Technology companies usually have one thing in common when it comes to talent management: difficulty securing employees with the right skill sets. Harris Corp. is no different. The international communications and information technology company serves government and commercial markets in more than 150 countries, and nearly half of its 16,000-plus workforce is engineers and scientists. In addition to efforts to strengthen its talent management capabilities, integrate various processes and emphasize coaching and development, Harris has taken a proactive approach to seed its pipeline with the right talent. Jeff Shuman, Harris` vice president of human resources and corporate relations, shared some of the finer points of the company`s talent management strategy.
TM: Describe Harris` approach to talent management.
Shuman: Talent management is becoming part of our DNA. It`s an expectation we have for all of our leaders to manage our most valuable resource: our people. There`s a quote, something the CEO of Monsanto said, that I`ve carried around and shared for awhile. It says we have to be clear about what talent management is not: It`s not extracurricular, something we do when the important stuff is done. It is the important stuff, and it`s not just the responsibility of HR. I`ve lived with that theme, and my CEO has clearly set the expectation for our leaders that talent management is critically important. When we speak of it we think about the whole process, integration, planning and the proactive process that ensures we have a supply of highly productive individuals in the right job with the right skills at the right time to support business strategy.
TM: What processes and programs have you established to improve workforce performance?
Shuman: It starts with workforce planning: What are the needs, skills and competencies we need today and tomorrow? How do we recruit for those particular skill sets, or how do we develop that particular skill set in-house? Then, how do we on-board individuals so they can fit into our culture and can perform at exceptional levels? To monitor that, we put performance management in place, and we`ve really changed that process over the past few years. It used to be more of an administrative process managers didn`t care to do and employees didn`t care to receive, and it was cumbersome.
Now, we spend much more time on the discussion and dialogue, rather than filling out forms. We`ve come up with learning and development plans for strengths and development needs, which lead to career-planning capability and how we reward and recognize individuals based on performance and potential. All those pieces come together to form our organization review, where we look at where the organization`s going, what`s succession look like and how do we need to change to meet the needs of our business in the future?
TShuman: We`re a company made up of engineers and scientists who are extremely skilled and capable of innovating fabulous technology. How we get that particular skill set to also manage people has been something we`ve really focused on. We`ve been able to manage that. Part of it is change management — setting expectations for our leaders and sitting down with individuals and taking responsibility for their career.
Again, because we`re scientists and engineers, we used to do performance planning to the seventh decimal point as far as how we rate somebody and where they stand. We spent endless hours trying to quantify that versus when you ask a basic question: "[When] you have a project, who do you want on the project, who don`t you want on the project?" In a split second, we`ve made a performance or a potential performance and capability assessment, so why aren`t we spending our time having detailed dialogue with our people about what can help them improve and develop? That`s caused us to change our thought process and, more importantly, our working process of evaluating individuals.
TM: How do you develop leadership behaviors that lead to optimal performance?
Shuman: Part of it bubbled up from our people expressing concerns about how we could be more productive. We put a stake in the ground over two years ago to become a high-performing organization. It`s a lofty goal, but we started to dissect that into components about expectations for leaders, people, rewards, capability, and what does all that look like?
We discovered we needed certain levels of development to lead people to be more innovative and effective. So we put in place expectation setting, and we made individuals accountable for that. We put in learning and development capabilities at various levels in our organization to align that. We published corporate-wide goals and then set up the capability to align those goals with individual goals. This is one of the reasons we chose an individual talent management approach with Authoria; we`re allowed to do most of it on a screen. Individuals have access to this information in a single place.
TM: How does Harris develop organizational culture and high-performing employee attitudes?
Shuman: It starts with our values as a company. We took those values and tied them to the competencies that we as a leadership team expect of ourselves and our people as we look at becoming a high-performing global organization. We spent a lot of time aligning our values, our competencies and our particular business drivers.
That focus has led to certain levels of training and development, certain coaching and assessments that we`ve done for our people to make sure we have a common view of where we`re going as a company. As we look at organization design and succession, it allows us to see who has the skill sets and the capabilities to help propel us forward.
M: What specific challenges impact talent management at Harris?
TM: What processes or programs have you established to attract, recruit and retain top talent?
Shuman: We believe our reputation stands by itself, but we go after all levels of recruiting. For college recruiting, we groom individuals from co-ops and interns, as well as go after the best schools we can to attract talent and teach them what life is like at Harris. We`ve done that in a nontraditional method. We don`t just go college recruiting: We refer to it as "university relations."
We get a university where we can do research, technology transfer and partner with the university. Students see us as part of the university, and they want to be part of our particular company. That`s one way we`ve been able to attract Millennials.
For mid-career individuals, we focus on technologies and capabilities and what we`re trying to do around the world so individuals really want to be part of a company recognized as one of the world`s leaders in communication and information technology. Third, we look at marquee players, individuals that have distinguished themselves in a career in the military or government. Or they are industry subject matter experts, and [we focus on] how they can help us penetrate markets and how we can help them further their careers.
