quality, honest dialogue and calibration of the company's leaders.

Sessions are facilitated by an HR professional with clear ground rules and are modeled by the company's CEO and executives. The true purpose is to ensure discussion of thoughtful, constructive feedback for each leader:

• visibility for high-potential leaders
• sharing of potential career moves
• development ideas.

Talent reviews are a critical part of the company's succession plans. Like many companies, JDS Uniphase is restructuring several businesses to simplify and optimize its structure. Talent reviews are an effective method to make timely internal decisions to fill leadership roles and help newly restructured organizations select leaders with a strong track record and learning agility. Knowledge of competencies allows JDS Uniphase to rapidly and efficiently re-deploy leaders as needed.

JDS Uniphase is successfully applying its robust talent review and succession planning process to make better business decisions in the current economic climate by driving

• targeted leadership development investments with maximum ROI
• timely and relevant assessment of its leadership talent to staff key positions in newly restructured organizations
• assessment of learning agility as a key leadership characteristic required for leading effectively in uncertain times.