Human Resource Management Assignment 2

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4 Matching Employees and Jobs

Job Analysis and Design

Case 4.1. HR Forecasting: Visier—Workforce Forecasting For an organization to maximize productivity, HR must match the right people with the right jobs. HR forecasting identifies the estimated supply and demand for the dif- ferent types of human resources needed in the organization over some future period, based on past and present demand.

Employment software specialist Visier Inc. helps companies complete their HR fore- cast. Visier is an employment specialist located in Vancouver, British Columbia, and San Jose, California. The company provides assistance and solutions to for improving recruitment, retaining employees, and motivating employees.

Visier takes complex data (often called Big Data) and uses Cloud technology to store and analyze workforce data. It then turns the data into sensible workforce strat- egies. Led by CEO John Schwarz, Visier has successfully developed HR strategies with Yahoo, Time Inc., ConAgra Foods, Nissan, and AOL.1

Using its special Workforce Intelligence process, Visier analyzes company data to predict which valuable employees are most likely to leave the company, provide insight into proper compensation levels, and discover recruitment sources that will result in finding the most talented recruits.

Visier predicts that companies will start to look at the overall cost of human resources, instead of just counting the number of people. Through its Workforce Intelligence process, Visier will also help predict the impact of employee retirement and how to best transfer employee skills to the next generation.

Visier has been so successful at helping companies organize their human resources they have attracted $25.5 million in new financing from investors.2 Visier’s software will bring even more big data analytical technologies to the human resources market. HR software that analyzes HR needs such as job analysis, job descriptions,

C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 6 . S A G E P u b l i c a t i o n s , I n c .

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Chapter 4 • Matching Employees and Jobs 19

job specifications, job design and redesign, job simplification, and job expansion is at least an $8 billion market.

Case 4.2. Succession Planning: Developing Leaders at General Electric (GE) Succession planning requires planning for a smooth transition from one key employee to another in order to minimize disruption of the organization’s work. Even if you own your own business, you eventually have to transfer ownership to the next gener- ation. Having a succession plan is part of forecasting the future human resource needs of a company. A well-thought-out succession plan can reduce risk within the com- pany by making sure the company is being led by a top-notch executive. Staff morale should be increased since the person selected currently works for the company. Hiring an executive from within will show that all employees who work for the company have the potential to be promoted.

GE was highly successful under the unique leadership that former CEO Jack Welch provided. Welch was known for making brash statements to help motivate employees. In an interview in the Los Angeles Times, Jeff Christian, the CEO of Christian Timbers Inc., said of Welch,

The winners are the people who make hiring and keeping the best people a top priority, and that’s exactly what Jack Welch did. . . . His primary strategic goal was hiring the best people around, developing them and training them and knowing who the stars were.3

On the other hand, Welch could be tough on his employees. He created what was affectionately called “rank and yank.” His model was that the star employees (10%) were encouraged to stay at GE. The middle 80 percent were considered the average employee with potential growth and development. Welch felt the bottom 10 percent

Case Questions

1. Do you agree with using an employment service such as Visier to help recruit, train, and develop your employees?

2. Do you think an outside vendor such as Visier can properly match prospective employees with open jobs?

3. Do you think Visier can complete an HR forecast for a company?

4. If you used Visier services, would you expect to lay off employees?

5. Why is forecasting retirements important in regard to the next generation of employees?

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Part II • Staffing2 0

of employees should be encouraged to leave GE. The bottom 10 percent received counseling on finding their next employer. Although the performance system was often considered harsh, Welch felt it was transparent, and an honest approach to help develop employees either at GE or another company.4

The classic case of succession planning took place at General Electric (GE) in 2001. At that time, Jack Welch had been the CEO at GE for 20 years. Welch had set a suc- cession plan in place by the mid-1990s. He created a list of 23 essential skills, charac- teristics, and qualities a CEO should possess. He would move executives into different positions and strategic business units in an effort to cross train his leaders in all areas of the company. Jack was left with eight candidates who were all very qualified to run GE or another large corporation.

Jeff Immelt was eventually selected to succeed Welch, and he has been at the helm of GE for the last 14 years. The executives not selected were so talented they were often chosen by other large corporations to be their CEO. Bob Nardelli went from GE to CEO at Home Depot. He then went to Chrysler. Jim McNerny went from GE to CEO of 3M, and then he moved to Boeing.

Jack Welch’s succession planning process is the model that many corporations have used to replace CEOs. The process Welch created led to the creation of a “deep bench” of talented executives to compete against each other in order to see who would be the next CEO. The succession plan itself helped GE to develop its top-level managers.

Welch also started the succession plan many years before he actually retired so he didn’t have to rush to pick his successor. He challenged the executive candidates with “stretch assignments” to see who could thrive in increasingly difficult situations. The stretch assignments were projects the eight candidates were given beyond their normal skills and abilities. Stretch assignments placed the candidates into new, larger, and potentially uncomfortable projects and tasks in order to see who could learn to grow into the next CEO at GE.

In the end, the succession planning process worked for the GE’s Board of Directors. They were left with a CEO, Jeff Immelt, who has successfully led GE for many years. Jack Welch retired from GE as planned and has continued to be a key speaker at con- ferences and training seminars about how to motivate, develop, and promote human resources.

Case Questions

1. Why do family businesses have to be as concerned as large corporations about succession planning?

2. Is succession planning part of forecasting human resources?

3. Did Jack Welch place great value on human resources at GE?

4. Why were the stretch assignments important to the selection of the new CEO at GE?

5. Find the CEO of a local company and determine how long he/she has been the CEO.

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Chapter 4 • Matching Employees and Jobs 2 1

Notes

1. www.visier.com. 2. Shieber, Jonathan, “Combining Big Data and Human Resources Nets Visier $25.5 Million,”

Tech Crunch.com, June 10, 2014.

3. Girion, Lisa, “GE Succession a Leadership Lesson,” Los Angeles Times, December 3, 2000. 4. Welch, Jack, “Jack Welch: ‘Rank-and-Yank’? That’s Not How It’s Done,” The Wall Street

Journal, November 14, 2013.

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