HR strategies:Best practices for meeting today’s top challenges

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In the course of working with hundreds of companies across the globe – as well

as thought leaders throughout the HR industry – we’ve learned what works, what

doesn’t, and what’s most important when it comes to keeping up with HR trends

and technologies.

In this document, we’ve pulled together relevant research and advice based

on both expert research and the experiences of our own customers. You’ll find

something for all types of HR leaders to help your company to make the most of

your most valuable resource – your people.

Here’s what you’ll find:

• Five ways to create a high-performing global culture

• Six ways to dial in your talent strategy

• Five tactics for compensation managers to shift the business

• Six moves for recruiting mangers to build a talent powerhouse

• Five ways learning managers can make a strategic contribution

We invite you to explore these best practices and put them to work for you!

Concrete advice for HR leaders

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best practicesFive ways to create a high-performing global culture

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It’s hard enough to get better performance out of your people when they’re

all in the same country, sharing a common culture and language. These

challenges are multiplied when companies go global and must attempt to

maintain consistency across borders. When only 9 percent of executives

believe that exceptional people management across the company is an

essential component of talent strategy, it’s little wonder global companies have

issues with performance consistency. 2 Companies face a tough challenge —

but you still have to deliver.

Lucky for you, it’s not an impossible job. Thanks to technology, it’s now

possible to bridge time zones, borders, and language. You can break down

the silos that prevent your company from turning strategy into execution.

However, getting the full benefit of integrated talent management takes more

than technology. You need to integrate talent management into the day-to-day

culture in a consistent way, from country to country. If you succeed, you’ll do

more than unlock great performance: You’ll be able to get the most out of your

people and retain your best employees.

To create a high-performance global culture in your company, consider adopting these five best practices:

1. Calibrate performance globally. Measuring and managing employee performance for global companies can be challenging

at best. If a logistics manager is rated a top performer in San Francisco, is this rating equivalent to a top-performing logistics

manager is Stuttgart or Beijing? Calibrating performance across countries and divisions can remove manager bias and

cultural nuances to establish a consistent global standard. You can avoid overcompensating employees who aren’t delivering

top performance. You can also facilitate talent mobility to ease the pressures of talent gaps worldwide.

For example, one global automaker needed to align and calibrate the performance of its 26,500 employees spread across

Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, and other countries in Latin America. The firm had previously used spreadsheets to

manage evaluations and calibrate performance, which took four to six hours per employee. With automation and calibration

of performance management, the company drastically reduced the time involved, and it brought consistency to the process.

Now, the company can easily move skilled engineers and experienced managers to projects in any region.

As a talent leader, you know that performance matters. Getting your people

working on the right things at the right time can unlock higher revenue and profit

per employee, more operating income growth, and increased return on equity.

CedarCrestone research shows that top-performing organizations outperform the

laggards by wide margins. These top-performing companies succeed in large part

because of integrated talent management solutions, standardized processes, and

the ability to capture business data about their people. 1

Best Practices: Five ways to create a high-performing global culture

Only 9 percent of executives believe that exceptional people management across the company is an essential component of talent strategy. Economist Intelligence Unit Report. Plugging the Skills Gap: Shortages Among Plenty. 2012.

1 CedarCrestone 2012-13 HR Systems Survey. 2 Economist Intelligence Unit Report. Plugging the Skills Gap: Shortages Among Plenty. 2012. http://www.managementthinking.eiu.com/plugging-skills-gap.html

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2. Use competencies to create a common global culture. Competencies are at the heart of performance management.

With clearly defined skills, behaviors, and knowledge, you can evaluate, assess, and develop employees within their functional

roles. Additionally, core competencies applied globally can reinforce cultural values that are consistent with the success of an

organization regardless of region.

For example, in a financial services company, being a top-producing vice president of sales is not enough. A core value such

as “ethical behavior” is more than just an ideal. Measuring and reinforcing this competency is an essential part of reducing risk

for organizations that must meet strict regulatory compliance standards such as Sarbanes-Oxley or anti-money laundering

and anti-corruption standards.

