TM - February 2008 - (Page 53)

lished and distributed to employees at all levels of the organization. “The way the process works in terms of goal formation, for starters, upper management develops objectives they want to accomplish,” Spiros said. “Then they hand it off to their corporate strategy team and break those down into the pieces of the organization that they best need to integrate. It’s also a priority to manage the overall process of getting goals and development plans into the system by the time of the company’s committed deadline.” Alignment and development complete the other two pillars in Seagate’s talent management framework. Development, specifically leadership development, gives the company dexterity by promoting a common companywide language for goals and tools. To achieve proper talent management process alignment, Spiros said Seagate often fine-tunes or changes goals and development plans to fit the company’s business objectives. “They’re subtle tweaks. It’s nothing radical, so it’s like closing a book and picking up a new book, or like more chapters within a book,” he said. “From year to year, there are subtle changes made, and the focus of the evaluations may be tweaked based on feedback from prior years, but there is continuity from one year to the next.” This helps employees and managers close current skill gaps for key roles, as well as discover future skill gaps. Employee development is broken into several different programs, including strategic leadership development, leadership development and a global mentoring program to facilitate the company’s international development efforts. Seagate puts emphasis on the speed with which these programs are implemented, especially in terms of leadership development, where initiatives can look great, but may never get off the ground because other more pressing talent issues take precedence. Despite this small issue, Hancock said development is one way Seagate’s talent programs can rise above the rest. “It was not unusual [before our new initiative] to have volumes of leadership development programs that had been on the books for five or six years, maybe even longer. There were fundamental courses that everyone needed to go through, no matter when you join the organization, that were always the priority,” he explained. “We try and always look to what is the next thing our leaders need. How can we better develop leaders? What new skill sets are going to be required? How do those tie in to the overall corporate objectives and strategies?” Seagate’s integrated talent approach begins by aligning the calendars for the business and talent management wings of the company. The first fiscal quarter for Seagate begins in July, when managers complete performance evaluations. Managers spend the next two months compiling the information, creating goals, competencies and development plans. They hold meetings between employees and their direct reports, discussing everything from performance evaluations and progress reviews to compensation. Starting in October, the second quarter, executives create and edit their successor pools and receive updates on Seagate’s companywide talent profile. The third quarter offers more of the same, although this time it includes another round of direct review progress reports. The last part of the year, in early summer, finds Seagate more in final review mode, completing ratings and final performance evaluations, which are followed by employee self-evaluations. Due to the tight planning and a yearlong calendar of talent-motivated activity during this time, many executives perform organizational planning for the next fiscal year instead of playing catch-up until the end. Hancock said aligning both the talent management and fiscal calendars helps to solve many natural problems that can come up between the two, but others are not so easy to vanquish. The long gestation process to implement some leadership development programs is one example. “For me, it’s been a whole change initiative moving into an IT self-service arena, making certain we’re aware of technology and where it’s headed, being able to jump as quickly as we need to jump and be as flexible as we can be, really to keep up with the Application continued on page 56 talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com 53 February 2008 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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