April 4 , 2007

 

Springfield,OH—Allan McKisson ‘72, VP human resources for the U.S. unit of Manpower, shared Manpower’s processes for identifying and developing talent during his afternoon visit to Wittenberg’s  Management Department. After sharing lunch with management student leaders and workers and management faculty, he spoke formally with Dr. Wendy Gradwohl’s human resource management class and members of the Wittenberg Human Resource Management Association.

     Manpower, is best known as a temporary staffing agency, where it gets 80% of its revenue. A $18 billion dollar company, It has operations in 73 countries. Manpower’s vision is to serve its client’s needs by helping them grow revenue, staying operationally efficient, be innovative through leadership, and creating an unusual organization and culture. “We lead in the creation and delivery of human resource systems and programs that enable Manpower leaders to win in the changing world of work” states the Manpower mission.

     McKisson repeatedly shared that Manpower looks for “nice, smart people who work hard and deliver results.” He has four priorities for Manpower human resources: talent, total rewards, leadership capability and sales capability. “I spend most of my time making plans to build talent,” shared McKisson. He shared that most organizations face the same problems, not having the right people to transition into higher level jobs—a problem that will become increasingly evident as baby-boomers retire. McKisson walked students through a nine-cell-grid analysis that Manpower uses to evaluate people and determine which deserve the investment of additional training and assignment to special projects. Mostly Manpower looks for thought leadership in the people it promotes. Thought leadership was defined as having original ideas, being able to arrive at an idea from a complex analysis, having the drive to lead change, being able to attract and develop talent, and being able to deliver extraordinary results.

              McKisson also shared his thoughts on what students can do to improve their chances of finding great-fitting jobs. “Having work experience, such as an internship, or studying abroad gives you breadth when going for an interview. Employers want to make sure you have had a variety of experience under your belt.” McKisson said even having a “crappy job is good,” if you can explain how you survived the experience.  And, any job requiring customer interaction is a great job. He also advised students to have an opinion! “Don’t just go with the flow; put your opinions and your butt on the line.” 

###