In 2019, the head of leadership development for Anglo American plc (Anglo American), a global mining conglomerate, was reviewing the two years she had been working with the human resources (HR) leadership team to establish the company’s international Leadership Academy. Her task was to determine leadership development solutions that supported Anglo American’s strategy and to recommend how to resource, identify, develop, and retain the diverse talent pool required to achieve the company’s business objectives. She had gone to great lengths to ensure the Leadership Academy’s offerings underpinned the organization’s strategic imperatives. She now pondered how to assess the impact of the Learning Academy. Was the human resources leadership team looking at and measuring the right things?
In October 2019, the interim chief executive officer of Air Traffic and Navigation Services SOC Limited (ATNS) in South Africa faced a dilemma regarding talent management. ATNS’s talent pipeline was unbalanced, and there was insufficient progression into more senior positions within the air traffic controller division. ATNS had been recruiting from disadvantaged communities through a bursary program, which trained recipients to become air traffic control officers (ATCOs). However, it took a minimum of eight years to become qualified at the highest level of ATCO, which was a requirement for more complex tasks and leadership roles at ATNS. Many bursary recipients preferred to remain in the lower levels due to the time it took to progress and also because of their potential to earn at lower levels due to the pay structure within the division. ATNS also faced the prospect of losing the highly skilled upper-level ATCOs to international air traffic services. Should ATNS redesign its talent pipeline?
In 2015, the Department of Health for the province of Gauteng, South Africa, deinstitutionalized patients in need of long term health care in an effort to reduce costs. The residents were moved from an established health care facility experienced with providing the care these patients needed to non-governmental facilities. Many of these facilities were unlicensed and lacking the skills and resources needed to provide the necessary care. The project was poorly planned with inadequate notice and patients were transferred without identification, medication, or medical records. From March to June 2016, 1,712 patients were transferred; many of them were lost in the system and 144 died—most from malnutrition, abuse, or neglect. The health ombudsman investigated and released a report in February 2017, placing the blame for the tragedy on three senior leaders in the health care system. A new member of the executive council was appointed upon the release of the report. In 2018, her challenge was to determine what happened and plan changes to ensure such a tragedy would never be repeated.