global talent management case study

• A-Z Publications

Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior

Volume 11, 2024, review article, open access, global talent management: a critical review and research agenda for the new organizational reality.

• Paula M. Caligiuri 1 , David G. Collings 2 , Helen De Cieri 3 , and Mila B. Lazarova 4,5
• View Affiliations Hide Affiliations Affiliations: 1 D'Amore McKim School of Business, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts; email: [email protected] 2 Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin, Ireland 3 Monash Business School, Monash University, Caulfield East, Victoria, Australia 4 Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 5 Department of Management, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria
• Vol. 11:393-421 (Volume publication date January 2024) https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-111821-033121
• Copyright © 2024 by the author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See credit lines of images or other third-party material in this article for license information

Global talent management (GTM) refers to management activities in a multinational enterprise (MNE) that focus on attracting, motivating, deploying, and retaining high performing and/or high potential employees in strategic roles across a firm's global operations. Despite the critical importance for individual and firm outcomes, scholarly analysis and understanding lack synthesis, and there is limited evidence that MNEs are managing their talent effectively on a global scale. In this article, we review the GTM literature and identify the challenges of implementing GTM in practice. We explore how GTM is aligned with MNE strategy, examine how talent pools are identified, and highlight the role of global mobility. We discuss GTM at the macro level, including the exogenous factors that impact talent management and the outcomes of GTM at various levels. Finally, we identify some emerging challenges and opportunities for the future of GTM.

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Six Principles of Effective Global Talent Management

Following talent management best practices can only take you so far. top-performing companies subscribe to a set of principles that are consistent with their strategy and culture..

• Talent Management
• Global Strategy

Internal consistency in talent management practices — in other words, the way a company’s talent management practices fit with each other — is key, as companies such as Siemens recognize.

Image courtesy of Siemens.

One of the biggest challenges facing companies all over the world is building and sustaining a strong talent pipeline. Not only do businesses need to adjust to shifting demographics and work force preferences, but they must also build new capabilities and revitalize their organizations — all while investing in new technologies, globalizing their operations and contending with new competitors. What do companies operating in numerous markets need to do to attract and develop the very best employees so they can be competitive globally? To learn how leading multinational companies are facing up to the talent test, we examined both qualitative and quantitative data at leading companies from a wide range of industries all over the world.

About the Research

This paper is based on a multiyear collaborative research project on global talent management practices and principles by an international team of researchers from INSEAD, Cornell, Cambridge and Tilburg universities. The research looked at 33 multinational corporations, headquartered in 11 countries, and examined 18 companies in depth. We selected the case companies based on their superior business performance and reputations as employers, as defined through Fortune listings and equivalent rankings (e.g., the “Best Companies for Leadership” by the Hay Group and Chief Executive magazine).

The case study interviews were semi-structured, covering questions about the business context, talent management practices and HR function. We interviewed HR professionals and managers and also a sample of executives and line managers in an effort to understand the ways companies source, attract, select, develop, promote and move high-potential employees through the organization. A second stage of research consisted of a Web-based survey of 20 companies. The survey contained items on six key talent management practice areas (staffing, training and development, appraisal, rewards, employee relations, and leadership and succession) and the HR delivery mechanisms (including the use and effectiveness of outsourcing, shared services, Web-based HR, off-shoring and on-shoring). Ultimately, we received a total of 263 complete surveys from the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The range of talent management issues facing multinational companies today is extremely broad. Companies must recruit and select talented people, develop them, manage their performance, compensate and reward them and try to retain the strongest performers. Although every organization must pay attention to each of these areas, our research convinced us that competitive advantage in talent management doesn’t just come from identifying key activities (for example, recruiting and training) and then implementing “best practices.” Rather, we found that successful companies adhere to six key principles: (1) alignment with strategy, (2) internal consistency, (3) cultural embeddedness, (4) management involvement, (5) a balance of global and local needs and (6) employer branding through differentiation.

How Companies Define Talent

We use the term “talent management” broadly, recognizing that there is considerable debate within companies about what constitutes “talent” and how it should be managed. 1 (See “The Talent Management Wheel.”)

The Talent Management Wheel

View Exhibit

Since the 1998 publication of McKinsey’s “ War for Talent” study, 2 many managers have considered talent management synonymous with human capital management. Among the companies we studied, there were two distinct views on how best to evaluate and manage talent. One group assumed that some employees had more “value” or “potential” than others, and that, as a result, companies should focus the lion’s share of corporate attention and resources on them; the second group had a more inclusive view, believing that too much emphasis on the top players could damage morale and hurt opportunities to achieve broader gains.

The differentiated approach. Although the practice of sorting employees based on their performance and potential has generated criticism, 3 many companies in our study placed heavy emphasis on high-potential employees. Companies favoring this approach focused most of the rewards, incentives and attention on their top talent (“A players”); gave less recog­nition, financial rewards and development attention to the bulk of the other employ­ees (“B players”); and worked aggressively to weed out employees who didn’t meet performance expectations and were deemed to have little potential (“C players”). 4 This approach has been popularized by General Electric’s “vitality curve,” which differentiates between the top 20%, the middle 70% and the bottom 10%. The actual definition of “high potential” tends to vary from company to company, but many factor in the employee’s cultural fit and values. Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, for example, looks at whether someone displays the key values and behaviors the company wants in its future leaders.

The percentage of employees included in the high-potential group also differs across companies. For example, Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer products company, puts 15% of employees from each management level in its high-potential category each year, expecting that they will move to the next management level within five years. Other companies are more selective. Infosys, a global technology services company headquartered in Bangalore, India, limits the high-potential pool to less than 3% of the total work force in an effort to manage expectations and limit potential frustration, productivity loss and harmful attrition.

The Leading Question

What steps can global companies take to ensure that they recruit, develop and deploy the right people?

• Don’t just mimic the practices of other top-performing companies.
• Align talent management practices with your strategy and values.
• Make sure your talent management practices are consistent with one another.

The inclusive approach. Some companies prefer a more inclusive approach and attempt to address the needs of employees at all levels of the organi­zation. 5 For example, when asked how Shell defined talent, Shell’s new head of talent management replied, “I don’t have a definition yet. However, I can assure you that my definition will make it possible for any individual employed by Shell at any level to have the potential to be considered talent.” Under an inclusive approach, talent management tactics used for different groups are based on an assessment of how best to leverage the value that each group of employees can bring to the company. 6

The two philosophies of talent management are not mutually exclusive — many of the companies we studied use a combination of both. Depending on the specific talent pool (such as senior executive, technical expert and early career high-potential), there will usually be different career paths and development strategies. A hybrid approach allows for differentiation, and it skirts the controversial issue of whether some employee groups are intrinsically more valuable than others.

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What We Found

As we looked at the array of talent management practices in the 18 companies we studied, we asked interviewees why they thought their company’s individual practices were effective and valuable. Their responses helped us to formulate six core principles. We recognize that adopting a set of principles rather than best practices challenges current thinking. But best practices are only “best” in the context for which they were designed. The principles, on the other hand, have broad application.

Principle 1: Alignment With Strategy

Corporate strategy is the natural starting point for thinking about talent management. Given the company’s strategy, what kind of talent do we need? For example, GE’s growth strategy is based on five pillars: technological leadership, services acceleration, enduring customer relationships, resource allocation and globalization. But GE’s top management understands that implementing these initiatives may have less to do with strategic planning than with attracting, recruiting, developing and deploying the right people to drive the effort. According to CEO Jeffrey Immelt, the company’s talent management system is its most powerful implementation tool. 7 For instance, to support a renewed focus on technological leadership and innovation, GE began targeting technology skills as a key development requirement during its annual organizational and individual review process, which GE calls Session C. In all business segments, a full block of time was allocated to a review of the business’s engineering pipeline, the organizational structure of its engineering function and an evaluation of the potential of engineering talent. In response to Immelt’s concern that technology-oriented managers were underrepresented in GE’s senior management ranks, the Session C reviews moved more engineers into GE’s senior executive band. Talent management practices also helped to drive and implement GE’s other strategic priorities (for example, establishing a more diverse and internationally experienced management cadre).

In a similar vein, a recent survey of chief human resource officers of large multinationals highlighted another approach to aligning talent management with the business strategy. One HR director wrote:

We have integrated our talent management processes with the business planning process. As each major business area discusses and sets their three-year business goals, they will also be setting their three-year human capital goals and embedding those human capital goals within their business plan. Achievement of these goals will be tracked through our management processes. 8

Strategic flexibility is important, and organizations must be able to adapt to changing business conditions and revamp their talent approach when necessary. For example, Oracle, the hardware and software systems company, found that its objective goal-setting and performance appraisal process was no longer adequate. Management wanted to add some nonfinancial and behavior-based measures to encourage people to focus on team targets, leadership goals and governance. This necessitated a significant overhaul of Oracle’s existing performance management systems, investment in line management capability and overall changes to the mind-set of line managers and employees.

Principle 2 : Internal Consistency

Implementing practices in isolation may not work and can actually be counter­productive. The principle of internal consistency refers to the way the company’s talent management practices fit with each other. Our study shows that consistency is crucial. For example, if an organization invests significantly in developing and training high-potential individuals, it should emphasize employee retention, competitive compensation and career management. It also should empower employees to contribute to the organization and reward them for initiative.

