CLC_Line_Leader_Owned_Talent_Planning_and_Accountability_Gap_Inc

CLC1ABSPK8 Leverage Soft and Hard Accountability to Improve Outcomes 101
Line Leader–Owned Talent Planning and Accountability
Gap Inc. Outlet
A decentralized talent management process that provides individual line leaders ownership over talent management priorities, resources, and accountability
Source: Gap Inc. Outlet; Corporate Leadership Council research.
Gap Inc. Outlet
Industry: Retail
Gap Inc. Revenue: US$15.8 Billion
Gap Inc. Employees: 154,000
Headquarters: San Francisco, Calif.
Situation
With declining HR budgets and a need for more
decentralized and customized development
offerings, Gap Inc. Outlet realizes the need to
engage individual line leaders in identifying and
delivering more cost-effective and relevant talent
solutions. However, Gap Inc. Outlet’s HR vice
president ﬁnds that line leaders require a higher
level of ownership to improve talent outcomes.
Action
Gap Inc. Outlet increases line leaders’ focus on
improving talent outcomes by enabling leaders to
control their own talent management resources
and priorities and by instilling peer accountability.
Key Steps
• Step #1: Provide Line Leader Ownership
of Talent Strategy and Resource Allocation.
• Step #2: Use Peer Accountability to Drive
Talent Management Urgency.
• Step #3: Leverage Peer Collaboration
to Improve Talent Outcomes.
Results
Despite a 20% decline in talent management
resources, an increased level of line leader
ownership and execution of talent management
activities has led to improved retention in “must
keep” talent and a 14% increase in employee
satisfaction scores.

CLC1ABSPK8 Creating Talent Champions (Volume II) 102
Increasing Individual Ownership for Talent Management
Decentralize Talent Management to the Line
Many HR organizations are ﬁrmly in control of the talent strategy,
accountability, and execution. Gap Inc. Outlet has developed a very different
philosophy that decentralizes to the line all of these critical components,
speciﬁcally creating a situation where:
• Business leaders own the strategy and the resources;
• Hard accountability is supplemented by a high degree of soft
accountability, and;
• Execution is managed collaboratively.

Practice in Context
Overcoming Barriers to Line Leader Engagement
Gap Inc. Outlet engages line leaders by increasing individual ownership of talent
management strategy and resources and by using peer pressure and collaboration
Peer-Leader Accountability
Line Leader Role: Present leader-speciﬁc talent
metrics to peer leaders and provide visibility into
action plan to address low-scoring areas.
Leader Total
Emily
Curtis/
Finance
Maya
Smith/
HR
Louise
Holly/
Northeast
William
Stackhouse/
Southeast
Jonathan
Springford/
Northwest
Lucile
Ahada/
Southwest
Work/Life
Balance
75 73 74 76 71 65 82
Belief in
Company
65 55 66 70 68 68 63
Customer
Focus
71 69 76 66 72 78 68
Job
Satisfaction
58 60 59 60 62 50 56
Respect 66 60 59 68 79 75 66
HR–Driven Accountability
HR Role: Hold line managers accountable for talent
management outcomes (e.g., retention) through
performance management process and incentives.
Line Leaders
Performance
Review
Public Talent Scorecard
2
Line Leader Collaborative Execution
Line Leader Role: Collaborate with other line leaders
on prioritizing talent management actions to address
ongoing challenges.
HR–Driven Execution
HR Role: Mandate line manager execution on HR–
created and prioritized talent management activities.
HR
Line Leaders
3
HR–Driven Talent Strategy
HR Role: Create talent strategy and resource plan
and cascade to line.
Corporate HR
Talent Plan
Line Leader–Owned Talent Strategy
and Resource Planning
Line Leader Role: Decide own talent priorities and
determine how to spend talent management budget.
1. Simplify—Identify methods to clarify new-hires’ expected deliverables within the ﬁrst six months of tenure.
2. Stability-= Support career planning team to provide clear career path for Generation Y.
3. Career Development-Focus on retaining must-keep talent
4. Type Business Priorities Here
Talent Planning Tool
1
Barriers to Engaging Line Leaders in Talent Activities Gap Inc. Outlet’s Response
Line Leader Action Plan

