Talent Management of Southern Company - Term Paper Example

? Talent Management Number Southern Company is an electric utility organization which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. That this electric utility is big is not only underscored by Southern Company owning electric utilities in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia, but also by the company serving 4.4 million people with its supplies. Besides, Southern Company provides the market with wireless communication and fiber optic services which are multiply attested as being excellent, customer-friendly, highly reliable and economical. Nevertheless, a look at Southern Company underlines the fact that businesses and corporate entities are seldom successful because of the large pool of financial resources that an organization possesses, but because of proper management of the resources that an organization has to its name. Southern Company aptly exemplifies the manner in which organizations triumph by adopting proper performance management strategy. Proper performance management strategy in turn is successful to the extent that its exercise will be centered on the welfare of the personnel. 1. Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Roles That the Strategic Leaders Played In the Formation of the Performance Management Strategy Goldsmith and Carter (2010) point out that strategic leaders for Southern Company have played effective roles in the formation of the performance management strategy, based on several yardsticks. One of the ways in which this success is visible is the manner in which the Southern Company has hired employees at the entry level and continued to promote individual employees internally, thereby helping these employees occupy leadership positions that are available within the organization. This is directly connected to the observation of proper management strategy since the intra-organizational promotion of individuals to higher offices is usually a culmination of employees' culture of meeting performance target. Similarly, the same is a culmination of proper setting of feasible yet dynamic performance targets, supervision and bridging of performance gaps. The same also demands the exaction of workshop drives, training programs, and mentorship programs. The setting of performance target, supervision, the bridging of performance gaps and the extension of rewards to outstanding performers [by giving promotions] are all very important facets of performance management strategy. According to Fegley and Society for Human Resource Management (2007), another indicator of the effectiveness with which strategic leaders have contributed towards the formation of its performance management strategy is the low turnover rate that the company has had. This characteristically low turnover rate has enabled the Southern company to possess older, more seasoned and more tenured personnel. It is against this backdrop that over the years, Southern Company has been able to nurture a group of leaders that are in possession of a profound depth of business knowledge and who are strongly aligned with Southern Company's organizational culture. The maintenance of a low turnover is in turn a complex result of performance management strategy. This is because performance management strategy involves proper determination of performance goals, correctional measures to seal performance gaps and the extension of incentives. All these factors are important in extirpating high turnover. The drawing up of proper performance goals ensures employees are provided with the right of amount of work [and therefore reducing the risks of overworking or underperformance] while the sealing of performance gaps have to be humane enough to inculcate both a sense of belonging and challenge. The extension of incentives such as promotions, higher emoluments, grants and acts of acknowledgement directly dissuade employees from seeking greener pastures, and thereby abating high turnover. Another way in which Strategic leaders for Southern Company have played effective roles in the formation of the performance management strategy is by drawing up a clear exit strategy for its personnel. Southern Company employees are eligible for retirement at 50. It is for this reason since 2003 many of the company's executives are beginning to retire, given that the company employed a large of employees towards the close of the 1970s and early 1980s. The company's entry process or the recruitment process can only be as effective as its exit strategy. In the event that the entry process is too protracted, the company may be overstaffed. Conversely, lowering the age of retirement is bound to leave Southern Company understaffed and thereby forcing the Southern Company to embark on recruitment exercises. The flipside of this approach [having a retirement age that is very low] is that it is likely to leave Southern Company inordinately being graced with the presence of the youthful. This may not only amount to ageism, but may also earn the company a negative public image (Scullion and Collings, 2011). The way in which the Southern Company revamps its succession plan and rejuvenates its leadership development efforts also serves as a testament to the extent to which Southern Company's strategic leaders have played effective roles in the formation of the performance management strategy. The magnanimity of this approach is that it allows the company to review and re-straighten their succession planning and leadership development programs. These efforts serve as a guarantee to the fact that Southern Company is committed to having a sustainable source of effective leaders, as a way of meeting its future business needs. 2. Developing a Five (5) Point Criteria For Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Talent Management Strategy and How the Data Could Be Collected One of the criteria which can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of talent management strategy is studying the performance target that an organization has set for its personnel. This involves, considering the extent of qualification that an employee possesses [merit, skill and talent], the job assigned to him [challenge] and what the larger market requires of such an employee [global expectations]. If the challenge is below the employee's expectation, then employees' talents and skills are not being successfully horned. Performance gap can also be used to determine the effectiveness of talent management strategy. An employee who seldom meets performance target is likely to have been being subjected to poor talent management strategy. This is especially the case when his goals are commensurate to the expectations of the global market. Schiemann (2009) also divulges that one can also look at employee turnover of an organization to determine the effectiveness of the talent management strategy. An organization with high turnover is one that is poor in talent management, and therefore it perennially suffers an endless exodus of employees in search of greener pastures. Again, remunerations being extended to employees can serve as a benchmark to determining the effectiveness of talent management strategies. This is because competitive remunerations are important incentives to consolidating talent in an organization. One may also consider employee retention to determine the effectiveness of talent management strategy. Organizations which have low rates of employee retention are rarely good at proper management of talents, while employees in organizations where effective talent management is a reality, are likely to stay in that organization and identify fully with the organization's goals, vision mission and values. This information can be obtained from records kept in the human resources [HR] management department. 3. Critiquing the Components of Your Talent Management Strategy and Suggest Alternative Ways to Achieve Effective Results So far, the strategies that have been provided above meet the requirements that are needed of effective talent management. This is because, the process that has been discussed is integral enough to become an inextricable part of Southern Company's entire processes, cultural norms and programs, so as to help the organization attract, nurture, deploy and consolidate talent needed to achieve strategic objectives and to assist the organization secure its business needs. That the aforementioned program is an integral part of Southern Company's program is underscored by the manner in which this company's talent management program fuses with the rest of its HR practices such as job recruitment, selection process, promotion, assignment, assimilation, retention, rewards and recognition programs, training and professional development, mentoring and career development. As long as these important components are well addressed, the process can be said to be effective (Israelite, 2010). 4. Outlining the Functional Expertise Component of This Strategy and How It Optimizes the Company’s Ability to Identify Highly Qualified Individuals Job recruitment and selection process - these processes ensure that the best talents, skills and qualifications are netted into the organization. Promotion- this process encourages the exploitation of best talents, skills and qualifications towards the achievement of performance target. Assignment- this process ensures that duties and portfolios are assigned according to talents, skills and qualifications. Assimilation- the process of assimilation is to ensure that the talents, skills and qualifications desired are totally made an integral part of the organization, Southern Company. Retention- this process ensures that there is a favorable balance between exiting and entry of employees [talents, skills and qualifications] in the organization so as to have the right size of personnel and the desired talents, skills and qualifications. Rewards and recognition programs- like promotions, this process involves the extension of incentives to employees with the best talents, skills and qualifications, so as to encourage the exploitation of traits towards the achievement of performance target. Training and professional development- this process involves active and theoretical training and even workshop programs that may be arranged to nurture, sharpen and newly inculcate desired skills, talent and qualifications. Mentoring and career development- this involves assigning new employees with guides to help them acquire or develop talents desired, for the realization of organizational goals. References Fegley, S. & Society for Human Resource Management. (2007). Talent Management. New York: Society for Human Resource Management. Goldsmith, M. & Carter, L. (2010). Best Practices in Talent Management. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Israelite, L. (2010). Talent Management: Best Practices & Strategies for Success from Six Leading Companies. New York/ London: ASTD Press. Schiemann, W. A. (2009). Reinventing Talent Management: How to Maximize Performance in the New Marketplace. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Scullion, H. & Collings, G. (2011). Global Talent Management. 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