Chapter 8
Managing Talent at the
Liberty Mutual Group
Larry Israelite, Vice President of
Human Resource Development
What’s in this chapter?
- The Liberty Mutual Group’s approach to talent management
- Alignment via “this is who we are, this is what we do”
- How management development contributes to managing talent
- Developing a coordinated, consistent curriculum
- Evaluating success
He walks through the door and takes a quick look around the room. He smiles, nods to the class, and then Edmund “Ted” Kelly, chairman and chief executive officer of the Liberty Mutual Group, shakes hands with each of the 50 frontline managers who have traveled to Boston from all over the country to attend their mandatory management training. Mr. Kelly spends an hour with this group of new managers, manyof whom have neither been to the corporate headquarters before, nor had the opportunity to talk with the CEO of their company. Mr. Kelly discusses the insurance industry; Liberty Mutual’s past, present, and future; his beliefs about management; and, perhaps most important, he answers every question he is asked. There are few topics that are off limits or subjects that are out of bounds. He answers honestly and directly, and at the end of the hour, everyone in the room understands at least one of the reasons why Liberty Mutual has been so successful under his leadership.
Mr. Kelly participates in as many as 35 management programs each year and has done so since 1996, when he and his predecessor, Gary Countryman, decided to strengthen management practices across the Liberty Mutual Group by investing in the development of managers from the time they move into their first management role and throughout their careers. And though management development is a significant part of Liberty Mutual’s culture, it is but one part of a carefully planned, rigorously implemented, and relentlessly measured approach to the management of talent, much of which will be explained here.
There is no question that the effective management of its talent is absolutely critical to Liberty Mutual’s ongoing success. In fact, Mr. Kelly often says that the company’s single biggest investment walks in each day on two feet, so it needs to be well managed. However, the company has no “talent management” function; no one (well, maybe one person) whose title includes those words; and, with the exception of the semiannual Talent Management Metrics Report, which will be explained in detail below, the term “talent management” isn’t used as much as it might be in other companies. However, if anything is unequivocally clear to all managers, irrespective of where they work, what they do, or their level in the organization, it is that they are fully responsible and accountable for managing the workforce. Simply put, managing talent is what Liberty Mutual managers do. This chapter includes a description of three key factors that contribute to this intense focus on the management of talent:
- Alignment: a shared understanding of, agreement with, and application of the company’s creed, principles, employee expectations, and what it takes to be successful in the organization.
- Management development: the structure and content of management development at Liberty Mutual.
- Measurement: the measures and metrics used to show the degree to which Liberty Mutual’s key management processes are being used throughout the organization.
The challenge with this approach is it implies that each of these factors is separate and can be discussed independently of the others. In fact, the exact opposite is true. They are all intricately bound together, with the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. As a result, different sections of the chapter will address some or all of the factors simultaneously, which is, in the end, how they are experienced throughout the organization.
There is one more thing to consider as you begin reading about talent management at Liberty Mutual. What you will read here is neither remarkable nor all that unusual. There is probably nothing you haven’t heard at a conference or read about in a journal. Perhaps you have even done some of the things yourself. But what is unusual, and maybe even extraordinary, is the impact of doingeverything you will read about. It is the degree of focus on and commitment to doing what is required to manage the company’s talent that makes this story interesting. And what it shows is that what may really matter is choosing a few things to do that make sense and doing them all very well.
The Liberty Mutual Group
Boston-based Liberty Mutual Group is a leading, global, multi-line group of insurance companies. With revenue of $28.9 billion, Liberty Mutual ranks 86th on theFortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations based on 2008 revenue, and it is the fifth-largest property and casualty insurer in the United States based on 2008 direct written premiums. Liberty Mutual Group today employs more than 47,000 people in more than 900 offices throughout the world. The company operates four distinct business units: Personal Markets, Commercial Markets, Agency Markets, and Liberty International—each of which offers a wide range of products to its customers through a variety of distribution channels. Liberty Mutual Group is dedicated to our Customer Choice Model, allowing our customers to do business with us whatever way they want. They can access Liberty Mutual via a call center, website, agent or broker, or a network of regional independent agent companies.
