Introduction
A talent management program is a systematic process that starts at identifying any vacant position in an institution or an organization, hiring a suitable candidate for the position, improving the skills of the employee to march with what is expected from him in the organization (Berger, & Berger, 2018). It allows the employees to be motivated and skilled to achieve the business goals. In this case study, I will be looking at the Bank of America leadership development. It started as North Carolina National Bank, a small regional bank about twenty-eight years ago. Through acquisitions of various companies, the bank has grown, and it is one of the biggest banks in America. Due to this global expansion, Bank of America had to acquire services from employees from various institutions aimed at bringing in new talent to guide its continuous expansion (Schweyer, 2004). The company could acquire its executives through two main ways: promoting a manager within the organization to an executive position or getting other talents from other institutions. Every company wants to maintain its workforce while attracting new talent (Hongal & Kinange, 2020). In his paper, I will be looking at the talent management program at the Bank of America and how it has contributed to its success. I will also look at the program’s strengths and how they affect its goal accomplishments. In this program, I will look at the improvements that the program may require in the talent management planning process. Finally, I will propose approaches aimed at countering the challenges in the training approach. I have gone through various processes that Bank of America uses to manage its workforce at the executive level. I will be looking at situations where an executive has come from a different institution to where a manager has been tasked to be an executive within the bank.
The Bank of America has been successful in its part of becoming a major world financial institution. It has acquired various firms to increase its global presence in banking, assets management, investment banking, and other areas of interest. Its talent management program has influenced the company’s success. The bank has carried out various assessments that have indicated that an employee, especially in senior positions, should be oriented in various company operations to become effective (Schweyer, 2004). When an executive is appointed, he faces a leadership dilemma that can only be taken care of using a good guide program of what is expected from him. The employee is expected to take the least time possible in adjusting step into his new role with ease and perform to the level of perfection in his area. When a new manager is appointed in an institution or a department, expectations are usually high, and many assume that results will be gained shortly. There is also the probability of derailment of a new manager, and it takes him a lot of time to adjust or understand how the institution operates (Hongal & Kinange, 2020). The purpose of a talent management program is to keenly observe how the new executive or manager performs his tasks, provide advice when required, and always be eager to improve a new workforce’s performance. Bank of America relied on an onboarding program as its leadership development program (Schweyer, 2004). The Bank of America was able to identify that boarding inventions were critical, especially at the executive leadership level. For the success of any company, its leadership must be well equipped and able to handle the tasks at hand.
The onboarding program aimed to offer support to the manager promoted to executives. The various assumptions made resulted in the executive managers underperforming or failing to accomplish their tasks. It was assumed that a person with many years of managerial experience could become an executive, yet managerial posts are not broad enough. New appointees would develop misplaced self-confidence from many years of managerial experience. Senior executives politicized the appointments resulting in a lack of assistance or feedback to the new appointee (Hongal & Kinange, 2020). When outsiders were appointed to senior levels, coalesce commonly resulted in leadership derailment. After the Bank of America identified these challenges, it was able to develop a well-established program that would offer staff support and assist in the company’s better performance.
The program used by the Bank of America had the strengths that enabled it to accomplish its goals. The bank’s CEO, Ken Lewis, was giving the executive program strategy support. This gave the program legitimacy and ensured all staff followed through and engaged in the program’s undertaking. The CEO, Ken Lewis, met the bank’s top executives every summer to review the organization’s health and development strategies (Schweyer, 2004). During these forums, the program would be adjusted according to the given recommendations. As a result, the program would change to meet the organization’s continuous changes. The programs aimed to promote the organization’s culture spearheaded by CEO Ken Lewis that focused on trust, teamwork, and accountability. The program assessment was a continuous process that took eighteen months to be accomplished. A new employee’s value should be ascended after six months of work; this program gave an employee ample time to understand how the company works and prove his worth. The onboarding program used in Bank of America was able to accomplish the company’s goals. The probability of derailment in the workforce was greatly reduced, and as a result, employees were given support through constructive feedback, coaching, and follow-up (Meyers, 2020). The performance result of the employee is accelerated, and he can achieve the break-even point much earlier than expected. The program also offered a smoother transition and socialization experience to staff that had migrated from other companies. This program greatly assisted employees, especially senior management, settling and working effectively in the new stations.
There are always areas of improvement in any process. In a talent management planning process, improving is critical. Talent in the company wants to be retained for a long time, and others want to join the organization (Berger & Berger, 2018). These improvements in the talent management planning process offer productivity from the employees aimed at maximizing their output. As a form of employee recognition, the talent should be recognized and rewarded. Recognition in an institution provides the employees that the work they are doing is being appreciated and its impacts are beneficial to the organization. Rewards are incentives used by an organization aimed at motivating employees to work beyond their means so that the set goals are achieved. All applicants and any new hires should be treated kindly and respectfully. Adjusting to a new workstation or premises that one is not fond of can be challenging (Meyers, 2020). New hires and applicants should be treated gently not to develop a negative attitude towards the organization. The first interaction is key to how a person behaves in a new environment (Claus, 2019). The developed onboarding system should inspire new hires to always better their best. It should be formulated so that it does not demotivate them but guides them to achieve better results.
The world is changing so does the working environment. The changes being witnessed will automatically lead to changes in the talent management sector. Approaches to talent management should also change with the demands of the time. Succession planning should be adopted in institutions. Succession planning is when a company relies on its internal structure to produce future organization leaders (Claus, 2019). This approach is critical since it gives confidence and determination to junior employees in the organization that offers good returns, resulting in promotion and better positions in the institution. This method will increase output as one strives for a better position in the organization. Another approach that can be used in the future is to understand their demographics well (Whysall et al., 2019). An organization needs to identify gaps in the workforce and the necessary talents to fill these gaps. This will enable the organization only to hire what they need, and as a result, each employee will have specific roles to play; improving the workforce’s efficiency.
References
Berger, L. A., & Berger, D. R. (Eds.). (2018). The talent management handbook: Making culture a competitive advantage by acquiring, identifying, developing, and promoting the best people. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Claus, L. (2019). HR disruption—Time already to reinvent talent management. BRQ Business Research Quarterly, 22(3), 207-215.
Hongal, P., & Kinange, U. (2020). A study on talent management and its impact on organization performance-an empirical review. International Journal of Engineering and Management Research, 10.
Meyers, M. C. (2020). The neglected role of talent proactivity: Integrating proactive behavior into talent-management theorizing. Human Resource Management Review, 30(2), 100703.
Schweyer, A. (2004). Talent management systems: Best practices in technology solutions for recruitment, retention and workforce planning. John Wiley & Sons.
Whysall, Z., Owtram, M., & Brittain, S. (2019). The new talent management challenges of Industry 4.0. Journal of Management Development.
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