As a staffing agency, Kelly Services operates in a space unique to its industry; its product is people. According to Nina Ramsey, senior vice president of human resources for Kelly Services, the overall company strategy as well as the company’s individual employee development plans are built around an understanding that Kelly deals in human capital.

“We ask people to connect their goals to the three strategic objectives of the company, which are all centered [on] people, profit and customers,” Ramsey said.

Kelly provides staffing services and employment opportunities globally. As with any international endeavor, it requires a fair amount of manpower to do so, boasting a workforce of 7,500 full-time employees. Ramsey spoke with Talent Management about the challenges involved in managing staff who manage staff.

TM: Describe Kelly Services’ approach to talent management.

Ramsey: As a company, strategically we made a commitment over the last couple of years toward creating a high engagement culture and [being] an employer of choice. We believe in a connection between employee engagement, customer engagement and then profitability — that whole equation. We know we need to focus on having the right leaders in place and additionally that we need to make it possible for people to grow and develop in their careers, not only for their current jobs but also for future roles. So our approach to talent management really touches every step of the employee’s life cycle while they’re with us, from the point in time that you’re sourcing and recruiting all the way to the point in time when they’re transitioning to other employment or to retirement, whatever the case might be.

TM: What processes or programs have you established to improve the performance of Kelly’s entire workforce?

Ramsey: First of all, we’ve built multiple competency models for all levels of the organization. Whether you’re an individual performer or you’re a leader of people, we have competency models that really cover all positions within the company. We developed an assessment methodology that we use for all our leadership roles. We have an extensive on-boarding program that was designed to establish an early connection to the employee as well as to reduce time to productivity. We’ve had great success with it because it’s allowed us to see an improvement in turnover for the people who go through this on-boarding program, and we’ve also seen a decrease in the time to productivity.