Such combinations of practices will lead to a whole that is more than the sum of its parts. There should also be continuity over time. As one manager at Siemens remarked, “What gives Siemens the edge is the monitoring of consistency between systems: the processes and the metrics must make sense together.” For example, one Siemens division has tied everything related to talent management together in such a way that internal consistency among the various HR elements is virtually guaranteed. The division recruits 10 to 12 graduates per year, assigns the new hires to a learning campus (a network for top new graduates within the division) and assesses them at the development center. Later, the designated employees go through a leadership quality analysis and review procedure, including feedback and performance appraisal, and become part of the mentoring program led by top managers. The whole process is continuously monitored through reviews and linked to the company’s reward systems.

BAE Systems, the defense and security company, places a similar emphasis on consistency. From the time prospective managers arrive at the company, or upon their designation as a member of the leadership cadre, they are continuously tracked for development purposes. Drawing upon data from 360-degree appraisals, behavioral performance feedback and executive evaluations of their input to the business planning process, managers participate in leadership development programs that target the specific needs revealed by the leadership assessments.

The emphasis on consistency is also paramount at IBM, which works hard to assure that its people management systems are consistent across its subsidiaries. To achieve this alignment, IBM combines qualitative and quantitative data collected quarterly to ensure that its practices are consistently introduced and implemented. The company also conducts an HR customer satisfaction survey twice a year to learn how employees are responding to the programs and to detect areas of employee dissatisfaction.

Principle 3: Cultural Embeddedness

Many successful companies consider their corporate culture as a source of sustainable competitive advantage. They make deliberate efforts to integrate their stated core values and business principles into talent management processes such as hiring methods, leadership development activities, performance management systems, and compensation and benefits programs. 9 For example, whereas companies have traditionally focused on job-related skills and experience to select people, some multinationals we studied have expanded their selection criteria to include cultural fit. These companies assess applicants’ personalities and values to determine whether they will be compatible with the corporate culture; the assumption is that formal qualifications are not always the best predictors of performance and retention, and that skills are easier to develop than personality traits, attitudes and values. 10

The furniture retailer IKEA selects applicants using tools that focus on values and cultural fit.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Marco Raaphorst .

IKEA, the Sweden-based furniture retailer, for example, selects applicants using tools that focus on values and cultural fit. Its standard questionnaire downplays skills, experience or academic credentials and instead explores the job applicants’ values and beliefs, which become the basis for screening, interviewing, and training and development. Later, when employees apply internally for leadership positions, the main focus is once again on values in an effort to ensure consistency. IBM likewise subscribes to a strong values-based approach to HR. Not only does IBM hire and promote based on values; it regularly engages employees to ensure that employee values are consistent throughout the company. It does this through “ValuesJam” 11 sessions and regular employee health index surveys. The jam sessions provide time to debate and consider the fundamentals of the values in an effort to make sure that they are not perceived as being imposed from the top.

We found that a strong emphasis on cultural fit and values was common among successful global companies. In evaluating entry-level job applications, Infosys is willing to trade off some immediate skill requirements for a specific job in favor of good cultural fit, the right attitude and what it refers to as “learnability.” In addition to evaluating the applicant’s college record, Infosys puts applicants through an analytical and aptitude test, followed by an extensive interview to assess cultural fit and compatibility with the company’s values.

Rather than selecting employees for attitude and cultural fit, a more common approach to promoting the organization’s core values and behavioral standards is through secondary socialization and training. Standardized induction programs, often accompanied by individualized coaching or mentoring activities, were widely used among the companies that we studied. We found that leading companies used training and development not only to improve employee skills and knowledge but also to manage and reinforce culture. For example, Samsung, the Korea-based semiconductor and mobile phone maker, has specifically geared its training program to provide its employees worldwide with background on the company’s philosophy, values, management principles and employee ethics, regardless of where the employees are located. Management’s goal is not to freeze the existing culture but to have an effective means of supporting change. Several years ago, Samsung’s top management came to realize that in order to become a design-driven company, it needed to let go of its traditional, hierarchical culture and embrace a culture that promotes creativity, empowerment and open communication. By encouraging young designers and managers to challenge their superiors and share their ideas more freely, it hopes to make the transition.

In addition to inculcating core values into young leaders, successful companies often make focused efforts to adapt their talent management practices to the needs of a changing work force. 12 Consider the growing interest in healthy work-life balance. As the number of employees seeking balance between their personal and professional lives has increased, more companies have begun to offer flexible working arrangements in an effort to attract the best talent and retain high-potential employees. For example, Accenture, the consulting and technology services firm, has a work-life balance program that was initially aimed at the career challenges faced by women, but it has since made it available to men as well; among other things, the program features flextime, job sharing, telecommuting and “flybacks” for people working away from their home location. 13 The program has allowed Accenture to significantly reduce its turnover rate among women while also increasing its number of female partners. Internal surveys show that team productivity, job satisfaction and personal motivation among women have improved substantially. Although the number of companies offering such programs is still relatively small, the ranks are growing.

Consistent with an increased emphasis on values, some companies have introduced what might be called “values-based” performance management systems: They assess high-potential employees not only according to what they achieve but also on how they reflect or exemplify shared values. BT, the British telecommunications giant, has implemented a performance management system that looks at employees on two dimensions: the extent to which they achieve their individual performance objectives, and the values and behaviors they displayed to deliver the results. The combined ratings influence a manager’s variable pay. Other companies, too, are realizing the importance of balancing financial success with goals such as sustainability, compliance or social responsibility.

Principle 4: Management Involvement

Successful companies know that the talent management process needs to have broad ownership — not just by HR, but by managers at all levels, including the CEO. Senior leaders need to be actively involved in the talent management process and make recruitment, succession planning, leadership development and retention of key employees their top priorities. They must be willing to devote a significant amount of their time to these activities. A.G. Lafley, former CEO of Procter & Gamble, claims he used to spend one-third to one-half of his time developing talent. He was convinced that “[n]othing I do will have a more enduring impact on P&G’s long-term success than helping to develop other leaders.” 14

However, that level of executive commitment is rare. In a recent survey of chief human resource officers at U.S. Fortune 200 companies, one respondent lamented that the most difficult aspect of the role was

creating a true sense of ownership among the senior leaders regarding their roles as “chief talent officer”; recognizing that having the right people in critical leadership roles is not an HR thing or responsibility, but rather, it is a business imperative and must be truly owned by the leaders of the respective businesses/functions…. Creating this type of mindset around leadership and talent is the biggest challenge I face. 15

One of the most potent tools companies can use to develop leaders is to involve line managers. It means getting them to play a key role in the recruitment of talent and then making them accountable for developing the skills and knowledge of their employees. Unilever, for example, believes in recruiting only the very best people. To make this happen, top-level managers must make time for interviews, even in the face of all their other responsibilities. Line managers can contribute by acting as coaches or mentors, providing job-shadowing opportunities and encouraging talented employees to move around within the organization for career development.

The responsibility for talent development extends beyond managers. Employees need to play an active part themselves by seeking out challenging assignments, cross-functional projects and new positions. However, our survey finds that job rotations across functions or business units are not very common. Although HR managers in our survey saw value in job rotations and new assignments for career development, many companies lack the ability to implement them. A possible explanation is the tendency of managers to focus on the interests of their own units rather than the whole organization; 16 this narrowness may hinder talent mobility and undermine the effectiveness of job rotation as a career development tool. A McKinsey study found that more than 50% of CEOs, business unit leaders and HR executives interviewed believed that insular thinking and a lack of collaboration prevented their talent management programs from delivering business value. 17

Principle 5: Balance of Global and Local Needs

For organizations operating in multiple countries, cultures and institutional environments, talent management is complicated. Companies need to figure out how to respond to local demands while maintaining a coherent HR strategy and management approach. 18 Among the companies we studied, there was no single strategy. For example, Oracle emphasized global integration, with a high degree of centralization and little local discretion. Matsushita, meanwhile, focused on responsiveness to local conditions and allowed local operations to be highly autonomous.

A company’s decision about how much local control to allow depends partly on the industry; for instance, consumer products need to be more attuned to the local market than pharmaceuticals or software. 19 Furthermore, rather than being static, a company’s position may evolve over time in response to internal and external pressures. Our study suggests that many companies are moving toward greater integration and global standards while simultaneously continuing to experience pressure to adapt and make decisions at local levels. For example, Rolls Royce has global standards for process excellence, suppor­ted by a global set of shared values and a global talent pool approach for senior executives and high potentials. At the same time, it has to comply with local institutional demands and build local talent pools. Clearly, the challenge for most companies is to be both global and local at the same time. Companies need a global template for talent management to ensure consistency but need to allow local subsidiaries to adapt that template to their specific circumstances. 20

Shell uses one global brand for HR excellence; each business is then able to take that global brand and apply it locally.

Image courtesy of Shell.

