adjusting talent acquisition to a changing operations model

Adjusting Talent Acquisition to a Changing Operations Model:

Lessons for Creating and Repeating a Successful Strategic Talent Initiative

Robin Ritter Director, Talent & Learning Systems

General Mills

Kristy Sidlar Strategic Account Manager,

Futurestep

Copyright © 2009. Korn/Ferry International Futurestep, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Agenda

1.  Complex Recruitment: The General Mills Story •  The Changing Operations Model

•  Talent Acquisition Needs and Challenges

•  Phase I Initiative and Results

•  Phase II Initiative and Results

2.  Lessons Learned, How they May Apply to You

•  Identifying Needs: What are your real recruiting gaps and how will you address them?

•  The Strategy: We know that flexibility is key, but what does it take to be flexible?

•  Change Management: Building trust to overcome obstacles

•  Managing Results/Expectations: It’s never too early…

•  Execution: Playing to your organization’s strengths

•  Follow up Initiative: It’s not “plug-and-play”!

3.  Wrap-Up: A High-level View


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Complex Recruitment Initiative: The General Mills Story

About General Mills

•  A leading global manufacturer & marketer of consumer food products

•  Operations in 100+ countries, with 100+ consumer brands

•  2008 revenue: 14.8 Billion

•  Familiar brands: Cheerios, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Nature Valley, Green Giant, Old El Paso, Progresso


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Complex Recruitment: The General Mills Story

Improving Speed, Relationships and Market Presence by Bringing Sales In-house

Situation (2007) •  Foodservice sales through industry brokers •  Need for increased customer penetration •  Opportunities with direct to customer sales:

•  Faster new product introduction •  Increased operator coverage •  Deeper customer relationship & information sharing

Business Decision •  Bring sales in-house where possible •  Establish direct connection with distributors and operators

A Changing Operations Model


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New Talent Acquisition Needs and Challenges

•  Speed: Rapidly hire a qualified sales force

•  Confidentiality: Maintain confidentiality until sales force is completely assembled

•  Keeping Candidates Committed: Hire for one major start date (hired first candidate 75 days prior to start date). Requires early candidates to wait.

•  Accommodating Hands-off Lists (confidentiality / customer contracts & partnerships)

•  High Standards of Process and Strategy: Implement best practices for improving talent acquisition processes, measure performance and foster continuous improvement

•  Great Internal Recruitment Practice, but Resource Constrained: This created high expectations for talent acquisition performance for large project under tight timeline

Securing The Talent to Make It Work


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Who Is Needed To Make the Initiative Work? The initiative touched a variety of positions across organizations

Outsourced Provider •  Project Leader •  Team of up to 6 recruiters •  Research Team •  Additional resources as necessary - Implementation Leader, Account Manager

General Mills •  HR Director •  Associate HR Manager •  Corporate Recruiting Manager •  Recruiting Assistant •  Additional Resources as necessary

KEY LESSON: •  Effective outsourced recruiting is not a “turnkey” operation.

•  A great provider is effective because of its ability to work with your internal resources. •  Even if you outsource, you need a dedicated in-house team to make it work.

Securing The Talent (Cont’d.)


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Understanding Goals and Requirements

•  Breadth and Depth of Scope: Positions open at four levels nationwide (US) •  Tapping Internal Talent: Re-assign some employees from retail sales •  Reaching External Talent: Engage recruitment provider (Futurestep)

Strategy: •  Engaging an outsourced provider •  Establishing Ground Rules for internal/external recruiting team collaboration •  Managing the outsourced recruitment process (Futurestep/General Mills)

The Initiative (Phase I)


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What Went into Managing the Recruitment Process (Outsourced or In-sourced)

•  Customized and targeted sourcing strategies •  Two levels of pre-interview screening •  Setting up interviews •  Provided onsite support for interview days •  Processed reference checks •  Collaborated with client team on hiring decisions •  Onboarded new employees •  Conducted follow-ups with new employees to gauge satisfaction levels

The Initiative (Phase I) Cont’d.


