The Adecco Group

The Challenge

The Adecco Group employs diverse and talented people who contribute to its purpose of making the future work for everyone. Leaders drive the Adecco Group’s vision forward, and it is important for the organisation to have the right approach to identifying and developing its leaders. Through strengthening its own processes, the Adecco Group can better advise and pass on its expertise to clients.

The Adecco Group’s HR and business leaders were experiencing a mismatch between those identified as “right” for a role through the formal planning process, and those who the decision-makers felt were best suited.

 “Like most other companies, we had a formal talent review process in which we looked at people’s capabilities, strengths and gaps;” explains Courtney Abraham, Global Head of Talent Strategy and Development.  “But it was a paper exercise and we only did it for part of the organisation.  When it came to actually choosing someone for a position, it became totally subjective; it was based on the leader’s intuition.”

The result was a higher number of external leader hires than the organisation felt comfortable with.

“We tended to look at the next person in the hierarchy and if we didn’t think he or she was ready, we made an outside hire.  We knew we needed to change this around by identifying and developing leaders earlier than we were, to reduce the higher risk associated with hiring from outside,” continues Courtney.

This new context-based approach has led to greater confidence in mobilizing and promoting internal talent.

“For global leadership openings, we are now always looking internally first. We now have much more precise data about our people and whether they are likely to succeed in a particular set of circumstances. We have a process where we are able to leverage that data and use it to engage in a dialogue with our internal candidates; if they’ve been identified in a succession plan for the role, we can look at whether their career aspirations align and feel more confident about their mobility and readiness.”

Importantly, Courtney adds that this benefits not only internal talent but the overall business. “Hiring from outside is a bigger risk because we don’t have as much data about the candidates.  We’ve also found that our internal hires are much more likely to be successful and to have early wins because they understand the business, the people and the competitive landscape.”

The success looks set to continue. The Adecco Group is now using this new approach with more parts of its businesses. It is introducing context-focused assessment to identify talent to participate in next year’s global leadership programs in France, Switzerland, and Singapore.