TM - November 2007 - (Page 64)

TM: What processes or programs has Nationwide established to attract, recruit and retain top talent? One of our best tools is the employee-referral program. We pay nearly $2 million a year to our associates for bringing in great talent. We have a strong university relations program that has interns and rotation programs associated with it. Obviously, we use the Internet, and we use headhunters. So, from an external recruiting and attracting approach, we use all those vehicles. From a retention standpoint, we feel like we have a great culture here at Nationwide, one that is sort of born from our Midwest farming roots, and we believe that helping people goes right to our saying — being on your side is who we are at our core. Our benefits programs reflect that. We’re one of the few companies that still have a formal, traditional pension plan and a 401(k) plan. Parker: It feels like we are doing replacement planning as much as we’re doing succession management or succession planning. But we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 70-plus successors ready now for our top positions, with the goal of having more. Parker: TM: How do you measure workforce performance and use assessments to manage Nationwide’s talent? From a tools standpoint, it’s all online. We have an electronic performance management process that all ties back to those business metrics, things that are tangible that we can see and measure. Parker: This customer service thing, when you go back and look at the workforce performance across the organization and match it up to where we want to be and where we need to be from a customer-service standpoint — we don’t think we’re there. So, the focus over the next few years is going to be on implementing that assessment for selection across the board, so that when people join Nationwide, we have a real good idea of where their customer service skill set is. Even if they’re not always in a customer-facing role, we’d want that broad capability to be in the organization, so everyone, even if it’s not your everyday job, sees it is tied to and is aligned with our customers’ needs. TM: Parker: How do you use workforce performance data to drive future initiatives? TM: How have your workforce performance management activities contributed to Nationwide’s bottom line? From a compensation management standpoint, there’s a couple different strategies that people can take, whether you are the 25th percentile of the market, the 50th percentile or the 75th percentile. You can pick a number based on a skill set or what the market has available, and you set your mark. But we’re competitive. It’s not just a base salary number — it’s a base and a short-term and a long-term incentive. We don’t view compensation just as dollars that you take home. The 401(k) and the pension plan are strong attractors when we’re talking to people and bringing them in. There are many different experiences that you can have within Nationwide, which is one umbrella (one large company of 36,000 employees) but also many different functional and corporate business units. You can have a multiyear career and work in many different organizations. The ability for people to weave in and out of different teams, projects and work is pretty attractive, especially to some of the Generation X and Generation Y individuals who are entering the workforce today. November 2007 TM: Parker: What is Nationwide’s approach to compensation management? There are certainly cost-savings initiatives that have gone on over the past years with names like “Challenge the Base” and things of that nature that have made us think about and look at our expenses differently. Rather than doing the same old thing, it’s stopping and thinking to make sure that what we’re doing adds value to our customers. And when you look at the financials over the past seven years, there has been an increase, and certainly some of it can be tied to the talent that we’ve brought into the organization. Parker: TM: What’s next for Nationwide in terms of talent management and workforce performance development? TM: What is Nationwide’s approach to succession planning? As I look into the future, it’s really taking it to a predictive level. So, it’s taking workforce planning and performance and the development and analytics, and really being able to predict where we have talent gaps or shortages or skill gaps. Are baby boomers really going to retire en masse, and are they going to stay retired, or are they going to come back? And which subset of baby boomers is more likely to come back after they’ve been out for three to five years and realize that they’re bored, and they want to do something different? Parker: 64 talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com http://www.TalentMgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of TM - November 2007

Talent Management - November 2007 Editor's Letter Contents Letters to the Editor Human Performance Leading Edge Learning Connections Viewpoint Finding Candidates with the Right Fit Turning HR Data Into Business Intelligence Compensation Technology: Drive Higher Performance, Gain Competitive Advantage The Art and Science of Influence Training the Ethical Workforce Making the Best Managers Application: Pre-Hire Testing Drives Down Employee Turnover at Advnace Auto Parts Dashboard: The Role of Learning Business Process Outsourcing Insight: Nationwide Insurance: On Employees' Side Advertiser's Index Editorial Resources Full Potential

TM - November 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.