Almost everyone is aware of Facebook. Usually that knowledge comes from either using its social media product or by reading about its CEO. However, the unique aspects of the firm that almost no one is aware of are its distinct and powerful talent management practices.
In most cases, it takes literally several decades to develop an exceptional company that has a unique set of talent management practices that produce phenomenal business results. But occasionally there are exceptions. Apple became exceptional again in little more than a decade after the return of Steve Jobs. Google developed exceptional people management practices and business results in much less than a decade. But Facebook has gone from a college dorm room idea to an undisputed social media dominance in literally less than a handful of years. I’ve previously done case studies on the amazing talent management practices of both Google and Apple ) and now it’s time to cover the amazing talent management practices at Facebook that result in breathtaking workforce productivity levels.
Here within 15 months of its IPO, the average employee produces over $1.3 million in revenue and $120,000 in profit each a year. The firm’s global product reaches over 1.2 billion users, its stock price has been on a tear, and it has successfully shifted from an exclusively PC web-based platform to one that instead relies on the rapid growth of the mobile platform. Glassdoor has rated the firm No. 1 for employee satisfaction and its employees rate its CEO No. 1 with an almost perfect 99 percent approval rating. If your firm would like to learn from what I can only call simply amazing and results generating talent practices, read on.
The Top 45 Most Unique and Exciting Talent Management Practices of Facebook
I’ve been visiting and studying Facebook since 2008 (I have no financial relationship with the company). During that time I’ve compiled a list of management and talent management practices* that it has implemented. Most are unique and many have clearly not been directly copied from talent competitors like Google, Twitter, and Apple. My primary contribution in this case study is to provide insight into the business reasoning behind each of its unique practices. The 45+ features are separated into 10 different categories. As you scan through these best practices, see if you don’t agree that they are unique in that they push the envelope.
Employees are a high value corporate asset
A powerful business case — of all of the things to remember about Facebook, it is that someone in HR or lower management convinced executives to fund and implement each one of the “crazy” and unique things that you will read about in this case study. Remember that Facebook is no different than any other firm; crazy ideas go nowhere unless a compelling ROI business case is first made to executives.
Quantifying the value of employees — nothing spurs executives to focus on talent management like quantifying in dollars the added economic value of having top-performing versus average ones. Facebook (along with Google and Apple) has taken the time to put a dollar value on its employee assets. For example, Facebook’s Director Of Corporate Development Vaughan Smith has estimated that when recruiting, “Engineers are worth half a million to one million” (each). When a single engineer is worth up to $1 million, you strongly invest in recruiting and in increasing their productivity, and you certainly don’t focus on the relatively miniscule cost per hire that it takes to recruit them.
WOW features that provide employees’ amazing choices