3. Bring performance into the day-to-day life of your organization. If you want to create a high-performing global culture,

performance management can’t be a once-a-year event. Employees and managers must be talking about performance

daily. Talent leaders must capture progress toward goals with objective data that can be easily tracked. An integrated talent

management system can tie together performance, learning, and career development to benefit employees. Managers can

also benefit from an integrated tool set because the administrative burden of talent initiatives is greatly reduced.

The added benefit of an ongoing, integrated talent management process is a trove of real-time talent analytics for regional

and global leadership. With cloud technology that can go anywhere, it’s never been easier to access talent analytics to guide

decision making.

4. Make quick changes when needed. Business conditions can change rapidly. Your technology solutions should be flexible

enough to realign employees quickly with new strategic goals to keep your organization functioning. Insight built into the goal

alignment process can also give executives needed visibility into operations.

For a global commodities provider, an unusual year for weather may mean a surplus of coffee in one region and a shortage of

cocoa in another. With flexible goals, operations executives can make quick adjustments and create new individual goals to

benefit from changing circumstances so the company can still hit its financial targets for the year.

5. Keep the best from mergers and acquisitions. For many global enterprises, growth through acquisition is commonplace.

Acquiring companies means acquiring talent, which is both a benefit and a risk. If you get the transition right, you can

integrate new people seamlessly and get them focused on being productive. If you get it wrong, you can increase uncertainty

and watch top performers flee.

In the case of Suncorp, a financial services firm in Australia and New Zealand, a series of acquisitions left them with more than

20 different HR operations. After adopting SuccessFactors Performance & Goals, Suncorp was able to bring everyone onto

a single intuitive platform. Suncorp reduced the number of systems and established a common performance-improvement

culture with tools that motivated and retained employees. 3

The best global companies deliver consistent quality worldwide. Make it easier to create a culture of high performance wherever

you operate with SuccessFactors. You can align performance measures with company goals so your people know they’re working

on the right things, even on a global scale. Call us today to see how performance management contributes to your company’s

productivity, profitability, and success.

Best Practices: Five ways to create a high-performing global culture

1 SuccessFactors Client Story: Suncorp. http://www.successfactors.com/customers/success-story/suncorp-group/#sst=start:1;count:40

best practicesSix ways to dial in your talent strategy

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Major change for CEOs means intense scrutiny for talent managers. The expectations will be wide-ranging ones that include

recruiting, performance management, development, learning, compensation, and succession programs. Solving immediate talent

needs will not be the only expectation. Talent managers must take a long-term view and anticipate tomorrow’s needs to attract,

engage, retain, reward, and develop high-performing employees.

Creating effective talent programs doesn’t come without cost. Mature, business-integrated HR organizations allocate 40 percent

of the overall HR budget to talent — far more than the 30 percent average in compliance-driven HR programs.2 For talent

managers to increase budgets to needed levels, establishing a solid business case is essential. And, most assuredly, this business

case exists. Strategic, business-integrated HR organizations have 40 percent lower turnover and twice the revenue per employee

compared with compliance-driven organizations.3 Business-integrated HR programs also score higher on employee engagement,

planning for future talent needs, building career paths, and increasing the capabilities of ready future talent.4

More than ever, talent managers find themselves at the center of HR strategy.

Talent is top of mind in the C-suite. Business leaders see the global skills shortage

as a significant business risk because they have seen talent constraints impact the

growth and profitability of their organizations over the past 12 months. As a result,

23 percent of global CEOs expect “major change” in the way their organizations

manage talent.1

Best practices: Six ways to dial in your talent strategy

1 15th Annual Global CEO Survey 2012. To download this report, visit http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey2 O’Leonard, Karen. The HR Factbook 2011: Benchmarks and Trends in HR Spending, Staffing and Resource Allocations. Bersin & Associates. 2011.

