-Human resource management of Lucent Technology
The oldest and oldest baby
Speaking of Lucent, I'm afraid most people don't understand it except some people in the industry.
"Lucent is the oldest and oldest baby", which is logically problematic and full of romance, has become the best footnote for Lucent Technology Company.
Lucent is a baby. It took less than three years to become an independent company in 1996 10. So Lucent is a baby, a baby under three years old. During the period of 1995, AT&T, the leader of American communication industry, carried out strategic reorganization, and the whole company was divided into three parts. Lucent is one of them, which brings together all the communication equipment departments of the former AT&T company and Bell Laboratories. Because the companies engaged in traditional and core business (telephone and telecommunications services) have inherited the name of "AT&T" at the same time, the new company in charge of communication equipment can only start a new business or even use a new name. The name of the new company is "Lucent" and the English name is "Lucent". In this regard, Mr. Ye Zuyu, Chairman of Lucent Technology (China) Company, explained: "Lucent means' bright and transparent'. It means clear thinking, wisdom and strength, which is what we strive to create while continuing to serve our customers. "
However, Lucent is the oldest treasure. Whether it is the continuation of AT&T 100 years of history, it is said that its Bell Lab was established as early as 1925, and it has gone beyond ancient times. Moreover, unlike most newly established companies, Lucent is fully aware of its goal: to become an industry leader in providing limited and unlimited communication technologies and systems for commercial, service operating companies and electronic component companies.
At the same time, Lucent is the biggest treasure. According to authoritative statistics, Lucent has been "the largest communication equipment company in the world" since its establishment in June, 2000. This is unprecedented in the corporate history of the world. In the fiscal year ending on September 30, 1997 (that is, when it was nearly one year old), Lucent's operating income was $26.4 billion, up by 13.2% year-on-year, and its net income was1500 million, up by 43%. In Fortune 98 Fortune 500, Lucent ranked 1 17, surpassing most large multinational companies with a long history.
Therefore, Mr. Ye Zuyu said, "Lucent is not only a newborn baby, but also the oldest baby. At the same time, because it continues the history of AT&T (including Bell Labs), it is also the oldest baby. "
In China: Great Achievements.
Interestingly, Lucent's business in China started long before Lucent was born.
As early as 1993, AT&T signed an important memorandum of understanding with the State Planning Commission, and the two sides reached an understanding on multi-level and long-term cooperation in the telecommunications field in China. This is considered as a milestone for Lucent to develop its business in China in the future. In addition, Lucent also held training courses in the United States for senior officials of China's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Ministry of Electronics, State Planning Commission and other government departments. Since then, Lucent's business in China has made great progress.
1995, AT&T signed a long-term cooperation agreement with Guangdong Post and Telecommunications Bureau, and reached a supply contract with Guangdong Machinery Import and Export Corporation to sell 500 million US dollars of equipment within five years. Help Guangdong build an advanced communication network.
1In August 1995, AT&T signed an agreement with the government of China, promising to gradually transform the Qingdao switching system factory from assembly to full production. At present, Qingdao joint venture factory has become Lucent's largest switch production base outside China, manufacturing advanced switching system 5ESS(R) switches.
1996 5438+00 In June, Lucent signed a supply contract with Hubei Post and Telecommunications Administration and Wuhan Post and Telecommunications Bureau to supply signaling node products to Hubei Province in Central China. This contract marks the first time that Lucent has provided equipment for the main communication network in China.
1 June 1997,1June 1997 and1June 1997, Qingdao lucent Kai Guanchang successively obtained ISO900 1 international quality certificate and ISO1400/(environmental management system standard) certificate, which marked the factory.
Lucent also took the lead in introducing the most advanced synchronous digital transmission technology (SDH) into China, and moved a set of advanced SDH system equipment to Beijing in April 1998, and established the "SDH Laboratory of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications of China Telecom". At the same time, China General Administration of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and Lucent signed an agreement to jointly train SDH equipment maintenance personnel, aiming at building a world-class SDH laboratory and training senior technicians of China Telecom.
