Case Study: Porter Novelli
From the Best Practices in Talent Management textbook, select either the Porter Novelli (Chapter 12) or Southern Company (Chapter 13) case study for this assignment.
Write a 5–7 page paper in which you:
Evaluate the effectiveness of the roles that the strategic leaders played in the formation of the performance management strategy.
Develop five-point criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the talent management strategy and how the data could be collected.
Critique the components of your talent management strategy and suggest alternative ways to achieve effective results.
Outline the functional expertise component of this strategy and how it optimizes the company’s ability to identify highly qualified individuals.
Use at least five quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other websites do not quality as academic resources.
Sample Answer: Case Study: Porter Novelli
Introduction
Porter Novelli, a global marketing communications leader, established an essential strategic evaluation and visioning in 2004 to guide its operations. The organization sought to enhance the planning of client accounts and become customer-focused. Porter Novelli was committed to expanding its operations interdependency across the globally dispersed offices to service clients (Goldsmith & Carter, 2009). Thus, the senior leadership of the organization identified the need to align its HR processes to the new business strategy to achieve the desired outcomes.
The Effectiveness of the Functions Played by Strategic Leaders in The Establishment of a Performance Management Strategy
Porter Novelli CEO, president, and the chief strategy personnel played a critical role in leading the strategic evaluation and visioning activity to act as a road map for the company’s operations in the next five years (Goldsmith & Carter, 2009). They influenced the need for upgrading and aligning the HR processes to facilitate effective communication and execution of the proposed business strategy. According to Azhar et al. (2013), strategic leaders are concerned with facilitating a company’s performance by undertaking robust planning, visioning, and promoting successful implementation of identified strategies.
Strategic leaders are expected to identify the possible challenges in a company and design ways of addressing them to achieve goals. The leaders were successful in identifying problems facing the enterprise and proposing possible solutions, such as adopting a performance management strategy to promote talent management (Goldsmith & Carter, 2009). The CTO offered insights on how to create role clarity and provide adequate performance expectations to employees through his vast experience in promoting the corporate change process. As a result, the leaders were able to identify the urgent challenges in the firm that needed to be addressed before implementing the proposed business strategy.
The CEO, president, and CTO led the change management process by establishing a performance management strategy. They clearly defined leadership and management functions to enhance individual accountability (Goldsmith & Carter, 2009). The strategic leaders promoted excellence by establishing the performance management system. The initiative would enable employees to exploit their potential to accomplish their goals. The leaders effectively enabled the communication of expectations, the establishment of performance metrics, and the benchmarks.

Five-Point Criteria for Assessing the Effectiveness of the Talent Management Initiative
Alignment with Corporate Strategy
An effective talent management program is aligned with the organization’s strategic goals. The strategy should have a significant influence on the outcomes of a company, thus enabling the accomplishment of strategic goals (Bethke-Langenegger, Mahler, & Staffelbach, 2011). For example, it should provide the desirable talents that will assist the company to succeed in its strategic operations. The strategy should offer relevant talent management data for strategic leaders to make quality decisions such as succession planning.
Staff Engagement
An effective talent management program should focus on employee involvement. For instance, it should incorporate the need for staff engagement in HR decisions, such as recruitment and knowledge acquisition. The initiative should aim at enhancing job satisfaction through increased employee engagement (Bethke-Langenegger, Mahler, & Staffelbach, 2011). For example, it should develop a framework for the fair promotion of top performers.
Creation of A Qualified Talent Pool
A robust talent management system should enable the establishment of a talent pool consisting of qualified persons to participate in the achievement of an organization’s strategic goals and objectives. The program should develop and maintain an inventory of the skills, capabilities, and competencies required in an organization (Bethke-Langenegger, Mahler, & Staffelbach, 2011). Thus, it should promote a talent supply of qualified individuals for a firm to be on the competitive edge in the market.
Focus On Automation
An effective talent management system should emphasize the adoption of technology to automate most functions to enable compliance testing and audits. Most of the talent management functions should be computerized to enhance efficiency and effectiveness (Bethke-Langenegger, Mahler & Staffelbach, 2011). For instance, most operations like drug testing and background checks can be automated to save time and costs and ensure compliance efficiency.
Alignment with Employee and Business Objectives
Effective talent management systems are aligned with employee objectives and the overall purpose of a business. The program should aim at ensuring that employee behavior fits the business needs (Jyoti, Sharma, & Sharma, 2011). Talent management should focus on addressing workers’ needs to promote the retention and attraction of qualified staff.
How to Collect Data
The data for evaluating the effectiveness of talent management can be collected from business performance results. For instance, annual results during the program implementation period, such as 2005 to 2008, can be obtained (Goldsmith & Carter, 2009). The effect of the high individual accountability upon the implementation of the performance management strategy should be determined by assessing the improvement in financial performance results.