Since the late 1990s, Liberty Mutual has grown significantly, through a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions, culminating with the acquisitions of Ohio Casualty in 2007 and Safeco in 2008. Its revenue has grown from just under $11 billion in 1998 to $28.9 billion in 2008. Its pretax operating income showed a similar increase during that period, going from $374 million in 1998 to $1.6 billion in 2008.
This represents a significant and, perhaps, remarkable turnaround from the late 1980s, when Liberty Mutual was on the brink of financial disaster. Liberty’s near-death experience resulted in a significant number of changes. The company diversified, ending its reliance on workers’ compensation for a majority of its revenue and divided into independent business units, each fully responsible and accountable for its own profit and loss. Liberty Mutual also began a process for changing the way it managed its talent, starting with who it put into senior management roles—traditionally, it had promoted from within—which is when Mr. Kelly began his tenure at the company. Much of what will be discussed in this chapter found its origins in the work that began at this time and continues today. It is important to note, however, that much more was done to effect the turnaround than will be described here. The turnaround of the Liberty Mutual Group is a longer, and perhaps more compelling, story—involving much more than managing talent, though talent was, and is to this day, a critical part of the company’s success.
Alignment: This Is Who We Are, This Is What We Do
What sets the Liberty Mutual Group apart from other companies is a more than 90-year-old creed of “helping people live safer, more secure lives,” and its employees’ dedication to three clearly defined principles:
- We behave with integrity—we are in the business of trust. People build their lives on our promises and trust us to keep these promises, to our customers and to each other. Our most important promise is that we will strive to do the right thing, always.
- We treat people with dignity and respect—ours is a business relationship. We benefit, and our customers benefit, when the relationship is strong and long, and that means treating our customers wel so that they wil want to continue doing business with us. However, we can’t be one thing to our customers and another to each other; we must treat everyone with dignity and respect.
- We aspire to provide consistently superior products and services at a fair price—we do business with those who value high quality and are willing to pay a little more for it. We aspire to provide consistently superior products and services at prices that are fair to our customers and allow us to make a reasonable profit.
It is this shared commitment to this creed and to these three principles that creates the culture of performance and growth that has been a critical part of Liberty Mutual’s success.
Liberty Mutual is explicit about what employees can expect from the company. Further, it believes that its success is “inextricably linked to our employees’ satisfaction and success; satisfaction that they work for an industry leader committed to improving safety, satisfaction that they work for a company that does the right thing, and satisfaction that the company will reward them for their contributions and provide opportunities for personal growth and success” (from theThis Is Who We Are; This IsWhat We Do brochure, Liberty Mutual Group). Table 8-1 illustrates how the company’s creed and principles come to life through employee expectations, which describe the commitments of the company, the responsibilities of managers, and the expectations of everyone.
The phrase “This is who we are, this is what we do” is well known throughout the company, and the concepts and content it represents are the cornerstone for a wide variety of communication and training efforts used in all parts of the organization, from the brochure we send to people who have chosen to work at Liberty (quoted above); to the posters on the walls of our conference rooms; to the “The Fundamentals,” an e-learning program completed by every new employee during his or her first weeks on the job; and, finally, to the first morning of our required management programs, which are attended by practically every manager from all areas of the company. Employees and managers learn how the company’s creed and operating principles, along with their commitments, responsibilities, and expectations, should inform their behavior and influence their interactions with each other, customers, suppliers, and anyone else with whom they interact on behalf of the company.
8-1. Employee Expectations at the Liberty Mutual Group
| Commitments of the Company | Responsibilities of Managers | Expectations of Us All |
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Managers have the responsibility for turning principles into actions; therefore, they are expected to adhere to the following:
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Each employee has a role to play in creating this supportive environment; it’s not just up to managers. Here are the things we all share responsibility for doing:
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The Four Management Frameworks
Although the Liberty Mutual Group’s creed and operating principles play a significant role in the organization, they do not describe, in precise and specific terms, what managers and employees must do to be successful in the organization. Because the company has more than 45,000 employees and more than 5,000 managers, additional information is required to create the level of alignment necessary for consistently achieving business goals. As a result, we developed four frameworks, each associated with one of the organization’s talent segments: individual contributor, frontline manager, operations (middle) manager, and senior manager/executive. The frameworks describe the characteristics, capabilities, and capacity that are required for success in each of these employee segments.
