TM - August 2008 - (Page 24)

recruitment & retention assessment & evaluation compensation & beneﬁts performance management learning & development succession planning SAP uses a hybrid system to assess talent, Clark said. Part of that evaluation takes place at a regional level, in which the company’s use adapted methods to accommodate countries and lines of business to support more speciﬁc needs. The other part occurs globally. “From a global standpoint, we have our talent review process for a variety of different measures,” she said. “At SAP we look at the whole population to see who , the high potentials are and who the emerging potentials are. There are standards and criteria that we apply across the globe for those assessments.” One global assessment methodology at SAP is a 360-degree assessment tool called ME², Management Excellence Evaluation. “We internally branded that way because there are certain competencies that assessment is built upon,” Clark explained. “We piloted this course before we launched it, and in 2007, we did nearly a full implementation of this solution. By 2009, every SAP manager will participate in the assessment. “For the ME² program, where we actually have our scale that says what it looks like and offers a competency framework. The person can envision it when they’re making those assessments. Do I think it totally guards against a skew to the positive? No. There’s no foolproof assessment that will guarantee any statisti- cal level of signiﬁcance, but we aim to get that commonality that’s so needed.” Keeping It Simple One of the main ways Nissan North America ensures meaningful assessment at a global level is by measuring simple yet consequential proﬁciencies. These make up a single standard for all employees: the “Nissan Way.” “Whether you’re a top-level executive or an entry-level employee, we try to teach you the Nissan Way,” said Mike Steck, senior director of talent management at Nissan North America. “We structure that in terms of mindsets and actions — the way we want you to think as an employee and the way we want you to act as an employee. “Mindsets would be things like transparency. If you see an issue, you ask questions or volunteer information you might have, or learning, where you’re passionate about learning new things, areas and functions, and trying to convey that to employees if you’re a manager,” he explained. “Actions might be how you perform against commitments and targets. We set certain objectives and expect people to hit a committed level of performance, as well as a stretch target. An action might be continuously challenging your own status quo. Just because you’re SAP: Assessing Talent Amid Rapid Growth Brian Summerﬁeld The German-based, international technology provider SAP Global has grown a great deal in just a few years and has expanded in an entrepreneurial fashion. While no one’s complaining about the company’s success — at least not at SAP — assessing its rapidly swelling workforce has been something of a challenge for Virginia Clark, vice president of learning and talent management. Fortunately for her, she has been able to use SAP software for most of the assessments she performs. “We want to drink our own champagne,” Clark said. “I like to say that instead of eating our own dog food.” Clark said key areas of measurement in recent years have been in sales performance, attrition and retention, and employee satisfaction. “While I look at those workforce performance indicators globally, clearly each line of business will have its own metrics,” she explained. “In this market, we need to be looking a lot at attrition and retention. This labor shortage is affecting everybody.” That happens to be one area in which SAP is performing well, she said. “Our overall attrition rate is pretty good,” she said. “I truly think it goes back to having engaged employees who are fully committed and give more. If you look at our employee-satisfaction results, SAP is way up in the 80 percent satisfaction range. I came to SAP from a company that would have jumped up and down to be in the 70s.” She said creating a learning culture had been identiﬁed as an area in need of improvement. However, SAP already is moving in that direction. In February 2006, the company launched a Career Success Center that helps employees ﬁnd mentors and create a learning plan. Within six weeks of being rolled out, it had 97 percent penetration and 250,000-plus visits. “One of the reasons they hired me three years ago was to drive continuous learning and development,” Clark said. “I think that’s what we need to do better. We put some fundamentals in, so we’ve gotten past 101. Now we need to get to 201.” 24 talent management magazine www.talentmgt.com http://www.talentmgt.com

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

TM - August 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Human Performance Leading Edge Foundations Global Background Screening Does Global Assessment Work? Global Total Renumeration: Creat One Organization Border Insecurity: Immigration Reform and Talent Management The Global Workforce: Communication Across Cultures Around the World in How Many Days? Insight: Exelon: Performance Under Pressure Special Report: Perspectives on Managing People Application: Reinventing Sales Rewards at Motorola Dashboard: Mideast Meets West Dashboard: Mergers and Acquisitions 2008 - Don’t Leave Employees Behind Editorial Resources Advertisers' Index Full Potential

TM - August 2008

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