By May 1998, Lucent had established 7 offices, 6 joint ventures and 2 wholly-owned enterprises in China, with more than 3,000 employees. Lucent also established Bell Laboratories in Shanghai and Beijing respectively. Lucent has undoubtedly achieved great success in China. When it comes to the reasons for success, Mr. Rich McKin, Chairman and CEO of Lucent Technology, believes that it can be attributed to three points: First, Bell Labs; The second is to listen to customers' opinions; The third is talent. It can be seen that the success of Lucent can not be separated from its human resource management, so how does Lucent manage human resources? Mr Li Jianbo, human resources director of lucent technology (China) co., ltd, answered this question.
Orientation of Human Resources Department: Decisive
When talking about "what position the human resources department should be in in a modern enterprise", Mr. Li Jianbo thinks that the traditional personnel department, as a functional organization within the enterprise, focuses on "managing" people, while in modern enterprises, the human resources department develops human resources as the most valuable resource. He quoted Mr. Henry Shuke, the former chairman of Lucent Technology Company, as saying, "The task of company leaders is to create a good environment so that everyone has the opportunity to contribute their talents." He regarded this as the highest pursuit of his important task as the director of human resources.
Li Jianbo believes that people's understanding of human resource management has gone through three stages before reaching today's level. In the first stage, the human resources department only decided the promotion and salary payment of employees, that's all, and there was no creativity. In the words of the business department, "We work to support your human resources department, and you still need so many rules for us to abide by" is a typical representative of this stage. In the second stage, people think that the job of human resources department is to serve, that is, to serve other departments within the company. Some human resources managers themselves put forward that this service should be embodied in a partnership: that is, you hire people and I recruit people. In this regard, Li Jianbo commented that the human resources department should be a service department with high quality, but it is not enough for a modern enterprise to be just a "service" department. Now, people's understanding of the work of human resources department has reached the third stage, reaching an unprecedented height. The human resources department should not only recruit excellent employees for the company at any time, but also provide an environment for employees: when people come to work every day, they should be given the opportunity to create meaningfully. From this kind of creation, everything will be produced continuously.
Li Jianbo's conclusion on this issue is that if the human resources department can't play a decisive role in the development of the company, its value will be greatly reduced.
Choice: extraordinary wisdom+professionalism
Lucent's employment standard is: extraordinary intelligence+professionalism. The company hopes that employees will constantly display their talents and make contributions to the company. Many enterprises like to use the excuse of "no credit, no hard work", but Lucent values results, not efforts. "Respecting individual's contribution to overall achievement" has been written into the company's guidelines as a clear value.
Mr. Ye Zuyu, Chairman of Lucent Technology (China) Co., Ltd. said in a speech last year: "We have made gratifying progress in deepening localization. We need to make further efforts to let more China employees at different levels participate in our business operations in China to enhance our ability to meet our own development." This may be another interpretation of Lucent's employment standards.
Educate people: let everyone have a chance.
Lucent China Company not only provides employees with a post and a job, but most importantly, it creates opportunities for employees to display their talents and gives them room for full development.
In human resource management, Lucent is most proud of employee career planning. When a new employee enters the company, the department manager must have an in-depth long talk with him, including "What are your personal development plans after you come to this company?" What is achieved in one year and what is achieved in three years; In order to achieve these goals, in addition to personal efforts, what kind of help do you need from the company? "All these should be archived in written materials. In Lucent, this has become a rolling development system. At the end of each year, department managers and employees should check and modify the plan of the previous year and make plans for the next year. Li Jianbo himself has a practical plan, that is, to study for another degree in three years. He said that when you set a goal, you will work hard in that direction step by step and keep climbing the peak of your life.
In order to make every employee realize his career plan, Lucent China Company invests hundreds of thousands of dollars in employee training every year. Nearly13 employees of the company have received training abroad. Not long ago, the company sent five senior managers to the United States for further study. These five managers will practice in the departments related to their business or personal development at the company headquarters for 1-2 years to improve their business management ability in practical work and save energy for greater development in the future.
Employing people: motivate employees with the same goal.
"Lucent Technology (China) Company, as a branch of a famous multinational company in China, how to motivate its employees?" Li Jianbo believes that it is a misunderstanding that many people think that foreign companies rely on money to motivate their employees. Of course, foreign companies earn more. For example, lucent pays attention to ensuring that the company has sufficient competitiveness in attracting, accommodating and retaining outstanding talents when formulating salary. But in many foreign companies, including Lucent, the most effective weapon to motivate employees is professionalism, that is, the unremitting pursuit of the same goal. As Mr. Rich Mackin, the current chairman and CEO of Lucent, said, providing employees with a "superior workplace" enables them to "work in an environment based on mutual respect, team spirit, honesty and frankness".
