Talent Management at Syngenta
HYPOTHESIS
To begin with, Syngenta is one of the leading companies in agribusiness and since its foundation in the last ten years; the turnover has almost doubled (Reuters, 2011). Furthermore, this is according to the Universum Student Survey 2011 which evaluated the employers of choice. So to speak, Syngenta was put on rank 14 among Swiss natural science students (Universum, 2011). In connection to this point, the assumption is that Syngenta has a highly recognized talent management which is deemed to act according to the best practice. However, it is important to bring out the point that establishing a global talent management system might result to intercultural conflicts.
SYNGENTA
The following chapter presents the Talent Management System, which is going to be implemented in 2012 and compares it with the best practice methods identified in the first part of this thesis.
Shortly presented
Syngenta is a leading multinational in the agribusiness and as such, it has seeds and pesticides as the main products. Notably, Syngenta currently employs more than 25,000 employees in more than 90 countries. Arguably, in the first quarter of 2011 Syngenta is known to have had a turnover of more than 4 billion (Syngenta Website, 2011).
TALENT MANAGEMENT AT SYNGENTA IN 2012
Even though Syngenta is known to measure the performance of all their employees twice a year, it is essential to be on familiar terms with the fact that they do not take early high potentials, which means employees who are more than 10+ years away from being appointed to a senior management role into consideration for succession planning (Syngenta, 2009). In this sense, the main focus lies on employees, who previously had a leader position and a record of achievements within Syngenta to qualify them for consideration in a succession planning. The talent management of Syngenta focuses on the identification and development of internal talents and does not include external recruitment.
The figure below shows the talent management process at Syngenta
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
In the Annex 8.1.1, you find the performance management document of Syngenta.
In particular, Syngenta's performance Management should fully integrate the leadership model in all aspects of their performance management approach. Furthermore, it should make an increment and alignment between business goals and individual contribution. At the same time, it should provide a consistent approach on how performance is measured (Syngenta, 2011).
As identified in the best practice part, can the global alignment of Syngenta's talent management system cause intercultural conflicts? Syngenta has, therefore, to assure that their core competencies, which are performance, intensity, health and innovation, are clearly communicated and build a strong internal culture, which is understood and accepted by all employees.
Talent management at Syngenta consists of the following steps
Objective Setting
Syngenta performance management in 2012 will include objective setting. This is in line with the performance management best practice in the sense that performance best practice dictates that the performance of the employees should be aligned with the goals and objectives of the organization
Mid-Year Review
Along with this point, Syngenta intends to use mid-year reviews to evaluate and as such examine the performance of the employees. Such reviews will be done in July to August so as to ascertain the performance of the organization. So to speak, the mid-year review will be conducted in the form a formal interim so as to avoid unnecessary surprises at the end of the year. According to the provisions of performance management best practice, organizations should use employee reviews inclusive of the 360-degree feedback to assess the performance of the employees. Therefore, Syngenta's use of mid-year reviews is aligned with the performance best practices.