To purchase this report, visit http://www.bersin.com/Practice/Detail.aspx?id=140593 Ibid.4 O’Leonard, Karen. Why HR Matters. Bersin & Associates. 2011. To purchase this report, visit http://www.bersin.com/Practice/Detail.aspx?id=14422

How have CEOs seen talent constraints impact the growth and profitability of their organizations over the past 12 months? SOURCE: 15th Annual Global CEO Survey. http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey

Our talent-related expenses rose more than expected

We weren’t able to innovate effectively

We were unable to pursue a market opportunity

We cancelled or delayed a key strategic initiative

We couldn’t achieve growth forecasts in overseas markets

We couldn’t achieve growth forecasts in the country where we are based

Our production and/or service delivery quality standards fell

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Where should talent managers focus their efforts when making the business case for talent?

1. Search for your rainmakers. Which pivotal roles and key talent segments can’t you live without? The answers may be

obvious in some industries. For example, engineers will continue to be pivotal roles in manufacturing, and experienced

store managers are highly sought-after in retail. In your organization, you must identify the five or six critical roles that are

most strategically significant, mitigate any immediate near-term risks (lack of bench strength, flight risks, etc.), then find

opportunities to turn these into a competitive advantage. Investing time and budget in workforce planning and succession

efforts is a good first step, because you may find a difference between the pivotal roles you currently focus on and the ones

you should be.

2. Don’t underestimate the value of competencies. Let’s be honest. Defining the competencies for your organization — the

knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics used to evaluate, assess, and develop people — is one of the most

difficult and least glamorous talent exercises you’ll go through. However, establishing a competency framework by role and

level in your organization is the glue that holds together an integrated talent management strategy. You will be in a better

position to bring your talent ambitions to life, whether you choose to tailor an “off-the-shelf” library of competencies or build a

custom library from the ground up. Get line managers and subject-matter experts involved in the process. Also, make time for

an annual review, because competency needs evolve over time.

3. Jump into the pool. CEOs around the globe fear losing high-

potential middle managers more than any other role. In a world

of scarcity, identifying and developing leaders — and functional

experts at all levels — will be critical for future success. Rather

than targeting only specific individuals or specific positions,

identifying and building pools, or groups of individuals who

can fill a variety of strategic needs, is the better way to go. For

example, one talent pool might include individual contributors

who have the potential to become entry-level managers.

Another might include junior engineers with the potential to

become senior engineers.5

4. Build a talent pipeline. Talent acquisition can no longer happen at the moment of need. Attracting, sourcing, selecting, and

hiring the best talent requires a far-reaching approach. The most traditional recruiting approach — posting a job and choosing

from the field of applicants — is a passive approach that is unlikely to produce the highest-quality applicants. A better

approach is an active, long-term strategy of building relationships with top talent through social networks, career sites, and

referral programs. The focus must be on quality. It’s not enough to merely fill the position anymore.

5. Get new hires up to speed quickly. One of the biggest missed opportunities in talent today is effective onboarding. Most

new hires decide within the first 90 days whether they will stick with a company for the long term. Effective onboarding

can dramatically reduce first-year turnover and increase speed to full productivity. You can start by simply automating

new-hire paperwork, then take the next step of adding internal social networking tools to facilitate social learning, increase

engagement, and enroll new hires in learning and development programs.

5 Lowe, Laci. Transparent Talent Mobility: An Advanced Strategy for Succession Management. Bersin & Associates. 2011. To purchase this report, visit http://www.bersin.com/Practice/Detail.aspx?id=13720

Best practices: Six ways to dial in your talent strategy

What’s the business case for strategic talent initiatives?Strategic, business-integrated HR organizations have

40 percent lower turnover and twice the revenue

per employee compared with compliance-driven

organizations.

