From the shop floor to the executive suites, Alcan turned to performance development and succession planning software to catalogue its staff following a giant merger
Succession planning poses a serious challenge for HR in any organization. But imagine working in the HR department of a giant, multinational corporation, striving hard to assess the existing talent, when thousands of new employees — who you know nothing about — are suddenly dropped in your lap.
That’s the problem Alcan faced when it merged with Alusuisse Group in 2000, creating a combined workforce of 48,000 employees worldwide with head offices in Montreal. That’s when Alcan’s HR department sprung into action in an effort to get a grip on exactly what it was getting from Alusuisse in terms of human capital. Guy Delisle, the director of executive performance management at Alcan, said it was key for the aluminum giant to get a handle on what it was getting from Alusuisse to ensure it didn’t lose top talent and to target rising stars for promotion.
“When you merge with a new corporation, one of the key issues is to have a good idea of the quality of the talent pool because there are a lot of players you don’t know,” said Delisle. “So one key element, right at the beginning, is to have a good knowledge of the quality of the talent pool.”
But it wasn’t just the unknown talent Alcan now possessed that spurred it into action. The much talked about impending shortage of talented workers weighed heavily on Delisle’s mind when planning how to assess staff.
“We can read in every newspaper every day that the demography will not be helpful, so because of that we will need, more than before, to know exactly what we have in terms of talent, how we can develop them to retain them and to ensure the top talent will reach the top jobs in the organization,” he said. “We need to address that issue systematically to ensure we will have the human resources to support the growth that we can expect for the future.”
But given the number of employees involved, and the fact they’re spread out over 38 countries, evaluating talent at Alcan called for a different approach. To address this issue, the company turned to Web-based performance management and succession planning software from Bell Nexxia, the arm of Bell Canada that provides telecommunications services to large organizations in Canada.
Delisle said the company had been working with Bell previously, and the solution it provided seemed to be a perfect fit for the challenges facing Alcan. Because Alcan operates in so many countries, Delisle said there is no common platform in place among the various units. For example, the payroll software used in Canada isn’t the same that’s used in other jurisdictions. Delisle said Alcan looked at various traditional vendors of HR software, but settled on Bell Nexxia for a number of reasons.
“There were a few options, but the partnership we got with them was interesting,” he said. “One of the main reasons was the cost compared to other software. We had an opportunity to work with them to build something that was relatively simple but could be applied worldwide.”
The solution from Bell is a Web-based tool that allows staff anywhere in the world to login.
Right now, Alcan is using two modules of Bell’s software — performance management and succession planning.
“Both of them, for sure, are closely linked,” said Delisle. “Because the first one feeds the second one.”
Peformance management
The performance management process is similar to a standard performance review done in many organizations. The employee has to play a key role in the process at Alcan because the first step is a self-assessment. That self-assessment is then reviewed by the supervisor, a discussion is held between the supervisor and employee, and they come to an agreement.
“Historically, in the organization, we were doing that,” said Delisle, “But it was on a paper form. It’s the same exercise that was done with a paper form, but the main difference now is that all the information that is collected and shared in this process becomes part of a database. From that database, we can do a lot of analyzing to find out who are our high potentials, who are our best performers, who is completely mobile, speaking German and Italian and English, and would be interested in working in the United States. Any question you have regarding people management, in most cases, you’ve got the information in that database. That’s the breakthrough when you introduce IT into common current HR practices.”
Alcan requires employees to have a performance review at least once a year. At the beginning of the year, the employee meets with his supervisor to define some business objectives. At the end of the year, they will come back to assess the attainment of those objectives. From that Alcan gets information on each employee’s career interests, potential, development plan and mobility.
“At the end of the process, the only one that can do the last click to archive the document is the employee himself,” said Delisle. “It’s kind of a signature. It’s done at the end, and he’s the only one who can do it. Once the document is archived, it is archived. You cannot touch it any more.”
Succession planning
Using the database created from the performance management module, Alcan uses the succession planning module to mine that data to identify candidates to move up the corporate ladder.
“If you want to do a review of your employees at the site level, at the business unit level, at the group level, at the corporate level, you can do it,” Delisle said.
The software can pull a list of employees with the same job title and see how many years they’ve been in that position. It can instantly give information regarding employees’ performance, mobility, career interest and development plans.
“If you want to have that on one sheet, you will have it instantly,” he said.
By doing this, Alcan can effectively tag junior high performers who could eventually reach the level of the executive group. It also provides an easy way to identify internal candidates to fill strategic positions when they open.
Measuring ROI
While Delisle says measuring return-on-investment is important, it’s so obvious Alcan is saving money here it’s almost not necessary.