Most companies in our sample have introduced global performance standards, supported by global leadership competency profiles and standardized performance appraisal tools and processes. Activities that are seen as less directly linked with the overall strategy of the corporation and/or where local institutional and cultural considerations are viewed as crucial (for example, training and compensation of local staff) continue to be more at the discretion of local management. At IBM, for example, foreign subsidiaries have no choice about whether to use the performance management system; it is used worldwide with only minor adaptations. But subsidiaries may develop other policies and practices to address local conditions and cultural norms.

While locally adapted approaches create opportunities for diverse talent pools, they limit a company’s ability to build on its global learning in hiring, assessing, developing and retaining top global talent. This requires more integration across business units. One company in our study didn’t coordinate hiring and development efforts across its different divisions, so even though it had diverse talent pools, it wasn’t able to take advantage of cross-learning opportunities. Shell, on the other hand, has come to embrace HR policy replication across divisions over innovation. Companies that find a balance between global standardization and integration and local implementation have the best of both worlds. They can align their talent management practices with both local and global needs, resulting in a deep, diverse talent pool.

Principle 6: Employer Branding Through Differentiation

Attracting talent means marketing the corporation to people who will fulfill its talent requirements. In order to attract employees with the right skills and attitudes, companies need to find ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors. 21 P&G, for example, was in one year able to attract about 600,000 applicants worldwide — of whom it hired about 2,700 — by emphasizing opportunities for long-term careers and promotion from within.

The companies in our study differed considerably in how they resolve the tension between maintaining a consistent brand identity across business units and regions and responding to local demands. Shell, for example, uses one global brand for HR excellence and several global practices or processes for all its businesses. The brand highlights talent as Shell’s top priority; each business is then able to take that global brand and apply it locally. This means that rather than having all branding efforts coming from corporate headquarters, each subsidiary receives its own resources to build the brand in accordance with the local market demands and the need for differentiation.

Intel takes a different approach. It positions many of its top-level recruiters outside the United States to ensure that the Intel brand is promoted worldwide. For instance, Intel has recently set up a large production facility in Vietnam. To staff the operation, the company sent a top-level HR manager from its California corporate office to build local awareness of Intel as an employer. “Hiring top talent, no matter where we are, is top priority for Intel,” the manager explained. To accomplish this, Intel has become involved with local governments and universities to advance education and computer literacy. Such investments may not pay off immediately, but they put roots in the ground in countries that see hundreds of foreign companies come and go each year.

Infosys has also taken significant steps to increase its name recognition, improve its brand attraction and fill its talent pipeline by combining global branding activities with efforts in local communities. For example, the company initiated a “Catch Them Young” program in India that trains students for a month; the students are then invited to work for Infosys on a two-month project. In rural areas, Infosys offers computer awareness programs in local languages to help schoolchildren become more comfortable with high-tech equipment. Although not initially directed at recruitment and branding, the program has been an effective strategy for enlarging the pool of IT-literate and Infosys-devoted students in India, which may eventually make it easier to find talented software engineers. Infosys’s global internship program, called InStep, however, is central to the company’s employee branding effort: It invites students from top universities around the world to spend three months at the Infosys Bangalore campus. It is part of an ongoing effort to make the company more attractive to potential candidates outside of India and to tap into the worldwide talent pool.

One way companies are trying to get an edge on competitors in attracting talent is by stressing their corporate social responsibility activities. GlaxoSmithKline, the pharmaceutical giant, offers an excellent case in point. The company capitalizes on its employment brand and reputation through regular news releases and media events at key recruitment locations. Former CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier stressed the importance of GSK’s philanthropic activities in increasing the attractiveness of the company among potential recruits and providing an inspiring mission to the employees:

GSK is big in philanthropic undertakings; we spend a lot of money with a very specific goal in mind, such as eradicating a disease. … [O]ur scientists, who are often very idealistic, follow this like an adventure. It can make the difference when they have to choose companies — they might pick us because of the effort we make to provide drugs to the greatest number of people regardless of their economic status. 22

While some of the leading companies in our study see corporate social responsibility as an integral part of their talent management and branding activities, others consider improved brand attraction as a welcome result of their philanthropic activities.

A Convergence of Practices

In addition to adhering to a common set of talent management principles, leading companies follow many of the same talent-related practices. Although our survey showed that global corporations continue to use overall HR management systems that align with their cultures and strategic objectives, the companies are becoming more similar — and also more sophisticated — in how they manage talent. Several factors seem to be driving the convergence. First, companies compete for the same talent pool, especially graduates of international business schools and top universities. Second, the trend toward greater global integration 23 means that companies want to standardize their approaches to talent recruitment, development and management to ensure internal consistency. And third, the visibility and success of companies such as GE, amplified by commentary by high-profile consulting firms and business publications, have led to widespread imitation.

Yet, as we noted earlier, best practices are only “best” when they’re applied in a given context; what works for one company may not work in another. Indeed, the need for alignment — internally across practices, as well as with the strategy, culture and external environment — has profound implications for talent management. Even with the global convergence in terms of the practices used, companies cannot simply mimic top performers. They need to adapt talent management practices to their own strategy and circumstances and align them closely with their leadership philosophy and value system, while at the same time finding ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Multinational corporations that excel in managing talent are likely to retain a competitive edge.

About the Authors

Günter K. Stahl is a professor of international management at WU Vienna and adjunct professor of organizational behavior at INSEAD. Ingmar Björkman is a professor at Aalto University School of Economics and Hanken School of Economics in Finland. Elaine Farndale is an assistant professor of labor studies and employment relations at Pennsylvania State University and an assistant professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Shad S. Morris is an assistant professor of management and human resources at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University. Jaap Paauwe is a professor of human resources at Tilburg University and Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Philip Stiles is a senior lecturer at Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Jonathan Trevor is a lecturer in human resources and organizations at the University of Cambridge. Patrick Wright is the William J. Conaty GE Professor of Strategic HR at Cornell University.

1. See R.E. Lewis and R.J. Heckman, “Talent Management: A Critical Review,” Human Resource Management Review 16 (2006): 139-154.

2. E.G. Chambers, M. Foulon, H. Handfield-Jones, S.M. Hankin and E.G. Michaels, “The War for Talent,” McKinsey Quarterly 3 (1998): 44-57.

3. E.E. Lawler III, “The Folly of Forced Ranking,” Strategy & Business 28 (2002): 28-32; and J. Pfeffer and R.I. Sutton, “Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management” (Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2006).

4. Chambers, “The War for Talent.”

5. M.A. Huselid, R.W. Beatty and B. Becker, “The Differentiated Workforce” (Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2009).

6. R.S. Schuler, S.E. Jackson and I. Tarique, “International HRM: A North America Perspective, a Thematic Update and Suggestions for Future Research,” International Journal of Human Resource Management (May 2007): 15-43.

7. C.A. Bartlett and A.N. McLean, “GE’s Talent Machine: The Making of a CEO,” Harvard Business School Case no. 9-304-049 (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2006).

8. P. Wright and M. Stewart, “From Bunker to Building: Results of the 2010 Cornell/CAHRS Chief Human Resource Officer Survey,” www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs.

9. J.A. Chatman and S.E. Cha, “Leading by Leveraging Culture,” California Management Review 45 (2003): 20-34.

10. J. Pfeffer and J.F. Veiga, “Putting People First for Organizational Success,” Academy of Management Executive 13 (1999): 37-49.

11. S. Palmisano, “Leading Change When Business Is Good,” Harvard Business Review (December 2004): 60-70.

12. T.J. Erickson, “Gen Y in the Workforce,” Harvard Business Review (February 2009): 43-49.

13. G.K. Stahl and I. Björkman, “Winning the War for Talent: Accenture’s Great Place to Work for Women Strategy,” unpublished INSEAD case study.

14. W.J. Holstein, “Best Companies for Leaders: P&G’s A.G. Lafley Is No. 1 for 2005,” Chief Executive (November 2005): 16-20.

15. Wright, “From Bunker to Building.”

16. E. Farndale, H. Scullion and P. Sparrow, “The Role of the Corporate HR Function in Global Talent Management,” Journal of World Business 45, no. 2 (2010): 161-168.

17. M. Guthridge, A.B. Komm and E. Lawson, “The People Problem in Talent Management,” McKinsey Quarterly 2 (2006): 6-8.

18. P.M. Rosenzweig and N. Nohria, “Influences on Human Resource Management Practices in Multinational Corporations,” Journal of International Business Studies 25 (1994): 229-251.

19. C. Bartlett and S. Ghoshal, “Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution” (London: Hutchinson Business Books, 1989).

20. P. Evans, V. Pucik and I. Björkman, “The Global Challenge: International Human Resource Management,” 2nd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011).

21. Evans,“The Global Challenge.”

22. F. Brown, “Head-to-Head: Interview with Jean-Pierre Garnier,” World Business (September 2006): 20-23.

23. S. Palmisano, “The Globally Integrated Enterprise,” Foreign Affairs 85, no. 3 (May-June 2006): 127-136.

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Six principles of effective global talent manag..., talent management magazine |, abigail scott, nikki.newman.

• Harvard Business School →
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• February 2008 (Revised November 2008)
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This textbook provides the theory and practice context of Global Talent Management within an accessible conceptual framework for students, spanning individuals (micro), organisations (meso) and policy (macro). 

