A Hay Group leadership survey affirms the importance of ABB’s continued commitment to talent.
In February, Business Week magazine published the results of an annual survey conducted by the Hay Group. ABB was ranked number 15 among 740 elite organizations that were recognized for their leadership. The survey described ABB as a “collaboration for innovation” company where employees are encouraged to seek new solutions to problems.
The Hay Group is a global management consulting firm that specializes in talent and has built one of the most comprehensive databases of organizational management information in the world for benchmarking performance. The Hay group has helped ABB develop its remuneration and talent management structures. The study surveyed over 1,800 individuals to rate leadership at their own company as well as to identify three other organizations that they believed were best at developing leadership at all levels.
“This ranking is a great honor for ABB, and an important confirmation of our commitment to talent. ABB’s performance in 2009 speaks volumes about the caliber of our leadership. Despite the worst global recession in decades and the need to scrutinize cost, we’ve continued making large strides in our talent management,” said Gary Steel, head of HR.
“We’ve sharpened our ability to identify performers earlier in their careers, and have development programs targeting every level of ABB leadership. A world class organization requires world class talent, and I’m pleased to see that our talent management processes – and their results – benchmark so well.”
In 2009 ABB introduced a new set of HR Group Tools, which for the first time link its performance, development and retention processes. This included the new Talent Identification Process and the Performance and Development Appraisal process, which began with meaningful people conversations at all levels of ABB. The Group Tools investment allows ABB to look at its leadership needs in a very strategic way over the short and long-run.
The survey noted that many of its top-rated organizations support leadership development regardless of the business climate. It also linked leadership to financial results – the survey’s top 20 companies grew in total by 1.6 percent through the 2009 global recession, while the S&P 500 stock index fell by 37 percent for the same period.
Another common attribute of the top 20 companies was a strong focus on the future. This is reflected in ABB’s recognition of the growth drivers which will create success beyond the current business cycle – the need for energy and process efficiency, growth in the world’s emerging markets, and the need to combat climate change.
One last point of alignment with the survey is the ability of anyone in ABB to be a leader. For all companies in the survey, an average of 35 percent felt their employees are expected to lead even if they were not in a formal position of authority. For the top 20 companies, an average of 64 percent felt they were expected to lead.
Since 2004, some 38,000 employees in 43 countries and 14 languages have participated in ABB’s Leadership Challenge, which helps teach leadership skills and builds a culture of personal responsibility to engage everyone in the challenge of change.
ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 117,000 people. ABB has a full range of business activities in China, including research and development, manufacturing, sales and services, with 15,300 employees, 30 joint ventures and wholly owned companies, and an extensive sales and service network across 60 cities.