DEVELOPING TALENT.

February 15th, 2019

Abbott Hilelson is the Head of Talent Management at Southern California Edison where he is responsible for succession planning, performance management, performance and development goal setting, High Potential (HiPo) leadership development as well as testing and leadership assessments.

Tell us about your background and how you started your career at SCE?

I have over 30 years of HR experience spanning most HR disciplines, both domestically and internationally, with a special focus on Talent Management. My background includes an MA in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University in New York supplemented by broad experience as an HR generalist, Head of Talent Management and Organizational Development, Partner level HR consulting engagements as well as several years running my own search and HR consulting firm. I joined SCE a little over two years ago as the Principal Manager of Talent Management.

How do you feel Talent Management helps employees and their careers?

I believe Talent Management helps employees with their careers by delivering goal setting, succession planning, performance management (PDP) and development planning processes that enable employees to grow through various assessments, development opportunities, and on-the-job performance. We not only design the underlying process and technology to drive goal setting, succession planning and performance management, but we also assist employees by providing a platform for them to communicate their capabilities (employee profile), tools for identifying and implementing development plans as well as training and communications on using these processes. In addition, our team provides HiPo development programs which assist in the development of Individual Contributors (IC’s) through senior executives as well as leadership assessment, mentoring and coaching services.

What are some exciting projects going on in Talent Management at SCE?

There’s a lot of exciting projects. To name a few, we are continuing to expand SuccessFactors (SF) mobile applications to include PDP goals, development goals, and employee profiles. We are also evaluating implementing continuous performance management to supplement the PDP. Technology plays an important role in helping develop talent at SCE. In addition, we are standing up two new HiPo programs: 1)IC who wants to become a leader and 2) IC who wants to remain an IC. We are expanding the use of our new leadership assessment to all Edison leaders. Lastly, we are working on enhancing our mentoring, coaching and career development programs.

You’ve mentioned technology being an important role in how SCE is developing talent. What type of technology or tools does your team use?

The primary technology we use is SuccessFactors supplemented by mobile applications. In our world, technology is not an end in itself but rather a means to an end. What matters most is the quality of the assessment, goal setting, performance, succession and development initiatives that enable us to identify and develop the talent needed to drive our clean energy future.

Are you currently hiring on your team if so can you share about the opportunity?

Yes, we are currently looking for a SuccessFactors System Administrator role. This position plays an important role like standing up new SF modules for mentoring, 360 assessments, PDP mobile and continuous performance management. Longer term, the individual may have the opportunity to implement the SF career development module as well as assist with implementing Employee Central and enhanced reporting capabilities via Cloud Analytics and/or Power BI. In addition, we are continuously reviewing our SF configuration for opportunities to simplify the processes and better serve our various leadership, HR and employee stakeholders.

What is the culture like at SCE and on your team?

Our overall culture at SCE is very diverse and dynamic. We have some very talented individuals that are driven and motivated to make a big impact across the organization and beyond. The Talent Management team is small, but very collaborative. While everyone has their areas of responsibility, we ensure each team member is fully supported in completing their work. There’s also a lot of opportunities to be involved in different projects to bring more innovation across Talent Solutions. We work hard knowing that we are making a huge impact across the organization. Our team enjoys having fun and we also recognize that our families come first.