First Friday: Nurturing Talent for Ecosystem Growth

Both Heather and James noted the challenges of recruiting, and the need for a very specific skill set, over just head count. As Heather noted, “attracting the right talent is crucial, as it is costly if you get it wrong.” 

Heather’s approach is to recruit high performers who are constantly seeking challenges. Palo Alto Networks is a fast-paced and dynamic organisation that drives constant disruption within cybersecurity. Talent must be able to navigate the demands of the role and keep up. To find the right people, key stakeholders come together for a shared vision meeting to outline key competencies for the role to guide the selection process. That said, there is a skills shortage within the industry. 50% of UK businesses have a cybersecurity skills gap, and job postings at Palo Alto have increased 30% since last year.

Heather looks to LinkedIn and relevant industry events to expand her network. Her aim is to identify individuals who would be a good fit for the team and have them ‘on t for when positions become available. She also discussed remuneration; now more than ever organisations must offer a range of benefits beyond salary – hybrid working, flexibility and company culture all aid in attracting talent.

At HPE Aruba Networking James Houselander is an advocate for seeking talent from within, and actively engages with employees across the organisation, even if there are no open roles, to identify suitable candidates who may be looking for a career shift.

Over the last three years, HPE Aruba Networking hired many people into the channel marketing team, all with a range of skills they can collectively leverage. They look for individuals with the skills to engage at a senior level within their partners and their own business, someone who understands the market and the partner ecosystem. This includes hiring people from different parts of the channel, including distribution, partners, and other vendors, in addition to attracting individuals with sales backgrounds.

In response to James’ approach around senior level employees, Heather noted how, within her team, they have taken the opposite approach. As a disruptive organisation, they’ve recruited a number of early in career Gen Z employees, “they’ve got a completely different approach to marketing”, she adds.

How do you nurture your team to maintain high performance?

Both organisations have company-wide personal development programmes, but they take a slightly different approach.

Heather shared her three C’s; competency, commitment, and contribution of its employees. She uses a nine-box grid to plot potential against performance, which aids in employee development and growth. Each employee sets three performance goals and one personal development goal. Regular one-to-one meetings are held to review these goals and make necessary adjustments. Whilst accountability is important, Heather also discussed the importance of instilling a ‘fail-fast’ approach, to encourage innovation.  

Likewise, James shared HPE Aruba Networking’s structured approach to performance reviews, which has evolved to include more consistent, regular feedback cycles. Bold goals are set at the start of the year that align back to the business and consider the individual’s personal development.  

The company has introduced quarterly performance reviews, which are designed to evolve what they’re doing, reset, and ensure they’re still shooting towards their bold goals. These reviews provide an opportunity for employees to assess what they’ve done, get a sense of achievement, and reset the direction they want to go moving forward. Regular one-to-one check-ins with the team are also conducted to get a sense of where people are at, both from a personal and a business point of view. 

How do you encourage your teams to innovate?

Innovation was a key topic for both James and Heather, who acknowledged the importance of nurturing and encouraging ideation within their teams.

At HPE Aruba Networking James noted that there is a focus on innovation, despite the challenges of bandwidth and complex processes often experienced within a large organisation. Company-wide they provide opportunities for employees to join small groups, or ‘gigs’, to innovate around topics outside of their work area. In James’ team they had a session where they stepped out of their day-to-day work and brought forward ideas around things that they’d seen work, either in the company or in previous roles. The session resulted in about 12 to 15 different ideas, some of which were already in play, and three or four new ideas were grouped together. Work groups were put around these ideas to implement them into the company’s marketing approach, and some of these ideas are now being implemented

Heather shared Palo Alto Networks’ Maverick awards, which encourages and rewards innovative ideas outside of an employee’s business area. These awards incentivise employees to come up with new and novel ways to drive the business forwards. Palo Alto Networks pays out for ideas, even if they are not worked to fruition, and puts a team on it to make it happen. This gives employees, especially those in marketing who may not feel globally recognised, a chance to shine.

How do you reward your teams?

We all understand the power of recognition in motivating talent, and Heather and James shared how their businesses take a very similar approach.

Firstly, Heather shared an important note on timely feedback. Rather than waiting to give feedback to an employee within their six-month performance review, timely and constructive feedback is always given immediately. Palo Alto Networks has a program called ‘Cheers for Peers’ where everyone in the business receives Bonus points that can be converted to money or donate. This program allows every person in the business to reward someone else that they believe has done something powerful, or to say thank you for something someone has done. There are also other awards

HPE Auruba Networking offers employees an annual performance bonus as part of the salary which is linked to their personal and business performance.

Similarly to Palo Alto Networks, they have a program called ‘Star Point’ where points can be converted to potential cash and used to purchase a gift for themselves or for family. These points come from employee recognition where they have demonstrated excellence within their role and alignment back to one of the pillars of the company’s culture. High performers are the ones getting constant ‘Star Points’ and feedback from their colleagues.