General Electric - Best HR Practices

Project Report

Human Resource Management

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Basamgari Mounica (2013PGPM14) Anand Chaurasia (2013PGPM16) Mathan Anto Marshine P (2013PGPM36) Rachit Devendra Pradhan (2013PGPM39) Soumya Choudhary (2013PGPM52) IIM Indore - PGP, Mumbai ICSI - CCGRT, Navi Mumbai

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CONTENTS
Introduction - General Electric HR Practices GEs Current HR Mandate General Electric HR Practices HR Practices Performance Management System Vitality Curve Session C Training and Development Leader in residence "Rise" Program for mid-level managers Analysis on Stringent Performance and Training and Development Recruitment Ability Edge Internships Recruiting from Military Employee references source Employee empowerment and discipline GEs WORK OUT Process Ombudsperson process 4 4 5 5 5 5 6 6 7 7 7 8 8 8 9 9 9 10

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Introduction - General Electric HR Practices

Vision GE - The Most Competitive and Productive Enterprise in the World HR- Credible, Visible, Value-Added Business Partner HR initiatives and outcomes closely linked to business score card Anticipating Business needs, defining and creating what adds value to business performance Best HR talent with world-class functional skills and business understanding Making a GE job the best job in every community in the world by Raising the Bar.

Formal organization General Electric's formal organizational structure involves a hierarchal system as Max Weber, a German sociologist, describes as a form of bureaucracy that follows general rules of super and subordination. Shareowners, the Corporate Executive Office, and the Board of Directors make up the top of this structure. The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, Jeffrey Immelt, acts as the intermediary between the top of the structure and the presidents of the seven sectors.

GEs Current HR Mandate Helping the Business Become More competitive Business Partner: Align HR and Business Strategy Change Agent: Manage transformation and processes Infrastructure Expert: develop and implement efficient and contemporary Organization Structures and HR Practices Employee Champion: understand, respond and advocate employee issues within the context of the business strategy

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General Electric HR Practices General Electric too makes a strong emphasis on the importance of having a high performance workforce to drive GEs high performance business model. As Jack Welch, the legendary former Chairman and CEO of GE said in his first address to the Wall Street analysts in 1981, he wanted GE to become the most competitive enterprise on earth, where people dare to try new things, where people feel assured in knowing that only the limits of their creativity and drive, their own standards of personal excellence, will be the ceiling on how far and how fast they move. GE harnesses its human resources to be one of the most competitive enterprises on Earth can be broadly divided into few HR practices mentioned below.

HR Practices
Performance Management System

Vitality Curve The First area in GE's process of harnessing its HR is the stringent performance management system. The performance management process at GE consists of a forced ranking system of its employees to groupings of 20:70:10. These groups are categorized as the Top 20, Vital 70 and the Bottom 10. In this Vitality Curve as it was called by Jack Welch, the top 20 are the top performing employees of the organization and they are generally earmarked for further development and to rise up the leadership ladder. Vital 70 are the competent performers who continue to perform at the required level. The bottom 10 consists of the poor performers of the group and generally they were shown the door and are replaced by new hires.

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Session C This process is designed to support the managers career interest and development needs. Starting at the level of department manager, this "session c" process generated the evaluations, career forecasts, and succession plans for every managerial position in GE. After filling out a form requiring a selfevaluation, career interests, and plans for development, each subordinate would meet face-to-face with his or her boss to compare their self-evaluations with the manager's assessment, to review career interests and opportunities, and to agree on development plans.

Training and Development

Second practice is the Training and development of GEs talent. Generally GE attracts the brightest of talent for their entry levels rolls. GE rarely hires from outside for their top or senior level positions. Therefore GE has a very good system in place for training, developing and grooming their people to grow with the organization. These employees will eventually fill the senior ranks of GE and ensure the sustainability of GE as a high performance organization.

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Leader in residence Program in which professor from a renowned University was brought as a resident leader for a year or so. Slowly this program is modified to groom internal seniors from GE as leaders. Leaders teach at various classes, but the benefit is also about what happens outside the classroom sitting on panels or giving fireside chats telling leadership stories. They also do 'speed coaching short, discreet bits of time that they spend coaching someone. GE have also taken innovation all over the world in terms of in-house teaching of leadership classes.

