ORC Sightlines
May 2005
- Global Talent Management Trends Emerge in Meeting
- Managing a Global Cadre
- Companies Share R&D Career Ladders
Global Talent Management Trends Emerge in Meeting
ORC’s new Global Talent Management (GTM) Network kicked off this month with its first meeting in New York. As GTM leaders in large North American and European multinationals shared strategies and practices, several trends emerged:
Simplification: A number of participants talked about their efforts to boil the talent management process down to its essence and remove unnecessary exercises and bureaucracy. Technology has gone a long way towards advancing this goal, but, more than paperwork reduction, simplification requires a clear picture of the program’s objectives and a straightforward, consistent, global process for getting there.
Longer-Range Planning: Despite the inherent difficulties in predicting talent needs more than a year or two into the future, several organizations reported concerted efforts to look at the business strategy and its potential implications for talent five or more years out.
Increased Board Involvement: Although the practice of involving board members in the assessment and development of high-level, high potential managers is more common in European companies, some US-based multinationals are also seeing value in it. Throughout the year, Board members meet key talent one-on-one and observe them in meetings and presentations.
Culture Change: In companies with a well-developed global talent management process, the emphasis has turned to developing a talent management culture—one in which line management takes ownership for identifying and developing key human resources and the good of the global corporation takes precedence over the parochial concerns of individual business units. The means for creating such a culture include training for line executives and local HR business partners, heavy communications efforts, and accountability and metrics.
Integration: Integration of global talent management efforts with other business processes often depends on the GTM function acting as conductor. Participants in the meeting agreed that integration happens most effectively through the culture change process, as all stakeholders recognize their common goals and working together across the matrix becomes the accepted way of doing business. Some companies have found that integration can be abetted structurally, by having functions such as expatriate management, staffing, and/or executive development report through the same individual as GTM. Physically co-locating these functions also encourages frequent consultation and collaboration.
The next meeting of the Global Talent Management Network will be October 19, hosted by Allianz in Munich. For more information, contact Michal Fineman at 1-212-719-3400.
Managing a Global Cadre
The importance of integrating talent management strategy with other HR processes becomes very clear when companies develop a cadre of globally mobile employees. In his article in the latest issue of WorldatWork Journal, ORC executive vice president Geoffrey Latta lays out the complexities involved.
An international cadre is a group of employees, formally recognized or de facto, who are available for multiple successive international assignments. This unusual career path may be part of the company’s plan for developing future leaders who understand the depth and breadth of the company’s global operations or it may be a convenient way of assuring supply of specific skills needed in different locations at different times. In either case, the special care and feeding required for career internationalists demands a high degree of integration between global talent management (GTM) practices, international mobility policy and administration, and compensation models. Key issues include career management, performance management, communication, and, of course, pay and benefits.
Latta observes that this last point is “where the management of GTM programs and expatriate compensation programs may clash.” In general, the expatriate administration function favors uniform policies that are equitable on their face, while effective global talent management may require customized approaches. It may not make sense, for example, to pay the global cadre according to the same model (e.g., a home-based balance sheet) used for the expatriate who goes on an international assignment and then comes home. But if the decision is made to use a different approach for the global cadre, clear communications become all the more crucial, and the GTM function and the expatriate administration function had better be sending the same messages.
The full article is available in the ORC Reading Room. Geoff Latta can be contacted in ORC’s New York office at 1-212-852 0375 or geoffrey.latta@orcww.com.
Companies Share R&D Career Ladders
Companies participating in the spring meeting of the Human Resources in R&D Network shared their career ladders for individual contributors and managers in the technical organization. The typical ladder has 6-8 steps at the professional level. Generally there are 2 or 3 steps from entry level to where the management and technical ladders diverge. The majority of the companies offer individual contributors the potential to achieve positions equivalent to the highest technical management position below CTO or vice president of R&D, although a few cap their technical ladders at lower levels. A few companies have added a third rail to the traditional dual ladder to provide a defined career path for scientists who take on project or program management responsibilities but are not accountable for organizational business objectives.
In order to continue motivating and retaining those scientists and engineers who do not choose a management path, a number of HRRD member companies are providing various kinds of professional development opportunities ranging from traditional training programs to opportunities for independent research or other kinds of out-of-the-lab experiences to customized training for scientific leadership to programs that promote personal spiritual growth as well as professional growth.
The Human Resources in R&D Network is a forum for exchange of strategies and best practices among HR leaders supporting the R&D area of Fortune 500 companies. For more information, contact Michal Fineman, 1-212-852-0354, michal.fineman@orcww.com.