TM: How do you measure workforce performance?
Shuman: When individuals get to certain levels, we measure their performance, but also their potential. We assess where the individual can go and what kind of capabilities they have, which helps us to drive their careers in a multitude of directions. We also look at our organization. We assess organizational performance with regard to external factors like market conditions or product or service, where we`re headed globally and what that looks like.
We measure our leaders in terms of traditional metrics like our ability to retain and recruit individuals. We measure our ability to forecast our business for particular needs to make sure we have the right mix of four generations in our workplace with no gaps as people near retirement age or contracts change. We also measure and hold our managers accountable for employee engagement. We use traditional surveys for that so we can make sure our employees are fully engaged.
We rate individuals as high, successful and low performers. We`ve seen a marked trend of low performers either shift into successful performers because they`ve taken it seriously, improved their particular performance or they self-select out of the company. Managers that truly manage and develop their people, their attrition rates are better than those who don`t.
Through engagement, we`ve got evidence that shows if your workforce is engaged and challenged and enjoys the work and their supervisor, retention is higher. That allows us to go after the positive and negative areas where we can influence the organization at the greatest level.
TM: How do you handle succession planning?
Shuman: We have transitioned our succession planning from more of a traditional approach involving binders and static information to a more live capability. But what we`ve really looked at is, in a technical environment, you really need to have multiple career paths. Some individuals want a technical career path, and we`ve created that. Others want a management career path, and still others want a blend of both. We have those three paths in place to allow individuals to work to their fullest capability.
We allow individuals to grow and achieve very high levels of compensation, reward, recognition and status in one of those career paths. When individuals see they have career options and can grow, individuals are more inclined to take charge of their career and look at things inside rather than outside the company to get the experience or capability they want.
TM: What`s next for talent management and workforce development at Harris?
Shuman: One, we`re actively working on our ability to on-board talent and be more effective at having individuals be able to hit the ground running quicker. Another is making sure individuals know what their total reward remuneration is and not have it as static information pulled from a variety of sources. Then they can see what kind of value they have and what kind of value the company is delivering based on their performance.
Third, we`re constantly revamping learning and development to make sure we go after skill sets we need for the future. Finally, we`re working with universities differently in our university relations. We`re anticipating changes in the skill sets we`re going to need in the future, and how can we make sure the feeder pool is getting into college? It`s going to take a long time to look at that ROI, but we believe by providing that kind of influence into the school systems we work in, we can provide a feeder pool of talent for the future
Source:
http://www.talentmgt.com/departments/insight/2009/January/837/index.php?pt=a&aid
TM: Describe Harris` approach to talent management.
Shuman: Talent management is becoming part of our DNA. It`s an expectation we have for all of our leaders to manage our most valuable resource: our people. There`s a quote, something the CEO of Monsanto said, that I`ve carried around and shared for awhile. It says we have to be clear about what talent management is not: It`s not extracurricular, something we do when the important stuff is done. It is the important stuff, and it`s not just the responsibility of HR. I`ve lived with that theme, and my CEO has clearly set the expectation for our leaders that talent management is critically important. When we speak of it we think about the whole process, integration, planning and the proactive process that ensures we have a supply of highly productive individuals in the right job with the right skills at the right time to support business strategy.
TM: What processes and programs have you established to improve workforce performance?
Shuman: It starts with workforce planning: What are the needs, skills and competencies we need today and tomorrow? How do we recruit for those particular skill sets, or how do we develop that particular skill set in-house? Then, how do we on-board individuals so they can fit into our culture and can perform at exceptional levels? To monitor that, we put performance management in place, and we`ve really changed that process over the past few years. It used to be more of an administrative process managers didn`t care to do and employees didn`t care to receive, and it was cumbersome.
Now, we spend much more time on the discussion and dialogue, rather than filling out forms. We`ve come up with learning and development plans for strengths and development needs, which lead to career-planning capability and how we reward and recognize individuals based on performance and potential. All those pieces come together to form our organization review, where we look at where the organization`s going, what`s succession look like and how do we need to change to meet the needs of our business in the future?
TShuman: We`re a company made up of engineers and scientists who are extremely skilled and capable of innovating fabulous technology. How we get that particular skill set to also manage people has been something we`ve really focused on. We`ve been able to manage that. Part of it is change management — setting expectations for our leaders and sitting down with individuals and taking responsibility for their career.
Again, because we`re scientists and engineers, we used to do performance planning to the seventh decimal point as far as how we rate somebody and where they stand. We spent endless hours trying to quantify that versus when you ask a basic question: "[When] you have a project, who do you want on the project, who don`t you want on the project?" In a split second, we`ve made a performance or a potential performance and capability assessment, so why aren`t we spending our time having detailed dialogue with our people about what can help them improve and develop? That`s caused us to change our thought process and, more importantly, our working process of evaluating individuals.