Give Leaders Greater Control of Priorities
Control Is the Key to Accountability
To enable business leader ownership of talent management, Gap Inc. Outlet
provides business leaders with control over their talent priorities and budgets
regarding learning and development and recognition. This underlines a critical
tenant Gap Inc. Outlet discovered: it is ineffective to hold leaders accountable
for activities for which they feel they have little inﬂuence or control. This
step is designed to provide senior leaders across the organization with an
opportunity to exercise judgment about how to allocate talent management
resources in their part of the business.
Focusing Leaders on the Right Activities
To ensure leaders focus on the most relevant talent activities, Gap Inc. Outlet
allows leaders to select their talent priorities from a ﬁxed set of categories
derived from its Employee Opinion Survey. This spreadsheet tool walks leaders
through key strategic questions they need to address, based on their function’s
unique Employee Opinion Survey results.
Push Talent Strategy Deeper into the Organization
In another critical departure from many other organizations, Gap Inc. Outlet
focuses on driving talent ownership deeper into the organization by engaging
senior leaders below the general manager level in identifying talent goals and
prioritizing talent investments.

Build your specific functional people strategy (Tab 1):
• What are your business priorities?
• Where are the critical opportunities from your engagement survey feedback?
• Identify your areas of opportunity.
Review the Learning and Development and Rewards and
Recognition programs “available for purchase” (Tab 2):
• What solutions will meet your needs?
• What additional solutions do you need that might need to be outsourced?
Complete the priorities and resource template specific to your function (Tab 3):
• Click in your EOS drivers—use the drop down to select.
• You can use the Employee Planning Tool (fourth tab) to help define who on your team
you wish to provide specific training for.
• Choose your L&D choices—template will calculate as you go.
• Add additional “external” training that you wish to do.
• Send completed template/workbook back by 21 January.
Step #1: Provide Line Leader Ownership of Talent Strategy and Resource Allocation
VP Finance
Business Unit
Guide Leaders’ Talent Planning
Toward High-Impact Activities
Gap Inc. Outlet’s talent planning tool
provides leaders with a fixed set of talent
categories that match its employee opinion
survey categories to ensure leader focus on
relevant talent management activities.
Enable Leader-Led Strategies
Gap Inc. Outlet decentralizes ownership of talent management priorities and
resources to engage individual line leaders within each business unit in talent activities
Gap Inc. Outlet’s Line Leader Talent Planning Tool
Illustrative Data
Engage Senior
Leaders Below
the General
Manager Level
While most organizations
engage the seniormost
business leader in
business unit–level talent
review and succession
planning activities, Gap
Inc. Outlet engages all
senior leaders below the
GM level (i.e., VPs and
above) in identifying their
personal talent objectives
and prioritizing their
own talent management
resources.

Give Leaders Greater Budgetary Control
Control Is the Key to Accountability
Gap Inc. Outlet gives business leaders budgetary control over talent
management topics that most impact individual employees, such as day-to-
day work environment, talent retention strategies, and employee and manager
development. Business leaders can use that budget to spend on the talent
management activities they think are most critical to develop their people,
based on their business environment.
Setting Up Guardrails
Gap Inc. Outlet creates guardrails to guide leaders’ decision making by
providing leaders with a menu of resources from which they can choose to
allocate their budget. Business leaders can use external resources in addition to
internal programs, if necessary. HR retains control over some talent resources,
such as compliance, that are best administered centrally.

