The Zoological Society of San Diego provides an excellent example of the rollout and results of automating employee performance and talent management.

The Zoological Society of San Diego, which operates the 100-acre San Diego Zoo, the 1,800-acre San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park and the department of Conservation and Research for Endangered Species (CRES), rolled out its new strategic plan in January 2005. Tim Mulligan, director of human resources, was responsible for the supporting process [...]

Talent Management is a hot phrase among HR managers nowadays, and for good reason: companies who effectively manage their talent recruit and keep top talent while training their existing talent to a higher level of competency — resulting in better financial performance. These organizations have more consistent company visions, and a workforce that is more aligned in their mission to achieve that vision. But lofty goals aside, setting up and sticking to a [...]

Experienced managers know it is far harder to get alignment than one might expect. Each business unit, each person, has their own interests and their own way of hearing things. What seems like a straightforward communication may not be heard, not acted upon, or it may be misunderstood.

There are two core methods to improve alignment: culture and goal management. A strong culture creates a common mindset, while goal setting ensures that the specifics are [...]

Now that we’ve established the need and benefits of organization-centric alignment, actually aligning the entire organization may seem daunting.The first thing you need to know is that rarely do organizations have to start from scratch, as there are usually good tools and processes already in place.

Existing business planning, operational budgeting processes and employee performance reviews form the building blocks for an organization-centric approach to workforce alignment.With the right technology, these processes can be seamlessly [...]

Today I’ll look at the two models to align employee goals being used in organizations worldwide, people-centric and organization-centric and discuss how they fit in with actually achieving workforce alignment.

A Look Back— People-Centric Alignment

Earlier this decade with the economic downturn, organizations rapidly shifted from growth-mode into preservation-mode. Understandably, business leaders quickly focused on identifying mission-critical tactics to meet near-term financial targets. To make this manageable, some organizations invoked the practice of linking individual goals to [...]