Rabobank aligns leadership skills to change program
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390980000993 |
| Date | 21 October 2007 |
| Published date | 21 October 2007 |
| Pages | 10-11 |
| Author | Stephan Janssens |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
10 Volume 6 Issue 5 July/August 2007
HR AT WORK
,
Short case studies that demonstrate best practice in HR
Rabobank aligns leadership
skills to change program
L
eading a complex business in a
competitive global marketplace is
challenging during times of
growth. Realizing the value of
synergies, embedding a common
culture and communicating a “one
company” strategy become more
difficult with increased scale. Following
a period of substantial growth through
acquisition, financial institution
Rabobank International was faced with
these challenges.
Diverse businesses coming together
under the Rabobank International
umbrella had created an organization
capable of serving customers around
the world. The market opportunity was
to take advantage of the synergies that
existed between these operating units
so that clients could be sure of having
the same experience everywhere. This
meant starting within the organization
and creating a common culture and
clear overall direction, so that the
external face of Rabobank
International would be more
consistent. Performance management
was selected as the key process to
underpin this cultural shift.
The company knew it needed to be
explicit about what it wanted from its
leaders. Their job is to ensure that
everyone in the business understands
how they contribute to the objectives of
the organization and exactly what’s
expected of them. Performance
management provides the tools leaders
need to do that.
A high-performance mindset
The purpose of a strategy is to establish
a clear vision of what you want to
achieve, but executing it depends on
managing the activity of the
organization in line with this.
Performance management creates this
bridge between company strategy and
individual actions by establishing KPIs
for every leader. It’s the process that
enables a “cascade” of goals from the
CEO to the bank clerk so that the vision
becomes reality.
Rabobank International firmly
believed that performance management
would help it achieve its objectives,
particularly if it was integrated into
managers’ daily work. It would mean a
mindset shift that would raise business
performance overall, as managers would
be having daily conversations with their
people about what they do and how
they do it. Its three core competencies –
focus on results, cooperation and
customer satisfaction – would also be
measured using the system.
The next question was how to give
managers the skills to implement
performance management consistently
across the globe and, at the same time,
to use this opportunity to convince
leaders of their critical role in
developing future talent. At this point,
the Leadership for High Performance
program was born.
Addressing the challenges
DDI was selected as the partner for the
program after a global tender process.
It was essential that the chosen partner
should be a global specialist in
leadership development, with
consistently high-quality resources
worldwide and experience of large-
scale implementations, since the
program was to be delivered across 11
locations including Utrecht, Djakarta,
Mumbai, Sydney, Singapore, London,
Hong Kong, Dublin, São Paulo, New
York and Palm Springs.
The two organizations worked closely
together to develop the content of the
program. One of the challenges to be
addressed in implementation was how to
involve and engage participants with
differing levels of management
experience. In consultation with
Rabobank International’s global learning
and development team, it was decided
that participants would be grouped
Rabobank International is among the
world’s 15 largest financial institutions.It
has group assets of over €364 billion and
9 million customers. Headquartered in The
Netherlands, it’s represented in 37
countries through more than 50,000 staff.
RABOBANK INTERNATIONAL
Developing leadership skills through a performance management program was key to achieving a cultural shift at
Rabobank International, explains Stephan Janssens, head of HR Europe, who coordinated the global initiative.
© Melcrum publishing 2007.For more information visit our website www.melcrum.com or e-mail info@melcrum.com
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