HR looks to talent management to effect change
29 June 2009
The Royal Bank of Scotland intends to “grow its own” talent to ensure that leadership in the bank delivers the change that is needed, according to its group HR director.
Speaking at a talent management conference in London organised by the Economist, Neil Roden said there had been a period of reflection at the bank over its failures, many of which were down to growing too fast. He said that HR was now concentrating on talent management initiatives to ensure RBS had the right people in place for the future.
“What’s clear to us is that leadership is key, as is having the best people globally. Managing talent is really the key task of leadership,” Roden said.
“For the top 15 jobs, there will be a big focus on whether we have the right people. If not, what are our plans – and, if we do, how are we retaining them?”
Roden said that RBS was bringing in 360-degree feedback for executive managers and six-monthly reviews to make performance management more effective. “You can tell that there’s some reticence from management toward certain things. But the 360-degree feedback for executives this year is to drive behaviour and change, and it will be brought in for the rest of the company next year,” Roden told the conference.
He explained that RBS’s approach to the recruitment of talent from outside had to change. "In the good times, we just thought we could buy whoever we wanted as we had as much money as everyone else. We are now going to change that. To do so, we need to change leadership development and do more growing of our own.
"It's the quality of the leadership that drives success so you need to invest in that group. Younger leaders are interested in this type of progress, so it’s a way to engage with them as well.”
Roden said the bank was revamping and relaunching its executive education programme through RBS business skills.
Internal career progression, in the form of a global talent monitoring system for RBS HR, will also be prioritised to ensure the organisation “retains critical individuals”.
As well as offering younger talent opportunities, the bank aims to retain its experienced talent through the option of not retiring at 60. Roden said the number of people over 60 in the workforce had been steadily rising.
“Anyone that’s been around through a recession has valuable experience. I sense attitudes are changing towards older workers, as before it was more about getting people out as soon as they reached retirement age.”
An employee survey is to take place in September, which, Roden said, would feed into the talent process.