“Succession planning is a mid- and long-term process,” he said. “The main success factor is the quality of your talent pool. If mostly every time you have an opening in the organization and you can fill the job with somebody from an internal resource that has the capability to replace that person, there’s a lot of money linked to that. If you have to go outside, the cost is just incredible. The risk that person won’t be able to adapt in your organization is very high and just the costs for headhunting, for integration, the fact that there’s nobody internally on the seat for a few months because it takes time to fill key jobs when you go external, there’s a lot of money there.”
Challenges
Delisle said there were few technical challenges in implementing the new software across the organization. While the software may have worked as designed, Delisle faced a challenge in getting staff to buy into the project. To get over this stumbling block, Alcan adopted a simple top-down approach to implementation.
People reporting to the president were the first to use the new system. Next on deck were the people reporting to the people who reported to the president.
“We’re cascading the application, but it’s starting with the top,” said Delisle. “It can be more difficult to use such an approach, but when you’ve got commitment at the top those guys become great promoters of the application.”
By using the top-down approach, it made it easier to get buy-in across the organization, Delisle said. The implementation started in 2001, and Alcan currently has about 4,000 employees on the system. By the end of 2003, the goal is to have all of the staff with university degrees on the system — about 7,000 to 8,000 employees.
Despite the top-down approach, there were still some stumbling blocks in selling the program to staff.
“It’s a project where you have to change a lot of habits in the organization,” he said. “In terms of change management, it’s a big issue and one of the reasons you could have resistance is that because it’s computerized, you’ve got all the information you can have on a day-to-day basis, who’s doing the job and who’s not doing the job. So it’s a threat for groups, because before they were doing what they wanted and you never knew exactly the way it was done. But now, if we want, and they know we can do it, we can assess exactly who is doing the job and how it’s done.”
The technological glitches Alcan encountered were mainly because of Internet connection speed at various locations around the world.
“It’s a process that is improving continuously, but when we launched the process the feasibility was good enough to say, ‘Okay, we can go and we will improve on a day-to-day basis,’” he said. “Because if you wait until everything is perfect before you start, you will never start.”
Delisle said he’s very happy with the software so far, and Alcan is looking at adding other modules such as internal job postings, e-recruitment and e-learning.
“What we have is doing well,” he said. “The big issue is not the technology issue, it’s more that we have to convince people to do it and the main challenge remains there, because the technology itself is doing well.”
Mikhail Bourezg, director of e-business strategy and partnerships at Bell, said the software has helped Alcan’s HR department become more strategic in its planning.
“This is the same challenge, I suppose, that most HR departments are facing, mainly the rising costs and declining productivity of all the manual processes” said Bourezg. “Alcan had a specific challenge with succession planning, but it’s a great solution to help HR people focus on value-added services such as developing e-learning programs and also managing their succession planning instead of just doing the administrative work.”
That’s the problem Alcan faced when it merged with Alusuisse Group in 2000, creating a combined workforce of 48,000 employees worldwide with head offices in Montreal. That’s when Alcan’s HR department sprung into action in an effort to get a grip on exactly what it was getting from Alusuisse in terms of human capital. Guy Delisle, the director of executive performance management at Alcan, said it was key for the aluminum giant to get a handle on what it was getting from Alusuisse to ensure it didn’t lose top talent and to target rising stars for promotion.
“When you merge with a new corporation, one of the key issues is to have a good idea of the quality of the talent pool because there are a lot of players you don’t know,” said Delisle. “So one key element, right at the beginning, is to have a good knowledge of the quality of the talent pool.”
But it wasn’t just the unknown talent Alcan now possessed that spurred it into action. The much talked about impending shortage of talented workers weighed heavily on Delisle’s mind when planning how to assess staff.
“We can read in every newspaper every day that the demography will not be helpful, so because of that we will need, more than before, to know exactly what we have in terms of talent, how we can develop them to retain them and to ensure the top talent will reach the top jobs in the organization,” he said. “We need to address that issue systematically to ensure we will have the human resources to support the growth that we can expect for the future.”
But given the number of employees involved, and the fact they’re spread out over 38 countries, evaluating talent at Alcan called for a different approach. To address this issue, the company turned to Web-based performance management and succession planning software from Bell Nexxia, the arm of Bell Canada that provides telecommunications services to large organizations in Canada.
Delisle said the company had been working with Bell previously, and the solution it provided seemed to be a perfect fit for the challenges facing Alcan. Because Alcan operates in so many countries, Delisle said there is no common platform in place among the various units. For example, the payroll software used in Canada isn’t the same that’s used in other jurisdictions. Delisle said Alcan looked at various traditional vendors of HR software, but settled on Bell Nexxia for a number of reasons.
“There were a few options, but the partnership we got with them was interesting,” he said. “One of the main reasons was the cost compared to other software. We had an opportunity to work with them to build something that was relatively simple but could be applied worldwide.”
The solution from Bell is a Web-based tool that allows staff anywhere in the world to login.
Right now, Alcan is using two modules of Bell’s software — performance management and succession planning.
“Both of them, for sure, are closely linked,” said Delisle. “Because the first one feeds the second one.”
