General Electric (GE) has a market capitalization of more than NT$280 billion, making it the ninth-largest company in the United States. GE's talent selection and training system has always been highly praised, and the first thought of American companies looking for senior executives is to "go to the strange and find out"!
Shane Fitzsimons, Senior Vice President of GE, proposed GE's new human resources policy and selection criteria in 2017, and determined to change its face next year.
Fitzmons revealed the following three points:
1. Basic ability to digest data
GE doesn't require every colleague to be as adept at data processing as a software engineer. However, for GE, which is in the process of digital transformation, it produces massive amounts of data every day, and whether you work in human resources or accounting, you must be able to analyze and apply this data efficiently.
Data processing and analysis are the most valuable skills available today. GE is recruiting talent in the new year, and it is important to have a clear understanding of how data can help them do their jobs better. For example, the head of human resources at the Cincinnati headquarters is able to dig up useful information from a dense amount of data for decision-making.
2. Be humble and have the courage to try
Startups tend to have a higher tolerance for mistakes than larger companies – something GE should learn from. GE has revamped its organization to be flatter in order to spur more creative ideas and be more tolerant of mistakes made in the pursuit of new ideas.
In order to cope with the uncertainty of the future, GE is looking for workers who can work in an uncertain and flat organization, willing to try and make mistakes again and again, but not change their original intentions. The most important thing is to be willing to talk about the experience of failure, and to clarify the thinking that led to the setback through communication and sharing.
3. Future development is more important than professional ability
GE is more willing than ever to hire candidates who are traditionally underqualified – as long as they can demonstrate their future potential. Many companies have similar claims, but few are as concrete as GE's. At the same time, GE has expanded cross-departmental and horizontal scheduling within the organization, so that unqualified but potential talents can have better room to play.
GE now spends more than $1 million a year on training and developing efficient, creative and ambitious employees. GE not only finds people with future development, but also directly helps them develop the future.
Fitzmons concludes that to survive in GE, you need to be creative and have a global pulse. GE needs people who can bring new ideas to the table and execute them effectively, which is also the way GE innovates and survives.