Human Resources – Current Talent Management Function: IKEA Assignment: Current Talent Management Function Before beginning any talent management initiativ

Human Resources – Current Talent Management Function: IKEA Assignment: Current Talent Management Function

Before beginning any talent management initiative, a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis of an organization’s current talent management function can help ensure the initiative is adding value to the organization. It can also lead to sound decisions and act as a foundation for the initiative. The first step of developing the SWOT matrix involves the collection and evaluation of key data. Depending on the organization, these data might include population demographics, diversity of products, technology, financial footing, legal environment, acquisitions, and regulatory or political climate.

Once the data have been collected and analyzed, the organization’s capabilities in these areas are assessed. In Step 2 of the SWOT analysis, data on the organization are collected and sorted into four categories: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Strengths and weaknesses stem from factors within the organization, whereas opportunities and threats usually arise from external factors.

All papers will have an introductory paragraph that tells us a little about talent management and the use of SWOT, then introduces the company that you are preparing the SWOT for, followed by a section where you will create a minimum of 3 statements in each dimension, internal and external, to be used in each area of the SWOT, for a minimum of 12 statements that align the talent management initiative with the organizational strategy.

There should be a conclusive paragraph that hits the top 2 – 4 key points made in the paper, followed by references that were used for all the in-text citations. Use APA format and draw upon this week’s readings and your research on SWOT analysis.

RESOURCES

Articles/Readings

Johnson, M. (2010). Honing a talent for retaining talent. Financial Executive, 26(5), 20-24. Retrieved from the Walden library databases.
This article examines the impact that poor hiring and firing practices have on an organization’s success. It also discusses the financial impact that hiring and firing have on an organization.
—————————————–
King, J. (2010). IT Careers 2020. Computerworld, 44(16), 14-19. Retrieved from the Walden library databases.
Note: Only read the segment on p. 17 that is title, “IT Job Seeks Need Not Apply.”
This article explores a new approach to recruiting talent. Organizations today are looking for talent capable of having multiple career paths, rather than just hiring for the specific position.