Peformance management
The performance management process is similar to a standard performance review done in many organizations. The employee has to play a key role in the process at Alcan because the first step is a self-assessment. That self-assessment is then reviewed by the supervisor, a discussion is held between the supervisor and employee, and they come to an agreement.
“Historically, in the organization, we were doing that,” said Delisle, “But it was on a paper form. It’s the same exercise that was done with a paper form, but the main difference now is that all the information that is collected and shared in this process becomes part of a database. From that database, we can do a lot of analyzing to find out who are our high potentials, who are our best performers, who is completely mobile, speaking German and Italian and English, and would be interested in working in the United States. Any question you have regarding people management, in most cases, you’ve got the information in that database. That’s the breakthrough when you introduce IT into common current HR practices.”
Alcan requires employees to have a performance review at least once a year. At the beginning of the year, the employee meets with his supervisor to define some business objectives. At the end of the year, they will come back to assess the attainment of those objectives. From that Alcan gets information on each employee’s career interests, potential, development plan and mobility.
“At the end of the process, the only one that can do the last click to archive the document is the employee himself,” said Delisle. “It’s kind of a signature. It’s done at the end, and he’s the only one who can do it. Once the document is archived, it is archived. You cannot touch it any more.”
Succession planning
Using the database created from the performance management module, Alcan uses the succession planning module to mine that data to identify candidates to move up the corporate ladder.
“If you want to do a review of your employees at the site level, at the business unit level, at the group level, at the corporate level, you can do it,” Delisle said.
The software can pull a list of employees with the same job title and see how many years they’ve been in that position. It can instantly give information regarding employees’ performance, mobility, career interest and development plans.
“If you want to have that on one sheet, you will have it instantly,” he said.
By doing this, Alcan can effectively tag junior high performers who could eventually reach the level of the executive group. It also provides an easy way to identify internal candidates to fill strategic positions when they open.
Measuring ROI
While Delisle says measuring return-on-investment is important, it’s so obvious Alcan is saving money here it’s almost not necessary.
“Succession planning is a mid- and long-term process,” he said. “The main success factor is the quality of your talent pool. If mostly every time you have an opening in the organization and you can fill the job with somebody from an internal resource that has the capability to replace that person, there’s a lot of money linked to that. If you have to go outside, the cost is just incredible. The risk that person won’t be able to adapt in your organization is very high and just the costs for headhunting, for integration, the fact that there’s nobody internally on the seat for a few months because it takes time to fill key jobs when you go external, there’s a lot of money there.”
Challenges
Delisle said there were few technical challenges in implementing the new software across the organization. While the software may have worked as designed, Delisle faced a challenge in getting staff to buy into the project. To get over this stumbling block, Alcan adopted a simple top-down approach to implementation.
People reporting to the president were the first to use the new system. Next on deck were the people reporting to the people who reported to the president.
“We’re cascading the application, but it’s starting with the top,” said Delisle. “It can be more difficult to use such an approach, but when you’ve got commitment at the top those guys become great promoters of the application.”
By using the top-down approach, it made it easier to get buy-in across the organization, Delisle said. The implementation started in 2001, and Alcan currently has about 4,000 employees on the system. By the end of 2003, the goal is to have all of the staff with university degrees on the system — about 7,000 to 8,000 employees.
Despite the top-down approach, there were still some stumbling blocks in selling the program to staff.
“It’s a project where you have to change a lot of habits in the organization,” he said. “In terms of change management, it’s a big issue and one of the reasons you could have resistance is that because it’s computerized, you’ve got all the information you can have on a day-to-day basis, who’s doing the job and who’s not doing the job. So it’s a threat for groups, because before they were doing what they wanted and you never knew exactly the way it was done. But now, if we want, and they know we can do it, we can assess exactly who is doing the job and how it’s done.”
The technological glitches Alcan encountered were mainly because of Internet connection speed at various locations around the world.
“It’s a process that is improving continuously, but when we launched the process the feasibility was good enough to say, ‘Okay, we can go and we will improve on a day-to-day basis,’” he said. “Because if you wait until everything is perfect before you start, you will never start.”
Delisle said he’s very happy with the software so far, and Alcan is looking at adding other modules such as internal job postings, e-recruitment and e-learning.
“What we have is doing well,” he said. “The big issue is not the technology issue, it’s more that we have to convince people to do it and the main challenge remains there, because the technology itself is doing well.”
Mikhail Bourezg, director of e-business strategy and partnerships at Bell, said the software has helped Alcan’s HR department become more strategic in its planning.
“This is the same challenge, I suppose, that most HR departments are facing, mainly the rising costs and declining productivity of all the manual processes” said Bourezg. “Alcan had a specific challenge with succession planning, but it’s a great solution to help HR people focus on value-added services such as developing e-learning programs and also managing their succession planning instead of just doing the administrative work.”
