Background
Just Born’s products are well-known throughout the United States. The company manufactures candy, including Mike and Ikes ®, Hot Tamales®, Peanut Chews ® and a range of jelly beans. Its best known product is a yellow marshmallow chick – Marshmallow Peeps®. 1.2 billion Peeps are produced in the course of a year.
Some 600 associates (the term used by Just Born) are employed at two factories and in management, administration and support roles. The largest of the factories is in Bethlehem Pennsylvania and the second in Philadelphia, PA.
Plant operatives are unionised and their progress is mainly determined by seniority. This case study concerns the process used to develop the 135 ‘support associates’, who range from the most senior managers through to the most junior clerk.
HR processes and interventions are built against a background of strong commitment to learning and development from the top. While Just Born intends to continue as a family-owned confectionary company, it ensures that all associates receive opportunities to grow their leadership capability. Its stated mission is:
“Aggressive growth and above average profitability through superior leadership.”
One of the company’s co-CEOs, Ross Born (a grandson of the founder Sam Born) in a recent interview for T& D magazine expressed his view that:
“Learning is like breathing for us. We operate in a changing world. In our industry we have globalization; we have low cost competition; and we use a lot of technology. If you don’t learn in this industry, you’ll go out of business. Our competition is learning; we’re learning all the time.”
Alignment with the business
Meloney Sallie-Dosunmu, Just Born’s Manager of Organisational Effectiveness and Talent, is a key member of the HR team. She works closely with five HR business partners who carry significant development responsibilities within their businesses. She describes her role as one of “talent management with a focus on development”.
Alignment is achieved through the cascade of Just Born’s business objectives down through the operating departments. The processes involved are expressed in terms of a people development system (PDS). This is designed to ensure that learning and development are aligned with the corporate strategy and that associates are equipped with the skills needed for future and current roles.
Two elements of PDS are of particular importance: a performance management process (PMP) and a career development process (CDP). Both involve an interview and agreement between the associate and his or her boss and written output. In the PMP discussion, associate and supervisor will agree up to four personal objectives and two competencies – the latter are skills or capabilities that the associate needs to drive or improve the personal objectives. A corporate competency glossary is available on the company’s intranet to support these discussions. Once the competencies have been identified, the associate and supervisor are responsible for developing a simple learning plan for the year.
All support associates participate in the Performance Management Process which concentrates mainly on development in current roles. The Career Development Process focuses on future potential and is linked with Just Born’s succession planning process. Most of the eligible associates undertake CDP discussions which are focused on future job interests and long-term career goals.
Meloney Sallie-Dosunmu, along with the other HR Business Partners, collates and records the output of the PMP and PDS discussions, while seeking to co-ordinate opportunities and movement across functions to build up the talent-pool. Recently, for example an associate transferred from finance to marketing, providing a visible example of the benefits of growing future potential from within the company rather than automatically looking outside. On occasions she has to manage expectations and encourage a more realistic attitude towards career development. Together with the HR business partners she supports the less experienced supervisors in their discussions.
Effective processes are seen as essential for alignment with business goals. Mark McLaughlin, the Vice President for HR, puts it as follows:
“The entire system must align, including even our annual merit process. Support Associates’ merit increase is based on two sets of criteria. The first criteria, input by the supervisor measures achievement of their PMP objectives, delivery of daily job performance, achievement of PMP learning and CDP development plans, and community volunteerism. The second criteria, input by the supervisor and two peers measures team behaviour and results, customer service behaviour and results, and the degree to which the associate walks-the-talk of our company philosophy. By aligning merit with the PDS, it ensures accountability and impact to our strategic objectives.”
High performance leadership development program (HPLD)
In 2003 Just Born introduced a significant leadership program – the HPLD. Up to 30 associates in a given year will participate in the program. The design of the program has evolved over time, but has always been closely linked with Just Born’s ‘Wow … Now” improvement process. This is a customised ‘Kaizen’ process which offers a systematic process to collect data, and identify improvement opportunities, using a step-by-step approach.
Participants in the HPLD spend six months on the program. They are developed in groups of 8-10. There is a classroom element to the program: after initial orientation they begin with a three day ‘boot camp’ and then meet once a month for modules of up to three day tuition and discussion. Subjects include continuous improvement to systematic problem solving and value (key element of Wow ….Now) through to the softer skills for example coaching. As the program has evolved, so tuition has passed from external consultants to the internal Just Born HR staff.
HPLD is not however designed as a taught course. It is closely linked to the work place and all participants undertake two projects over its duration. These are action learning projects, which contribute to the participant’s development but also provide a tangible business benefit to Just Born. The individual project must deliver $1,300 to the business and the group project must deliver $10,000; these savings must be agreed and signed off by the finance department. Illustrative projects include:
The responsibility for the action learning project rests with the individual. They must, however identify an Executive Mentor at a senior level within Just Born and bring progress reports on their project to their fellow learners in the group. HR staff are available to act as facilitators and coaches to the group.
It is evident that alignment is a powerful theme running through all Just Born’s development activities. Indeed Meloney Sallie-Dosunmu expresses her biggest challenge in the following terms:
“We must always ask ourselves what we can contribute to the business. We must be aware of the current over-riding business challenges (which could, for example, be the promotion of a new brand) and ask how our learning efforts are assisting or could assist.”
Acknowledgement to:
Bingham, T. and Galagan P. ‘At C Level: Just Born’, T & D May 2006, pp 26-36