Build your specific functional people strategy (Tab 1):
• What are your business priorities?
• Where are the critical opportunities from your engagement survey feedback?
• Identify your areas of opportunity.
Review the Learning and Development and Rewards and Recognition
programs “available for purchase” (Tab 2):
• What solutions will meet your needs?
• What additional solutions do you need that might need to be outsourced?
Complete the priorities and resource template specific to your function (Tab 3):
• Click in your EOS drivers—use the drop down to select.
• You can use the Employee Planning Tool (fourth tab) to help define who on your team
you wish to provide specific training for.
• Choose your L&D choices—template will calculate as you go.
• Add additional “external” training that you wish to do.
• Send completed template/workbook back by 21 January.
Step #1: Provide Line Leader Ownership of Talent Strategy and Resource Allocation (Continued)
Fund Leader Strategies with Resources
Gap Inc. Outlet provides individual line leaders control over the talent
management resources that impact engagement and retention of their employees
Gap Inc. Outlet’s Talent Planning Tool
Balancing Line Leader and HR Ownership of Talent Management Resources
Line leaders are provided ownership of areas that impact:
• Day-to-day work environment;
• Talent retention; and
• Employee and manager development.
HR maintains ownership of:
• Compliance resources and programs;
• Core aspects of the employee value proposition
(e.g., compensation, medical benefits); and
• Development, sourcing, and administration
of talent management solutions.
3:
Gap Inc. Outlet provides leaders ownership of their own talent
management budget, which enables the following:
• More resource-effective consumption of talent management programs
• More customized investments to retain and engage key talent
• Forces leader understanding of talent and talent management needs
Line leaders can allocate
their resources among a
menu of center-led talent
management programs
in support of their
individual priorities.VP Finance
Business Unit

Use Peers to Create Accountability
Quarterly Results Shared with Business and Functional Leaders
Instead of having HR hold business leaders accountable for talent outcomes,
Gap Inc. Outlet relies on peer pressure to ensure business leaders achieve
their talent outcomes. Gap Inc. Outlet publishes quarterly Employee Opinion
Survey results, turnover statistics, and progress made on individual talent
action plan items, by each individual business leader’s name, to all business
and functional leaders. In addition, there is a focused conversation at each
quarterly talent meeting when leaders have to brieﬂy review key talent metrics
and progress against their action items.

Accountability Through “Skin in the Game”
Step #2: Use Peer Accountability to Drive Talent Management Urgency
To ensure line leader focus on talent activities,
Gap Inc. Outlet publishes individual talent management results…
Gap Inc. Outlet’s Published Employee Opinion Survey Results
Illustrative
…and drives urgency by presenting
its talent management results
and plans to peer leaders
Leader Total
Emily
Curtis/
Finance
Maya
Smith/
HR
Louise
Holly/
Northeast
William
Stackhouse/
Southeast
Jonathan
Springford/
Northwest
Lucile
Ahada/
Southwest
Work–Life
Balance
75 73 74 76 71 65 82
Belief in
Company
65 55 66 70 68 68 63
Customer
Focus
71 69 76 66 72 78 68
Job
Satisfaction
58 60 59 60 62 50 56
Respect 66 60 59 68 79 75 66
Objective: Create urgency around talent
activities through peer visibility into leaders’ talent
management performance.
When: Quarterly
Participants: All business and functional leaders
within business unit
Information Presented to Line Leaders:
• Individual line leader “Key Talent” metrics
and updates
• Individual line leader employee engagement
pulse survey outcomes and updates
• Individual line leader action plan updates
Business Leader Talent Review Meetings
Employee Opinion Survey, Q4 2007
Line Leader Testimony: Beyond Compliance
“I think the combination of being able to control my own HR resources and a real shared sense of accountability across the leadership team
has brought a new level of urgency and focus on talent issues.”
Sonia Syngal
Vice President, Outlet Production and Supply Chain
Gap Inc. Outlet
Providing Full Visibility into Line Leader’s Results
The CEO, enterprise and division HR, division president (GM), the division
leadership team, and each leadership team member’s entire functional team
will see the leader’s individual results (up to 300 people per team).
At or Below the Bottom 40th Percentile
At or Above the Top 25th Percentile