Including discussions on the development of self as global talent and current organisational approaches to the attraction, development and retention of global talent, this book encourages critical reflection of how global talent management is affected by policy, society and the economy. The authors draw on interdisciplinary fields, practical insights from global employers and wide-ranging case studies to help students grasp the complexities of this evolving field. 

For many major organisations, Global Talent Management (GTM) is still a set of buzzwords, like Artificial Intelligence and Industry 4.0.   Organisations know that they are increasingly being forced to attract and retain talent in a globalised labour market, but their human resources policies and practices remain firmly rooted in a national mind set.   Recruitment and selection procedures implicitly assume that applicants are home-based, requiring “post codes” and “equality monitoring data” that make no sense to international candidates.   HR departments struggle to organise interviews for remote candidates in different time zones.   Most damning, “onboarding” procedures routinely fail to recognise the challenges facing new employees who have moved across national borders and cultural and linguistic boundaries to take up their jobs.

This important new book brings GTM alive for a new generation of students and HR professionals, who will be building their careers in the new globalised world, rather than the set of nationally segmented labour markets that characterised their parents’ experience.   By drawing on perspectives from theory, practice and policy, Minocha and Hristov present GTM as a holistic approach to the recruitment, development and retention of talent in a borderless world.   This book represents the first serious attempt to mark out GTM as a distinct branch of management, rather than a sub-division of HR management.

This book is a highly accessible read that will appeal to both students and practitioners of business and management. The nature of work and talent in organisations is continually changing in our globally-connected and technology-based world. Sonal Minocha and Dean Hristov are both highly respected academics whose ideas are pushing the boundaries of our understanding of talent development. In this book, they have developed a number of global talent management constructs based on case evidence research that offer a valuable talent management toolkit.  

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Case Study: Infosys – Talent Management Processes Automation with AI

• First Online: 17 June 2023
• pp 1451–1458

Cite this chapter

• Parasuram Balasubramanian 3 &
• D. R. Balakrishna 4  

Part of the book series: Springer Handbooks ((SHB))

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The IT industry has been a pioneer in the use of Automation and AI. Infosys, a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, has expanded the use of automation across their internal processes and offers these capabilities to their clients. One of their outstanding success stories has been in recruitment.

As a large-scale recruiter, the recruitment function at Infosys was complex, voluminous, and highly manual. From over 130,000 employees in 2010, the firm had nearly 260,000 employees in 2020. They were processing over 2,140,000 in 2020 that was 2.5 times the applications received in 2010. This created a tremendous workload for the recruitment team.

The automation journey of the Recruitment function at Infosys has been arduous. During their solution building, they were hit by new challenges arising out of a global pandemic in early 2020, when they had to suddenly move to a virtual environment. The disaster also created the need to expand their workforce as the number of IT projects grew.

The automation program was executed at speed to respond in time to the continuously changing landscape. It resulted in transformational changes, bringing both high efficiency and effectiveness. For example, the time taken from sourcing to making an offer is reduced by 86%. The project demonstrates the structured approach to discovering, developing, and democratizing AI and automation, thereby encouraging its adoption. Infosys continues to invest in the technology as they believe it plays a critical role in staying relevant to their clients by delivering industry-leading business solutions.

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Acknowledgments.

We would like to thank Ashok K Panda, Anie Mathew, and Meghna Chatterjee from Infosys for their contribution in collating and curating this case study. See Chapter 46 for broader content of automation in data science, software, and information services.

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Appendix 1: A Detailed Look at Major Activities and Their Intricacies

1.1 sourcing: raising hiring requests and finding resumes.

Hiring Requisitions, which were earlier created manually, are now automatically created by directly fetching data from talent indent tools. Job descriptions of common roles are predefined and auto-populated with recruiters having the option to manually intervene. Once a new job is posted, various sourcing channels are automatically updated.

Sourcing Applications: Earlier recruiters had to wait for candidates to apply or search and download best-fit resumes from different channels to create candidate profiles in internal system. With InTAP, resumes are uploaded in bulk, which are then automatically parsed for profile creation.

The integrated talent platform sends recruiters a list of AI-enabled recommendations of candidates picked from internal databases as well as external job boards. They are ranked in the order of their fitment to the job/skill with 95% accuracy. These candidates are matched for their skill, experience, location, proficiency, accreditation, and other criteria. The best candidates can then be tagged by the recruiter for the job. This cuts down nearly 80–90% of the sourcing time.

Candidate experience is also enhanced as most of the fields in application form are prepopulated.

1.2 Screening: Prescreening, Shortlisting, and Prescheduling

Prescreening: Weeding out duplicate applications, applicants from blacklisted companies, or alumni who do not qualify to be rehired was earlier done manually using excel comparisons. Removing exact duplicates is now fully automated based on AI logic with auto-rejections. Blacklisted candidates are auto-flagged based on organization policy. For rehires, system pulls past employment details from internal applications such as the separation tool and makes recommendations.

Screening: The resume parser throws up a list of recommendations and ranks them based on the match between candidate’s profile and job requirement. The ranking logic is driven by explainable AI, and an 80% match indicates high probability of the candidate being a good fit for the role. The parser has eliminated recruited team’s task of sifting manually through thousands of resumes.

Prescheduling: A background check is run prior to interview, to validate academics, check references and past employment history, and scan social media interactions, and liaison with specialized vendors. The Infosys Fraud Detector (IFD) plays a big role by using machine learning and deep learning-based Long Short-Term Memory and Feed Forward model for handling textual and numerical inputs, respectively. For fraudulent image detection, it uses Optical Character Recognition and Named Entity Recognition.

1.3 Interview: Scheduling, Panel Management, and Conducting Interviews

Interview scheduling: With on-campus hiring now moved to online platforms, InTAP offers the capability to organize large-scale hiring. Once hiring event is created in the system, it fetches relevant candidates and tags them to it. The platform matches slots between panelists and candidates. InTAP uses RPA to automatically schedule and trigger invitations. Automated reminders through messaging apps, SMS, and IVR can be sent to candidates to reduce cancellation and no-shows. RPA has significantly freed up recruitment team’s effort in scheduling.

The system sends an invitation to tagged candidates and a notification on messaging apps offering them to choose a slot for the event. Once slot is selected and assigned, candidate needs to submit minimum set of data for verification. Final invitation to the event with required details is extended to shortlisted candidates. System notifies panelists of their upcoming commitment and blocks their calendar. Details of candidates are shared with the panelists.

Vimmy Thaman , a candidate who got selected through the new recruitment process, says, “ Every step was intuitive, and I received timely notifications and reminders to ensure I did not miss my interview or any submissions. The virtual arrangements and management was so smooth that it made the onboarding process effortless. ”

Panel management and interview: Traditionally, recruitment was conducted in person at an Infosys campus. With virtual interviews, panelists now use an online interview platform that is integrated with recruitment portal for a seamless experience. Lobby feature keeps candidates engaged while they await their turn and provides visibility to the recruiter on the number of candidates waiting to be interviewed. Panelists validate the candidate by checking an identity proof and capturing photograph / screenshot of the screen. Gamification to create incentives for panelists is being considered, which can be integrated into the interview platform.

Puru Bhandarkar , Delivery Head of a Business unit, says, “ The virtual hiring process is seamless and smooth, and the collaboration between my resource planning team and recruitment team has now become much faster because everything is flowing through the automated InTAP system. Interview process has also become hassle-free with virtual mode, and InTAP is a great application that has resulted in considerable effort reduction for my team. ”

1.4 Selection: Offer and Acceptance

Offer: The talent acquisition platform runs the required algorithm to calculate compensation and benefit details and generate an offer letter to the candidate, who gets the option to reject or accept the offer online.

Acceptance: Once the offer is accepted, candidate is guided from the career site to the onboarding application known as Infosys Launchpad. The candidate data from InTap, the acquisition platform, is automatically updated into Launchpad.

Infosys also has an application exclusively for engineering students in India, called InfyTQ, that serves as a digital learning platform to create talent readiness at an industry level. It is an opportunity for the organization to groom and hire the future technology workforce of India. Students who qualify for hiring are seamlessly moved into the InTap platform.

1.5 Allocation: Onboarding, Training, and Project Allocation

Onboarding: Infosys Launchpad offers a one-stop onboarding solution to assist new joiners to complete formalities and guides them through their first few weeks at work.

The application focuses on information assimilation, seamless enablement across all systems, timely payroll processing, and preparing for day one at work with tools such as smart cards and access to all relevant work applications. As the application is prepopulated with data captured during interview and selection process, smooth and seamless experience for candidate is ensured. The application is highly configurable and can be customized as per organizational and country-wise policy mandates. Infosys Launchpad has significantly reduced time in payroll and ID card issue processes across different countries.

