Bank of America Talent Management
Bank of America Talent Management Practice
Instructions
From the Best Practices in Talent Management textbook, select either the Bank of America (Chapter 2) or McDonald’s (Chapter 9) case study for this assignment.
Write a 5–7 page paper in which you:
1. Outline the talent management program that led to success for the company.
2. Identify the strengths of the program and how they led to goal accomplishment.
3. Describe opportunities for improvement in the talent management planning process.
4. Create at least two more effective approaches to meet the talent management challenges in the future.
Chapter 2: Bank of America
BRIAN FISHEL AND JAY CONGER
INTRODUCTION
The Bank of America is the fi rst true national retail banking brand in the United States. Over the last two decades, the bank has grown dramatically, primarily through acquisitions. It began as the small regional North Carolina National Bank and has become one of the largest companies in the world. As a fi nancial institution, it serves individual consumers, small – and middle – market businesses, and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management, and other fi nancial and risk – management products and services. Following the acquisition of Merrill Lynch on January 1, 2009, Bank of America is among the world ’ s leading wealth management companies and is a global leader in corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes serving corporations, governments, institutions, and individuals around the world. The company serves clients in more than 150 countries.
In this chapter, we will describe the Bank of America ’ s executive on – boarding programs. Through a multi – phased approach supported by comprehensive feedback and coaching mechanisms, the bank ’ s programs have proven highly effective at both pre – empting leadership failures and for accelerating the knowledge and relationships necessary to step into an executive role. Our insights are drawn from an in – depth case analysis of these on – boarding programs at the Bank of America (Excerpt).
Bank of America Talent Management Practice
The transition from a manager to the executive is a crucial step that requires the candidate to be equipped with the appropriate skills and expertise before assuming the leadership position. The Bank of America is aware of this challenge, having faced a leadership dilemma in the past. In addressing this problem, the company has opted for an executive development plan program that helps new executives to learn on the job on the leadership styles and approaches and organizational culture of the company. The main objective of the leadership development program is to prepare managers for executive roles that come with a huge responsibility and accountability.
1. Outline the talent management program that led to success for the company.
The Bank of America’s success is attributed to the executive onboarding program. The program’s goal is to offer training and boost the leadership skills of both internally and externally sourced executives. This approach has led to successful results, as argued by Fishel & Conger (2009), who says that it has a proven record of seven years. The company employed this talent management program after facing a leadership dilemma. Since then, Bank opted for an executive onboarding program that has resulted in acquiring potential executives who “operate at the boundary between their organization and the external environment” (Fishel & Conger, 2009, p. 20). The program has also ensured that the majority of the company managers are functionally and organizationally oriented to prepare them for future leadership roles. The program ensures leaders and executives are well acquainted with the management and leadership skills and practice. This helps in reducing the cases the failure and possibly high turnover among the newly hired executives. Leonard, Swap, & Barton (2014) argue that the executive onboarding program offered by the Bank of America is ideal in helping new leaders and executives to familiarize with role responsibilities, create links and learn from other organizational leaders on what is need to become a successful leader.
2. Identify the strengths of the program and how they led to goal accomplishment.
Bonito (2015) says that executive and leadership roles come with a lot of responsibility and accountability, but with limited time to learn. Executives also face challenging and unique situations that demand unique solutions. The executive roles are very demanding, calling for a need to have sufficient time to learn on the job. The executive onboarding program appears to solve this problem since it gives executives, managers, and other leaders enough time to learn about the job. This is included in the Bank’s executive development plan based on the assumption that the results of the successful onboarding process will be seen over time but not instantly. For example, it is assumed that onboarding can be deemed successful if the executive learns on the job for twelve to eighteen months (Fishel & Conger, 2009). The Bank of America believes that the onboarding process should be executed in steps, and it has done so by implementing its program in phases. During these phases, stakeholder engagement and interventions are highly considered through a transparent process, dialogue, and feedback. This has been found to lead to an improved range of outcomes.
