New Year's Resolutions from Leading Human Capital Executives
As 2010 ends, we look ahead to 2011 and the critical issues senior executives will face. In the spirit of the season, we asked executives from several i4cp member organizations to share their human capital resolutions for the New Year.
Not surprisingly, subjects such as integrated talent management, customer-focused culture, coaching, employee engagement, retention and development were all themes for the coming year. But while work in these areas sometimes seem never-ending, the good news is that each of these topics, along with many others, will be key focuses at i4cp's 2011 Annual Conference this March.
Here are some of the resolutions that resonated with us:
"Our goal for Human Capital Planning in 2011 is to drive change in our business processes and systems to enable an integrated and holistic approach with all of our talent processes. The business value of Human Capital Planning comes from the actions we take in: who we hire and how we onboard and develop employees; what we do to grow our pipeline of talent to ensure robust succession plans; and continuously supporting the engagement and retention of all employees to drive effectiveness and efficiency for business productivity and growth."
- Sandy Tokach, Vice President of HR Talent Solutions, 3M Corporation
"At McDonald's, our goal is to energize our restaurant crew and managers to deliver a superior customer experience. This will be accomplished through a combination of foundational and iconic changes to our People programs at the restaurant level - changes that have the potential to be scaled globally across the system."
- Rich Floersch, Corporate EVP and Chief Human Resources Officer, McDonalds
"My 2011 New Year's resolution for GE Healthcare is to build coaching skills and capabilities for our 5,000+ managers and create a human capital advantage."
- Robert T. Cancalosi, Director of Leadership Development & Culture, GE Healthcare
"In a nutshell, we're all about transforming our workforce at AT&T. Our company is leading a global communications transformation: everything's going mobile, and wireless broadband is creating remarkable opportunities that were unimaginable just three years ago. In this kind of environment, our employees have to be innovative, collaborative and able to adapt to change immediately and repeatedly.
"That's our focus in Talent Development & Diversity: partnering with the business to create a ‘rethink possible' culture that nurtures these attributes. I'm particularly pleased with the role AT&T University has played in this transformation. In fewer than three years we've been able to develop and deploy a curriculum that's moving us toward the culture we're after - and we've done it on an incredible scale. More than 100,000 managers have heard the same message from AT&T's senior leaders about what we must do to succeed, where we're investing and the role every employee plays in our success. We're seeing compelling evidence that we're having an impact and, in 2011, we'll build on that success."
- Cindy Brinkley, SVP of Talent Development and Chief Diversity Officer, AT&T
"The key focus for my team this year is ‘prioritizing for impact.' Research has shown that there is a strong relationship between employee satisfaction and a company's long run stock performance. Most HR teams implement lots of activities, initiatives and projects across the organization; however, these efforts don't always directly impact key drivers of employee satisfaction. As we approach 2011, my team is conducting an inventory of all our deliverables and reprioritizing them based on their direct linkage to employee satisfaction.
- Tamar Elkeles, Chief Learning Officer, Qualcomm
Tamar will be presenting at i4cp's 2011 Annual Conference in March on the topic of creating a culture of Innovation, along with other F500 CLO's.
"As the recession eases, we will be challenged to attract and retain top talent. Competition will increase and the long-forecasted departure of baby boomers in large numbers will ensue. We will refresh and re-energize our strategic workforce plan in 2011 to ensure our recruiting/selection efforts are bringing us the right people. We will also double our efforts to have actionable development plans in place for all employees, not just our high potentials."
- Jeff Wheelock, Director of Human Resources, Institute of Nuclear Power Operations
"In addition to reaching for big talent and organization growth goals in 2011, do small things daily that add up over time. This year, think small as well as big. We are often drawn to the large initiative, the enterprise-wide change effort and the big-hairy-audacious goals. But save some room for the nano-smoother-reasonable moves - those small changes, made daily, that overtime compound into a significant improvement."
- Kevin Wilde, Vice President of Organization Effectiveness and Chief Learning Officer, General Mills
Look for Kevin's article "Nano Talent Moves" in the January 2011 edition of Talent Management magazine. Kevin will also be presenting at i4cp's 2011 Annual Conference in March.
We'd like to hear from you, too. What are your human capital resolutions for 2011?