"Rise" Program for mid-level managers This training Program called 'rise' is for mid-level managers who have the ability to really grow in their careers and bring all the greatness to training and networking. But it's all done in region so that GE can localize the development to those particular needs of the region.

Analysis on Stringent Performance and Training and Development GE places great importance on hiring, training and development in order to ensure that their employees are the best performing lot in the market. GE views high performance of employees as a vital element that gives GE a competitive advantage in the market. GE has a stringent policy of weeding out non performers.

However in our opinion these policies have their own pros and cons.

Advantages Fast route for creating high performance teams by removing the weak links rather than spending time and resources on developing these week links to be better performers, Creating opportunity for new hires to come into the teams through the openings created. Performance pressure created by this process on employees, forces them to improve their performances to match the GE requirements without any managerial involvement. Building leaders from the employees having a proven track record of performance ensuring sustainability.

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Disadvantages Unhealthy competition would be created among the team members due to the requirement to maintain a good ranking for their individual performances. This can lead to a situation where individual goals can undermine the overall team and organizational requirements. Distrust can be created among the employees regarding how the individual rankings were determined, thus exposing the organization to legal issues and litigations. GEs models, one of the main drivers of a high performance business model are the people of the organization. Therefore one of the main requirements is to have effective HR management policies and processes to harness the best out of the HR an organization have.

Recruitment

Ability Edge Internships Ability Edge, a Career Edge program that serves as a national youth internship strategy. This program offers six-, nine- and twelve month paid internships to graduates with disabilities in effort for interns to gain work experience, learning, coaching and networking. At GE since we believe the value of diversity is that it promotes innovative thinking and more creative ideas, the Ability Edge program is another avenue for GE to explore and reinforce our commitment towards it.

Recruiting from Military GE has a long history of hiring enlisted military and expert and has appeared on GI Jobs Magazine's Top Military Friendly Employers for the last five years. GE has dedicated a careers webpage to U.S. Military experts Careers and more than 35 recruiters participated in career fairs on military bases in 2010. Additionally, GE offers an entry-level leadership program, Junior Officer Leadership Program, designed specifically for military officers as well as supporting specialized programs. Advantages It adds more disciplinary and obedient employees to organization.

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Disadvantages

Military leader were known to work by orders, hence out of box thinking will be quite less.

Employee references source GE has structured system where the current employees of the organization can refer their friends and relatives for some position in their organization. Also, the office bearers of trade unions are often aware of the suitability of candidates. Management can inquire these leaders for suitable jobs. In GE these are formal agreements to give priority in recruitment to the candidates recommended by the trade union. Unskilled workers may be recruited at the factory gate these may be employed whenever a permanent worker is absent. More efficient among these may be recruited to fill permanent vacancies.

Employee empowerment and discipline

GEs WORK OUT Process

It is a HR practice innovated by GE. It is focused on fast implementation of measurable improvements with accountability which is obtained by speed, simplicity and self-confidence. The Work Out process helps GE in optimizing its processes and become lean, efficient and responsive to changing market conditions.

Objectives of the Work Out process To cultivate grass root solutions To eliminate bureaucracy and barriers To create a forum for dialogue and change

Advantages

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Helps in developing a system oriented thinking Promotes rapid cycle change and fast decision making Encourages lateral thinking Helps in creating ownership of a project Helps in overcoming the resistance to change among employees

Disadvantages May or may not work in other companies, as it also depends on the attitude of employees working in the company.

Ombudsperson process

GE has an extensive ombudsperson process that serves as a mechanism for individuals to ask questions and report integrity concerns without fear of retaliation. With a global network of approximately 700 ombudspersons, coverage is provided for every business and country in which GE operates. Employees come to know their local business ombudsperson through postings, articles and various Company intranet sites, and by ombudsperson introductions at all-employee meetings within the businesses, including integrity events and trainings. As GE employment and business activity has changed, increased rigor around the ombudsperson appointment process has been added. All ombudspersons speak the local language and understand the culture and business environment of their locations GE takes pride in their history of governance and their culture of integrity. No matter where they operate, every GE employee is responsible for knowing and complying with integrity and privacy guidelines.

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