SOURCE: Bersin & Associates

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6. Become a catalyst for a high-performance culture. Pay for performance is what every CEO wants, but you need more

than a forced ranking system that highlights high and low performers. Allocating compensation fairly to high performers, while

important, is only one aspect of unlocking high performance in your organization. To unlock the untapped potential in your

organization, you must show employees what’s in it for them. Career development plans — activities, goals, and objectives

designed to help individual employees improve their performance or career mobility — shows employees how development

fits into their larger career goals, as well as the goals of the company.

Schedule regular check-ins to monitor progress and to hold managers accountable for addressing employee development.6 If

you follow through with these development initiatives, you will not only engage your people and flip the switch on performance

— you will establish a significant competitive advantage for your organization, because only 8 percent of organizations have

highly effective development plans.7

To turn your people into a strategic advantage, you need to bring together each distinct talent initiative — performance,

compensation, succession, development, recruiting, and collaboration — into a single highly calibrated talent machine.

Let SuccessFactors help. We know talent management better than anyone. Contact us today to discover how we can take the

talent in your organization to the next level.

6 Garr, Stacia. High-Impact Performance Management: Improving Development Planning. Bersin & Associates. 2012. To purchase this report, visit http://www.bersin.com/Practice/Detail.aspx?id=15294

7 Ibid.

Best practices: Six ways to dial in your talent strategy

best practicesFive tactics for compensation managersto shift the business

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Answers are getting harder to come by these days. Even though

unemployment is still running high, top performers and in-demand

skilled labor are unwilling to continue to wait for their rewards.

Like never before, the pressure is on compensation managers

to structure incentive plans that will reward the rainmakers in

the organization. Differentiated compensation can build a true

meritocracy where employees who get results are rewarded for their

work, which can increase the organization’s performance by 15 to

20 percent. 1 Both the employees and the company can benefit.

Compensation managers are positioned to be key contributors

to the future of their organizations’ talent management by driving

performance through effective rewards processes. Salary is not

always the top driver of employee satisfaction, but it’s perennially

among the top five. 2 Building solid compensation processes makes

it easier to explain to managers and employees how it is possible to

make more money. The right tools and best practices can support

your work. Consider these five tactics to get started:

1. Know where you stand. Although it sounds easy, benchmarking can be a difficult process … but it’s a necessary one.

Employees will be looking at sites like Payscale.com, Glassdoor.com, or Salary.com to see where your company stands.

Are you doing the same? 3 You need to decide if you’re going to pay above, at, or below the market rate for specific positions.

Establishing these positions will require collaboration with leadership, an understanding of business goals, and establishing

how those goals translate into compensation policies. Identify what the picture would look like if money were no object.

Then help leaders see the picture as it relates to the reality of your business.

2. Get your strategies up to date. Compensation should be aligned with business strategy and should incentivize actions

that get results. All too often, though, an organization’s plans haven’t changed with the times. Has your strategy evolved,

or is it still stuck in the 1990s? 4 You can pay everyone the same increases across the board and hope to keep up with

the competition, or you can make sure you retain your best employees. You need to know which employees make a

difference. 5 After benchmarking, it’s possible to map out this transition of “where we were” to “where we want to be”

by creating incremental changes to compensation plans. You can tie performance and pay through variable rewards, such as

bonuses or commissions. 6

In the past years of tight budgets, the answers were simple for compensation

managers. “No” was an effective all-purpose answer for department heads and line

managers looking for extra budget to reward top performers. The money wasn’t

there, and everybody knew it.

Best Practices: Five tactics for compensation managers to shift the business

Organizations with reward and talent management programs that support their business goals are more than twice as likely to report being high-performing companies (28 percent vs. 12 percent).SOURCE: Towers Watson. The Talent Management and Rewards Imperative for 2012 — Leading Through Uncertain Times. The 2011/2012 Talent Management and Rewards Study, North America.