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•  5000 names provided to execute on sourcing strategy •  Better than 3:1 interview to offer ratio •  98% offer acceptance rate •  100% of candidates who accepted offers were retained through five months

after start date, including those whose contracts could not be finalized in advance.

•  100% percent of senior positions filled with degreed candidates •  52 external hires via Futurestep •  35 internal transfers •  Relocations were limited to only 14 positions •  New hire quality exceeded company expectations.

Based On This Success, additional markets were selected for conversion, leading to PHASE II


PHASE ONE RESULTS


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Understanding Goals and Requirements

Situation (2008) •  Additional cities rolled into the direct sales force model •  Need to hire 14 additional sales professionals

Business Need •  Some positions filled with in-house talent •  7 – 12 roles to be filled by Futurestep

Why it “looked” easier than Phase I •  Confidentiality was not a factor in this initiative •  Model best practices and key learning's from the phase I project •  Similar sourcing methods but fewer restrictions (smaller hands-off list, staggered start

dates) •  A smaller project (smaller seemed easier)


The Initiative (Phase II)


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Areas of Focus (remained the same): •  Positions open at three levels nationwide (US) •  Tapping Internal Talent: Re-assign some employees from Retail to the new foodservice sales team •  Reaching External Talent: Engage recruitment provider (Futurestep) to support external process •  Tap into existing knowledge base / experience – Futurestep and General Mills

Activities: •  Similar to Phase I with the exception of the interview schedule – more flexibility

Results •  785 names provided to execute on sourcing strategy •  3:1 interview to offer ratio •  100 percent offer acceptance rate •  100 percent of senior positions filled with degreed candidates •  9 positions filled by Futurestep •  5 positions filled through internal transfer / promotion •  New hire quality exceeded company expectations


The Initiative (Phase II) Cont’d.


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Challenges and Lessons Learned

•  Identifying Needs: What are your real recruiting gaps and how will you address them?

•  The Strategy: We know that flexibility is key, but what does it take to be flexible?

•  Change Management: Building trust to overcome extraordinary obstacles

•  Managing Results/Expectations: It’s never too early…

•  Execution: Playing to your organization’s strengths

•  Follow up Initiative: It’s not “plug-and-play”!


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What are your real recruiting gaps and how will you address them?

#1. A Great Recruitment Function was in Place at General Mills •  Best practice organization •  Process focused •  Complete understanding of and success in recruitment

but… •  The project had a tight timeline. •  Too few resources to address hiring need.

#2. We thought we needed… •  A partner with foodservice sales recruitment experience, •  An ability to quickly and discreetly attract and screen qualified candidates, •  And give us the Names, let us handle the Process

but… •  We found that it became less about the talent acquisition partner’s functional

or industry experience and more about their process expertise

Lessons Learned

Identifying Needs


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What is needed for a successful outsourced recruitment partner?

•  Go-to-market strategy •  Immersion into the client culture •  Processes established and followed to get to the end result •  NOTE: Strategy, Culture and Process drives success for in-house

teams as well.

Key Lesson •  Prioritize the competencies that will make your partnership most

successful (in our case – large scale process expertise).

Lessons Learned

Identifying Needs, Cont’d.


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We Know Flexibility is Key, But What Does it Take to be Flexible?

Setting the Stage: A Robust Project Kick-off •  Define project roles •  Establish processes •  Set timeliness and milestones

Challenge: When the Reality Defied the Plan •  Shortly after the project kick-off it became clear that the project timeline was going to be tighter than

expected.

Response: Quickly Shifting Resources (without having to “Redefine” the process) •  Once it became evident that the timeline was truncated, Futurestep shifted resources and front-

loaded the team

Key Lesson: Establishing Structure is Key to Flexibility •  Initial work to clarify roles, processes and milestones can facilitate collaboration and problem

solving when obstacles appear.

