TM - May 2008 - (Page 40) insight by Kellye Whitney Graybar: Supporting a Long-Term View of Talent Management Today very few companies market themselves , with long-term employee candidates in mind. Graybar, a leading North American equipment distributor specializing in supply chain management is one of the exceptions. , Graybar has made a habit of promoting from within and has built a comprehensive talent management strategy to support it. Kathy Mazzarella, senior vice president of human resources and strategic planning, took a moment to explain how things work for the organization’s 8,500 employees. TM: Mazzarella: formance? What processes or programs have you established to improve workforce per- TM: Mazzarella: Describe Graybar’s approach to talent management. We’re very much into a long-term view as an organization. We like to keep and develop employees, so we need to recruit employees who can develop and thrive, and want to build long-term careers. We need to engage them and develop programs that will continue to evolve as business challenges evolve. Our approach to talent management is very broad. Every year we have a strategic plan as an organization, and we build a workforce plan around our strategic plan. We call it the State of the Workforce report. We do an environmental analysis, which includes the economic environment, industry trends, external factors such as regulatory issues, technology security, overall workforce trends, what we’re seeing out there in the world — demographics, forecasts, any talent management best practices where companies are trending. We develop an internal analysis, our demographics, our talent management practices, productivity data and such, and then we try to marry the two. We try to build it so everything we do supports alignment with the business objectives. We do basic performance reviews every year and a midyear review. We’ve averaged 95 to 98 percent completion of our performance evaluations year over year. Now we’re focusing on quality. We use a lot of the report to make sure we have goal alignment, and we are starting to measure employee productivity more in-depth to make sure that any areas employees need to improve, they don’t wait too long to work on them. What special challenges impact talent management at Graybar? TM: Mazzarella: One of the biggest external factors we have is that wholesale distribution doesn’t have industry visibility. There aren’t many schools that teach students about distribution, which is interesting because one out of 20 jobs in the United States is in wholesale distribution. It’s a $4 trillion industry in the U.S. Of course, you’ve got the demographic shifts, which everybody’s dealing with, and the changing expectations of the new workforce. A lot of universities tell folks coming out of school, ‘You’re going to change jobs X amount,’ and that’s very different from our culture. We like to get them, develop people, continue to help them learn and improve themselves until they retire and into retirement. Then, internally at Graybar, many times talent management is viewed as an HR thing, 40 May 2008 talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com http://www.TalentMgt.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of TM - May 2008 Talent Management - May 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Human Performance Leading Edge Learning Connections Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take The Four Pillars of Managing Performance Transform Talent With Deeper Skill Specialization Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning Graybar: Supporting a Long-Term View of Talent Management American Diabetes Association: On a Mission to Improve Employee Health Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? American Systems Employees Earn a Piece of the Pie Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources Full Potential TM - May 2008 TM - May 2008 - (Page Intro) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page Cover1) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page Cover2) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page 1) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page 2) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page 3) TM - May 2008 - Editor's Letter (Page 4) TM - May 2008 - Editor's Letter (Page 5) TM - May 2008 - Contents (Page 6) TM - May 2008 - Contents (Page 7) TM - May 2008 - Contents (Page 8) TM - May 2008 - Contents (Page 9) TM - May 2008 - Human Performance (Page 10) TM - May 2008 - Human Performance (Page 11) TM - May 2008 - Leading Edge (Page 12) TM - May 2008 - Leading Edge (Page 13) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 14) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 15) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 16) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 17) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 18) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 19) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 20) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 21) TM - May 2008 - Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations (Page 22) TM - May 2008 - Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations (Page 23) TM - May 2008 - Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations (Page 24) TM - May 2008 - Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations (Page 25) TM - May 2008 - Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take (Page 26) TM - May 2008 - Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take (Page 27) TM - May 2008 - Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take (Page 28) TM - May 2008 - Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take (Page 29) TM - May 2008 - The Four Pillars of Managing Performance (Page 30) TM - May 2008 - The Four Pillars of Managing Performance (Page 31) TM - May 2008 - The Four Pillars of Managing Performance (Page 32) TM - May 2008 - The Four Pillars of Managing Performance (Page 33) TM - May 2008 - Transform Talent With Deeper Skill Specialization (Page 34) TM - May 2008 - Transform Talent With Deeper Skill Specialization (Page 35) TM - May 2008 - Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning (Page 36) TM - May 2008 - Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning (Page 37) TM - May 2008 - Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning (Page 38) TM - May 2008 - Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning (Page 39) TM - May 2008 - Graybar: Supporting a Long-Term View of Talent Management (Page 40) TM - May 2008 - Graybar: Supporting a Long-Term View of Talent Management (Page 41) TM - May 2008 - American Diabetes Association: On a Mission to Improve Employee Health (Page 42) TM - May 2008 - American Diabetes Association: On a Mission to Improve Employee Health (Page 43) TM - May 2008 - Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? (Page 44) TM - May 2008 - Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? (Page 45) TM - May 2008 - Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? (Page 46) TM - May 2008 - Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? (Page 47) TM - May 2008 - American Systems Employees Earn a Piece of the Pie (Page 48) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page 49) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page 50) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page 51) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page 52) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page Cover3) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page Cover4)
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