5 Keys For Building A Top-Tier Team

culled from:articlecity.com

While most companies were struggling to stay afloat during the 2008 recession, one company somehow remained profitable despite the poor economic climate: BlackRock. Founded 25 years ago, BlackRock has grown to be the world’s largest asset management firm. The company is distinguished not only for its financial accomplishments, but also for its corporate “personality” and pride.

After a deeper investigation into its success, Harvard Business Review discovered several traits that BlackRock shares with other companies that account for its unlikely success amid economic distress. Here are five keys to building a successful HR strategy:
1. Commitment From the Top Down

From the beginning, a commitment to employees from BlackRock’s executive leadership was essential to the company’s success. While many companies talk a good HR game, they will often cut management and professional development the minute profit margins decrease.

The founders of BlackRock, however, are committed to a continued investment in their employees. Because of its reputation as a company committed to excellence, BlackRock became a magnet for good talent. The company didn’t spend as much time recruiting employees because the strongest candidates came looking for BlackRock. By emphasizing employee development, BlackRock attracted the talent that helped it succeed during the financial crisis.
2. Balancing Strategy And Operations

In order to maintain a competitive edge, it is critical to develop a superior business strategy. The company that is best able to execute its business plans effectively and efficiently will pull ahead of its competitors in our current corporate environment. However, striking a balance between strategic agility and operational dependence is not always easy.

One of the skills that keeps BlackRock ahead of its competitors is its ability to put the right talent in the right place at the right time. The company developed a Human Capital Committee (HCC) comprised of executives from around the world that aims to improve several strategic areas, including talent planning and recruitment, ensuring a high performance culture, prioritizing leadership behaviors that matter, developing employees, talent reviews and succession planning, and network collaboration tools.
3. Ensuring Employees Understand Their Purpose

Every employee is seeking for a purpose in his or her life. BlackRock has made a special effort to show its employees that they are individually significant to the company’s success. The company helps its employees to see their full potential within the company..

However, employees also need to feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves. BlackRock sets itself apart from most companies in this regard. The company helps individual employees understand their purpose and their contribution within the organization. BlackRock strives to instill the company’s vision in every employee. As employees grasp that perspective, their motivation and determination to be a part of a high-performance team grows. The company’s employees become more self-motivated and productivity increases.
4. Training and Trusting Local Talent

Though many companies brand themselves as “global,” the reality is that most of them actually operate as a smaller local or regional entity. Because such companies are managed on a much smaller scale than their “global” label would suggest, identifying, developing, engaging and retaining local talent is critical to the success of the company.

While in the past many aspiring top performers actively sought to relocate to the head office, today many are electing to stay in their own country or region and develop their own local management opportunities.

BlackRock has been a leader in shifting away from the micromanagement of a strong central office to giving more autonomy and management responsibilities to local talent who can best develop relationships in that region.
5. Enabling and Promoting Agility

BlackRock’s success is evidence that agility will keep a company relevant for many years. Legacy and continuity matter to potential employees as well as building talent strategy that endures and regenerates.

In order to maintain its human capital, BlackRock looks for opportunities to innovate in HR policies, products and strategies. The company’s ever-evolving workplace environment keeps employees motivated and excited about the company, fueling growth.

Being purpose-driven, performance-oriented and principles-led is key to BlackRock’s success. These principles, which are easy to understand and implement, help shape the company’s enterprise and business strategies. BlackRock’s executive leadership practices these principles and consequently gains the respect of its employees.