Syed Ahmed , Delivery Manager of a Business unit, says, “ With increased hiring this year and in the virtual post-pandemic scenario, the automated hiring process was a boon for our team to speed up recruitment and get skilled talents onboarded quickly to meet our client demands. What earlier took 50 days for us to onboard a new employee, is now completed in 10 days. ”

Engagement, training, and allocation: Once a part of the organization, an Infosys employee continues to be enabled with AI-based solutions that are highly employee-centric. InfyMe is an app developed as part of the “Employee Experience” program which allows employees to conduct key business transactions on the go. Culture-sensitive training modules are also embedded into their training plan. Employees can define their growth and aspirations as well as progress in their career. Earlier, learning, training, and accessing work-related applications were through multiple systems which was painful, and this is now entirely seamless.

Rushiraj Desai , who recently joined Infosys says, “ I applied for job opening in Infosys during the 2020 pandemic situation. I was doubtful about the onboarding process but at the same time had trust on digital capabilities that IT companies offer. Infosys, true to its reputation, completely digitized the whole experience - from applying for job opening, interview schedule, selection, onboarding & document submission for background verification. Launchpad is a great tool and easy to interact with, workflow is very well laid out for employees to submit all personal / professional data and necessary documents online. Great to experience that data and documents flow to internal finance and HR systems automatically. The 2-day onboarding program was also well organized & completely virtual from introduction to giving access to employees to Infosys IT systems/applications. ”

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Balasubramanian, P., Balakrishna, D.R. (2023). Case Study: Infosys – Talent Management Processes Automation with AI. In: Nof, S.Y. (eds) Springer Handbook of Automation. Springer Handbooks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96729-1_70

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Hyatt’s talent strategy transformation

A talent for caring: How Hyatt is activating its purpose and transforming culture to unlock growth for colleagues and the business

Client:  Hyatt Hotels Corporation Our Role:  Help design and implement a Talent Philosophy and an associated Playbook, a resource to allow leaders to move the business forward through consistent, focused, yet flexible Talent management. Industry:   Hospitality and leisure Services:   Workforce Transformation , People and organization

Bringing purpose to life on a global scale

Hyatt had rallied around a unifying purpose— we care for people so they can be their best. Hyatt’s purpose resonated instantly within the organization because “care” is at the core of Hyatt’s DNA. While “care” can be limited to only a feeling, Hyatt sees it as more: It’s an action taken that starts with listening and empathy, resulting in caring action that leads to people being their best. With this in mind, Hyatt began to take a fresh look at how its colleagues could be their best. In doing so, Hyatt realized that managers and their teams needed a clearer framework for understanding their roles and accountabilities. They needed a simpler approach to be more consistent and confident in making people decisions (how they hire, develop, grow and reward colleagues) and how they create a culture where colleagues can be their best selves every day at work through enhanced focus on leading inclusively and creating the right environment for colleagues’ wellbeing.

The starting point? Listening and understanding the root issues by conducting extensive research with colleagues around the world to discover the leadership behaviors that most successfully drive business outcomes. With more than 120,000 colleagues working in more than 875 hotels in over 60 countries on six continents, it was also time to optimize its HR processes, tools and systems; designing around the needs of the business and removing inconsistencies and fragmentation in an effort to improve operational effectiveness and increase colleague and job candidate satisfaction. Hyatt’s HR leaders aspired to create a superior Talent experience to bring purpose to life for every colleague and potential colleagues—and, by extension, for every guest and customer—in its hotels worldwide.

“One of the most rewarding aspects of our work with Hyatt has been participating in the evolution of a significant HR transformation that impacts everyone in the organization on some level, and ultimately, Hyatt guests worldwide. We were inspired by Hyatt’s commitment to including the perspectives of its people in every region.” Jon Glick, Principal, PwC

Design-thinking + analytics + change management = a vision forward

When Christy Sinnott, Hyatt’s Talent Management Leader, first met PwC’s account and HR consulting team and began discussions about their shared passion for purpose-focused organizations, data driven decisions, and culture, none could have known that these discussions would evolve into a multi-year effort to transform Hyatt’s talent strategy. The HR transformation journey has engaged PwC professionals with subject matter experience in every aspect of HR program design and management. Activating Hyatt’s leadership development model through talent development training targeted at Hyatt's top and rising leaders was the first step. With a new set of expectations for leaders in place, Hyatt asked PwC to help design and implement a Talent Philosophy and an associated Playbook, a resource to allow leaders to move the business forward through consistent, focused, yet flexible Talent management. A current state assessment helped identify challenges and gaps; a blueprint for success helped to facilitate alignment of business and people strategies; and plans for the future state supported development of a clear and compelling Talent Philosophy. That Philosophy—a series of six commitments to its colleagues—is grounded in Hyatt’s purpose and values and designed to guide the relationship between leaders and their teams. The Playbook maps Hyatt’s People strategies to specific systems, processes and procedures to support transparent and consistent standards across the organization.

“PwC helped us understand how applying the lens of purpose could transform and focus HR structures and processes to create world-class leaders and, subsequently, to re-imagine the entire talent experience. In a global organization of our size and complexity, this has been an amazing collaboration among so many people, including our colleagues around the world.” Christy Sinnott, Senior Vice President of Talent Management, Hyatt

Re-imagine the talent experience to help Hyatt and their colleagues map a route to growth

With the Playbook underway, Hyatt’s HR leaders realized that while they had done a lot to evolve their strategy and systems around Talent, there was much more they wanted to do. They invited PwC to help them re-imagine the entire talent experience, with the goal of improving internal processes on a global scale to support strategic workforce planning and permit colleagues to pursue their own growth as the organization continues to grow. PwC teams helped Hyatt identify pain points, create diverse personas and stories to envision colleagues’ overall experience from pre-hire through promotion, and map opportunities to promote a clear understanding of, and commitment to, brand and purpose. Along the way of this extended journey, the PwC team helped support Hyatt with a multi-year colleague listening program; create a roadmap for the implementation of digital platforms to support efficient HR processes across the organization; consider strategies to advance Hyatt’s commitment to Inclusion and Diversity; and develop specific tools and methods to measure success and business outcomes.

“Inclusion is a core organizational capability at Hyatt that will continue to drive many aspects of our business, including Talent. Working with PwC to further our inclusion goals has been extremely helpful and timely.” Malaika Myers, Chief Human Resource Officer, Hyatt

Creating an ideal future-state experience

Demographics shift. The business climate changes. Guest expectations evolve. One constant for Hyatt is its culture of care which is at the heart of its business strategy. Scaling an enhanced talent experience worldwide will allow Hyatt to enable colleagues to be their best and achieve business outcomes as Hyatt continues on its growth trajectory.

The team is now actively working to advance care for colleagues in many ways:

• A Global Leadership Performance Model that helps drive the behaviors that drive results creating a high-performing culture that can adapt to the changing business climate.
• A streamlined and improved candidate experience , including a redesigned applicant process, new on-boarding tools and resources, and an evolving new hire orientation program, that Hyatt anticipates to reduce source-to-hire time and increase retention .
• Diversity Business Resource Groups and the Global Inclusion & Diversity Council are helping to develop a robust pipeline of diverse leaders for the future to execute current and future business strategy, increase retention, differentiate Hyatt as an employer of choice and drive greater personalization of the guest experience.
• A New People Leader Curriculum provides new managers with a Talent Playbook that creates consistency across the organization, empowers leaders of people to make the right decisions for their teams , and brings clarity to the supporting systems and processes.

At the center of the work is an intense focus on:

• Eliminating key pain points  for colleagues so we  bring the right roles to the right people at the right time . Transparency around and opportunities for career growth and development, performance measurement and rewards.
• Simplifying HR programs and processes  contributes to a  shared understanding of responsibility for leading talent.  HR managers work closely with people managers to help them proactively build and develop their teams, with flexible customization to support distinct functions, hotels and regions.
• Expanding  talent and recruitment outreach to institutions in diverse communities  to drive an expanded, more diverse candidate pool, and in some cases identify  business development opportunities .

“Participating in CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion, alongside PwC, has been a valuable part of Hyatt’s inclusion journey, particularly the collective effort of organizations to look at bias and to share challenges and best practices. Creating a sense of belonging and community is especially important in the hospitality industry for both our colleagues and our guests.” Tyronne Stoudemire, Vice President of Inclusion and Diversity, Hyatt

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Talent management lessons from apple: a case study of the world’s most valuable firm (part 1 of 4).

September 12, 2011

This past August Apple became the most valuable corporation in the world based on market capitalization, surpassing every firm in the technology industry and every other industry! As a consumer products company, its prolonged growth spurt is even more amazing because it has continued through economic times when consumers are reluctant to spend what little they have. Considering that Apple was near bankruptcy in 1997, its story is both extraordinary and noteworthy.

The extraordinary valuation is not a result of 30+ years of stellar performance. Apple has failed at many things. Its success isn’t the result of access to special equipment, manufacturing capability, or a great location, but rather superior leadership, access to great talent, and unusual talent management approaches.

Almost everyone in business is aware of Apple’s amazing product success and the extraordinary leadership of Steve Jobs. Some authors have described the firm’s approach to HR, but few have analyzed the firm close enough to identify  why the approaches work. Visits to the headquarters and interviews with HR leaders convinced me that there are lessons to be learned from this company. After two decades of researching and analyzing Apple’s approach to talent management, I have compiled a list of the key differentiators.