Capabilities, sometimes referred to as competencies in other organizations, focus on the knowledge and skill required for success in the organization. They can change from time to time, as the needs of the company change, and usually can be learned. Table 8-2 contains a list of the capabilities used in the frameworks. As you will see, many capabilities are common to all four frameworks, while others are not.
As table 8-2 shows, there is a great deal of similarity among the capabilities for the four frameworks and across talent segments. However, this is not the entire story. Each capability has additional detail associated with it, referred to as dimensions, which describes in specific terms how the capability is demonstrated at each of the four levels of the organization. As you might imagine, the way one “communicates effectively” or “applies financial acumen” as an individual contributor or frontline manager might be entirely different from how one does the same things as a senior manager or executive. The dimensions are designed to reflect and document these differences. Though the capabilities are often the same for segments, the way these capabilities are demonstrated, as described in the dimensions, typically differs from one segment to the next.
Table 8-2. Capabilities Used in the Management Frameworks at Liberty Mutual
| Support or Create Alignment |
Development | Execution | Long-Term Value |
|
|
|
|
Note: The four frameworks are associated with these talent segments: individual contributor, frontline manager, operations (middle) manager, and senior manager/executive. MGT = management only; IC = individual contributor only.
Characteristics and capacity, which have been described by some senior executives as the Liberty Mutual DNA, tend to be more about who people are and much less about what they know or can do. Characteristics include values, traits, and personal style, whereas capacity focuses on stamina, adaptability, and motivation. As with capabilities, characteristics and capacity are further defined. Unlike capabilities, however, they are largely the same across all four frameworks.
With some exceptions, our belief is that characteristics and capacity cannot be trained. This is not to say that they can’t be developed. Characteristics can evolve through the wisdom gained from experience, as managers learn how their actions affect others and begin to develop a style that helps them become successful. And capacity can develop as a result of the challenges associated with difficult assignments, through which employees discover reserves they often didn’t know they had. As a general rule, we tend to hire for characteristics and capacity—but not exclusively.
Finally, each framework contains a description of the key work responsibilities of someone in that talent segment. Table 8-3 illustrates how this responsibility changes as one moves up in the organization, from an individual contributor to senior manager or executive.
Table 8-3. How Key Responsibilities Change as One MovesUp in the Organization
| Organizational Level | Key Responsibility |
| Individual contributor | Getting work done with and for others |
| Frontline manager | Getting work done through others |
Operations manager
|
Getting work done through managers, proj ect teams, highly skilled individual contribu tors, and peers |
Senior manager/executive
|
Identifying, defining, and directing the work required to meet company expectations |
Additional information about how the key responsibilities listed in table 8-3 are operationalized appears on each of the frameworks. This information is organized into five categories—outcomes, process, talent, measurement, improvement—and contains detailed descriptions of the work required in each area for all talent segments. Once again, the goal is to create alignment regarding the work employees in each segment are expected to do and for which they will be held accountable.
The frameworks are ubiquitous. They are used to create job descriptions, interview guides, and developmental assessments. They form the foundation for management training, are a critical part of the performance management process, and are the basis for conversations about employee growth and development. And more important than any of this is the fact that they are exactly the same everywhere.
Although the frameworks are intended to promote consistency, alignment, and transparency across the organization, we recognize the importance of being clear about what they are and what they are not. This information is shown in table 8-4.