Employee climate survey results can be accessed to obtain data on the effectiveness of talent management. For example, the pulse surveys undertaken within 2005 and 2009 should be assessed to determine the changes in employee climate patterns. The focus should be placed on the improvements in employee morale, quality of management and leadership, and employee loyalty and retention (Goldsmith & Carter, 2009). The employee turnover results should also be assessed to obtain relevant data on the effect of the program on staff retention.
A Critique of the Components of a Talent Management Strategy and Proposed Alternatives to Accomplish Better Results
The organization uses the leadership pipeline development strategy for managing talents. The initiative aims at strengthening the company’s leadership function by leveraging emerging talents. The leadership pipeline is expected to be transparent and straightforward. However, the achievement of the component of simplicity and transparency is often challenging because of the complex organizational structure of a global company like Porter Novelli (Charan, Drotter & Noel, 2010). The way leading to top leadership is ambiguous for Porter Novelli because of its expanded operations in the global business environment (Goldsmith & Carter, 2009). As a result, the scope of talent management is too broad, leading to complex challenges such as limited information sharing among managers.

The leadership pipeline development initiative focuses on the component of the development of talents within the organization. Thus, the company is likely to miss out on talent management opportunities as it emphasizes the internal development of talents (Charan, Drotter, & Noel, 2010). For instance, the organization will forego fresh ideas and perspectives on the effective operations of the entity. It also takes time to develop talents that can take up leadership opportunities when there is an urgent need for succession planning.
The assessment and potential identification component may be bypassed in organizations because of the need to motivate employees and ensure fairness. The continued assessment of employee potential within and outside an enterprise is often marked with challenges because of the limited knowledge of the skills and competencies needed to accomplish an organization’s objectives (Charan, Drotter, & Noel, 2010). However, the organization must recognize that not all persons are ready to climb up the corporate ladder.
Proposed Alternatives
Porter Novelli should rely on both in-house and external leadership development pipeline. More emphasis should be placed on recruiting and developing staff within and outside the company to obtain fresh perspectives on the development of business processes (Charan, Drotter & Noel, 2010). There should be continuous monitoring of the leadership and talent assessment procedures at every functional unit of the enterprise to guarantee success in the talent management processes. The organization can also align the element of talent development within the team by initiating job rotation (Charan, Drotter & Noel, 2010). A robust performance management system can be built to enhance talent management. For instance, the program will be essential in promoting both performance and talent development.
The Functional Expertise Element of the Leadership Pipeline Development Initiative and How It Enables the Firm to Optimize Its Capacity to Identify Competent Persons
The functional expertise element of the initiative is the assessment and identification of potential. The leaders are expected to conduct a continuous evaluation in the company to identify the most qualified persons to take up leadership positions (Charan, Drotter, & Noel, 2010). The component ensures that the organization only includes people with the required competencies, such as communication and teamwork skills, to participate in the leadership development pipeline. Thus, Porter Novelli ensures that all the leadership positions are only filled with qualified, competent, and motivated workers. For example, more time is created to identify the right individuals within the enterprise through regular leadership monitoring and talent evaluation at all functional levels of the organization.
Conclusion
Porter Novelli’s strategic leaders played a critical role in the establishment of the performance strategy. Their strategic functions were impactful because they identified the business problems and found solutions. Different criteria to assess the effectiveness of a talent management program include the alignment with corporate strategy, employee objectives, focus on automation, and the development of a qualified talent pool. Data can be collected from the business results, employee climate surveys, and turnover outcomes. The internal development component of the leadership pipeline development strategy limits the organization from obtaining fresh perspectives on the organization’s processes. The simplicity and transparency component cannot be easily achieved because of the complex structure of the company. Therefore, the company should focus on in-house and external staff development to facilitate effective succession planning.
References
Azhar, A., Ikram, S., Rashid, S., & Saqib, S. (2013). The role of leadership in strategy formulation and implementation. International Journal of Management and Organizational Studies, 1(2).
Bethke-Langenegger, P., Mahler, P., & Staffelbach, B. (2011). Effectiveness of talent management strategies. European Journal of International Management, 5(5), 524-539.
Charan, R., Drotter, S., & Noel, J. (2010). The leadership pipeline: How to build a leadership powered company (Vol. 391). John Wiley & Sons.
Goldsmith, M., & Carter, L. (2009). Best practices in talent management: how the world’s leading corporations manage, develop, and retain top talent. John Wiley & Sons.
Jyoti, J., Sharma, R. D., & Sharma, J. Y. O. T. I. (2011). Impact of talent management on employee effectiveness. The Indian Journal of Commerce, 64(2), 128.