Motorola’s smart way to identify managers

Telecoms
giant Motorola has developed a scorecard system that assesses which employees
have managerial potential and which are under-performing.

The
company, which recently announced plans to make 26,000 people redundant worldwide,
is assessing staff using a card system that plots performance against
leadership skills.

Michael
Staunton, director of the Motorola University for Europe, Middle East and
Africa, said the scheme is part of the company’s drive to improve management
skills. Speaking at the HRD Conference in London last week, Staunton said that
before, there was no real strategy for developing managerial skills.

Managers
fill out forms that identify which skills are needed to solve particular
problems.

The
HR department uses the forms to build up a set of key competencies. These
charts are then translated into a grid, which plots an employee’s performance
against their leadership skills.

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Staunton
said, "We wanted a defined and objective overview of our key talent – we
had some knowledge but a lot of hear-say."

The
company has also pledged to make 30 per cent of all training available
electronically by the end of 2001 increasing this to 50 per cent by the end of
2003.