1 Harris, Stacey and Jones, Katherine. Total Rewards as a Strategic Talent Management Tool. Bersin & Associates. May 2011. To purchase the report, visit http://www.bersin.com/Practice/Detail.aspx?id=14033

2 SHRM. 2011 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement: Gratification and Commitment at Work in a Sluggish Economy. To download the report, visit http://www.shrm.org/research/surveyfindings/articles/documents/11-0618%20job_satisfaction_fnl.pdf

3 Payscale.com. Top Priority: Align Your Compensation Strategy with Business Goals. 2012. To download report, visit http://www.payscale.com/hr/how-to-create-a-strategic-compensation-plan

4 Ibid. 5 Ibid. 6 SHRM

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3. Step away from the spreadsheet. Just because you can do magic in Excel doesn’t mean you should rely on spreadsheets

for all compensation analysis — especially when you consider how complex the formulas can be. Errors in these

spreadsheets can cause major blowups. Compensation management solutions not only reduce the inefficient use of your

time and the potential for errors, but these systems also significantly reduce cycle times. 7 Spreadsheets can still play a

part, depending on your current system’s setup. However, the efficiency that comes along with dedicated compensation

technology will give you the efficiency you need for more-strategic projects.

4. Paint a picture of the benefits. Although leadership appreciates the complex formulas you used to derive compensation

data for the firm, you need to think like a marketer. Imagine how the messages you’re trying to convey will come across to

leaders. Presenting data with illustrated reports using charts and graphs greatly increases the chances those leaders will

understand the trends and findings you’re sharing with them. 8 If other areas of the firm are shifting to more visual big data

practices, tie your approach in with theirs. Trends and connections to ROI will be easier to see and convey. You can then

visually link the compensation structure to the rest of the business.

5. Grow with the business. With compensation management tools, you can easily align your compensation plans with the

goals of the firm. 9 Not only does this help you build trust, it allows you to change as business conditions do. Stability of the

firm’s finances can help lead to better performance, even if compensation hasn’t caught up yet. 10 Consider Hilton Worldwide,

a global hospitality company with more than 3,700 hotels and resorts in 84 countries. 11 The company implemented

SuccessFactors Compensation to aid in streamlining its compensation process to recognize employee performance. By

integrating performance and compensation, managers could link merit increases, bonuses, and long-term incentives with the

real-time needs of the company.

Changing compensation practices in your organization should be considered a living, breathing process. SuccessFactors can help you

shift your company’s mind-set toward evolutionary policies that give you the answers you need when you need them. If you’re ready to

make the change, contact us today.

Best Practices: Five tactics for compensation managers to shift the business

1 2 Harris, Stacey and Jones, Katherine. Getting Compensation Right: The Value of Compensation Analysis and Tools. Bersin & Associates. 2011. To purchase this

report, visit http://www.bersin.com/Practice/Detail.aspx?id=13930 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid.5 SHRM6 SuccessFactors: Hilton Worldwide Success Story

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best practicesSix moves for recruiting managers to build a talent powerhouse

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There is little room for error. Because companies continue to keep head count low, the expectation is to find the perfect person to

fill every position. And on top of the pressure to meet quality demands, applicants themselves have changed the game. Applicants

share every detail of your recruiting process online, and companies offering the best candidate experience end up collecting the

best talent. If you can’t adapt to the changes in the recruiting game, you could find yourself benched. Stay ahead of the pack by

frequently adjusting your recruiting plans to help ensure success for your company and your brand.