—————————————–
Ready, D. A., & Conger, J. A. (2007). Make your company a talent factory. Harvard Business Review, 85(6), 68-77. Retrieved from https://hbsp.harvard.edu/tu/24db8ee5
The authors of this article present information found from an international survey on organizations that are satisfied with their talent pipeline. This article presents information on how organizations can overcome the struggle that some still face in building a successful talent pipeline. 02_25354_HR_F-la_eh_HR 5/18/10 10:38 AM Page 20
for
Honing a Talent
Retaining Talent
Smart chief financial officers
understand the real cost of losing
talented people in a recession
and having to recruit them again.
Knowing that more than numbers
affect the bottom line is a key
ingredient of their business’s success.
© THINKSTOCK
E
European executives have often looked
askance at the United States in the parlous times of economic depression, believing that the phrase “quick to hire
and quicker to fire” accurately described the nation’s employment practices. Against historic trends, however,
some workforce experts say U.S. employers have worked harder to retain
their employees in the current economic environment.
Göran Hultin, a former deputy
director general of the Geneva-based
International Labor Office, said,
“Indeed, they [U.S.] have practically
matched Europe in their outright zeal
to not resort to mass dismissals.”
Is this a change of heart on the part
of America’s employers? According to
Hultin, who publishes the quarterly
Global Employment Outlook,
U.S. industry has held off
By Mike
dropping the axe for highly
pragmatic reasons.
“In Europe, employers have been
reluctant to fire during this recession
for the key reason that employment
laws make it cost a lot to dismiss people — you think twice, possibly three
times.” But in the U.S., he continues,
employers are reluctant for one reason: They don’t want to lose skills and
talent they worked so hard to hire and
train. Lose them, he says, “and it’s a
very costly exercise to get them back.”
Hultin’s right. People cost money
and talent costs even more. Most organizations seem to be adept at separating
people and money into two piles:
Human resources is concerned with
employees and the finance department
is responsible for counting the results of
www.financialexecutives.org
those efforts. The problem for many
organizations is that people make up as
much as 99 percent of the corporation’s
assets. Consider, when these employees
leave every evening it is their choice to
return the following morning.
More than that, employment costs
— especially for today’s people-centric
businesses — make up a staggering
amount of the overall operating
charges of most corporations. Recruitment, retention, redundancy, reward,
training and development — not to
mention the astronomic costs of dealing with increasingly litigious former
employees — all add up to being the
most significant line in many corporate budgets.
Anthony McAlister, a partner of
Thorburn McAlister, a London-based
executive search and
Johnson employment analysis
firm that specializes in
helping organizations deal with “the
difficulties of transition” for senior
executives, says, “The problem is that
with hiring and firing, risks are practically impossible to quantify, and therefore most CFOs ignore them.”
There’s good reason for that, he
adds. “Historically, CFOs operated on
the principle ‘we only measure what
can be measured.’ That view doesn’t
work in today’s complex and increasingly ambiguous world.”
McAlister explains that poor hiring
and firing practices directly impact bottom lines. Although it may be difficult
to audit and hang numbers on, a “recently removed angry, loose cannon can
do untold financial damage in a very
short space of time. Bad-mouthing the
june 2010 | financial executive
HUMAN RESOURCES
r1_02_25354_HR_F-la_eh_HR 5/24/10 9:15 AM Page 21
21
r1_02_25354_HR_F-la_eh_HR 5/24/10 9:15 AM Page 22
Firing people in 2010 puts the
organization at considerable
reputational risk and must be the
responsibility of the leadership
team, not just HR.
— Anthony McAlister, partner,
Thorburn McAlister
organization, stealing talent from it,
moving to the competition, taking key
accounts — all these hit the bottom
line big time,” he says.
All that potential for doing damage from a disgruntled, poorly handled ex-employee, he says, has now
been magnified by today’s technology. As McAlister suggests, “remember that social media works both
ways. While your HR department is
trawling around Facebook and
LinkedIn for hot candidates your exemployee is there, too — trashing
your corporate reputation to anyone
at the click of a mouse.”
His view is that in today’s world,
the costs involved — financial and
reputational — mean that smart
CFOs need to be part of the transition