Apple Talent Management Approaches to Emulate

This three-part case study covers the many talent management factors that contributed to Apple’s extraordinary success in workforce productivity and innovation. It does not focus on the many important things that Steve Jobs did at Apple, because such things are not easily copied by others. It also focuses primarily on the approaches used within Apple’s corporate facilities versus those of Apple’s retail operations.

Agility Allows for Innovation into Completely New Areas

Many firms develop the capability to dominate their industry. Procter & Gamble, Intel, and Toyota are excellent examples. Apple is in a different league, however, because it has demonstrated the ability to shift into and dominate completely new industries every few years. For most of its history, Apple was a computer company (and its name used to be Apple Computer), but in the last decade Apple tackled the music industry with the iPod device and iTunes distribution channel. Next Apple conquered and dominated the smartphone industry with the iPhone and “App Store.” Most recently Apple challenged the PC as we know it and is in the process of disrupting the publishing industry. This ability to successfully shift from one industry to another in a few short years is known as agility. In my book, even wildly successful firms like Google, Facebook, Toyota, or Procter & Gamble can’t come close to matching Apple’s agility track record.

A great deal of Apple’s agility comes from the direction and vision of its senior leadership and its corporate culture, which reinforces the need to get ready for “the next big thing.” While Apple looks for agility in talent, the real key to Apple’s agility occurs post onboarding. At Apple, there is a cultural expectation that after succeeding in one task, you will immediately move on to something completely different. You know that you will have to retool and learn quickly. The expectation of radical change eliminates resistance and sends a message that employees can’t rest on their laurels. That means that they must mentally prepare for (and even look forward to) the next extraordinary challenge, even though you will get almost no “career path” help in determining which is the next best challenge for you. Apple employees work in numerous disconnected team silos, competing against one another with little or no foresight into the purpose or intended use date of their work.

The rapidly shifting work load means than an employee bored with their work won’t be for long because the work and the focus will change, a major attraction factor that brings in recruits desiring the challenge of radical change. Looking at the big picture, Apple’s ability to move into and dominate completely unrelated industries is only possible because of its extraordinary talent, the way that it manages it, and its approach to building an image that attracts the new skills needed to successfully move into completely new product areas.

A “Lean” Talent Management Approach Contributes to Extraordinary Productivity

Most firms strive to have a productive workforce. One of the best ways to measure workforce productivity is revenue per employee. Apple produces what can only be considered extraordinary revenue per employee; $2 million. A second measure of workforce productivity is profit per employee: nearly $478,000 for Apple (unbelievable considering it has a retail workforce).

If you are familiar with the concept of lean management, then you’ll understand the prime drivers for Apple’s extraordinary employee productivity. For years, the leadership of Apple has followed the philosophy that having less is more, meaning that by purposely understaffing and operating with reduced funding, you can make the team more productive and innovative.

Innovation at most firms is expensive because you must pay for a lot of trial and error. The lean approach, however, can improve innovation because with everything being tried, there simply isn’t enough time or money for major misses and re-do’s. “Unrealistic deadlines” at Apple mean that you have to get project problems solved early on, because there isn’t time to redo things over and over. Being lean forces the team to be more cohesive. Even providing a lean schedule forces everyone to be productive because they know there is no room for slippage. At Apple, the lean approach means that even with its huge cash resources, every employee must adopt the mentality of leanness. If you understand the lean concept and its advantages, you shouldn’t be surprised that numerous innovations have been developed in “garages,” the ultimate lean environment.

Build and Reinforce a Performance Culture

Any business analysis of Apple will reveal its laser focus on producing industry-leading results. While some feel the performance emphasis comes solely from Steve Jobs, the “performance culture” is continually reinforced by operational processes and practices. For example, having stock as a primary motivator forces employees to focus on the performance of the company and its stock. The rewards and recognition programs at Apple don’t include a component for effort or trying — only final results. Rather than celebrating numerous product milestones, only the final product unveiling is worthy of a major celebration.

A performance culture requires significant differentiation based on performance, and it’s clear that in this culture, the top performers and those who are working on mission-critical products are treated significantly differently. In fact, current and former employees frequently complained about the special treatment given to those designated as the “top 100 most important employees.”

Treating top performers differently may cause some employees to be disgruntled, but treating all employees exactly the same will frustrate your high-impact top performers and cause them to leave. Functions receive different funding also, based on their potential impact. Overhead functions that don’t directly produce product (i.e. HR) are often underfunded compared to product producing functions like engineering and product design.

Although there is certainly politics at Apple (where marketing seems to rule), having a degree from a prestigious school or past success on other products won’t get you far in the highly competitive culture at Apple. Jobs has no degree at all. The internal competition is fierce (even though they don’t know what other teams are doing) to develop or contribute to the most-talked about feature for the next WOW product.

Rather Than a Work/Life Balance, Emphasize the Work

Numerous HR functions proudly and prominently push work/life balance. Like them, Apple is proud of its long-established culture. You won’t find the term “balance” anywhere on the career site; instead, Apple makes it clear it is looking for extremely hard-working and committed individuals. On the website, for example, it proudly states: “ This isn’t your cushy corporate nine-to-fiver .” It reinforces the “hard work” message several times, including “ Making it all happen can be hard work. And you could probably find an easier job someplace else. But that’s not the point, is it ?

And: “ We also have a shared obsession with getting every last detail right. So leave your neckties, bring your ideas .”

If you don’t care about getting every precise detail perfect, great work, and a lot of it, Apple makes it crystal clear that this is not the place for you.

Next week: Part 2 — more talent management approaches to copy and learn from.

Talent Management Lessons From Apple … A Case Study of the World’s Most Valuable Firm (Part 2 of 4)

In Part 2 of this case study on Apple’s talent management practices, I look at its approach to innovation, compensation, and benefits, careerpathing, and online recruitment (its career site). Some approaches discussed are unique to sub-factions within Apple, as would be expected in any organization of significant size. It’s also quite rare for organizations that design, manufacture, and sell through direct retail to have consistent approaches across all units.

Talent Management Lessons To Learn and Copy (continued)

You should not be surprised to learn that the firm that made the term “think different” a brand uses talent management approaches that are well outside the norm. In addition to  the lessons presented in Part 1 , some approaches other firms can learn from Apple include:

Career paths reduce self-reliance and cross-pollination  — in most organizations, HR helps to speed up employee career progression. The underlying premise is that retention rates will increase if career progression is made easy. The Apple approach is quite different; it wants employees to take full responsibility for their career movement. The concept of having employees “own their career” began years ago when Kevin Sullivan was the VP of HR. Apple doesn’t fully support career path help because it doesn’t want its employees to develop a “sense of entitlement” and think that they have a right to continuous promotion.

Apple believes career paths weaken employee self-reliance and indirectly decrease cross-departmental collaboration and learning. Absent a career path, employees actively seek out information about jobs in other functions and business units. In a company where creativity and innovation are king, you don’t want anything reducing your employee’s curiosity and the cross-pollination between diverse functions and units. Automatically moving employees up to the next functional job may also severely narrow the range of internal movement within the organization, which could reduce the level of diverse thinking in some groups.

Create and manage a culture of innovation  — most firms have a culture with a singular focus on one attribute like performance, quality, customer service, or cost-containment. Apple is unique in that it has two dominant cultural attributes that exist side-by-side. The first (discussed in part one) is “performance,” with the second being “innovation”; the latter may actually be the strongest of the two. The dual emphasis works at Apple because the firm operates in the consumer technology field, where there is a universal expectation for “disruptive” performance.

Producing $2 million-plus in revenue per employee certainly establishes Apple as a performer, but it is its industry-dominating product innovation that differentiates it from competitors like HP, Sony, Microsoft, and IBM. Three factors drive the innovation attribute, including the expectation of continuous innovation, extreme secrecy within the product development process, and continuous brainstorming/challenge meetings (even at play just days before a product launch).

“I expect a pony”

Apple’s culture of innovation is unique because the goal is to produce a “pony, not a real horse but instead something so desirable that everyone wants it and considers it ‘gorgeous.’” Simple evolution doesn’t cut it — only extraordinary industry-leading innovation that results in WOW products does. To accomplish that, Apple doesn’t do what most consumers assume it does. Instead of developing completely new industry technologies, Apple takes existing technologies and then bundles numerous small developments on top to produce what appears to the public as giant step forward. It takes a powerful culture and group of managers to delay taking great work public faster, but Apple knows that numerous small releases don’t produce the same media and consumer buzz.

The expectation of innovation permeates the culture

The expectation of innovation is driven by Apple’s history of innovation, its leaders (who forbid the use of “that’s not possible”), and the peer pressure among employees to be among the contributors to the final product that the customer sees. In order to generate this expectation of innovation, it doesn’t rely on posters or motivational slogans (although they have those too …  around here, changing the world just comes with the job description ). Instead, every communication, process, product launch event, and even advertising slogans ( Think Different, Imagine the Possibilities, Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. Etc. ) make it crystal-clear that innovation is at the heart of Apple’s success. Innovation has driven Apple’s past and current successes, and it will continue to drive future success. After walking in the door of the corporate offices in Cupertino, California, you can literally “feel” the expectation to innovate.