TM: How do you develop leadership behaviors that lead to optimal performance?
Shuman: Part of it bubbled up from our people expressing concerns about how we could be more productive. We put a stake in the ground over two years ago to become a high-performing organization. It`s a lofty goal, but we started to dissect that into components about expectations for leaders, people, rewards, capability, and what does all that look like?
We discovered we needed certain levels of development to lead people to be more innovative and effective. So we put in place expectation setting, and we made individuals accountable for that. We put in learning and development capabilities at various levels in our organization to align that. We published corporate-wide goals and then set up the capability to align those goals with individual goals. This is one of the reasons we chose an individual talent management approach with Authoria; we`re allowed to do most of it on a screen. Individuals have access to this information in a single place.
TM: How does Harris develop organizational culture and high-performing employee attitudes?
Shuman: It starts with our values as a company. We took those values and tied them to the competencies that we as a leadership team expect of ourselves and our people as we look at becoming a high-performing global organization. We spent a lot of time aligning our values, our competencies and our particular business drivers.
That focus has led to certain levels of training and development, certain coaching and assessments that we`ve done for our people to make sure we have a common view of where we`re going as a company. As we look at organization design and succession, it allows us to see who has the skill sets and the capabilities to help propel us forward.
M: What specific challenges impact talent management at Harris?
TM: What processes or programs have you established to attract, recruit and retain top talent?
Shuman: We believe our reputation stands by itself, but we go after all levels of recruiting. For college recruiting, we groom individuals from co-ops and interns, as well as go after the best schools we can to attract talent and teach them what life is like at Harris. We`ve done that in a nontraditional method. We don`t just go college recruiting: We refer to it as "university relations."
We get a university where we can do research, technology transfer and partner with the university. Students see us as part of the university, and they want to be part of our particular company. That`s one way we`ve been able to attract Millennials.
For mid-career individuals, we focus on technologies and capabilities and what we`re trying to do around the world so individuals really want to be part of a company recognized as one of the world`s leaders in communication and information technology. Third, we look at marquee players, individuals that have distinguished themselves in a career in the military or government. Or they are industry subject matter experts, and [we focus on] how they can help us penetrate markets and how we can help them further their careers.
TM: How do you measure workforce performance?
Shuman: When individuals get to certain levels, we measure their performance, but also their potential. We assess where the individual can go and what kind of capabilities they have, which helps us to drive their careers in a multitude of directions. We also look at our organization. We assess organizational performance with regard to external factors like market conditions or product or service, where we`re headed globally and what that looks like.
We measure our leaders in terms of traditional metrics like our ability to retain and recruit individuals. We measure our ability to forecast our business for particular needs to make sure we have the right mix of four generations in our workplace with no gaps as people near retirement age or contracts change. We also measure and hold our managers accountable for employee engagement. We use traditional surveys for that so we can make sure our employees are fully engaged.
We rate individuals as high, successful and low performers. We`ve seen a marked trend of low performers either shift into successful performers because they`ve taken it seriously, improved their particular performance or they self-select out of the company. Managers that truly manage and develop their people, their attrition rates are better than those who don`t.
Through engagement, we`ve got evidence that shows if your workforce is engaged and challenged and enjoys the work and their supervisor, retention is higher. That allows us to go after the positive and negative areas where we can influence the organization at the greatest level.
TM: How do you handle succession planning?
Shuman: We have transitioned our succession planning from more of a traditional approach involving binders and static information to a more live capability. But what we`ve really looked at is, in a technical environment, you really need to have multiple career paths. Some individuals want a technical career path, and we`ve created that. Others want a management career path, and still others want a blend of both. We have those three paths in place to allow individuals to work to their fullest capability.
We allow individuals to grow and achieve very high levels of compensation, reward, recognition and status in one of those career paths. When individuals see they have career options and can grow, individuals are more inclined to take charge of their career and look at things inside rather than outside the company to get the experience or capability they want.
TM: What`s next for talent management and workforce development at Harris?
Shuman: One, we`re actively working on our ability to on-board talent and be more effective at having individuals be able to hit the ground running quicker. Another is making sure individuals know what their total reward remuneration is and not have it as static information pulled from a variety of sources. Then they can see what kind of value they have and what kind of value the company is delivering based on their performance.
Third, we`re constantly revamping learning and development to make sure we go after skill sets we need for the future. Finally, we`re working with universities differently in our university relations. We`re anticipating changes in the skill sets we`re going to need in the future, and how can we make sure the feeder pool is getting into college? It`s going to take a long time to look at that ROI, but we believe by providing that kind of influence into the school systems we work in, we can provide a feeder pool of talent for the future
Source:
http://www.talentmgt.com/departments/insight/2009/January/837/index.php?pt=a&aid