Technology is the big game changer. And technology can tilt the odds

back in your favor, connecting you with top-quality candidates — if

you make the right moves. Six moves you should make today include:

1. Work with the systems. To get quality candidates, you must

start with quality descriptions. Applicant tracking systems and

keywords are being scrutinized in the business press for filtering

candidates based on criteria that are too narrow, resulting in a

“black hole” effect for applicants. Ideal candidates may not game

the system’s keyword listings, resulting in a kicked-out résumé.1

To avoid screening out ideal candidates, you should weigh

how you search for and collect the right words and entries to get a more accurate filtering process. For example, applicants

can use a menu to check off critical skills in the application, pre-qualifying applicants more directly than just searching

résumé text. You can also calibrate your systems to make it easier for quality candidates to get through to an interview. That

means using the same interview questions and providing training for interviewing consistency. Leggett & Platt, an S&P 500

diversified manufacturer, partnered with SuccessFactors to exceed its goal of 75 percent “A-Player” hiring.2 By using recruiting

management tools, the HR talent group’s focus shifted to more-strategic initiatives, leading to longer-term talent planning and

targeting the right talent.

2. Use social tools to stay connected. Applicants use social tools to search for jobs, but which tools are they using? Job

boards? Social media? Referrals? Most likely, it’s a mix of channels. CareerXroads indicates that 20.1 percent of external

hires come from job boards, but the applicant’s path to the job board or your website includes social media.3 Buzz about

your company as an employer typically starts on social media channels. Applicants then go to the boards or your website

for specific listings. Understand this path, and look at the channels that most affect your hiring. Combine your social media

strategy with your talent acquisition goals, then test the strategy for a short time before committing to it on a large scale.4

As a recruiting manager today, you’re judged by the quality of your candidates.

However, getting the right talent is a tricky business. There are so many ways to

reach applicants nowadays — social media, mobile, job boards, referrals. With all

the tools available to you, why is it so hard to source great candidates?

Best Practices: Six moves for recruiting managers to build a talent powerhouse

Applicants share every detail of your recruiting process online, and companies offering the best candidate experience end up collecting the best talent.

1 Weber, Lauren. Your Résumé vs. Oblivion. The Wall Street Journal. 2012. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204624204577178941034941330.html 2 SuccessFactors Customer Spotlight: Leggett & Platt 3 Crispin, Gerry and Mehler, Mark. 2012 Sources of Hire: Channels That Influence. CareerXroads. http://www.slideshare.net/gerrycrispin/2012-careerxroads-

source-of-hire-channels-of-influence 4 Jones, Katherine. Using Social Networks: How Global Recruiting Tools Help Attract Top Talent. Bersin & Associates. 2011. To purchase the report,

visit http://www.bersin.com/practice/Detail.aspx?id=14770

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3. Manage recruiting on the go. Social isn’t the only technology that is speeding up recruiting. Talent acquisition tools are

going mobile because response time matters when pursuing top talent. With mobile options, you can keep up with requests,

stay on top of applicants, and move talent through the hiring process.5 Social tools also link applicants with mobile options.

Smartphones place power in applicants’ palms, allowing them to receive notifications, apply to jobs, and check on application

status. These devices encourage applicants to proactively interact with your recruiting process. Are you responding?

4. Anticipate and forecast your needs. By the time a job is posted, the hiring manager needed it filled yesterday. To beat your

competition, you must understand the long-term strategy of your firm’s talent needs.6 Analytics will be key to your preparation.

Through workforce planning, you can identify trends and future skills needs. You can also evaluate your data against the

external influences that are changing the supply of talent in your market.7 Knowing the numbers will help you map your next

recruiting steps.

5. Partner with Learning & Development. You’ve heard it before: Your company is facing major skills gaps. Get proactive and

partner with your learning managers. Through forecasting and mapping, you can develop collaborative programs that address

the gaps. We all know that there are major costs and productivity losses when an employee leaves, not to mention the

expense to replace them.8 Your learning peers can help identify the competencies needed for success in your organization.

Use the profiles of top performers as a guide and align your recruiting efforts with the training needed in the organization. You

can then proactively search for talent that matches the competencies the business wants.

