Developing Human Capital: Using Analytics to Plan and Optimize Your Learning and Development Investments

CaseStudyOptimizing Performance Management: VF Corporation

Although this book has focused on learning and development investments, as we discussed in our first book, Human Capital Analytics, this work can also be applied to process improvement investments. This case study shows how the methods described in this book are applied to understand and improve the launch of a performance management process at VF Corporation.

BACKGROUND

VF Corporation is the $7 billion global apparel company that owns such brands as The North Face, Wrangler, Vans, Lee, 7 for All Mankind, Nautica, Majestic, Rustler, JanSport, and many others. While many of these brands are VF’s legacy brands, the company has grown largely through acquisition in recent years. Today’s portfolio represents diverse markets and cultures. VF’s leaders recognized the need to unify the brands and drive a high-performance culture across the disparate divisions, locations, and brands.

In 2010, VF launched Maximizing Performance, a company-wide performance management process, to support its goal of building a culture of performance and to improve business results. A key component in VF’s development of a high-performance culture was getting all associates aligned with corporate goals. With unique cultures across its many brands, VF wanted associates to understand how their individual job roles and departments contributed to their brand and how their brand contributed to the company as a whole.

VF determined that a key indicator ...