The New Tyson Foods is a 2 1/2-year-old corporation that has legacies that stretch over 70 years. Tyson, the poultry company, has been in business since the 1930s, and grew through the acquisitions of other poultry companies, to a 7-billion dollar plus business. The fresh meat side of the business dates back to the 1960s. In 2001, Tyson purchased IBP, the largest red meat company in the world. It´s now a 25-billion dollar protein company. The company employs 120,000 people in more than 26 States and 22 countries and they have a management team of more than 10,000 people.
HR.com spoke to Ken Kimbro, SVP of Human Resources about talent and leadership developments at Tyson Foods.
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HR.com: Ken, with a company of this size, I am sure there are many large projects that have occurred to improve the HR Process. What will the focus be for this interview?
KK: I would like to focus on talent and leadership development. In the past we could identify talent easily. We would meet with people, talk to them and see their work. Now, because we are so large, we needed to establish an organization that could effectively manage talent.
HR.com: Even before your last merger you were a large company. How did you manage to follow the progress of every employee before this merger?
KK: When it was only the poultry company, it was a 7-billion dollar company. It had grown through acquisitions, so through those acquisitions we were able to select the best. We would go into the company we were acquiring, and through a selection process, we´d keep the best talent.
HR.com: So you were constantly re-evaluating everyone during all of these different mergers, which I guess kept you on top of what everyone was doing and how he or she was performing. Have your mergers and acquisitions slowed down now?
KK: Three years ago Tyson acquired IBP, a company that was 15-billion dollars in sales. We doubled the size of the company. Now, because of today´s environment and because of the size of the company, we need a much more formal process.
HR.com: How did you start this major endeavor?
KK: The first thing we wanted to do was assess the talent that we already had. We thought we should start with a top down process. We started with the chairman and CEO John Tyson and partnered with a company out of St. Louis, Missouri to do a qualitative and quantitative assessment of cognitive abilities and leadership skills. We wanted to establish a base line. We started there and we went through the officers because we wanted to establish what leadership abilities we had.
HR.com: What were the outcomes of the initial assessment?
KK: We found that some of those folks had developmental needs. So we set about individual development programs (IDP) to facilitate the needs of those individuals.
HR.com: What was the next phase of your program?
KK: We set out next to look at the team members who were preparing to move to the Director level in management. We assessed the candidates to determine what skills and leadership qualities they had. We used this as a learning opportunity to structure those developmental needs.
HR.com: You have now addressed the top two tiers of your company; have you taken this process further down into the organization?
KK: Yes, we wanted to identify those team members who demonstrated a potential to do more and be more. We first identified those who had potential to become leaders. Then we decided to formalize the process a little more, so we put together an emerging leader board made up of people from across our organization. Some had operational experience, some had marketing and sales... from all levels of this organization. We put the EL board together and then we did a blanket invitation across our management group that consists of over 10,000 team members. We gave them the opportunity to make an application. We put together an application process where they could provide data to support what criteria they met. It also showed they were willing to meet the time commitment, as well as a willingness to relocate. They needed to demonstrate their willingness and desire to do more and move up within the organization. They would submit their application to the EL board. The board would then select the best of the applicants. Each year, team members may re-apply or apply to the emerging leader program. The Emerging Leader program is one way to develop leadership skills but it''s not the only way. It´s quite possible for a team member to develop outside of the EL program and emerge into a leadership position.
HR.com: Out of all the applications you get, how do you determine who will be a part of the program?
KK: We establish a matrix. We require letters of recommendation. We review past performance and ask for a strong commitment. The EL board takes the data and renders a selection.
HR.com: Who makes up the EL board?
KK: It´s a cross-section from the organization. There are corporate members, field members, production members, sales members, and managers. We´ve worked hard to make the EL board a diverse group. We didn´t want it to be just corporate. We also have team members who have long-term tenure and we have others who are relatively new to the company.
HR.com: How often does this program happen? And what happens to those who have been chosen?
KK: Emerging Leaders applications are accepted annually. Once the EL board has completed the selection process, we have several developmental opportunities. We have a formalized mentoring program, as well as cross-functional training and Action Learning teams.
HR.com: Do the emerging leaders indicate what job they want?
KK: When they fill out the application, they may specify areas of interest. We look at that in the application process and we try to match those desires with the cross-functional training. We also are putting together Action Learning teams.
HR.com: Are these teams built with people interested in the same positions?
KK: We try to make it a diverse team, so we get a different variety of aspects.
HR.com: How long does the program last? What is the overall goal?
KK: The overall goal is to take people who have potential and develop that potential sooner than what would have happened in the daily work environment. The team member gets exposure, gains interaction, and learning opportunities much quicker than if they were in their own silo.
HR.com: This gives them some time to improve their efficiencies... become better leaders.
KK: Yes, we believe they develop quicker and become better leaders.
HR.com: It is obviously a retention tool as well. It lets people know they are valued.
KK: Absolutely. The emerging leader program is A program not THE program. There is the possibility of someone outside of the emerging leader program to still move up within Tyson.
HR.com: Is it a one-year program?
KK: We do the enrolment on an annual basis. Some people may come in and stay three years and others may stay only one year. Some of that may depend on where they are in their personal life and in their business life.
HR.com: Are there any key findings or competencies that have come out of this program?
KK: Yes, we´ve found ELs are confident and have the ability to make decisions. We need to address the hard questions and make the decisions to be successful at Tyson Foods.
HR.com: What about the rest of your talent, what happens there?
KK: We do performance reviews every 6 months and in that review, individual´s strength and opportunities are identified. We develop individualized plans for improvement for those people. We use this opportunity to set goals. Those goals may be operational or they could be personal developmental goals.
HR.com: Any other planning for the talent war in the next 10 years?
KK: During the baby boom, we could wait for talent. Just like the old saying "the cream will rise to the top". We can´t rely on this old methodology in order to be successful today or in the future. Now employees come with an expectation and that level of expectation is on the rise.
HR.com: Your next steps and words of wisdom?
KK: This wasn´t so much an HR initiative as it was a business initiative coming from our CEO John Tyson. He and the organization want and need world-class talent. Our plan is to further refine and continue the processes. It´s extremely hard to start programs like these. It´s a change... and it comes with many challenges.