TM - April 2008 - (Page 46) recruitment & retention assessment & evaluation compensation & benefits performance management learning & development succession planning Midwest ISO: Growing Its Own Kellye Whitney Succession planning is one of an organization’s best bets to prevent critical talent gaps and ensure the continuity of the leadership pipeline, particularly in industries experiencing greater than average difficulty finding qualified employees. The Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator Inc. (Midwest ISO), an integrated regional transmission organization, began to address its shortage of engineers more than three years ago by developing partnerships with colleges noted for their engineering and power system operations programs. Since that time, Midwest ISO internships have evolved into several different programs including its traditional summer internship program, a coop program in which students are assigned specific company projects as part of their semester-long college curriculum and a 12-18 month program called Next Step that focuses on post-graduate students. Interns can be found throughout the organization in departments such as operations, tariffs, settlements and markets. “Companies that are really planning their workforce, and anticipating their pipeline and talent shortages and succession planning long term, have gotten serious about the assignments they give their interns. From a strategic standpoint, the internship clearly is a vital pipeline for us,” said Jim Nichols, Midwest ISO’s executive director of human resources. “The interns and the co-ops are given real work and put on staff as full-time people. They are required to report their project results to officers at the end of the summer, and we have incorporated their studies into many processes at the company.” Midwest ISO interns take on a variety of tasks. One recurring summer intern in communications, with skills in video editing program Adobe Premier Pro, shot videos and created snippets called Take Fives that are used to give new hires an overview of the company’s various departments. “We’ve taken that project a little farther now that she’s back in the classroom, but on the principal side, it’s always nice for me to find someone who can teach me the new and more sophisticated software than this old dog is used to using. She’s been a real asset, and she’s created some tangible work product for us,” said Carl Dombek, Midwest ISO’s manager of external communications. Mike Begley, Midwest ISO’s manager of recruiting and workforce planning, has had an intern working for him for the past three years, and she has taken on a variety of tasks related to recruiting and training, including putting together displays and takeaways for schools fairs where she has helped market Midwest ISO as an employer of choice. “We’ve focused on one particular school in St. Paul, Minn., that has a master’s program in organizational psychology. That has worked out well for us to get a lot of candidates from there. This summer, she put together a survey so that we can make an assessment of new hires and see where we can tweak the on-boarding process, make fixes and modify and simplify. She put together another survey for the hiring managers to see where we can make their lives easier. Also, she’s come up with a process for calculating recruiting costs so I can make sure we have a streamlined process to accurately account for the dollars we spend.” During the past three years, the company has hired 24 of its former interns, all of whom are still working with the company, and the program has grown in popularity with managers. The number of participating schools also has grown. Nichols said interns who’ve been hired are considered candidates for succession planning, as they satisfy various criteria and grow in their careers. Their purpose is to feed Midwest ISO’s talent pipeline so, when the time comes, there will be highly qualified people on hand to take on needed roles. “The intern program and the Next Step program, or what I call ‘grow our own,’ that’s our pipeline for the next generation,” Begley said. 46 talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com http://www.TalentMgt.com
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