Yara International
How Does Your Company Grow?
Background
When a company moves from cost-cutting to aggressive growth, employees need to adapt to a very different mind-set. Smart companies know that this kind of drastic change brings new business challenges. Will our talent management strategy sustain the our overall business growth plan? Do we have the leadership needed to handle the growth rate? Will our middle managers be ready for executive positions as departments and divisions expand? Too often, companies begin to look at these questions only after growing-pain problems emerge.
When Yara International was preparing for such a change, the organization’s senior leadership made the strategic decision to address these questions before problems surfaced. Yara International focuses on the production, sale, and distribution of nitrogen-based chemicals that are used in the production of fertilizer. Yara has operations in more than 50 countries, distributing its products to more than 120 countries.
The Solution
When Yara spun off from parent company Norsk Hydro, it was fiscally conservative and budget conscious. But, as it realized its potential for growth, Yara quickly transformed its business plan to include the goal of doubling revenue during the next business cycle.
“We know that our goal of doubling the company is a very aggressive plan, and our top management team is committed to investing in a talent strategy that will support our business plan,” said Anne Grethe Dalane, chief personnel officer at Yara. “With the current market atmosphere, growth potential is possible in several avenues, but our strategy cannot be executed successfully if our people are not properly put in place first. We can’t simply develop the business without first developing the people who will drive the growth.”
Result
Yara sought out Personnel Decisions International (PDI), a global HR consultancy firm specializing in talent management, for help in developing ways to make confident decisions about talent management and to ensure that it had the necessary talent to support its growth goals.
PDI first identified Yara’s current and future talent management needs and determined that accurate performance assessments would be the key to strategic growth. By creating a database of assessment results, Yara could couple that information with the experience, knowledge, and past performance of employees to identify those who may be best suited for leadership roles. This would allow the company to develop specific promotion, recruitment, and development strategies to help them realize their goal of expanding the company on a global stage.
Through its assessment center program, PDI assessed more than 10 percent of Yara’s 7,000 staff. The program was available to all levels of the organization, and most participants were either nominated by their boss or selfnominated.
The program also focused on supporting diversity and managers were encouraged to seek out individuals who may have the capability to excel in a leadership position.
Participants were assessed using PDI’s TalentView® of PerformanceTM, an offering that accurately and efficiently produces results that can stack-rank employee performance across the entire organization, contributing to the resources a company needs to identify an organization’s top performers and potential leaders. The assessment centers also used PDI’s Global Personality Inventory test and Ravens cognitive testing to round out the view of the whole person. PDI delivered the results and feedback through a global team of more than 30 consultants across 15 PDI offices.
The talent management process, with a strong focus on leadership development, was an integral component of Yara’s overall business strategy.Yara’s chief executives were visible throughout the process to emphasize the organizational importance and investment in the strategy.