The onboarding program phases and interventions ensure that the Bank acquires the right candidate. For example, in addition to considering experience and expertise in the selection phase, cultural fit and leadership ability are given the priority. As such, this program ensures that the Bank hires executives endowed with cultural sensitivity, interpersonal skills, and leadership skills. The program undertakes the newly hired executives through an extensive learning process to equip them with practices of the organization. For example, as presented in the case, the newly hired executives must meet four outcomes: “developing business acumen in line with a new role; learning the organizational culture; mastering the leadership role demands and establishing important organizational relations” (Fishel & Conger, 2009, p. 25). The critical roles of executives involve meeting particular strategic initiatives that might require the leader to change their status to fit in the organizational context (Bauer, 2010). By accomplishing these outcomes, the new hires are exposed to the organizational practices at the beginning. This gives them the line and the approach which they should follow while dealing with both internal and external operations and engagements.
The Bank’s program considers the effect on the stakeholders on organizational leadership. Stakeholders are critical partners for any organization, and when they are not involved in a crucial decision such as hiring the new executives, they are likely to derail the process. Executives interact with more stakeholders, hence the need to create a working relationship with them to improve the executive-stakeholder relationship (Bauer, 2010). The onboarding program has dealt with this problem by developing the Key Stakeholder Check-In Session, which is used to obtain feedback from the key stakeholders (Fishel & Conger, 2009). The session is meant for creating a productive working relationship between the stakeholders and the new executives. At this phase, the program has proved the goal of the leadership development plan is not only to help new leaders to learn about the job, but also to assist them in creating a working relationship with the stakeholders. This ensures that new executives will not have a difficult time making critical decisions since they will have the support of the stakeholders. It is also an opportunity for new leaders to understand stakeholders better, including their expectations form the leader. For example, the new leader will get to know what cultural fit do stakeholders expect the leader to have, stakeholders’ preferred leadership approach, and operating style (Fishel & Conger, 2009). This will help new executives to make adjustments if their leadership approaches and styles do not conform to the expectations of the stakeholders.
Bank of America’s executive onboarding program helps new executives to overcome challenges that are likely to face new leaders in the organization. The support and feedback offered to help the new hires to effectively overcome the major stumbling blocks in the initial stages of learning. It is an effective program that helps both the organization and the new executive to identify the possible warnings that can derail the achievement of the leadership development plan goals. The program is also characterized by interventions that help to evaluate the executive learning process and offer appropriate support to maintain the right course of action. The involvement of stakeholders in the development plan influences them to own the success of the executive. This encourages them to offer the necessary support to the executive whenever their contribution is needed.
3. Describe opportunities for improvement in the talent management planning process.
4. Create at least two more effective approaches to meet the talent management challenges in the future.
References
Bauer, T. N. (2010). Onboarding New Employees: Maximizing Success. Alexandria, United States of America: SHRM Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-expert-views/Documents/Onboarding-New-Employees.pdf
Bonito, J. (2015). How New BofA Executives Learn its’ Deep Smarts.’ Harvard Business School. Retrieved from https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/how-new-bofa-executives-learn-its-deep-smarts
Fishel, B., & Conger, J. (2009). Chapter 2: Bank of America. John Wiley & Sons.
Leonard, D., Swap, W., & Barton, G. (2014). Critical Knowledge Transfer: Tools for Managing Your Company’s Deep Smarts. Harvard Business Review Press. Retrieved from https://store.hbr.org/product/critical-knowledge-transfer-tools-for-managing-your-company-s-deep-smarts/16568?sku=16568-HBK-ENG
Society for Human Resource Management. (2015). SHRM Research Spotlight: Future HR Challenges and Talent Management Tactics. Alexandria, United States of America: SHRM. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/research-and-surveys/Documents/SHRM-Challenge-HR-2022-Spotlight.pdf