November 2010

10 Questions for Cindy Redding, Vice President,
Human Resources, The Mosaic Company

How does your organization connect community involvement to employee engagement?

Through employees’ sense of accomplishment. Mosaic has operations in the communities where our employees live and work, where their children go to school and where significant community needs exist. Many Mosaic employees are long-tenured and have deep roots in their communities; they want their communities to thrive and grow. We have many employees engaged in corporate philanthropic giving, volunteerism and support of local organizations. They are active in various initiatives, such as local United Way campaigns; Habitat for Humanity; the Mosaic Heart Centre at Regina, Saskatchewan; the Mosaic Coastal Education Center near Tampa, Florida; and the Mosaic Village Project in India, Africa and Guatemala, which helps farmers improve crop yields.

As the vice president of human resources for a global company, which people practices do you feel are most significant in terms of return on investment?

The greatest return comes from hiring and retaining the best and the brightest — the employees who take capability to ever-increasing levels, achieve the seemingly unachievable and set a higher competitive standard for the rest of the organization. Increasing the quality-of-hire also directly and exponentially drives revenue performance and competitive advantage. A high return on investment also comes by effectively managing the talent through solid on-boarding, performance management, development and succession planning processes. Those processes identify and develop high potentials, those with critical skills and key successors. Finally, there’s our approach to total rewards. Once we have identified our key performers, effectively recognizing, rewarding and differentiating top talent is key to high retention, solid engagement and our long-term success.

What are the top three human capital challenges facing your organization?

The first is attracting and retaining top talent in remote locations and areas where critical and highly specialized talent is scarce. The second is achieving the highest levels of health and safety performance in all areas of our global operations. And the third is developing and deploying our People Leaders (our term for people managers at our organization) to be highly effective managers, while simultaneously capturing and transferring knowledge from senior, experienced employees to the new generation of employees.

What is Mosaic’s approach to talent management?

Over the past two years, our primary focus has been on establishing a global performance management process that includes scaled competencies, as well as individual and team goals, to emphasize that “what gets done” is as important as “how it gets done.” We conduct global talent reviews and calibration sessions to inventory our talent and enhance succession planning. We work to improve People Leaders’ effectiveness through enhanced training and development and by strengthening individual competencies. And we host an annual Leadership Forum for the top 130 Mosaic Strategic Leaders around the world to help them internalize the leadership competencies, understand the state of the business and network with other Mosaic strategic leaders.

How do you see your talent management programs evolving?

In the coming year, our focus will be on implementing our global learning strategy, which supports the talent management agenda with a comprehensive curriculum. We’ll also be implementing a learning management system and expanding the existing talent management programs.

How do you define success for each employee?

When an employee is proud to work for Mosaic, finds a sense of accomplishment in what they do, feels fairly treated and compensated for their contributions, and feels they have a long-term career and future opportunities with Mosaic. When employees are excited about the organization, they’re more likely to go the extra mile and get good results — which drives both individual and team success.

How do you connect your organization’s business strategy with your people strategy?

The first of Mosaic’s five business strategic priorities is “Invest in People.” We intentionally put it first, to emphasize the importance of the people side of our business. This enables HR to drive the most important and high-impact elements of our talent management strategies and helps define the right culture. Another strategic priority is “Innovation and Operational Excellence.” This has enabled HR to develop an HR operating model that outsources non-strategic HR work, supports global technology capabilities and establishes a strong foundation from which to launch our HR programs. Mosaic HR can now spend more time on the business needs and become stronger business partners. Over time, the business needs change and our people practices evolve, so we continuously assess both to ensure the people strategy stays aligned with the business strategy.

How can a VPHR make an important impact on an organization’s business strategy?

By having the right HR programs, processes, policies and systems in place to efficiently and effectively support our People Leaders in attracting, retaining, motivating, rewarding and developing our talent. By ensuring that the HR strategy stays aligned with the business strategies and business partner needs, and proactively changing when conditions warrant change. And by understanding the business and industry, anticipating global market conditions, identifying growth opportunities, and then forecasting and anticipating the people-related implications.

What was your career progression before serving as Mosaic’s VPHR?

Prior to Mosaic, I worked at MDU Resources, a natural resources organization headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota, where I served as VPHR for almost 5 years. Prior to MDUR, I had several great HR career opportunities in multiple capacities — domestic and international — at Sonoco Products Company, Abbott Laboratories and Amoco Corporation. I’ve lived in six states and relocated 14 times with my family!