6. Think about the brand. Everyone is a marketer in this day and age. The experiences your applicants have with your

company can end up at the top of every news feed online. Are those comments glowing, or are they scathing? Applicants

are using sites such as Glassdoor.com and social tools to uncover the nitty-gritty on a company’s interview process, from the

actual screening questions to candidates’ experiences with your company’s culture.9 As the recruiting manager, you have to

be on top of the reputation your company is building as an employer. Partner with your marketing team to ensure that your

processes are showing off your brand in the right way. Employer branding is also established through current employees.

They’ll talk about work and the company online, so encourage them to share positive feelings about the company.10

Through recruitment, you can help your company build a great name in the market. When it comes to talent acquisition expertise,

SuccessFactors has the tools to bring together recruiting marketing, management, and onboarding. Contact SuccessFactors to

learn how we can put recruiting excellence to work in your business.

Best Practices: Six moves for recruiting managers to build a talent powerhouse

1 SuccessFactors. Winning HR Strategies: A SuccessFactors E-Book. 2 PWC. 15th Annual Global CEO Survey. 2012. http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey 3 O’Leonard, Karen. The HR Factbook 2011: Benchmarks and Trends in HR Spending, Staffing and Resource Allocations. Bersin & Associates. 2011. To

purchase the report, visit http://www.bersin.com/Practice/Detail.aspx?id=14059 4 PWC. 15th Annual Global CEO Survey. 2012. http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey 5 Sullivan, John. 10 Predictions for 2012: The Top Trends in Talent Management and Recruiting. http://www.ere.net/2011/12/05/10-predictions-for-2012-the-top-

trends-in-talent-management-and-recruiting/6 Jones, Katherine. Using Social Networks: How Global Recruiting Tools Help Attract Top Talent. Bersin & Associates. 2011. To purchase the report,

visit http://www.bersin.com/practice/Detail.aspx?id=14770

best practicesFive ways learning managers can make a strategic contribution

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Addressing the reality of skills shortages is a priority for CEOs — 1 in 3 know that innovation of the company’s products or

services can suffer if there is a lack of talent possessing key skills.2 Talent acquisition can only be part of the solution. Many of the

people your organization needs simply aren’t there. CEOs seem to understand this. Two-thirds of them (67 percent) say that over

the next three years it’s more likely that talent will come from promotions within their companies.3 They know — as you know —

that developing talent internally over the long term will be most of the solution. And you want to be ready with recommendations in

your back pocket when your CEO turns to you for answers.

Massive overhauls of programs aren’t necessary. You already

have a Learning Management System in place; it just needs a little

boost. You are in a position to take advantage of the opportunity by

demonstrating how your programs can address skills gaps. While all

of the following options may not be possible with your budget, these

five steps can help you as an HR leader to start filling the skills gaps

in your organization. How do you respond?

1. Socialize learning into everyday behavior. Informal learning

is both when and where employees experience training.

Your organization needs to shift its perception toward

continuous learning, integrating it into the workplace and everyday behavior.4 Social tools can be the “go to” sites within

your organization. Employees want to use social networks and collaboration tools to find subject matter experts and other

important information at work — just like they do in their personal lives. We’re in the age of sharing, and unleashing user-

generated content can enable collaboration. Employees can learn from experts within their own companies — regardless

of location — just as easily as from industry specialists in social media.5 These social tools can be accessed and used on a

continuous basis, shifting your organization toward a more informal learning culture.

2. Let employees learn on the go. Social learning should also help employees learn when, where, and how they want to. Is

your learning management system flexible enough to change with the times? Are you able to track and audit learning activities

in your organization to increase compliance? Today, learning won’t be restricted to the classroom or even the desktop.

Learning is going mobile, on tablets and other devices. It’s getting social, too. Workforce adoption for social tools integrated

into learning and development is projected to grow 100 percent over the next year.6 Consider looking at solutions that can

break your LMS free of the desktop — and organizational silos — and improve collaboration.

The reality of business today dictates that organizations will have to grow the talent

they need when finding it isn’t possible. If skills shortages are seen as a top threat

to business expansion, leadership will turn to learning managers for a response.1

Best Practices: Five ways learning managers can make a strategic contribution

67 percent of CEOs say that over the next three years it’s more likely that talent will come from promotions within their companies.

