Hrm532 Discussion Week 2

Avon Products:

• Discuss the challenges at Avon with supporting organizational growth with their current system for talent management.

      Avon has been in business for over 120 years as a leader in providing products via direct sells. The company reached a stage in its organizational lifecycle where Avon grew faster than its infrastructure and HR Strategy.  Many organizations will enter the decline phase unless there is in place a rigorous program of transformational leadership development. If senior leaders can detect the symptoms of decline early, they can more easily deal with it. Some of the more obvious signs include disappearing profit margins (Johannsen, 1996).  In addition, Avon identified six weaknesses that impacted their effectiveness for talent management.  Some of the challenges the company faced during its restructuring were moving from a regional to a matrix structure for business functions, streamlining management from 15 to 8 layers, replacing key roles with external talent, and creating new capabilities.

• Discuss how Avon addressed the gaps in the talent to support its growth strategy.

     In an effort to address the gaps in the talent to support growth, Avon implemented a strategic approach to improve its talent management practices.  First, the practices had to be design to be easier to use and effective.  This was accomplished through the idea of executing on the “What”, and differentiate with the “how” discipline through an executive coaching process. Next, transparency in certain talent practices were redesigned for the benefit of information sharing through the Avon 360. In addition, the company reviewed each process within performance management and engagement surveys, to take the complexity out of the mix.  Through this review, they revealed that most employees have not received an appraisal for some years. Also, the company determined the quality of talent they currently had in their workforce to differentiate...