What this means is that managers have some flexibility in how they use the frameworks in their organizations. However, they do not have the flexibility to decide that the frameworks—or the creed, principles, and employee expectations, for that matter—are irrelevant in their organizations. In essence, managers have flexibility but not complete autonomy. There has been an intense focus on alignment since the early 1990s. The core belief, which has been borne out by the company’s success, is that the effective management of the organization’s talent depends on a deep, shared understanding of who we are; what we do; and what characteristics, capabilities, and capacity we need for success. The creed, principles, employee expectations, and frameworks collectively help us to achieve this. But they are only the start. The next section describes how management development contributes to the management of talent at Liberty Mutual.
Table 8-4. What the Management Frameworks Are and Are Not
The frameworks are
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The frameworks are not
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How Management Development Contributes to Managing Talent
Many companies offer some form of management training. Some provide a catalog from which managers choose programs. Others, like the Liberty Mutual Group, offer structured curricula, tied to management level, which are organized around competencies. But Liberty takes this one step further, because management development has become an important tool for implementing the company’s business strategy and talent management agenda.
If you observed frontline management programs in 10 companies, it is likely that the content in most would be very similar. Upon reflection, this isn’t surprising, because the issues facing most first-time managers as they transition into their new roles are remarkably similar, regardless of their employer. The same might be said for middle management programs. On the surface, Liberty Mutual appears to be no exception; the content of our programs is not particularly unusual. What is unusual, however, is the context in which our programs are planned and delivered.
First, managers are viewed as a corporate asset in a company comprising four wholly independent business units. So, although the customers, products, distribution strategies, and business systems may be different, the expectation is that the management practices and processes used inall business units will not be. Thus, a manager who moves from Commercial Markets to Agency Markets would be free to focus on acquiring the business knowledge needed to be successful in his or her new role, secure in the knowledge that the way he or she manages employees has not changed.
Second, Liberty’s business units are held accountable for ensuring that all eligible frontline and operations managers attend their mandatory training within, respectively, 120 and 180 days of transitioning into their new roles. On a weekly basis, the human resources heads in business units receive a report listing the names of managers who either have not enrolled in required programs or who will complete their training after the attendance deadline. Participation in required management programs is measured in our semiannual “Talent Management Metrics Report,” which is described later in this chapter. The expectation is that 95 percent of eligible managers will attend training within their designated compliance period. It is not unheard of for the manager of an employee who did not attend training on time to receive a phone call from the president of a business unit demanding an explanation. This isn’t a phone call anyone wants to receive.
Third is the level of executive involvement in the delivery of management training. As was mentioned above, the CEO participates in almost every program, as do those who report directly to him. Their presentations vary somewhat, based on the audience and program content, but in every case they emphasize the significant role that managers and management play in the success of the company. Experienced line managers also participate. Though programs are designed and administered by a corporate management development group, line managers and technical experts are expected to deliver at least 60 percent of course content. This is another metric for which the management development group is held accountable.
Fourth and finally, though specific management skills are clearly a focus of core programs, a greater emphasis is placed on
- fostering a deep sense of identification with Liberty Mutual
- reinforcing managers’ commitment to the creed, principles, and employee expectations
- developing an understanding of how managers are expected to do their jobs, as described in the management frameworks
- developing knowledge of the management processes and practices managers are expected to use as they go about their jobs.
Collectively, core programs create highly aligned and motivated managers, who practice their craft consistently in all parts of the company.
Liberty Mutual’s recent acquisition of Safeco, in September 2008, provides an excellent illustration of the importance that Liberty places on alignment. Within eight weeks of the acquisition’s close, almost every Safeco manager, including executives, had completed a modified version of our core Front-Line Management Program. The goals of this somewhat abbreviated program were identical to the longer version, which were listed above. In addition, the company’s commitment to deliver this training sent a strong message to all Safeco employees that managers and management development matter at Liberty Mutual, as do the ways in which managers do their jobs.
The Curriculum Architecture
The Liberty Mutual Group takes a consistent approach to the development of managers at all levels of the organization. Figure 8-1 shows the key development activities that make up the curriculum for each level of management. In some cases, the content is the same for all managers. New employee orientation, for example, is a common experience intended for all recent hires. Individual contributors, frontline managers, and operations managers typically share professional and technical development programs. But role orientation, alignment, and advanced role development differ by management level.
