Presentation Transcript

1. ASTD BEST 2013Retaining, Engaging , Developing Top Technical Talent Linda Landry – VP, Talent Management Juli Rochon – Director, Engineering Excellence Nuance Communications Global Learning & Development October 2013
2. Agenda
3. The landscape
4. Reinventing the relationship between people and technology Defining the next generation of human-computer interaction: Intelligent Systems Deeply invested in creating effortless and natural user experiences Best known for rapidly advancing voice-recognition technology
5. 5 billion mobile cloud transactions daily 3,900 patents &applications 65+ countries 12 billion customer calls served annually 800 million mobile keyboards shipped annually 70+ languages 13,000 mobile app developers 12,000 employees 1,200 voice and language scientists and engineers 5 billion lines of medical data transcribed annually 25 million voice-enabled cars sold annually
6. Industry Perspective War for talent right now is intense… "Apple has always relied on Nuance, for the speech-recognition technology. By branching out with its own speech team — stocked with former Nuance scientists, no less — Apple could very well be signaling a move away from relying on Nuance for this core technology. And the speech wars are just heating up: Microsoft and Amazon both have speech engineering offices in the Boston area too.“ anonymous
7. The ask and opportunities
8. Engineering Excellence – the ask The retention and career progression of technical employees. FOCUS: Purpose Technical career development program to identify, develop, reward and retain top technical talent globally Improve innovation and product quality by growing engineering capability and improving engineering practices TargetAudience Technologists across the company – at all levels – in all divisions – focus on individual contributor roles ProgramDrivers Direct request from management team and senior technical leaders Technical employee requests through engagement survey
9. Engineering Excellence goals Engagement Improved technical employee engagement Retention Improved retention of technical employees globally Innovation Increased cross-pollination across divisions and technical teams Patents Increased clarity around patent application process Collaboration Increased knowledge sharing across technical teams
10. Staffing and incremental budget – FY13 Doing more (much more) with less Industry standard is one technical program manager per 500 employees: the expectation is that Nuance will scale by adding headcount to Engineering Excellence incrementally over the next two years
11. First…get grounded and get smart
12. The beginning…
13. Who is already doing this well? Structural & Principle Benchmark
14. Sample Level Structure - NASA
15. Who is already doing this well? Systems Engineer (SE) Competency Benchmark Competency Model Components: Enterprise Perspectives SE Life Cycle SE Planning & Management SE Technical Specialties Collaboration and Individual Characteristics All but level 4 competencies are relevant across all types of System Engineers – allows for scalability of program
16. Bringing it home Cautionary Tale Best practice only gets you so far – need to be sure to test against organizational need and ability to consume and then adapt appropriately before moving forward
17. The journey: part 1
18. Getting leadership buy-in Be courageous – believe in your ability to make an impact Get in front and stay in front of your senior leaders Know what you are talking about Ask and then listen and then act and then report back Speak their language – learning talk is meaningless Treat the executive team as your investors Make it real - use stories and specific examples Create an emotional connection to what you are doing Believe in the power of what you are doing – be your brand!
19. Understanding and getting the masses onboard Purpose Define technical success through the eyes of Nuance technologists Process In-depth interviews with R&D Leadership Discussions with over 100 individual technologists and thought leaders Participation from all geographies, divisions and levels Results Clarification of program goals Foundation for programming
20. Defining success through their eyes How can we help them achieve success? By facilitating serendipity By connecting him with her with him with her with him By opening people up to each others thoughts By providing a platform to express, share, learn and listen
21. The journey: part 2
22. Engineering Excellence pillars
23. Engineering Excellence Program Phases Phase 1 Professional Development Q2-4 FY13 Phase 2 Career Development Fundamentals H1 FY14 Phase 3 Career Development Advanced H2 FY14 Phase 1 Professional Development programming successfully launched on January 10, 2013 Phase 1 programming continues and matures through FY14 Phase 2 & 3 are designed to help our technologists develop their careers and intuitively navigate through learning and career resources
24. Phase 1: programming foundations
25. Impact: Breaking Down Silos Technical Architecture Sessions Cross-Pollination Highlights: Pre-program – teams were highly (and alarmingly) siloed Engineering Excellence provides opportunities for technical teams to collaborate across divisions, platforms, and technologies Participation rates show a high level of engagement. Average of 52% inter-divisional attendance in sessions Inter-divisional attendance has led to numerous technological advances *Intra-divisional = attendees from within the division of the product/platform being discussed. *Inter-divisional = attendees from outside the division of the products/platform being discussed.
26. Impact: Session Feedback The majority of feedback from technologists tells us Engineering Excellence programming: Increases their knowledge on mission critical technology topics Meets their expectations around quality and scope Can be applied on the job to current and future projects
27. What’s next?FY14 opportunities …
28. Engineering Excellence Program Phases Phase 1 Professional Development Q2-4 FY13 Phase 2 Career Development Fundamentals H1 FY14 Phase 3 Career Development Advanced H2 FY14 Phase 2 & 3 Focus – helping our technologists develop their careers and intuitively navigate through learning and career resources
29. Career Development Components Interactive Career Hub Technical skills library aligned to learning opportunities Movement tracking and job opportunity awareness Employee career experience video library Leveraging of corporate Reward & Recognition platform for technologist focused programs Implement Five Habits award program Provide peer recognition opportunities Career Development Framework & Toolset Reward & Recognition Rising Stars Program Technical career program for rising high potential technologists Focus on level 8-6 Focus on key projects with high business impact Opportunity to contribute to organization and for visibility and recognition
30. Interactive Career Hub Links directly to IDP Process
31. Quarterly “Innovation Challenge” Days
32. Enhanced Professional Development
33. Deepened Program Alignments Program maturation leads to increasing alignment to key organizational initiatives Surrounding technologists with learning – culture shift – holistic Increase expectations of technologists around information accessibility and context Join entire company on critical evolutionary journey Promote view that Nuance is a place to build a long term career
34. And ultimately… Create three integrated Excellence organizations modeled on Engineering Excellence: All programs will be focused ultimately on delivering exceptional products/solutions to our customers Customer
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