process from an early stage.
action. Allegedly wronged employees
(especially at a senior level) can wipe
a lot of percentage points off a struggling bottom line.
Tip for CFOs: Make sure there is a
robust, practical system in place to
identify and deal with these types of
issues at all levels and be prepared to
intervene early at the top level.
n Audit the costs of hiring and
firing. Turnover costs money and too
much of it. Both exit and recruitment
processes become very expensive.
Too little and you starve your business of new talent and new ideas.
Auditing recruitment, retention and
redundancy should be an integral
part of every CFO’s budget process.
n Create a talent register. Force
this issue if you have to, it’s often a
life saver, and maybe even for your
plement training courses and
off-site events by concentrating on coaching and mentoring (using the best of your
own, in-house talent).
n Clear out the “same old
consultants.” During this
recession, many smart CFOs
have used the time to challenge convention. It’s a
chance to stand tradition on
its head and look at other ways of
doing things. No organization is going
to come back from this recession looking like it did two years earlier.
As part of that, CFOs can lead the
efforts to look for new suppliers of
talent (e.g. recruiters, executivesearch firms), rework contracts and
challenge convention on everything.
Tip for CFOs: There is nothing that
should not be up for review.
The One ‘Must-Buy’ for CFOs
For CFOs, however, there is one
‘must buy’ that should be on their
managerial shopping list for dealing
with senior talent departures. There
is little doubt that top-end departures
make headlines. What the CFO doesn’t need is that news headline making headlines in the annual report.
“Senior executives leave
organizations all the time for a
wide variety of reasons —
Knowing who you’re going to hire as a replacement
underperformance, personaliwhen one of your executives quits is the difference
ty clash or simply a casting
between being on the front foot or back foot. It
error at the recruitment stage,”
makes the crucial difference about who is
McAlister says. And, with the
exception of retirement, he
really in control.
adds, “it is nearly impossible
— Lindsay Thorburn, partner, Thorburn McAlister
to plan for. But it is possible
to manage it better.”
He points out that “firing
own job. In today’s highly specialHere are some other areas where
people in 2010 puts the organization
ized world, it is vital that the organCFOs can get involved in the peopleat considerable reputational risk and
ization knows not only who the taland profit-equation and help impact
must be the responsibility of the
ent is but what it is prepared to do.
that bottom line:
leadership team, not just HR.” Senior
Tip for CFOs: Work with your
executives that distance themselves
n Productivity increases. Happy
human resources department on this.
from these developments, he says,
employees are the most productive.
n Internal coaching saves money. If
“not only demonstrate poor leaderBudgets for developments that make
you want to hold onto those producship but worse, misunderstand the
employees feel better about their jobs
tivity increases, improve retention and
great opportunity that is presented to
make sense.
make sure your business is a talent
make things better for the business.”
n Litigation. Bad firing practices are
magnet, one sure-fire way to ensure
McAlister advises: “You have to beexpensive. The way around that is to
productivity increases is to keep degin to think differently. Don’t stick with
set up the right sorts of systems and
veloping your people. You can supthe status quo. You can’t afford to.”
tackle issues before they result in legal
22
financial executive | june 2010
www.financialexecutives.org
02_25354_HR_F-la_eh_HR 5/18/10 10:38 AM Page 24
to accommodate better
As McAlister suggests,
the needs of the organi“using national one size fits
Watch Those ‘Dotted-line’
zation.
all” outplacement consultanAmong the benefits
cies for senior executive exits
Relationships
of hiring smarter are
is both short-sighted and not
Managing talent — especially talent you don’t fully
ensuring you have bestas cost effective as you think.
control — is always fraught with potential difficulty.
of-breed candidates,
Large outplacement consulRichard Savage, a United Kingdom-based organizational
reduced cost of promottancies rarely have the
adviser, points out that many chief financial officers get
ing internal candidates,
knowledge, contacts and
into tough situations because they don’t insist on havdemonstrable “good
commitment needed for a
ing responsibilities spelled out in black and white.
governance,” faster onsuccessful senior executive
boarding time for extertransition,” he says.