Let’s consider each of the key management development programs. The first isnew employee orientation, known as RightStart, which consists of a yearlong experience intended to fully integrate new employees into Liberty Mutual. RightStart prescribes a series of discussions between new employees, their managers, and peers and the completion of several e-learning modules covering a wide range of topics. Not surprisingly, creating alignment is a key outcome of RightStart.
Figure 8-1. Key Management Development Activities
The second key management development program is Role Orientation, which can be viewed as a “survival kit” that helps managers as they transition into their new roles. In the case of frontline managers, the program introduces them to their responsibilities for
- managing their work units in a manner consistent with Liberty Mutual management philosophies and policies
- selecting new hires, managing and evaluating the performance of their teams, and creating development plans
- providing effective coaching and feedback
- explaining Liberty Mutual’s compensation philosophy and its alignment with performance
- communicating effectively with their work units
- identifying and beginning to address the key management challenges faced by new frontline managers.
The program also introduces new managers to the variety of online tools and references they will use in their roles. The Role Orientation for Operations Managers Program is similar in structure but focuses on a more advanced content appropriate for people who manage managers.
The third key management development program is Role Alignment, the cornerstone for each management level, the structure of which was described above. As noted, all new frontline and operations managers are, respectively, expected to complete their role alignment programs within 120 or 180 days. The content of role alignment programs does not change frequently in an effort to maintain the consistency of the message and content from program to program and year to year.
The fourth category of key management development programs, titled Advanced Role Development, supports the development of advanced skills associated with specific business initiatives or processes. These programs are typically available to managers who have been in role for two to three years. Advanced role development programs are added from time to time to address strategic business issues, skill needs that have been identified by business leaders, or for other reasons that may emerge.
The fifth category of key management development programs, titled Professional Development, addresses the business skills and knowledge necessary for individual performance improvement and/or career development. Included in this category are internal classroom and e-learning programs, courses leading to professional designations, and college courses.
The sixth category of key management development programs, titled Technical Training, which is offered by the business units, includes technical programs that provide the job-specific skills required to manage technical professionals (sales, underwriting, and the like) and develop or maintain functional or industry knowledge.
The approach to management development explained here has been in place for more than 10 years. Certainly, improvements have been made, but the architecture has remained largely the same since its conception. And though it is difficult to reliably measure the real impact of the programs we deliver, there is evidence that it has yielded results.
As most people in the management development business will acknowledge, it is challenging, at best, to measure the impact of their work. It is no different at Liberty Mutual. However, there is evidence that the approach described above has yielded significant results. First, our programs are meaningful to participants. They greatly appreciate the opportunity to travel to Boston, to engage with the faculty and the content, and, of course, to spend time and interact with senior executives. More significantly, they recognize and take seriously the investment the company is making in them.
Second, managers often refer to the programs when describing the techniques they use when managing their teams. This is especially evident when experienced managers are invited to speak to their less-experienced colleagues, at which time they go out of their way to emphasize how frequently they utilize what they learned in the training and to refer to the materials they received.
Third, there is evidence that managers apply what they learn, as measured by the annual employee opinion survey and the “Talent Management Metrics Report,” which is described in the next section.
Fourth, and most important, Liberty Mutual has a sustained record of business growth and success that started just before the management development initiative. Though no one would claim that the management curriculum has been responsible for this success, most would acknowledge its contributions. Liberty Mutual’s ability to execute its strategy has been enhanced because it has developed an aligned management team that possesses the requisite characteristics, capabilities, and capacity.
What Gets Measured Gets Done
The title of this section is something most of us have heard (or said) before. We know, or believe, that it’s true—that what gets measured gets done. At some point in our careers, we may have even tried to put in place a measurement system based on the idea this phrase expresses. The challenge, of course, is that an effective measurement system requires a shared understanding of goals and outcomes, which are often either poorly articulated or simply nonexistent; agreement on the metrics that will be used to make judgments; and a system for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data. Each of these is hard to do alone. Doing them all at the same time, and doing them all well, can be a significant challenge.