Secrecy drives internal competition

The second critical driver of innovation is the product development process. This innovation process is unique in that it doesn’t rely on a formal “ideation” type model; instead, it has been described as an “iteration” process energized by peer competition and Apple’s famous siloed/secret approach to teams. Apple does many things using small development teams, as many firms do, but doesn’t rely on a single team to design each product element. Multiple teams may be assigned to the same area (or they may accidentally wander into the same area). The approach has been called 10 to 3 to 1 because 10 teams may work on a product area independently. When work is ready for review a formal peer review, it will whittle 10 mockups to three and eventually down to one. It is an approach that is unique to Apple. Outsiders may consider it expensive and slow, but they can’t argue it isn’t effective.

Apple is well known for its obsession with secrecy in order to heighten the impact during a product release. Secrecy is also the most unique element in its innovation process. In order to maintain secrecy, development and design teams are intentionally siloed. As a result of these communication barriers, team leaders may not be initially aware of how many teams they’re competing against and what those other teams are working on. The level of open collaboration that you might find at other firms like Google is not possible under this process, but neither is early-stage groupthink. Once possible feature solutions move forward to peer review, the organization benefits from broader scope best-practice sharing and collaboration. While it may seem counterintuitive, Apple has turned “team silos” that would be a negative factor at most firms into a positive force.

Paired design meetings force free-thinking to continue until the end of the design

Another element of the design and innovation process is the holding of weekly “paired design meetings.” Every design team is expected to hold two meetings each week. The first is a traditional production meeting where small refinements are discussed and made. The second is a “go crazy” meeting, in which everyone brainstorms and uses free-thinking to scope out parameters. Most organizations stop these brainstorming meetings once the design parameters are clear, but Apple continues them long into the development cycle to guarantee that completely new ideas will constantly raise the innovation bar.

The talent management lessons to learn in the area of innovation include the concept that intense competition may produce innovation faster than any formal ideation process. In addition, peer vetting of ideas, delaying collaboration until toward the end of the development process, and requiring the continuous use of brainstorming processes may result in bolder innovations and higher levels of risk-taking.

Tying economic rewards to overall company success can reduce selfish behavior  – You won’t find anyone who will publicly argue that Apple pays well with regard to base compensation. Economic rewards at Apple are significant, but largely tied to the company’s valuation. The primary monetary motivator at Apple is “the opportunity for wealth creation” as a result of stock ownership. Most employees at Apple get periodic stock grants to reward their contribution. By putting the focus on the stock, they send every employee a clear message that individual accomplishments are important only if they directly contribute to the overall success of the company. This approach, coupled with the firm’s famous “product focus,” keeps everyone focused on product success rather than individual results and individual rewards. Individual rewards are provided based on performance and consist of stock grants and cash bonuses up to 30% of base salary. Apple’s retail employees also have stock opportunities. They are paid on an hourly basis and do not receive a sales commission.

Benefits and even pay play a secondary role in recruiting and retention — at Apple, the primary long-term attraction and retention factors are stock growth and exciting work. Because of the importance of these two factors, its message on benefits is clear. If you’re doing the best work of your life and having a major impact on the world, do you really need sushi in the cafeteria? (It has that also.) Although most talent competitors to Apple spend huge amounts of money on benefits, Apple’s offerings are spartan when compared to Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. While Apple’s health plan is well-funded, and it has good food and an on-campus gym, neither the food nor the gym is free. One perk that does excite potential applicants (especially in retail) is the employee discount on Apple products which is given to every employee. These discounts further support and reinforce Apple’s companywide emphasis on the product.

Your corporate jobs website should boldly inspire  — because the primary goal of most corporate career/jobs websites is simply to provide company and job information to potential candidates, most corporate job pages are chock-full full of information. Apple’s website is lean on information but strong on inspiration. As a result, after exploring the site, the potential applicant comes away inspired rather than with a pile of information about the company.

There are two categories of inspirational messages on the site, and each one is bold. The first group of corporate messages makes it clear that Apple is “anti-corporate.” In fact, the first bold headline you see is “ corporate jobs, without the corporate part .” They also highlight what they are proud  not  to have including  endless meetings, being bureaucratic, having executive perks and managers wearing suits . Instead they boldly tell you “ don’t expect business as usual .”

The second category of inspiration on the website concentrates on openness, innovation, and changing the world. Key phrases include “ open minds, collaboration, and of course innovation .” You will also find the phrase “ there’s plenty of open space — and open minds ” (obviously perfect sentence structure isn’t a high priority either). Finally, they promise to “ give you a license to change the world ” and “ be inspired .”

Its focus on inspiration is so strong that for a tech firm, there is a surprising  lack of technology-speak on the page . You will not find blogs, videos, or any mention of Apple’s availability on Twitter or Facebook easily. When it comes to mobile access, the site will render fine on the latest smartphones, but receives a 1.51/5.0 with regard to meeting mobile standards. If you visit the site, you might even find links that don’t work and features that load very slowly. What you will find is inspiration — loads of it.

I’ll leave you with this introductory statement from its career site:

“There’s the typical job. Punch in, push paper, punch out, repeat. Then there’s a career at Apple. Where you’re encouraged to defy routine. To explore the far reaches of the possible. To travel uncharted paths. And to be a part of something far bigger than yourself. Because around here, changing the world just comes with the job description.”

Next week,  Part 3:  Employer branding, recruiting, retention, and other talent management approaches to copy and learn from.

Talent Management Lessons From Apple… A Case Study of the World’s Most Valuable Firm (Part 3 of 4)

Want to impress your CEO? Few CEOs wouldn’t mind having the innovation track record of Apple, so there is probably no quicker way to become an “instant hero” then by learning how Apple’s talent management practices have contributed to its success and applying those practices relevant to your organization. In this installment of the case study, we’ll look at internal branding, employer branding, and recruiting.

Internal Brand Encourages Fighting the Status Quo

Steve Jobs and the management team at Apple have worked tirelessly to build a unique internal brand image at Apple that positions employees (at least mentally) as revolutionaries and rebels. Many years ago the organization influenced this internal brand by challenging employees to think how much more exciting it would be to be a pirate, rather than someone who followed the formal protocol of the regular Navy. It even flew a pirate flag over its corporate headquarters. The tradition of being revolutionaries is upheld even today with many supportive slogans including “Part career, part revolution.”

Apple is well known for using T-shirts, parties, and celebrations to build cohesion and to reinforce the internal brand as a ragtag group of revolutionaries. By getting employees to view their role as attacking the status quo, it helps to spur continuous and disruptive innovation. It has been successful in maintaining that internal brand image despite the fact that the top-down approach and intense secrecy run counter to its hatred of bureaucracy and all things “too corporate.” The external image further supports the internal brand.

You Can Have a Strong External Employer Brand Without an Employer Branding Program

Many among us dream of working at Apple, but unlike Google and Facebook, it’s pretty difficult to find out what it’s actually like to work there. A quick search on the Internet reveals that apart from a few alumni, most who have roamed the halls are pretty tight-lipped about their experience. While that silence is probably largely driven by Apple’s widespread use and vigilantly enforced non-disclosure agreements, even the corporation itself is relatively mum. You won’t find a great deal of employment advertising or find the Apple name on any one of a dozen or more best-company-to-work-for lists covering the technology sector, even though competitors like Google, Microsoft, and Intel are regularly listed.

Despite the silence, most would agree that Apple has a great “employer brand image”; Universum ranks Apple No. 10 among global engineering companies. The lesson to be learned is simple: use management practices that support your desired brand and elaborate brand management work will be unnecessary. Get your potential applicants to admire your firm for who and what the firm does by being the admirable firm.

Your Product Brand Should Serve Double-duty as Your Employer Brand

Instead of spending millions on building an employer brand, Apple lets its product brand do all the talking. Apple works hard on building and maintaining its product brand, which is ranked as  the #1 global brand  according to BrandZ ranking. Although product brand messages are intended primarily for customers, the messaging which emphasizes innovation and thinking differently also hasa major impact on potential applicants and employees. The logic is that if your organization lives up to its product promises, then it is natural to expect that the company’s jobs would also live up to the firm’s brand promise. In their minds, potential applicants make the connection between great products and a great place to work. In addition, because Apple’s products are talked about by everyone, there is a lot of brand association power lauded on those who work at Apple.

This public awareness and admiration can, coupled with a strong employee referral program, make generating a high volume of quality applicants easy. That same attention and curiosity will also enhance a firm’s retention rates because your employees will realize that the public sees them as collectively changing the world. Having employees believe that they are likely doing “the best work of their lives” is a powerful situation that most companies can’t easily mimic.

Being a Most-admired Firm May Be Enough

Apple does receive some notoriety in the press as the world’s  “most admired firm.”  In fact, Apple has been No. 1 for four years running on the list. That is an amazing feat. Apple dominates this list by being ranked first in eight out of the nine possible ranking factors. Those eight categories include factors that impress potential applicants, including people management, quality of management team, innovativeness, and social responsibility. The most admired list is based on the perceptions of business people and executives, something that Apple excels at managing. Having your firm admired garners enormous publicity in addition to increasing employee pride, engagement, and retention. The lesson to be learned by other firms is that if you don’t offer great benefits (which Apple doesn’t) you can get the same or even larger impact if you manage the perceptions of executives at other firms.

