Talent Engagement Exercise at Be Green Packaging

Jack Welch Management Institute

People Management – JWI520004JWONL-1178-001

Abstract

Be Green Packaging is one of the few manufacturers of compostable packaging for consumer goods and ready to eat foods from restaurants and grocery stores all over the United States and some European countries. The company is growing at a great pace and with that growth, the company is very quickly realizing that there are players within the organization that are not quite working out in their current positions or have a great work ethic and are a perfect fit for the organization. “A great workforce is made up of great people”. Last week we used the player positioning matrix to identify the A, B and C. This week we will be looking at the same players again using the talent engagement exercise to make a definitive decision on whether to keep or replace players. In this exercise we will document in detail the employee’s strengths, weaknesses and how we should proceed further if needed. Not only does this exercise help a manager dive deep into the details of each person, it is a great tool for mangers to use to communicate performance to human resources.

Introduction

Be Green Packaging is growing and management is realizing that some of the player on the team need to be assessed. Management has decided it is time for a restructure of the workforce. They need to figure out who will stay, who will change rolls and who needs to be let go. Last week we used the player positioning matrix to identify A, B and C players, or as Jack calls them 20-70-10 players. This week we will dig deeper into those players and make a final decision on the future of the employees. The talent engagement exercise is a great resource for any manager really wanting to document the performance of their employees in detail. The tool can be used to communicate to HR about employee performance and as documentation when there are issues.

Talent Engagement Exercise

Below are the 6 players from last week. We will be using the talent engagement exercise to rank the employees and make a final decision on how to handle the situation if needed.

Employee Positioning

Warren is an amazing asset to the team. He is full of ambition and wants to perform well. He has the drive to want to always improve and grow in his position. While with the company he completed his GED, and has enrolled in college to work on a degree in business. He is always accepting of new challenges. Warren has great people skills and easily forms a respected professional relationship with everyone he works with. He has demonstrated great leadership skills and in a few years’ time he will grow rapidly within the organization.

Mrs. Faye has recently been promoted to production manager from production lead. She has a great repour with the employees on the floor and in the corporate office. She is extremely organized which helps with scheduling shifts. She is always challenging her team to think for themselves and growing them professionally. She has great knowledge of the production process. Faye runs a very efficient factory and really adds great value to the team.

Tim was not performing optimally for the company in its growth. He was spoken to on multiple occasions about his performance and was given suggestions to improve. In the last conversation with Tim, he was given 30 days to improve his performance or we were going to have to let him go. The 30 days have passed, and we have seen no improvement. He continues to overorder product, inventory is still not being tracked well and paperwork is not being completed in a timely manner. We have no other choice than to let Tim go and find a new supply chain manager.

Joseph is a very knowledgeable accountant and seems to works hard. As the company grows Joseph has demonstrated on several occasions that the workload is too much for him to handle. We even hired a second accountant to help take some of the burden away, but he is refusing to train and turn over some of the workload. He has a negative attitude and is argumentative with peers and management. Many system errors have been made and he refuses to acknowledge the mistakes so they continue to be made. He has been talked to many times about his performance with no improvement. Though the knowledge is there his negative attitude is clashing with others. Joseph will have to be let go from the team.

Shauna originally was hired as an accounts payable and accounts receivable clerk. She had little accounting experience, but was willing to learn the role. She wasn’t learning the tasks quickly enough and struggled with the workload, so we moved her to a customer service role. Though she has great people skills and is great with the customers, she is struggling with this role as well. Her short comings are on the technical side of the position. She is not grasping how to use the ERP system and ask a lot of the same questions repeatedly. She has trouble following through with request and when a task comes to a standstill she has trouble coming back to it later and completing it. Customers are not receiving invoices and other paperwork in a timely manner, customer returns are not being processed causing trouble for the accounting department and the other customer service reps are having to pick up the slack. It has been communicated to her that her performance is lacking. She took the criticism very well and wants to improve. Hopefully with a little extra coaching she will progress.

Kayla is an excellent employee. She is caring, efficient and well organized. She communicates well with the production team. When her work load is slow she takes initiative and contacts other departments to see if she can be of assistance. The finance team has adopted her and utilizes her when there is an overflow of work. She is a very swift learner, and has learned the ERP system marvelously. Kayla is not afraid to ask questions when she does not understand something. I have expressed to Kayla that she would be a great accountant and should enroll in college, even if not for accounting for her personal growth. No matter which path she chooses to take she will be amazingt. She is very adaptable.

Conclusion

With a growing company like Be Green Packaging, you want to make sure you have the right players in the right position. The talent engagement exercise is a great tool diving deep and differentiating your crew. This exercise allows you to take detailed notes of each player on your team and helps managers asses how each player on their team is performing. It also helps managers communicate clearly with HR about performance, whether they are good or there are issues. The exercise also helps weed out the low performers who add no value to the organization. When your key players work well in their key positions your company will run more efficiency and will be successful.