Human Resources and Talent Management
Throughout this chapter, I have tried to demonstrate that talent management is the responsibility of every Liberty Mutual Group manager. It is not something that is owned or mandated by human resources (HR). This is not to say, however, that HR is not involved. Rather, HR is responsible for providing an infrastructure—a strategy and then a set of policies, processes, and practices—that helps managers fulfill their talent management responsibilities effectively, consistently, and in a way that can successfully be measured.
HR’s connection to talent management begins with the statement of a relatively simple strategy: “to select, develop, engage, and retain the people we need to enhance competitive advantage.” Table 8-5 shows how the company does the first three of these things—select, develop, and engage—based on a belief that doing each of them well will increase the likelihood that our employees will choose to remain with the company.
It is important to note that this is not an HR strategy. Rather, it is a business strategy. And though HR may be responsible for providing an infrastructure that supports it, managers are fully accountable for making the strategy a reality. In the end, managers make final selection decisions, they choose to work with those who report directly to them to ensure that development occurs, and they endeavor to create an engaging work environment. Or they don’t do these things. But these things are the managers’ responsibilities; HR can only influence, drive, facilitate, and support.
What HR has done, however, is put in place a measurement system that provides information to managers about the degree to which the company is successfully implementing its people strategy. Are we really selecting the right people? Are employees, in fact, engaged in the appropriate development activities at the right times? Have we created a work environment that truly engages people? These are questions that the “Talent Management Metrics Report” is intended to answer.
Table 8-5. The Three Elements of the Liberty Mutual Group’s People Strategy
We select the right people by
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We develop the right people by
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We develop the right people by
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We engage the right people by
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The “Talent Management Metrics Report”
The “Talent Management Metrics Report” (TMM Report) is created twice each year, covering the periods from January 1 to June 30 and from July 1 to December 31. It has three sections, each of which corresponds to one of the three elements of the people strategy, and it is used to identify and measure progress on the strategy’s deployment. Each section of the report contains
- a series of goals associated with the particular element of the people strategy
- the target metric for each of the goals
- the actual metric achieved for each goal by the business units and corporate functions.
Detailed metrics information is available for subdivisions of the organizational structure.
The second section of the TMM Report, which focuses on employee development, serves as a good example. It includes measures of compliance with the mandatory training described in figure 8-1:
- the percentage of new employees who complete their orientation on time
- the percentage of managers who complete their training (role orientation and role alignment) on time
- the percentage of individual contributors who complete their required technical training on time.
In each case, we strive for a compliance rate of 95 percent.
Two other important indicators of effective employee development also are reported in this section of the report:
- the percentage of key management positions for which there is more than one qualified internal candidate
- the results on the annual employee opinion survey for questions related to growth and development.
Although the first three measures address the completion of development activities themselves, these measures focus more on the impact of development.
This approach of measuring both activity and impact is consistent for all parts of the TMM Report. When reporting on selection, for example, it gives measures of the selection process itself, the people we hire, and whether or not new hires remain with the company. Once again, both activity and impact are measured. The same is true for the report’s third section, which addresses several aspects of creating an engaging work environment.
There are two other parts of the TMM reporting process that significantly increase its effectiveness—TMM data specifications and the visibility of the process throughout the organization. First, let’s look at data specifications.
The TMM Report contains 31 unique measures, each of which has been carefully described in data specifications that are updated on a periodic basis. Table 8-6 shows an abridged version of the data specifications for measuring completion of the management training. The specifications comprise a detailed description of data elements, definitions, exclusions, data sources, and directions about how various data items are to be treated when calculating the metric.
Changes and updates to these data specifications are discussed with and agreed to by all key stakeholders. The value of the data specifications is that they greatly reduce the potential for any misunderstandings or disagreements about what is being measured and how. Helen Sayles, the HR senior vice president, described the reasons HR invested the effort to develop such detailed data specifications: “We really wanted discussions about the TMM Reports to focus on the results and not on the process we used to generate those results. Gaining agreement on the specifications helped us achieve that goal. John Kenneth Galbraith had it right when he said: ‘Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everybody gets busy on the proof.’ Changing managers’ minds and their behavior is the purpose of the TMM Report. The data specifications eliminated the need to quibble about the proof.”
