Talent Management and Succession Planning

ASTD Copyright 2008

Doing good while doing well
Bingham, Tony; Galagan, Pat
T+D, v62 n6 p32-34 (2008 Jun)
At C Level. Indra Nooyi, CEO, PepsiCo, speaks often about the key role that employees play in operationalzing its vision “Performance with Purpose.” Because of its business, PepsiCo, ranked 59 in the 2008 Fortune 500, must be highly adaptable in numerous ways—product, health and safety, environment, and customer and public opinion. Nooyi is outspoken about the quality of PepsiCo’s associates describing them as smart and highly motivated and equally outspoken about PepsiCo’s commitments to continued investment in it staff, human sustainability, and environmental sustainability despite the current economic conditions.

Talent management: what is it, who owns it, and why should you care?
Galagan, Pat
T+D, v62 n5 p40-44 (2008 May)
Talent management is on the minds of business world leaders yet it is undefined and varies from organization to organization. This article describes the current state of talent management and why the learning profession should create a high-stake hold on how talent is developed and managed. The research and experience of senior learning executives are presented.
 

Talent management up for grabs?
Galagan, Pat
T+D, v62 n3 p48-54 (2008 Mar)
Who owns talent management -- is the question being bandied about in large organizations. This article presents the viewpoints of four learning executives from Verint, Allstate, Krempl International, and Orkin at a recent Sharing@LearnShare conference that covered a range of topics. These learning leaders concur that linking training to the business is as critical for success as is choosing the metrics that make sense.

Polish up your crystal ball
Salopek, Jennifer J.
T+D, v61 n11 p46-50 (2007 Nov)
The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) is working to identify competencies and develop ways to establish a sound succession plan in the wake of anticipated retirements and low recruitment growth. The advice offered by experts to help senior leaders focus on competency forecasting and succession planning is: decide on your competency philosophy; acquire a global perspective; ask the people who know; know what you already have; define competencies carefully; think about varying degrees of competency; utilize the context of corporate strategy; educate line managers about competencies and their importance; use the information you've generated for effective succession planning; and be realistic about your forecasting timeframe. With these pieces in place, organizations can be forward-looking and ready for their corporate future.

Implementing your succession plan
Atwood, Christee Gabour
T+D, v61 n11 p54-58 (2007 Nov)
This article is a primer on succession planning. The plan begins with an assessment of leadership needs, the identification of key positions and the related competencies. Once a plan is in place, it's important to communicate opportunities, identify candidates and assess their readiness, create individual development plans and create the opportunities to support development. However, even following these apparent surefire steps, pitfalls can occur. Here are the pitfalls discussed: lack of management support, lack of effective and open communication to the entire organization, lack of communication with individual leadership candidates, lack of understanding (of succession planning), inadequate documentation, inadequate participation, lack of accountability and follow through, lack of review and revision, focusing entirely on the top level, and assuming success in the current position guarantees success in higher positions. Each organization must create a plan that takes into consideration its needs--so there is no "one size fits all" succession plan.

Growing talent and sales at McCormick
Bingham, Tony; Galagan, Pat
T+D, v61 n7 p30-34 (2007 Jul)
At C Level. Learning is linked integrally to McCormick's leadership development program known as multiple management boards (MMB). According to CEO, Bob Lawless, the company "invests every penny we can" in learning because it is linked to corporate strategy. McCormick rebounded from post-Katrina related spice market issues under Lawless' leadership. This interview explains his commitment to leadership development, succession planning, and learning for this growing global company.
 

The growth of succession management
Salopek, Jennifer J.
T+D, v61 n6 p22-24 (2007 Jun)
Trends. The benefits of extending succession planning and management beyond the executive level are illustrated by brief case studies on Capital One and Education Management Corporation. Research conducted in 2006 by the Institute for Corporate Productivity indicates that only 56 percent of the respondents had a formal succession planning process in place. Seven out of 10 plan to update their processes in the next few years. The 2006 study also noted that almost 49 percent of the respondents included managerial and other staff in their succession program.

Building a talent pipeline
Goretsky, Barbara; Pettry, Deborah B.
T+D, v61 n6 p56-60 (2007 Jun)
This article describes how Northrop Grumman is meeting the challenge of recruiting, staffing, and retaining talent in the face of a shrinking qualified labor pool. One significant problem this company confronts is the requirement of national (US) security clearances for its scientists and engineers.

