Assignment 1: Bank of America Case Study
Choosing and strategizing a plan that focuses on developing a talented pool of leaders is vital in the long-term health of a company. Various factors can predetermine success or failure of leaders in the company. Every company, however, looks forward to a better future. Certain companies have succeeded in creating an enduring and strong bench by using succession planning and development of leadership approaches. This paper, will Bank of America and its talent management program which contributed largely to its success.
- Outline the talent management program that led to success for the company.
Bank of America has adopted comprehensive approaches to leadership talent management. It has seven years proven record of its on-board executive programs. From 2001 to 2008, Bank of America employed 196 external executives with twenty-four terminations, and the hiring turnover was about 12% as compared to the higher turnover rate that may exceed 40% with other large companies (Goldsmith and Carter, 2009). Bank of America has been using strategic evaluation of talent which has led to its success becoming an admiration for other companies around the world. The Bank has adopted development, selection and retention strategies in all its business lines. The goal of its talent management strategy is to create a pool of talented leaders, and so far, it has successfully created strong leaders that have driven the company’s success.
For the last two decades, Bank of America has experienced successful growth through acquisitions which has helped it discover the need of getting leaders from acquired companies and assimilating them within their standards for performance. The program has been expanded within the organization, and it works by selecting the best leaders, developing them and rewarding their performance to enable them to drive accountability, results, and culture in the organization (Vomberg, Homburg and Bornemann, 2015). Executive on-boarding is one of the many processes Bank of America deploys in developing its senior talents. Bank of America’s executive leadership activities include selecting the best hires, on-boarding, evaluating and managing performance, upgrading talents, development processes and compensation (Goldsmith and Carter, 2009).
The leadership development strategy is held with great importance by the bank’s CEO Ken Lewis who meets with these executive leaders occasionally to discuss the health of the organization, financial issues, operational issues, targets and leadership roles among others. He follows up with these executives to ensure they fully perform their duties. This commitment has enhanced the leaders of Bank of America to uphold leadership development for the success of the company. As a result, they have developed and maintained various beliefs regarding leadership which include: leadership talent affects company’s performance, those that perform today may not perform tomorrow and investing in the best and focusing on the rest is the key. This on- boards executive program has four phases namely selecting a new executive, absorbing the new employee in the executive role, putting the executive under coaching for 100 to 130 days and final phase is reviewing the executive at the end of the year.
- Identify strengths of the program and how they led to goal accomplishment.
One of the strengths of the program is recruiting and maintaining the best-talented people in the world. Bank of America created a diversity recruiting team in 2009 that would identify prospective executives and assimilate them in the Bank. The team partners with various educational institutions and global and national organizations in search of the best talent for their company. Seeking a diverse talent is a strategic measure that addresses the company’s diverse needs in different fields. This pool of talented individual works together to bring the best results of the company. Bank of America now consists of talented, productive leaders who drive the Bank’s dramatic growth.
Strength of the program is respecting cultural diversity. Being a global corporation, obeying cultures and differences among nations enables it easily operate its new curriculums by making them relevant to different groups. Ways in which Bank of America acknowledges culture is allowing regional leaders to nominate participants for the program who get fully engaged in the process throughout the years. This ensures the process has a strong local input. The program also incorporates external coaches into the process who interact with the participants by sharing the same culture and language of leaders being developed. Diversity not only helps the company’s operation be relevant in different demographics but also enables the company to innovate and quickly adapt to the changing environment (Madera, 2013). Bank of America’s workforce diversity has been a key driver in its innovation and growth. The different leaders have different mentalities and apply them in sharing ideas and opinions that solve new business challenges as well as helping in the production of products that exceed client’s expectations. The Bank of America talent management program truly functions in a way that welcomes diversity, and this is what has made Bank of America rank in the list of the most successful corporation.
Another key strength of Bank of America’s program is employee training and development. Bank of America looks at its existing employees and instills in them the skills that they need. They select talents and then through training, discover and develop them. The corporation knows what it needs to develop its talents and goes for it. The CEO of Bank of America holds conversations with the leaders occasionally and thorough that interactive process gathers up-to-date information about the workforce ambition and level of performance and also new needs regarding their development are made known and attended to. Bank of America has succeeded in investing in its employee’s growth through educating and developing them which has enabled their success converting to corporation’s success.
Finally, the rich and talented employees allow new executives to learn from them and adapt to the companies’ culture quickly. This is an advantage when compared to other cooperations that have not yet developed an advanced program. In addition, employing coaching activities allows the new hires to gain a deep understanding of their progress and development strategies. Further, the Bank maintains its employees by recognizing their efforts and rewarding them accordingly among other benefits. This is confirming to the employees that their wok is valued who in return offer appreciation of their work.
- Describe opportunities for improvement in the talent management planning process.
Bank of America intents to have the best training management program and the best way of doing this is keeping up with the changing environment Bank of America’s old employees have rich skills and are very productive to the company to the extent that whenever they have to go for retirement, some leaders want to continue maintaining them. One opportunity to ensuring that the bank does not experience a shortage of workers in the future is absorbing as many young talented individuals as possible. There are so many young people schooling in different professions from all over the world who can be absorbed within the corporation (Hasluck, 2012). Concentrating on employing the young people may seem like a burden, but the fact is that their minds are fresh and they can easily learn, and when given a good working platform, they will bring the best qualities in business including providing long-term service to the corporation (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright, 2006) .
Another opportunity is incorporating technology with Talent management. This is by application of online employee portals to better manage the employees’ careers and understand them more. Online portals can make staff feel more connected and empowered. Also, up to date information can be shared at given through these theses portals. Instead of occasionally meeting the leaders to talk about their careers and organization growth, online portals can serve a platform where such information can be shared on a daily basis. Portals are customized to ensure they are tailored towards addressing employee’s needs thus a good approach to making them feel valued.
- Create at least two (2) more effective approaches to meet the talent management challenges in the future.
One approach to tackling talent management challenges is by incorporating the advancing technology. Technology has been good in serving organizations’ needs and solving any arising problem. For example, employees from anywhere can communicate, hold meetings and get training online. Keeping up with technology will ensure new solutions are deployed in the organization on time. Another approach is employing more young people to prevent future shortage of workers. Most of working people in the US are old and nearing their retirement. As this population retires from work, companies may experience shortages if they do not foresee the situation earlier by absorbing young employees.
Conclusion
The Talent management program of Bank of America has been successful in influencing the growth of the corporation and thus should be emulated by other companies to cultivate the same success. This information including various case studies on Bank of America should motivate incoming business and the already existing organizations to embark on similar strategies and gain a competitive edge within their industries. It would be more strategic doing much more than the bank by exploring opportunities in talent management programs like introducing technology in the leadership development program. Bank of America best explains how investing in best leaders can set a path to success for any business and guarantee a sustained future.
References
Goldsmith, M., & Carter, L. (2009). Best practices in talent management: how the world’s leading corporations manage, develop, and retain top talent. John Wiley & Sons.
Hasluck, C. (2012). Why businesses should recruit young people: briefing paper.
Madera, J. M. (2013). Best practices in diversity management in customer service organizations: an investigation of top companies cited by Diversity Inc. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 54(2), 124-135.
Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2006). Human resource Management: Gaining a competitive advantage.
Vomberg, A., Homburg, C., & Bornemann, T. (2015). Talented people and strong brands: The contribution of human capital and brand equity to firm value. Strategic Management Journal, 36(13), 2122-2131.