ORC Sightlines

July 2006

Strategies for Identifying and Developing Leaders

ORC’s networks for talent management executives both held meetings recently at which participants exchanged learnings on best practices for identifying and developing future leaders. Executives with global responsibility for talent management in some of the world’s largest multinationals met at the Global Talent Management (GTM) Network meeting in New York, and ORC launched the Talent Management Forum for senior talent management leaders in midcap companies and regional or business units of larger organizations.

GTM Members Building Global Pipeline

Senior talent management leaders from large North American, European, and Asian companies met at ORC’s Global Talent Management Network meeting in New York. The theme for the meeting was “developing global leaders,” and members compared notes on the strategies they are using to build a global pipeline that is both deep and broad, drawing on potential leadership talent in emerging markets as well as developed ones.

A common challenge confronting many companies is the need to create a corporate-wide culture that spans diverse regions, business units, and acquired subsidiaries and demands commitment to talent development. One of the tactics shared was holding “talent forums” in different locations to engage up-and-coming leaders. A number of companies stage corporate-wide leadership meetings to encourage networking among senior managers and instill common values and strategic goals. Others are reworking their corporate values and competencies to reflect changing strategic priorities and tie into market brands.

Another shared concern was retention of talent, especially in hot markets such as India and China. The consensus among the group was that there is a paradigm shift occurring in how we think about retention. With demand so strong in emerging economies and benefits no longer structured to reward tenure, it may be necessary to accept that there will be more turnover and concentrate efforts instead on accelerating onboarding and development cycles.

At the end of the meeting, participants agreed they had extracted great value from sharing best practices in a confidential setting. “It’s an amazing group of experts,” commented ORC senior consultant Michal Fineman. “All the people in the Network work directly with their CEOs and senior leadership teams to formulate talent strategy for some of the largest companies in the world, so there is an incredible reservoir of expertise in the room.”

The next meeting of the Global Talent Management Network will be held in Europe on October 26. For more information, contact Michal Fineman, 1 212-719-3400; Siobhan Cummins, 44 (0)20 7591 5600, or Britta Laws, 49 89 47 08 46 85.

New Network Participants Ponder Leadership Assessment and Development

ORC’s new Talent Management Forum (TMF) complements the existing Global Talent Management Network by providing the same benchmarking and learning opportunities to talent management leaders in mid-sized companies or regions or divisions of larger organizations.

The theme of the inaugural meeting was “building talent at the senior-most levels of the organization.” Participants discussed the strategies, policies, and tools they use to ensure that the organization consistently has better-prepared candidates for senior management positions.

One company showed how organizational structure plays a key role in its leadership building efforts. The consolidation of responsibility for performance management, talent management, succession planning, talent reviews, corporate-wide leadership development, 360° feedback, and executive staffing in the same group has made it easier for the company to integrate all the processes associated with hiring, assessing, developing, and deploying talent and link them to key success factors dictated by the business strategy.

The group also shared best practices for assessing potential of future leaders. Some companies define “potential” as the ability to progress a certain number of grade levels or salary bands, and leave the interpretation of that criterion vague, but others are attempting to put more rigor around the identification of high potential employees. Starting with an analysis of what actually constitutes “potential, ” they use formal assessments to measure each of those elements. One such assessment shared at the meeting breaks potential down to three components: ability, engagement, and aspiration.

Going forward, the Talent Management Forum will meet twice a year. The next meeting is scheduled for November 7 and 8 in New York City. Between meetings, members receive updates on talent management trends and developments, and share practices and information via surveys and informal networking.

For information on membership in the Talent Management Forum, please contact Michal Fineman (212-852-0354) or Susan Carter (708-358-1361).

Shifting Expatriate Management Practices

In the WorldatWork Journal for the second quarter 2006, ORC Executive Vice President Geoffrey Latta examines how economic, political, and social forces might affect the supply and demand for expatriate talent in international organizations and how companies might be expected to adjust HR policies in response. Compensation practices, in particular, will likely be in flux. While companies continue to seek ways to decrease the cost of expatriate assignments, supply issues may frustrate their attempts at frugality. For one thing, workers are becoming less willing to accept assignments that will prejudice their spouses’ careers or otherwise disrupt the family. Political instability in some parts of the world can also be expected to drive up the incentives required to attract expatriates to those locations.

International employers are experimenting with a number of tactics for dealing with these challenges, such as scheduling international assignments earlier or later in the career cycle, shortening assignments, or using longer business trips in place of them. Global companies are also attempting to expand the reservoir of talent by relying less on expatriates from headquarters and drawing more from locations around the world. At the end of the day, however, we are still likely to confront a tighter supply of internationally mobile employees.

As a result, we can expect that employers will attempt to make international assignments more attractive by tailoring compensation packages to the needs of individual employees and assignments. “The most probable development is in the direction of greater multiplicity of pay approaches within any organization,” Latta predicts. “While the desire for greater simplicity in pay systems is a constant theme, the future is likely to see quite the opposite.”

To see the entire article, download this PDF from ORC’s Web site.

Renowned Experts Join ORC’s Global Diversity Advisory Board

ORC’s has announced the appointment of several well-known US and European diversity leaders to its newly formed Global Diversity Advisory Board. The new Advisory Board members, high-ranking and highly respected leaders in global companies admired for their diversity and inclusion efforts, include:

The Board will support ORC's work with leading organizations to define and enhance practices for effective global management of multicultural and multinational workforces. They will provide direction to ORC Worldwide and serve as a resource for ORC’s Global Diversity Forum, a network of HR professionals responsible for developing and implementing programs and practices that address global diversity in large multinationals. 

For more information on ORC’s global equality, diversity, and inclusion services, contact Nita Beecher or Liz MacGillivray in North America or Deirdre Golden in Europe or visit the EDI section of this site.

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