While most HR practitioners are tripping over their feet trying to find their next leader to plug the pipeline gaps, Microsoft is in a league of its own. Bryon Clayton, Microsoft Singapore’s HR director, tells Lisa Cheong about how the company has become a victim of its own success.
Earlier this year, Microsoft made headlines when Bill Gates, whose name is synonymous with the company, handed the reins to next-in-line Steve Ballmer. The succession from Gates to Ballmer is perhaps the most high-profile move of the year, and one which Bryon Clayton, HR director for Microsoft Singapore, says is testament to the organisation’s “well-orchestrated” succession planning pipeline.
Clayton says building a thriving succession pipeline is a business advantage for Microsoft as it helps maintain the organisation’s growth and business pace in a fast-changing environment. “Most senior position moves inside Microsoft are planned over a three to six month period. There are very few snap judgments that happen.”
Out of all the senior positions within Asia Pacific, over 90% have been successfully filled with internal people, Clayton says. Closer to home, one such example was its new managing director of Microsoft Singapore, Jessica Tan, who was promoted from general manager of Microsoft’s APAC customer, partner and employee experience.
Planning a seamless succession planning starts with recruiting the brightest – whether it is for fresh graduates or middle managers. And as with any other global office, ensuring diversity of candidates in the recruitment process is one of the recruiting keystones of Microsoft. With 50% of the Microsoft office in Singapore comprised of various nationalities, Clayton says diversity also extends to gender, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation.
But after recruiting such people, how does Microsoft identify the top 20% of its employees? According to Clayton, Microsoft identifies its crème de la crème during the normal performance review in three broad strokes — personal career aspirations, work abilities and commitment. And due to the performance-driven culture of Microsoft, their past performance and how they benchmark against their peers is also taken into consideration as well.
After which, Clayton says the high potentials are called out into special programmes which lasts over two to three years, depending on their level. “And each programme is designed to help elevate and increase the learning for these people.”
But the real “core” of succession planning falls into a process called People Review, Clayton adds. To ensure succession planning does not become just another administrative function, managers are expected to “own it, report on it and are measured against it”.
Starting at the grassroots level, a general manager for a country will be tasked to look at all the key positions under the general manager’s direct reports. The general manager will then be tasked to build a slate, or a list of candidates who can be potential successors to that position. The slate is divided into three categories – potential candidates who can fill the position immediately, candidates who are able to fill the position in two to three years (or one move), and candidates who can fill the position in two moves. The slate is not merely limited to people who work in the same Microsoft office, but people in other offices and even external candidates as well.
The country manager would then submit their slate to the area vice president, who would then build on his or her slate of direct reports. This cascades upwards and will culminate in a mid-year review in the Redmont headquarers – which is later presented to CEO, Steve Ballmer.
The People Review Process is measured against two indices – a Succession Planning Index (SPI) and a Succession Planning Usage (SPU). In SPI, business managers pinpoint where high potentials and high performers sit in the succession pipeline. “Who are all these people in the organisation that you’ve been hiring, training and have been identified as high potentials and top performers? And where are these people fitting into your succession slate? So SPI tells you how well have you completed and filled out your slate.” SPU then measures senior management and directors on whether they are actually utilising their plans to promote the people who were on the slate into the jobs they were positioned for.
Microsoft conducts on a worldwide basis a quarterly meeting to discuss the positions which would be vacant within the next six to 12 months. “So we predict: ‘Yes, we do have people who are going to move. So if that position is going to be vacant, who did we put into the slate? Do we still believe the slate is valid?’”
After the mid-year review, managers of those singled out on the slate would have career discussions with the chosen ones to let them know that they have been seen as a potential candidate to move up the career ladder, providing the person some visibility and the knowledge they have a career in Microsoft. “They can also voice their interest and whether they feel if this is a correct match in position, based on their desires and plans for career development.”
And because Microsoft’s HR views itself as an “enabler of business”, accountability for the succession planning is held by the business. As such, Microsoft’s managers are held accountable for their people-related issues — such as team climate, how their subordinates are feeling, and attrition rates, and how they are developing.
For Clayton, Microsoft’s main succession planning goal is to grow and cultivate the next generation of Asian leaders. But in a fast-paced technology industry that Microsoft is competing in, Clayton views the allure of success as the biggest challenge to succession planning. “The challenge with succession planning is we get so good at it. Good people move quickly — even internally within Microsoft and for the right reasons,” Clayton says.
While he asserts retention rates remain high among the top 20% (at 90% or so), he says it is important that Microsoft does not let succession planning slack, but constantly work towards ensuring the programme and keep investing in training. “Not forgetting that the whole thing starts with the first recruitment that you make into the organisation. You have to spend a lot of good quality time to bring in the right people, because that is where it all starts.”
