Investing in the Science of People

(From The Moscow Times) -- In our personal lives, whether it is our friends or spouse or kids, we all know that relationships are an art. Some people are better at it than others, and we all have good and bad days. But in a multibillion-dollar business, recruiting and retaining the right people with the right skills to meet the needs of an organization has to be a science. At PepsiCo, talent management is deeply embedded in the way we do and understand business.

All great strategies come from defining the right answers for the right questions, and talent management is not any different. Any successful business should be constantly assessing: What should be the key talent and capability priorities for the greatest business value? How should we define and assess talent and potential within the company? How can we drive performance, engagement and commitment to the organization? How can we effectively attract critical talent groups?

Realizing there is no such thing as a single silver bullet, we believe there are integrated talent management systems that can effectively support business leaders to further develop their talent agenda. At the same time, it can create a common language and architecture for the entire business. Without trying to be prescriptive or too academic, these are some of the tools and processes we believe make difference:

• Projecting future talent demand through detailed modeling. Driven by inputs from the different business strategic plans, multi-scenario outputs reveal quantity and quality gaps and help increase transparency for talent management resources globally.

• Talent segmentations and development prioritization. Ensures we customize the right solutions for enterprise high value, continuity and opportunity talent.

• Role classification. Segments corporate functions versus operational roles and prioritizes among critical, developmental and other roles. Comparing talent and roles might highlight relevant opportunities.

• Talent playbook. Establishes harmonious boundaries (guardrails, tools usage and consistent criteria) and development expectations for enterprise talent.

• Succession and people planning. Provides a centralized process to introduce global transparency and eliminate unnecessary duplicity in planning.