Ignoring the obvious
Lesser, Eric; Rivera, Ray
T+D, v61 n5 p58-62 (2007 May)
This article reports on an IBM and ASTD study which reveals that 43 percent of respondents believe maintaining a talent pipeline will have significant impact on their organizations within the next three to five years. Thirty-eight percent feel that the impact of changing workforce demographics on their organizations will be moderate.  Workplace learning and performance professionals indicate that only 42 percent of  their organizations were addressing skills and capability needs for the next five years. Despite the recognized importance of this topic, there appears to be a notable disconnect between recognition and action within the surveyed organizations.

What does your hiring process say about you?
Erker, Scott
T+D, v61 n5 p66-70 (2007 May)
This article presents the results of a recent Development Dimensions International (DDI) and Monster survey of 4,000 job seekers, 1,250 hiring managers, and 628 staffing directors. The purpose of the survey is to understand how an organization’s hiring process influences a candidate’s decision to accept a job and to remain with the organization. The study, Slugging Through the War for Talent: Selection Forecast 2006-2007, examined four important aspects of the hiring process: recruiting, selecting, landing the candidates you want, and retaining valuable talent. The survey results conclude that many companies are doing a bad job of creating a good impression for prospective and actual new hires.
 

Talent retention
Reitman, Annabelle
INFOLINE, 16p (2007 Mar)
Stock no.250703. This Infoline offers an in-depth look at talent retention issues that companies are facing with the retirement of one generation and the demands of new workers. The topics covered include aligning your organization, establishing career development strategies, and effective practices for success as well as what makes an outstanding leader and characteristics of a good mentor.  The Job Aid is a worksheet "Calculating Replacement Costs."

Finding the right talent for critical jobs
Bingham, Tony; Galagan, Pat
T+D, v61 n2 p30-36 (2007 Feb)
At C Level. Leaders, Michael Mussallem and Rob Reindl, Edwards Lifesciences, believe their company needs to focus on driving more innovation and applying new technology to the unmet patient needs of heart patients. Edwards, a California-based company, is the number one heart valve manufacturer in the world in sales and a leader in products for the treatment of advanced heart disease.

Growing talent at Edwards Lifesciences
Reindl, Rob
T+D, v61 n2 p38-41 (2007 Feb)
This article describes how Edwards Lifesciences, formerly the cardiovascular division of Baxter Healthcare, applied lessons learned to create a culture that prized innovation, risk taking, and development. Key company strategy and philosophy are covered. At the heart of the new strategy was the identification of the most critical jobs in the corporation.

Holistic skills management comes of age
Harris, Paul
T+D, v61 n12 p46-51 (2007 Dec)
Implementing talent management systems is appearing on the project plan for many organizations in upcoming years. With the growth of integrated systems and the support of technology tools, organizations are in a sound starting place to make performance-driven goals a true part of their culture. This article looks at solutions that represent three categories: enterprise-wide planning providers, point HR software solutions, and talent management suites.

CLOs ponder critical business challenges
ASTD
T+D, v61 n8 p38-42 (2007 Aug)
Executives from Orkin, Macy’s Inc., Cardinal Health, and Holcim (US) and St. Lawrence Cement shared their concerns about the growing skills gap and talent management issues. One of the shifts being made to address talent management is from emphasizing a manager’s technical skills to focusing on leading and engaging employees.

Succession planning basics
Atwood, Christee Gabour
ISBN:  978-1-56286-477-4 109p (2007)
The book "Succession Planning Basics" is a primer that contains theory, processes, best practices, and related topics to help organizations create and establish succession plans. The book follows the basic ADDIE process beginning with assessing the organization's current situation moving through developing, designing, implementing, and evaluating a succession plan. It contains numerous samples and other resources useful for creating a succession plan.

Are you losing potential new hires at Hello?
Friedman, Laurie
T+D, v60 n11 p25, 27 (2006 Nov)
Fundamentals. Employee onboarding is a key component in talent management, retention, and an organization's reputation. This article offers questions to review when re-vamping an onboarding program.
 

Talent management: from hire to retire
Laff, Michael
T+D, v60 n11 p42-48 (2006 Nov)
Talent management issues starting at recruitment through nurturing high potential employees to retirement are covered in this article. With the anticipated shift in the employee talent pool, the idea of managing staff strategically helps organizations to plan and implement new initiatives. The role of HR in developing and integrating a talent management plan is discussed. A sidebar contains key trends companies should consider to address workforce planning.

Effective succession planning
Harrison, Michelle; McKinnon, Tom; Terry, Paul
T+D, v60 n10 p22-23 (2006 Oct)
Fundamentals. This article reports that while many companies indicate they use succession planning, changing demographics, cost-cutting efforts, a lack of prepared successors, and breaches in corporate trust are causing companies to take a fresh look at their practices. The authors advise that while human resources may design the program it must be owned, including the results, at the CEO or COO level to be successful. The article covers the range of succession planning from the individual level through the Board of Directors.