Lessons Learned

Strategy


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Building Trust Among All Stakeholders Conditions

•  Confidentiality, Limited Participation: Due to project confidentiality, line client participation was limited.

•  Small Interviewing Team: Interviews were conducted by small panel of sales directors.

Challenges and Implications •  Going Against Tradition: Line clients had strong history of participation in

selection for their own work teams.

•  A Need to Trust in Interview Team: This project required that interview teams make decisions independent of direct work team input

Driving Need •  Change Management and Communication is essential to building trust

Lessons Learned

Change Management


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Change Management and Communication: Keys to Success

•  Alignment between stakeholders and project team members.

•  The recruiting manager was very visible in other business meetings.

•  Outsourced partner project lead was present at all interview decision meetings.

Key Lesson: Change Management Addresses Critical Trust Issues •  Confidentiality or not, everyone is engaged in the project.

•  How do you make everyone comfortable that others are doing what is needed?

•  Trust among team members facilitates adjustments to the plan along the way.

Lessons Learned

Change Management (Cont’d.)


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Managing Expectations, from Beginning to End Challenges

•  High Expectations •  High Anxiety

•  High Visibility (managers and leadership excited to see results, i.e. the right hires by the right time)

Key Activities and Insights •  Meetings: Monthly, Weekly, Continuous/As-needed

•  Ongoing project / process review

•  Make adjustments — on a weekly and monthly basis

•  Not every team spoke as frequently

•  Importance of executive expectation management

Lessons Learned

Managing Results/Expectations


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Lessons Learned: “It’s never too early…”

…To set that first meeting

…To set process and establish milestones

…To worry about the details, raise alarm, or simply say “I’m Concerned”

Lessons Learned

Managing Results/Expectations, Cont’d.


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Playing to Your Strengths

Observations/Considerations

•  Geography: Given the large geography covered by the hiring project, the team organized a few regional interview days in NY and CA.

•  Volume: Interview days required dedication by a large number of participants.

•  Complexity: Scheduled events outside of corporate headquarters were more complicated to manage.

•  What Works? In this case, on-site interviews were most productive and effective. Candidate impressions were stronger when visiting the corporate office.

Key Lesson: •  Capitalize on your strengths and what “sells” your organization. Maintain maximum

control on process.

Lessons Learned

Execution


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Building On Success/Creating and Expanding the Initiative (PHASE II)

Background Thought second phase would be easier because the project was smaller. Moving into

phase II initiation, General Mills recruiting team changed in two key positions.

Challenges of Second Project •  Smaller scope made this a less visible component of the daily responsibilities of

line managers, HR and the recruiting team.

•  Changes in team structure (FS and GMI) created some re-work

•  Individual players had changed. We relied too heavily on the fact that the processes were plug and play. Smaller project didn’t necessarily mean less work in managing key processes.

Lessons Learned

Follow-Up Initiative


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Key Lesson: The Second Initiative is not “Plug and Play”

•  Acknowledgement of differences between projects that are similar but not identical will allow for anticipation of where adjustments need to be made.

•  Strong promotion of the project and the need for dedication by all parties involved (no matter the size) sets the stage for success.

•  A formal kick-off, regardless of size or history, allows you to anticipate challenges and plan for solutions.

Lessons Learned

Follow-Up Initiative, Cont’d.


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The View From 30,000 Feet

A Wildly Successful Initiative: We achieved the business objective. Put in place the team to make new business model succeed.

Success will Bring Challenges and Expectations: New needs, changing parameters, comparison to previous success.

Fundamentals Will Always Be Important, On First-time Project or Repeat: Establishing the groundwork, managing expectations, ongoing review and improvement.

Lessons Learned

Wrap Up


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Questions/Discussion

Thank You

Robin Ritter Director, Talent & Learning Systems

General Mills [email protected]

www.generalmills.com

Kristy Sidlar Strategic Account Manager,

Futurestep [email protected]

www.futurestep.com

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