Table8-6.Abridged Data Specifications for Completion of the Management Training
| Attribute | Completion of the Management Training |
Formula |
The number of eligible managers who have successfully completed Building the Capabilities for Success training within time guidelines/total number of program-eligible managers |
Data definitions |
Eligible managers: All active employees segmented as frontline manager or operations manager and who have direct reports in the human resource information systems (HRIS). Compliance is based on the date managers are segmented, not the date when direct reports are assigned in HRIS.
Standard exclusions:
|
| Internal data source |
|
| Employment status | Full-time regular and part-time regular |
| Fair Labor Standards Act status | Exempt and nonexempt |
| Time period |
|
| Transfers within/ between market | Organization the employee was in at the end of reporting period |
| Contact for further information | HR development training administration manager |
Finally, it almost goes without saying that reports only matter if people read, understand, and believe them—and, even more important, act on them. All are true at Liberty Mutual. Each edition of the TMM Report is provided to senior managers throughout the organization and is presented to and discussed with the CEO and those who report directly to him. Individuals who are accountable for each of the metrics are required to explain variances and are expected to present plans describing what actions will be taken to address process deficiencies. The bottom line is that everyone involved takes the TMM Report and all that it represents seriously. It is, in the end, a well-respected indicator of the state of the management of talent, which is provided by HR, but owned by managers at all levels throughout the organization.
Conclusion
In many organizations, the term “talent management” describes an organization or, perhaps, one of many responsibilities that HR or those concerned with management development are assigned as part of their jobs. But at the Liberty Mutual Group, the term describes the single most important responsibility of every manager and comprises much of the work they do each and every day. And it is one of the strategies that have helped Liberty Mutual achieve the continued success it has experienced for more than a decade.
Managers at Liberty Mutual can draw on a variety of tools, systems, job aids, and support as they endeavor to get the most from their employees. The same is true for managers at most companies. But managers at Liberty Mutual have something else as well. They are aligned—meaning that they have a shared understanding of, agreement with, and application of the company’s creed, principles, employee expectations, and what it takes to be successful in the organization. They are well trained, meaning that they participate in a comprehensive development process that provides them with the tools they need to manage effectively. And they are provided with detailed measures and metrics, which help them understand what they are doing well and the areas where they need to improve.
Above, I said the following about talent management at Liberty Mutual:
What you will read here is neither remarkable nor all that unusual. There is probably nothing you haven’t heard at a conference or read about in a journal. Perhaps you have even done some of the things yourself. But what is unusual, and maybe even extraordinary, is the impact of doingeverything you will read about. It is the degree of focus on and commitment to doing what is required to manage the company’s talent that makes this story interesting. And what it shows is that what may really matter is choosing a few things to do that make sense and doing them all very well.
We have chosen those few things to do, and we work hard every day to do them well. And though we may be pleased with our progress, we are not satisfied. We continue to explore ways to do better. Our customers and our employees expect and deserve nothing less. So, in closing:
Mr. Kelly answers the last question and walks toward the door. He glances over his shoulder, sees the faces of the class, and then heads off to his next meeting. In the hallway, he stops for a moment to comment on the quality of the questions these frontline managers asked, pleased, but not surprised, by the insight they have shown into the business we are in, the work they have to do, and the impact they can have on the success of the company by managing in accordance with our creed and our principles. Though no other words are spoken, it is clear that he believes the past hour was time well spent.
Author’s Note
Although most of the words here were written by the author, the thinking and hard work that created the story they tell was done by many others. In particular, at the Liberty Mutual Group, I would like to acknowledge Helen E.R. Sayles, the senior vice president of human resources and administration, under whose direction and guidance all that is described here occurred; Richard A. Dapra, the former vice president of human resource development, who was responsible for the creation of the management development process and curriculum; and the many others whose hard work, clear thinking, and commitment contribute to Liberty Mutual’s continued success.