Often, he says, “with large international organizanal hires and effective
As Hultin noted previtions, you’ll find that businesses are broken up by
risk management of key
ously, corporations across
regions or business streams. In structures like this, it is
executives.
the U.S. have worked hard
quite usual to have local finance directors (FD) report
Here, the CFO can
— using strategies such as
to their heads of business sector or region, with a dottake
a real lead and also
furloughs, part-time and
ted-line report to the CFO at corporate headquarters.”
act
as
the “conscience”
job-share initiatives — to
Still, this relationship can lead to problems. “Local FDs
of
the
organization.
hold onto the talent they
have to please their boss and so the CFO [at corporate]
Whether
it is seeking
want to keep.
can be put into a very difficult situation in trying to get
ways
to
make
people
But transition, of course,
things achieved that he or she sees as necessary for the
better
(and
saving
monworks both ways. Even in
whole business.”
ey at the same time)
these tough times companies
Savage’s advice: “From the very beginning, get it clear
finding new ways to
find themselves with the
in
writing
what part of the dotted-line relationship is berecruit, being sensible
other need — recruitment.
tween the CFO and the local FD. Spell out what part of the
with removing those
Here, McAlister’s partner,
relationship is between the local FD and his [or her] local
that need to move on, or
Lindsay Thorburn, highboss. That way it is all too clear who takes responsibility
knowing just what tallights a few items that too
for what.” A note of caution: “This is especially true when
ent you have and what
often get left out. First, she
things begin to unravel — usually around year end.”
that talent is prepared
says, “knowing who you’re
to do, the CFO has both
going to hire as a replacean active and a goverment when one of your
nance role.
senior executives quits is the
Few companies will come back
usually indicate that your retention
difference between being on the front
from recession the same as they
strategies are world-class.”
foot or the back foot. It makes the cruwere two years ago. And they
According to Thorburn, partnering
cial difference about who is really in
shouldn’t. Smart companies and
with a flexible and innovative search
control.”
smart CFOs know that there’s a lot
consultancy can do the following:
Second, she says, taking the easy
that can be done to not only
n Analyze all key roles in the organioption and going for the natural
improve the bottom line but hone
zation and understand exactly what
internal candidate (usually because it
and sharpen the people power that
the role entails. Most organizations
is quicker and cheaper) may reduce
leads to those improvements.
only do this when there is a vacancy
the risk of failure somewhat, but usuAuditing people power rather
and often key elements are crucially
ally means that “what you get is a
than simply adding up dollars may
overlooked.
person who is ‘fit for purpose’ but not
be the new-look CFO recipe for a
n Identify the “heir apparent” and
‘best of breed.’ ”
healthy corporation for the next
benchmark them against best of breed.
Thorburn believes that talent mandecade. Effective corporate overAdvise on development where releagement, like communism, “works in
sight — a key role for any CFO —
vant, but have a third party deliver
theory, but not in practice.” When you
should not only include balancing
this to avoid a conflict of interest.
have the right person ready to step into
the company’s books, but ensuring
n Identify four people externally for
a vacant senior role it is usually a cointhat its employees are balanced too.
each role who are interested in joincidence of timing. She says the “acid test
ing the organization.
in any organization is how often its peon Be transparent and inclusive with
ple are being headhunted.”
MIKE JOHNSON is chairman of the global
all candidates and establish personalIndeed, adds Thorburn, “if your
think-tank FutureWork Forum and a conity and culture fit as early on as you
people are not being poached, you
sultant and writer. He’s author of 11 books inreasonably can.
might want to think what that really
cluding the just-published Starting Up On
n Innovate different fee structures
means. In my experience it doesn’t
Your Own, Financial Times, June 2010.
24
financial executive | june 2010
www.financialexecutives.org
Copyright of Financial Executive is the property of Financial Executives International and its content may not
be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written
permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
[In 2020] technology
will be more prevalent
in other parts of the
business and not just the
purview of IT.
TIM FERRARELL, CIO. W.W. GRAINGER INC.
•
•