Use Peers to Improve Talent Outcomes
Solutions Collaboration at the Quarterly Talent Planning Meeting
Gap Inc. Outlet does not use the quarterly talent planning meeting only to
hold leaders accountable; it also serves as a forum for the individuals who see
the results to collaborate on possible solutions. This situation allows Gap Inc.
Outlet to do the following:
• Create a strong sense of team across the division’s leadership by identifying
solutions together.
• Provide an opportunity for business leaders to share best practices.
• Allow business leaders to identify common challenge areas and collaborate
on solutions for which they will hold each other accountable.
A Closer Look at the Collaboration Process
The collaboration process is both a bottom-up and top-down approach, with
speciﬁc action items coming out of the Employee Opinion Survey scores and
from HR and business leaders collaborating to develop a suggested action
plan. Business leaders present the suggested action plan to their peers at the
quarterly talent planning meeting and discuss whether the same challenge is
manifest in other areas of the business or if a best practice exists to address it.
If shared challenges exist, business leaders will identify the most appropriate
business leader to own the action steps and may split responsibilities across
leaders.
Progress Tracked Centrally
Business leaders’ peers have visibility into their progress through a centrally
stored action planning document. This document lists business leaders, by
name, and provides updates on their status. Accountability is further driven
through quarterly reviews by the business unit’s general manager.

Gap Inc. Outlet’s Keys to Successful
Leader Ownership of Talent Initiatives
Agenda Ownership:
Leaders own the agenda for the
talent action planning meetings to
allow focus on the talent challenges
and activities most relevant to their
business.
Visibility into Progress:
An action planning document is
updated quarterly and stored
centrally to provide leaders with full
visibility into each other’s progress,
which in turn drives urgency for
taking action.
GM—Driven Accountability:
Progress against planned activities is
reviewed in a quarterly leadership
team meeting led by the general
manager of the business unit to
instill urgency and execution.
Step #3: Leverage Peer Collaboration to Improve Talent Outcomes
Improving Talent Outcomes Through Collaboration
Gap Inc. Outlet provides leaders with ownership over identiﬁcation
and execution of talent priorities to improve on their survey results
Gap Inc. Outlet Talent Planning Summary
Opportunity/
Action Item
Action Plan
Expected
Delivery
Status Owner
Compensation
Analyze individual pay and ensure it is equitable. March 2008
Will be completed by
3/31/08
Emily Curtis/
Maya Smith
Ensure store pay is aligned appropriately with
job level and experience for every position.
March 2008
Two weeks later, will be
completed by 4/14/08
HR
Career
Opportunity
Create role clarity/review job descriptions
and ensure roles are clearly delineated.
May 2008
On track, will be
completed 5/9/08
Maya Smith
Review organizational structure and ensure best
role alignment to new business priorities.
April 2008
On track, will be
completed by 4/30/08
Jonathan
Springford/
Patrick Ofer
Training
Determine L&D strategy for 2008 (including
external technical training) within L&D budget.
February 2008
Final presentation:
2/29/08
Louise Holly/
Lucile Ahada
Create an onboarding plan for new line
managers.
June 2008 Next update: 3/31/08
Maya Smith/
William
Stackhouse
GM
Line Leaders
HRBP
VP
Business Unit Quarterly
Line-Lead Talent Plan Meeting
Quarterly Talent Management Action Planning Meeting
Use Leader Collaboration
to Improve Talent Outcomes
Gap Inc. Outlet mandates line leaders to collaborate
on the identiﬁcation and execution of key talent
action items in overcoming ongoing talent challenges.

Improved Ownership, Better Results
Improved Results Under a Tighter Budget
Despite a 20% decline in HR budget, Gap Inc. Outlet’s practice to improve
line leader ownership and execution of talent management activities has
helped it realize improvements on key talent and employee engagement
metrics. Speciﬁcally, Gap Inc. Outlet has seen a 25% improvement in its key
talent retention goal. In addition, employee satisfaction scores have increased
14% as a result of improved business leader ownership of talent management
resources, strategy, and execution.