We want our people to be on the leading edge, so that everyone wants them… and then we must treat them right so they will stay, no matter what offers come along! – Apple Senior Manager

Aggressively Recruit the Best From Other Firms

The pirate-raiding mentality at Apple certainly carries over into recruiting. Apple has a long history of recruiting away top talent from other firms. In fact, the development of its iPod probably wouldn’t have occurred if it wasn’t for importing external talent from firms that didn’t appreciate the value of this new technology. Steve Jobs himself has been known to get directly involved in recruiting top talent. Apple has a top-grading type philosophy in that it targets top performers. Jay Elliot, its former VP of HR, cites one of Apple’s core principles as: ”Always… hire the best  ’A’ people. As soon as you hire a B, they start bringing in Bs and Cs.”

Apple’s recruiting approach is evolving because it has recently imported a team of recruiting leaders from Electronic Arts, but historically, despite the aggressive philosophy, its recruiting methods were pedestrian. It uses job boards and has an employee referral program that has paid up to $5,000, but its candidate experience is far from perfect. Glassdoor users rate Apple interviews 3.0/5.0 with regard to difficulty. Its college recruiting effort isn’t exceptional, with the exception of using recent college hires to help recruit the new crop. The key lesson for other firms to learn is that you can generate huge volumes of high-quality applicants if your firm is highly admired and if potential employees believe that they will be working on leading-edge products that everyone will be talking about.

In the retail group, there are two notable recruiting practices. The first has been the naming of the “ Genius Bar ,” where technical support is provided. Many applicants and employees in the retail area seem to be willing to put up with the relative drudgery of retail work simply for the opportunity to someday work their way up to becoming certified as a “genius.” The second is the use of employee referral cards that are well-designed and powerful. They reinforce the companywide focus that originated with Steve Jobs on recruiting the best from other firms. Recruiters and employees who witness great customer service at other retail and customer service outlets hand the card to those few individuals who provide impressive service. The front of the referral cards say “You’re amazing. We should talk.”

The back praises the individual and their work with a near perfect narrative … “ Your customer service just now was exceptional. I work for the Apple store and you’re exactly the kind of person we’d like to talk to. If you’re happy where you are, I’d never ask you to leave. But if you’re thinking about a change, give me a call. This could be the start of something great .”

Next week,  Part 4 : Apple’s approach to training and development, management, leadership, and other difficult-to-categorize talent management lessons to learn from.

Talent Management Lessons From Apple… A Case Study of the World’s Most Valuable Firm (Part 4 of 4)

The purpose of this case study was not to say that you should copy everything Apple does, but rather to point out that with relentless execution and focus on key factors even a firm near bankruptcy can fight its way back to the top. In 13 years Apple has transformed itself from an organization of the verge of collapse to the world’s most valuable firm, amassing a phenomenal innovation record in the process. While Apple’s approach wouldn’t work for every firm, there are lessons to be learned that can influence program design regardless of industry, firm size, or location.

In part 4 of this case study (here’s parts  1 ,  2 , and  3 ) on talent management lessons, the attention is on development practices, role of management, and inspirational leadership.

Make your employees “own” their learning, training and development  — because Apple frequently produces new products requiring expertise in completely different industries (i.e. computers, music devices, media sales, and telephony), its employee skill set requirements change faster than at almost any other tech firm. While there is plenty of training available, there is no formal attempt to give every employee a learning plan. Just as with career progression, employee training and learning are primarily “owned” by employees. The firm expects employees to be self-reliant. Its retail salesforce for example receives no training on how to sell, a practice that is certainly unconventional in the retail environment. The lesson is simple: providing target competencies and prescribing training can weaken employee self-reliance, an attribute problematic in a fast-changing environment. Employee ownership of development encourages employees to continuously learn in order to develop the skills that will be required for new opportunities.

Make managers undisputed kings  — Apple is not a democracy. Most direction and major decisions are made by senior management. “Twenty percent time” like that found at Google doesn’t exist. While in some organizations HR is powerful when it comes to people management issues, at Apple, Steve Jobs has a well-earned reputation for deemphasizing the power of HR. Although Apple was the first firm to develop an HR 411 line, I have concluded that most of the talent management innovations at Apple emanate from outside of the HR function. There is a concerted effort to avoid having decisions made by “committees.” Putting the above factors together, it is clear that at Apple, managers are the undisputed kings. The resulting decrease in overhead function interference, coupled with the increased authority and accountability, helps to attract and retain managers that prefer control. Unfortunately, concentrating the authority has resulted in having some managers being accused of micromanagement and abusing team members.

Having a product focus drives focus, cooperation, and integration  – Apple is notably famous in the business press for its “product-focused” approach (versus a functional or regional focus). Everything from strategy to budgets to organizational design and talent management functions are designed around “the product.” One of the primary goals of talent management is to ensure that the workforce is focused on the strategic elements that drive company success. That focus can be distracted with selfish or self-serving behavior that instead shifts the emphasis to the individual, a business function, a particular business unit or even a region. Although deciding to have a product focus is normally a business decision, it turns out that Apple’s strong product focus also has significant positive impacts on talent management.

This laser focus on producing a product makes it easy for everyone to prioritize and focus their efforts. A product focus is so powerful because it’s easy for employees to understand that final products can never be produced without everyone being on the same page. A product focus increases coordination, cooperation, and integration between the different functions and teams because everyone knows that you can’t produce a best-selling product without smooth handoffs and a lack of silos and roadblocks. With a singular focus on producing product, there is simply less confusion about what is important, what should be measured, what should be rewarded, and what precisely is defined as success. A product focus increases the feeling of “we’re all in this together” for a single clear purpose: the product.

Apple purposely offers only a relative handful of products, so employee focus isn’t dispersed among hundreds of products as it is at other firms. By releasing products only when it can have a major market impact, Apple essentially guarantees that every employee can brag that they contributed to an industry-dominating product that everyone is aware of. This focus on product helps to contribute to employees feeling that they are “changing the world.” This focus may also reduce the chance that employees will notice that the day-to-day work environment with its politics and the required secrecy may be less than perfect. And because Apple is no longer a small firm, with nearly 50,000 employees, a unifying and inspiring theme is required to maintain cohesion and a single sense of purpose.

Find a passionate and inspirational leader  — although Steve Jobs is no longer the CEO, no analysis of Apple would be complete without mentioning his importance in the firm’s success and the design of its talent management approach. He influenced nearly every aspect of the talent management approach. Not only is he one of the highest-rated CEOs by the public (he is  ranked  number three on the glassdoor.com list) but as a role model, he has had a huge impact on innovation, productivity, retention, and recruiting. His value is indisputable. The day after he resigned, Apple’s stock value fell by as much as $17.7 billion. It is too early to tell whether the new CEO, Tim Cook, who is markedly less inspirational, will be able to maintain the momentum that Jobs created. He has already shifted some executives and changed the company’s philanthropy approach by instituting a matching gift program for charitable donations.

Other miscellaneous talent management issues  — Apple executives are certainly in high demand at other firms that seek to be equally as innovative (for example, the head of the retail operation recently left to become CEO at JCPenney). Despite this demand, Apple certainly doesn’t have any significant turnover problems. You can, however, find  plenty  of negative comments about Apple on sites like glassdoor.com. Some describe Apple’s approach toward employees as a bit arrogant, and employees are certainly pushed to their limits. If you don’t “bleed six colors,” you simply won’t enjoy your experience at Apple for long. Although originally the firm emphasized employee recognition, it is not easy for those outside the firm to connect recent product successes to a single individual or team.

Apple is a team environment. Although many teams are forced to operate in isolation, that actually helps to build team cohesion. The competition between the different development teams is also intense, but that also helps to further strengthen cohesion. Like most engineering organizations, its decision-making model is certainly focused on data. Apple management likes to control all aspects of its products, but despite that, it is one of the best at using outsourcing to cover areas like manufacturing, which it has determined is not a core corporate competency.

Final Thoughts

Although Apple clearly produces extraordinary results, its approach to talent management is totally different than that of Google and Facebook, which also produce industry-dominating results. As Apple has grown larger, its rigor around sustainable innovation has grown as well, a feat that proves impossible for most organizations including the likes of HP, Microsoft, and Yahoo.

The three “big picture” learnings I hope you walk away from this case study with include:

• Focus on “the work” — it is management’s responsibilty to do whatever is necessary to keep work exciting and compelling.
• Strive for continuous innovation — Apple’s emphasis on being “different” is so strong that it can’t be overlooked by any employee or applicant. It delivers industry-dominating innovation levels because everyone is expected to.
• Deliver on your brand — Apple works hard to make sure that potential applicants, employees, and even competitors admire its products, the firm, and how it operates.

These three factors are not easy to copy, but they are certainly worth emulating. If you can bring them and the results that they produce to your firm, there is no doubt that you will be a hero.

Author’s Note : If this article stimulated your thinking and provided you with actionable tips, please take a minute to follow and/or connect with Dr. Sullivan on  LinkedIn .

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