SPECIAL REPORT
When the cloud blots out
the classic IT shop, only the techsavvy business experts will
weather the storm.
BY JULIA KING
ELCOME TO the IT organization of
the year 2020 — and brace yourself,
because it’s a far cry from the department you ñnd yourself in today.
Computer programmers have
gone the way of the typing pool. So
have one-dimensional technology
specialists like network engineers. Deeply technical professionals
with multiple certifications in virtualization, networking and security technologies work primarily as component engineers and IT
architects. Job titles include cloud architect, cloud capacity planner,
cloud infrastructure administrator and integration architect.
The people who work in these roles design and maintain the underlying framework or architecture. On top of this architecture sits a
shifting inventory of cloud services, plug-and-play Web-based applications and easy-to-use proprietary software components that together
represent the key source of a company’s competitive advantage.
How these various components will be innovatively mixed and
matched will largely be decided by marketing, supply chain and
IT Careers
C0MPUTERW0RL0.COM
15
NEW ROLES
IT CAREERS 2020
Do you think your current IT job function will exist in 2020?
Yes. but it
will have
changed
dramaticallv:
26%
-Yes: 5 7 %
You need to get skilled
in emerging technologies
and develop a deep
technical skill set.
Not likely:
7%
NO: 1 0 %
MARKO’GARA,
VICE PRESIDENT. HIGHMARK INC.
NEW SHOPS
In 2020, will tbere be a traditionai
IT department as we now know it?
Yes, the functions of
the IT department
will change only —
slightly by the year^
2020: 2 7 %
M
ml
HH
mm^H
Yes. there
will be an IT
department
as we now
know it: 9 %
• •/
^ H
^ V
•
1
Don’t know: 2 %
HH
No. thelTdepart^ ^
ment will become
^^^k
a dramatically
^^^^^
different kind
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ of operation by
^ ^ ^ B ^
the year 2020:
^^TT^
M am.
má
y V
1I •
^^^W
^ ^ ^
^ ^
Other: 3 %
No.thestandalone IT department won’t exist
2020:11%
NEW WORLD
What do you tbink tbe IT sbop of 2020 will look like?
IT will be fully embedded
in the business units:
16%
other: 6 %
IT won’t exist
as a stand-alone
department:
7%
n
IT will he a career
backwater of IT/technical
specialists: 9 %
SOURCE: EXCLUSIVE ÍOUPUllSI’HO!>Lt¡ SURVEY
OF 465 IT PROFESSIONALS. JULY 2010
IT will be a
two-tiered organization, with
some people
embedded in
business
departments
and other
strictly
technicallyfocused people
within a smaller
IT department:
62%
other business functions and divisions that will be guided by a
second tier of IT professionals: super-IT-savvy business experts
who reside in the business. They don’t build software, but they
work with the business to invent new products and services.
They also assemble the software components needed to bring
those offerings to market. They have titles like business systems
analyst and business solutions consultant.
Sound far-fetched? It’s only 2010, but already, the sawiest
companies are well along the path of implementing this kind of
two-tiered IT workforce structure.
“2020 is already here,” says Ian Patterson, CIO at St. Louisbased Scottrade. There, the IT organization includes project managers and business analysts with deep analytical and communication skills, and technical architects, who make sure “we don’t step
on ourselves by doing something that will negatively impact the
business from a technology standpoint,” Patterson says.
Going forward, CIOs and IT employment experts predict
that this bifurcation of IT roles will vastly accelerate, with most
professionals falling into one of two major categories: technical
specialists and business specialists.
Tier 1: Tech Specialists
Technical specialists are the people who work in a centralized
IT or business services organization. If you want to work here,
you need to know about data standards, information standards,
virtualization, networks, mobile technology and IT architecture, among other things. “You need to get skilled in emerging
technologies and develop a deep technical skill set,” says Mark
O’Gara, vice president of infrastructure at Highmark Inc., a
health insurer in Harrisburg, Pa.
Overall, this organization will have far fewer people than
today’s IT department, but these workers will have an extremely
rich set of technical skills, and they will understand precisely
1 6
COMPUTERWORLO
AUGUST 23. 2 0 1 0
IT Job Seekers
Need Not Apply
Megatrends 2020
As IT operations become inextricably linked with business
A
operations, it seems likeiy that whatever big trends affect
the business will have ramifications for IT.
s IT ROLES MOVE UP the value chain, companies like Johnson & Johnson. State Street.
W.W. Grainger. General Mills and Xerox are
looking to hire smart, tech-savvy, collaborative
business professionals for 20- or 30-year multi-
faceted careers, not for IT jobs.
Big businesses w
ger. Small businesses’
proressionais win wor
“I believe the idea of hiring people for a job is well past.” says
for either very big compa-
survive. And midsize busi-
nies or very smaii ones.
nesses will be squeez”*
And IT vendors will ^ –
out. Expect more mi
either giants or boi
LaVerne Council. CIO at Johnson S Johnson. Instead. Council
and other savvy IT and business leaders are more focused than
ever on developing sophisticated job-rotation programs and
flexible career paths that offer employees exposure and expe-
and acqu
rience throughout the enterprise and significantly boost their
Government
opportunities to move up and branch out within the company
will take up a g
overtime.
portion of management’s
“We have a talen…
Purchase answer to see full
attachment