Results
Increased Talent Management Effectiveness
Despite a signiﬁcant decrease in HR budget…
Gap Inc. Outlet’s Corporate HR Budget Reduction
…Gap Inc. Outlet outperforms
key talent retention goal…
Gap Inc. Outlet’s 2007 Key Talent Retention Performance
…and demonstrates improved employee satisfaction
Employee
Satisfaction
Score
2007 2008(Q2)
14%
3.47
3.94
2006 Goal 2007 Goal
Achieved
25%
80%
100%
2006 2007
(~20%)
Talent
Management
Program
Budget
Retention
Goal
Putting Competition to Good Use
“The key to leader engagement in talent management practices is quite simply
accountability: ‘What gets measured, gets done.’ And what gets measured
that has your name on it REALLY gets done! Executives are, by deﬁnition,
competitive and driven to compete on the numbers. The more competitive
you can make the game, the more they will pay attention.”
Eric Severson
Vice President of HR
Gap Inc. Outlet
Average Improvement in Business
Leader’s Employee Satisfaction Scores

Practice Q&A with Eric Severson, Vice President of HR
Commentary and Implementation Tips from Gap Inc. Outlet
1. In hindsight, what would you have done differently? What is the key to making this a successful practice?
“I would have done this sooner. I think it’s a mistake to think that business leaders don’t understand the importance of investing
time and resources in people to drive business results. They do. They are just tired of clunky, time-consuming, one-size-fits-all
talent management solutions that don’t solve the people problems they have now. The keys to making this practice successful
are simplicity and relevance—easy, one-page tools that address burning issues, fast processes, and leveraging existing business
meetings for people processes. If it’s fast, simple, and relevant—and they have to talk about it with their peers and their boss—
they will do it.”
2. If you could only do one thing, what would it be (that is, what’s the most important aspect of this practice)?
“Transparent measurement. Most leaders are where they are because they have a powerful drive to win. They have been trained
for their entire careers to focus on competing on the critical few business levers for which the business holds them accountable.
Most businesses regularly publish individual leaders’ financial results (sales, earnings, margin, etc.)—and that transparency is
a significant motivator and accountability tool. Why not people results? We find that when people results are measured at the
local level (not just the enterprise level), and leaders are competing against their peers, they invest more time and effort in their
people. This is an example of where internal competition can be harnessed and put to good use.”
3. What was hardest about implementing this practice, and how did you deal with that obstacle?
“The hardest part has been providing customized talent management solutions that fit individual leaders’ needs. It’s true that
one-size-fits-all fits no one. However, one-size-fits-all is also generally cheaper and easier to implement for HR. Providing
custom solutions required adopting an entirely new mind-set about what we do and how we do it as an HR team. Increasingly,
we are focused less on things like having a uniform look and feel for programs, forcing best-in-class training on people who
don’t want it, and building in-house solutions that are perfect. Instead, we are focusing more on solutions that are simple, can
be delivered quickly, and that individual leaders care about and are willing to champion.”

Gap Inc. Outlet: Implementation Road Map
The Council recommends the following steps to begin implementing Gap Inc. Outlet’s practice
First Steps: Line Leader–Owned Talent Planning and Accountability
Step #1: Identify Talent Management Decisions That Can Be Decentralized to
Business Leaders—Transfer responsibility to business leaders for talent management
strategies that impact employees’ work environment, retention, and development.
Step #2: Determine Metrics for Holding Business Leaders Accountable—Identify
the most appropriate metrics to determine business leaders’ success at talent
management (e.g., employee opinion surveys, pulse surveys, performance against
people objectives).
Step #3: Transfer Ownership of Talent Management Resources to Business
Leaders—Give business leaders control over the talent management resources
that can impact the talent management strategies for which they have been given
responsibility (e.g., Learning and Development, Rewards and Recognition).
Step #4: Integrate Peer Accountability into Talent Management Process—Identify
opportunities to provide ongoing peer visibility into business leaders’ results
(e.g., monthly publication, intranet dashboards, monthly meetings).
Step #5: Enable Business Leader Collaboration—Create occasions for business
leaders to collaborate on talent management challenges and provide ongoing support
for efforts (e.g., business leader–led monthly meetings, best practice sharing intranet
boardrooms).
Implementation Support

CLC_Line_Leader_Owned_Talent_Planning_and_Accountability_Gap_Inc

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