1 PWC. 15th Annual Global CEO Survey 2012. http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 O’Leonard, Karen. Building Expertise Through In-depth, Continuous Training. Bersin & Associates. 2011. To purchase the report, visit http://www.bersin.com/

Practice/Detail.aspx?id=13758 5 O’Leonard, Karen. The HR Factbook 2011: Benchmarks and Trends in HR Spending, Staffing, and Resource Allocations. Bersin & Associates. 2011. To

purchase the report, visit http://www.bersin.com/Practice/Detail.aspx?id=14059 6 CedarCrestone. 2011-2012 HR Systems Survey. http://www.cedarcrestone.com/serv_annual_survey.php

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At Ahold, an international group of quality supermarkets and food service operators based in the U.S. and Europe, the

SuccessFactors LMS has created a collaborative learning environment. The LMS makes it easy to share best practices in

learning among its many business units.7 Blending informal learning with the tools available through the technology, the company

encouraged a social learning culture through sharing. As collaboration has increased, so has engagement and compliance.

3. Give people a chance to stretch their skills. Increasingly, businesses address skills shortages with short-term and stretch

assignments, especially if the business is growing into a key market or segment. These initiatives could include moving

experienced people from the home market to newer markets to fill skills gaps, using reverse transfers, and moving top

performers in emerging markets into developed markets for a short time. As a result, employees can gain experience that

can’t be acquired through coursework and the enterprise can reduce the costs from traditional long-term assignments.8

Short-term and stretch assignments can change the way employees learn if they are created and monitored appropriately.

If not, these assignments can easily become extra work instead of meaningful learning opportunities, for both the individual

and the organization. Changing up the environment can provide an excellent chance for learning, with the right structure.

Creating structured assignments with progress checkpoints can help you avoid the extremes of “burned-out high potential” or

“international party animal.”

4. Create partnerships to take learning outside of the office. Growing your own talent through in-house learning may not

be enough. More companies are deliberately fostering relationships with educational systems to address the strategic role

education plays in talent development.9 Formal education can include tuition support for business education as well as

investments in adult and vocational training programs.10 Anything from languages to engine repair could be important to the

success of your company. Talking to local universities about training your people could not only fill some skills gaps, it could

also put your business in touch with future talent.

5. Show the ROI. When the budget ax falls, it always seems to hit training programs first. To protect any programs you and

your team are running, speak to the bottom line that leadership is watching. Determine what small changes you can make

to the learning programs that will have a big impact on the business. Use standard business measures, such as productivity

and labor costs, to measure the progress and success of learning programs.11 Increased knowledge only works as a metric

if it is tied to organizational results.12 As a learning manager, you can pull dashboard reports that show progress — including

reductions in costs, decreases in training time, and increases in course completion. Executives will appreciate how you can

quantify the financial results of effective learning programs.

Shifting learning programs from tactical training into key strategic workforce initiatives can help you address skills gaps in your

organization. Taking care of the basics, such as content administration and delivery, opens up your team to work on linking the learning

activities to business results through strategic tracking and analysis. Couple this with best practices in performance, compensation,

succession, development, recruiting, and collaboration, and you can change the way learning benefits the organization.

SuccessFactors can be the partner to help you make these changes. We have the expertise in learning management and the tools

to make it happen. Contact us to start using the solutions that are right at your fingertips.

Best Practices: Five ways learning managers can make a strategic contribution

1 SuccessFactors: Royal Ahold Case Study. http://www.successfactors.com/resources/download/royal-ahold-case-study/ 2 PWC. 15th Annual Global CEO Survey 2012. http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey 3 Ibid.4 Ibid.5 Ibid.6 CedarCrestone. 2011-2012 HR Systems Survey. http://www.cedarcrestone.com/serv_annual_survey.php

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