Li Jianbo believes that the high morale of a company is not necessarily the amount of money paid by the boss to employees, but often the employees of this company have the same and clear goals, and the company authorizes each employee to do what he wants. On the contrary, when are employees most disgusted? It is often the time to raise wages, and it is often not because of how much they get, but whether it is fair compared with others, and whether the company pays him and his contribution "matches".
Lucent Technology China Company conducts "future leader training" among all employees. Although this kind of training can't guarantee that every employee can become a manager, it can give full play to everyone's potential and enhance their value.
Lucent also encourages employees to join the ranks of volunteers, taking participating in the construction of Hope Project Primary School, going to nursing homes to express condolences to the elderly and organizing employees to donate blood voluntarily as important measures to enhance the cohesion and centripetal force of the company, so that employees can truly realize that Lucent is a company with social responsibility.
Personality: the first condition of human resource manager
Li Jianbo has been engaged in human resource management for five years. He believes that the first condition for being a human resource manager is personality. He said that being a man in advance, only being a good man can do other things well.
As a human resource manager, his job responsibilities give him more opportunities to contact employees, and his personality becomes an extremely important "parameter". He often does not do specific work, but uses his words and deeds to influence others, so his character and personality are very important.
Of course, you should have interpersonal skills and language skills in human resource management, but these are just some skills. Personality is a reflection of a person's quality. If you have bad conduct and different tastes, how to communicate with others? I'm afraid it's impossible to be a qualified human resource manager.
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This case provides a vivid and comprehensive picture for the human resource management of Lucent Technology China Company. From the role orientation of human resources department, selection of personnel, education (promoting talent development), employing and retaining people, to the conditions needed by human resources managers, almost all fields of human resources management are involved.
Lucent's case reflects many similarities in human resource management of multinational companies.
Fortune 500 companies always put the human resources department in the main (unimportant) position of the company. On the one hand, this is a summary of their own experience in operating in countries around the world for decades or even hundreds of years. On the other hand, because their human resource management has reached a high level, it can really provide indispensable support and promotion for the development of enterprises. Moreover, the operating conditions of the top 500 enterprises and China enterprises also show that the human resource management is highly positively related to the operating conditions of enterprises. Motorola regards talents as the most valuable resource, which is confirmed by Lucent's human resources director's positioning of the human resources management department of modern enterprises and the evaluation of the role of human resources by the chairman or CEO of many top 500 enterprises.
When the top 500 enterprises in China select talents, most of them hope to recruit outstanding talents who like their jobs, and have formulated a set of perfect recruitment procedures for this purpose. The "extraordinary wisdom+professionalism" of Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, Ericsson and Lucent is the best example. When the top 500 enterprises cultivate talents and promote their development, the first thing they take is training, followed by various employee development plans. For example, the truth of Motorola and the career planning of Lucent employees all regard educating people as the unshirkable responsibility of the company. When employing and retaining people, we all emphasize that we should be good at employing people, and pay attention to the role of material factors such as salary when motivating and retaining employees, but the most important thing is to rely on spiritual factors, such as respecting employees (Motorola), arousing employees' professionalism (Intel), giving employees visible hope (IBM), creating opportunities for continuous promotion and development (McDonald's) and giving employees a clear goal (Lucent).
Lucent's case left a deep impression on people: the human resources department has a clear and definite positioning; Pay attention to the evaluation method of employee engagement and work results; Employee career planning; Stimulate the enthusiasm of employees with the same goal, not just high salary, and urge them to exert their potential and produce centripetal force for the company; The requirements of the director of human resources for the human resources manager; Comprehensive management of human resources in many aspects.
Accordingly, the leaders of China enterprises should reflect after reading this case:
(1) At what stage is your company's understanding of the human resources department?
(2) Business leaders should assess whether their human resource managers are qualified. Enterprise human resources managers should ask themselves, are members of the human resources department competent for human resources management?
(3) Is there a unified human resource management plan?
(4) How attractive is the enterprise to talents?
(5) Can the enterprise inspire employees' fighting spirit? Besides material incentives, what other distinctive and effective spiritual incentives does the company have?
(6) What is the turnover rate of enterprise personnel, and can it retain outstanding talents?
All the shortcomings can be learned from Lucent.