Assignment 4: Southern Company Case Study
Assignment 4: Southern Company Case Study
XXX XXXXX
Professor XXXX XXXXX
HRM 532 – Talent Management
May 27, 2012
Abstract Southern Company is an electric utility company headquartered in Atlanta, GA. The company owns electric utilities in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi and services roughly 4.4 million customers. Southern Company also provides fiber optics and wireless communications. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are below the national average. Historically, Southern Company hired at the entry level and promoted individuals internally to fill leadership positions. The company typically had a very low turnover rate which resulted in an older and more tenured workforce. Over the years, Southern Company developed a group of leaders that possessed a profound level of business knowledge and aligned with the organization and culture. Southern Company hired a large number of people in the late 1970s and 1980s, so by 2003, most of those individuals that had remained with the company were beginning to retire. At Southern Company employees are eligible to retire at 50 years old, so many executives began to retire in large numbers, and their successors would also leave shortly after. Southern Company decided that it was time to review and revamp their succession planning and leadership development efforts to guarantee that they had a sustainable source of effective leaders to meet future business needs.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the roles that the strategic leaders played in the formation of the performance management strategy. Southern Company’s leadership teams played a significant role in the formation of their performance management strategy. Once performance standards were identified, leaders were able to better understand what was expected of them at each leadership level. The performance standards also formed a
XXX XXXXX
Professor XXXX XXXXX
HRM 532 – Talent Management
May 27, 2012
Abstract Southern Company is an electric utility company headquartered in Atlanta, GA. The company owns electric utilities in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi and services roughly 4.4 million customers. Southern Company also provides fiber optics and wireless communications. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are below the national average. Historically, Southern Company hired at the entry level and promoted individuals internally to fill leadership positions. The company typically had a very low turnover rate which resulted in an older and more tenured workforce. Over the years, Southern Company developed a group of leaders that possessed a profound level of business knowledge and aligned with the organization and culture. Southern Company hired a large number of people in the late 1970s and 1980s, so by 2003, most of those individuals that had remained with the company were beginning to retire. At Southern Company employees are eligible to retire at 50 years old, so many executives began to retire in large numbers, and their successors would also leave shortly after. Southern Company decided that it was time to review and revamp their succession planning and leadership development efforts to guarantee that they had a sustainable source of effective leaders to meet future business needs.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the roles that the strategic leaders played in the formation of the performance management strategy. Southern Company’s leadership teams played a significant role in the formation of their performance management strategy. Once performance standards were identified, leaders were able to better understand what was expected of them at each leadership level. The performance standards also formed a
References: Goldsmith, M., & Carter L. (2010). Best practices in talent management: How the world’s leading corporations manage, develop, and retain top talent. San Francisco: Pfeiffer. Lennon, K. Measuring talent management effectiveness with integrated analytics. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/humancapitalmedia/measuring-talent-management-effectiveness-with-integrated-analytics Mayhew, R. (2012). Issues in employee development. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/ info _ 8118658_issues-employee-development.html Silzer, R., & Dowell, B. (2010). Strategy-driven talent management: A leadership imperative. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Srinidhi, S. (2012). Talent management: the crucial differentiator. Retrieved from http://www. itsmyascent.com/web/itsmyascent/hr-zone/-/asset_publisher/4htH/content/talent -management%3A-the-crucial-differentiator