June 2000
Volume 2 • Number 3

Contents

People Management and Development Process

This article reports the results of a project run in Ericsson Telecommunicazioni Italia, Research and Development - Global Product Center. The process described is an innovative way to handle human resources in order to have motivated people, realize an effective job staffing, and prepare the organization for the future. The process was launched in May 1998, and this article reports preliminary feedback on its application based on data collected from a questionnaire measuring people satisfaction distributed to all staff members in December 1998.

Key words: career paths, competencies, human resources, individual assessment, job descriptions, personnel development, roles and responsibilities

by Giovanni Evangelisti, Emilia Peciola, and Cosimo Zotti, Ericsson Telecommunications SpA

INTRODUCTION

“The only rule I have in management is to ensure that I have good people–real good people–and that I grow good people, and that I provide an environment where good people can produce (Curtis, Krasner, and Iscoe 1988).”

In the last 20 years software organizations have concentrated on improving their capabilities, working actively on processes and technologies. But this is not enough to keep ahead of continuous change: Software systems are more complex, competition is stronger, and customer demands are greater, aiming at lower costs and higher quality.

In the 1990s, many software organizations discovered that improved processes and technologies are not enough, and that a third component, people, plays an important role (see Figure 1).

Ericsson Telecomunicazioni Italia, Research and Development, Global Product Center Division (TEI R&D-GPC), was originally the research center of the Italian branch of Ericsson. It was created 25 years ago and during the 1990s grew from fewer than 50 people to about 600 people. Its mission changed during this growth, and the company’s initial goal of being a center of technological excellence became the prop for releasing successful products.

The current organization is quite complex, distributed over four geographical sites and striving toward product responsibilities. The technological focus is kept both on software (SW) and on hardware (HW), but to drive the organization, strong managerial attention toward employees, projects, and products is needed.

TEI R&D-GPC today is a good example of a workplace where people with different attitudes work side-by-side, exploiting diversity to generate cooperation–people with technical skills working together with managerial people. But diversity easily generates fear when one’s future is uncertain.

Since top management strongly believes that knowledge is the best antidote for fear, in the beginning of 1998 the focus on transparency sharpened, as well as the desire to create an environment where one can easily relate with the organizational structure and needs, the early knowledge of organizational events can reduce surprise and anxiety, and one’s career is the consequence of discovering one’s talents rather than of giving them up.

The organization’s goal is “to attract, develop, motivate, organize, and retain the best people talented in the areas that fit with TEI R&D-GPC business goals.” This article reports the results of an initiative that began two years ago that aimed to increase internal transparency by defining the basic net of processes and procedures for people management. Talented people are not caught by this net, but GPC believes it is useful in retaining them. In fact, the company’s target people have a good sense of belonging, and these types of people like to work where the “rule of law” is perceived.

People are attracted by money, but GPC does not believe an organization can attract the best people just with high salaries. The company believes it can gain a competitive advantage when people perceive a service-oriented environment.

People processes are the fundamental part of this service environment. Employees want to build a specific development path, have access to interfaces to ask questions, be supported in changing jobs, have opportunities to speak with the managers, receive more information, and improve the quality of their lives (and working hours gain importance as free time decreases and will decrease even more).

They expect attention to be paid not only to managerial roles, as each individual, independently from his or her activities, wants to feel that the workplace can offer the best development conditions.

To meet these demands, the company initiated a project from February to May 1998. The goal of this project was to define a process for innovatively managing human resources. Two people worked full time with the support of a reference group of 15 line managers who met once a month.

This article is based on a paper presented October 27, 1999, at the EuroSPI99 conference in Pori, Finland. EuroSPI2000 will be held in November 2000, in Copenhagen, Denmark. http://www.iscn.ie/conferences/eurospi2000/