TM - February 2008 - (Page 52)

application by Ben Warden Seagate Uses Yearlong Evaluations to Help Integrate Talent Efforts With offices from Minneapolis to Pittsburgh and Paris to Taiwan, Seagate Technology is a global company with global talent management needs. Founded in 1979, the once small computer hardware manufacturer has grown into a 55,000-employee enterprise with equally great talent management needs around managing, recruiting, retaining and assessing all levels of organizational talent. In order to meet these challenges and ensure their HR practices align with the company’s overall goals, Seagate implemented a integrated talent approach featuring a yearlong employee evaluation process. To facilitate and promote systemic talent management activity for Seagate’s expansive global layout and large employee base, its talent approach breaks down into four regularly scheduled quadrants: planning, aligning, developing and evaluating. Combined, the four offer stability and consistency to help talent managers fulfill the needs of a diverse, global employee base. Debbie Hancock, vice president of HR global leadership and learning, said the strict yearlong schedule coupled with automated technology helps the company tackle the breadth and scope of its talent management strategy. “We look at an integrated approach as being the key to driving performance and talent management throughout Seagate,” Hancock said. “That involves setting goals and identifying competencies down to the job level. Creating development plans, succession management and running reports also includes our learning management system, which houses all the content that we have from a leadership perspective all the way down to an individual contributor perspective. It houses many of our Web sites, which again support our overall talent management process.” Hancock said Seagate has worked hard to develop a performance-based culture to reward individual contributions and promote accountability throughout its immense employee base. Evaluations are a big part of this. Most companies treat performance management activity around employee evaluations like a once-a-year project. Seagate’s approach is a continuous yearlong cycle that includes many factors, such as leadership development. Its integrated, online talent management approach helps to support this cycle, using tools such as IMAP — a program that allows a local client to access e-mail on a remote server — and other data collected on the employees throughout the year. “At the end of the year, all of this gets rolled in to performance evaluation,” Hancock said. “So, as a manager of direct reports, I can always see my employee’s goals and measures. More importantly, I can hear what they say around how they accomplish their goals throughout the year. We try to integrate everything very highly. In addition to the development plans and competencies, all our leadership development programs are tied in to support our competencies, so there’s a direct support and linkage to everything that we do.” It’s virtually impossible to have valuable evaluations without establishing performance goals, and since Seagate takes a yearlong approach to the former, the latter naturally involves a more substantive process as well. Seagate uses a systematic approach to identify the current and future business needs, as well as defined actions for each critical job role, in case an immediate succession need should arise. Managers are encouraged to hold regularly scheduled performance meetings throughout the year, as well as run an IMAP-based evaluation and an employee survey. Marquam Spiros, senior director of performance management at Seagate, said this trickle-down from the top assessment scenario ensures goals are estab- 52 February 2008 talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com http://www.TalentMgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of TM - February 2008

Talent Management - February 2008 Editor's Letter - Talkin' 'Bout My Generation Contents Human Performance - Achievement Motivation: Top Talent At Any Age Leading Edge - Who's On First? Foundations - Managing the Next Generation Workforce Viewpoint - Talent Strategies That Work Are Talent Strategies That Stick Those Who Have Left: The Value of Building Employee Relationships Alternatives to 360s: The Manager's Role Compensation and Benefits For X&Y Build A Multigenerational Performance Management Strategy Development's Role in Creating A Culture Of Inclusion Tomorrow's Leader: Identifying the Next Generation Integrating Talent Management Systems Strategically Seagate Uses Yearlong Evaluations to Help Integrate Talent Efforts Western Union: Connecting Strategy and People Globally Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources Full Potential - The Best Time to Change? Right Now!

TM - February 2008

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