April 2022 HR Lineup

— HR Lineup

April 2022

— Table of contents

Checking in on Performance Leveraging optional Performance Review windows to drive our performance culture Internal Mobility Unveiling the benefits of hiring from within

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Gathering feedback – as much as needed, as often as possible

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An interview with Regula Vijgenboom, Head of GBS HR Operations

Employer branding landing page Learn how we work to make ABB an attractive employer in the eyes of candidates – and what you can do to help! LinkedIn Training Find out how to leverage the platform to help attract top talent

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— HR Lineup

Bi-monthly publication for ABB line managers

Welcome to the April 2022 issue of the HR Lineup , a tool created in response to your requests for Human Resources information and updates regarding annual processes, special projects and initiatives, and other items of interest. We need your help and partnership to ensure the content we include is meaningful and of use to you! Please share your feedback and questions, as well as suggestions for content to include in the future, by sending an email to HRLineup@abb.com.

Thanks, and enjoy!

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— Checking in on Performance

Leveraging optional Performance Review windows to drive our performance culture

practices, and offering regular windows to discuss and document performance is just one example. Three Performance Review windows will be opened during 2022 to enable managers and their employees to discuss the impact and contributions from performance, to foster development and growth, and to capture comments to promote transpar- ency in performance conversations. The ac- tual dates that conversations take place during these windows will vary based on what works best for employees and manag- ers. The first of these windows will open to employees on April 4, 2022 ; refer to the table on the next page for the full schedule.

People Performance Management (PPM) matters. How well we do it has a signif- icant impact on the way our employees perform and engage with the business, and ultimately on our baseline/business performance as a company. At ABB, we strive for an open and honest perfor- mance culture, as we believe it is the way to improve existing ways of working. It takes courage, confidence and empathy to communicate openly and honestly and share and receive feedback at the right moments.

There are many skills, tools and mecha- nisms that bring PPM into our everyday

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Review Window Opens for Employees

Closes for Employees

Opens for Managers

Closes for Managers

1 2 3

April 4, 2022 June 13, 2022 August 22, 2022

April 22, 2022

April 25, 2022

May 13, 2022 July 22, 2022

July 1, 2022

July 4, 2022

September 9, 2022

September 12, 2022

September 30, 2022

The windows are optional for both em- ployees and managers. Some may wish to use only one window, while others may choose to use all three as an opportunity to share feedback, ensure alignment, and document conclusions. These windows do not replace, but rather, should go hand in hand with regular day-to-day performance feedback. It is important to note how HR Group Tools (HRGT) functions during the second and third windows: • The Performance Review templates that were saved or submitted and acknowledged during the previous window are opened again. This enables employees and managers to reflect any changes and add further comments if needed.

• If there are no changes to what was saved or submitted and acknowl- edged during the previous window, then there is no need to do anything and no need to submit and acknowl- edge again. • Comments that were saved or submit- ted and acknowledged during the pre- vious window are still there, however when the window is re-opened both employee and manager can see their own comments only, until the temp- late is submitted .

Additional resources and information are available on the People Performance Management Inside+ page, including the Toolkit for Managers, and a link to the Learning Ecosystem Performance Micro-Series.

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— Internal Mobility

Unveiling the benefits of hiring from within

There are many things to consider when you need to fill a vacancy in your team, not the least of which is whether to hire internally or externally. Hiring from outside the organization can be a great way to get fresh ideas, tap into innovative thinking and maybe find talent with the exact skills and experience you need. At the same time, there are also many benefit to hiring from within, and here are a few of them. The power of motivation Research by Gartner 1 shows that having a more vibrant internal labor market can result in a 27% increase in discretionary effort and a 33% increase in intent to stay (retention) from employees.

Hiring from within sends a message that the company values its employees and wants to invest in them. Giving employees more opportunities to advance their ca- reers and gain new experiences and skills, whether through upwards promotion or lateral moves, is always good for morale. Every role change develops employees professionally and is also a positive exam- ple for other employees who see that they could have similar opportunities in the future. Hiring internally can be quicker and safer All recruitment activity takes time, but when you look internally, you are talking to a pool of individuals who are already mo- tivated to work at ABB and prescreened for culture and values fit. When recruiting, time

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is often of the essence, and internal talent is faster to hire. And there is far less risk of a “no show” after an offer is accepted! Internal Talent can hit the ground running Don’t underestimate the time it can take for an external hire to adapt to a new com- pany culture. Research 2 shows that, on aver- age, outside hires take longer to perform as well as internal hires in the same job. Not only do internal hires already under- stand and know how to navigate the ABB culture, they also know most of the compa- ny’s policies and procedures, how to use the IT systems, etc. They may also already know teammembers across the company, and their established network can make them resourceful and cover for any initial competency gaps. Internal Talent may perform better According to Gartner 1 , managers also report that internal hires perform better than externals across a range of mea- sures, like collaboration and meeting expectations, which can add up to 10% fewer regretted hiring decisions. In some instances, internal candidates may not come ready with all the skills you need, but what they do have is a track record of success within our company, and they are motivated to work hard to maintain their reputation and succeed. Conversely, hiring experienced external talent who may be overqualified for the job could backfire. Even if they perform well in the short term, someone who is not stretched or learning from their job won’t stay motivated or stick around for long before they are looking for their next move. Both hiring managers and internal candidates learn through the interview process Interviewing a significant number of inter- nal candidates can feel like a considerable investment of time, but like any invest- ment, it can reap the rewards. Even though

you will not hire everyone you interview, by keeping an open mind, you can learn a lot about what is going on in other parts of the company, assess how attractive your department is, influence and build a future pipeline of talent. For unsuccessful internal candidates, the feedback they receive from you as the hiring manager is a rich source of learning and guided development. Hopefully, it can provide very tangible and constructive steps for them to work on, to be ready next time an opportunity arises. Make the most of the Open Job Market by keeping an open mind and welcoming inter- nal candidates in the recruitment process. You just might find your next star peformer!

1.

Building a Vibrant Internal Labor Market (Gartner, 14 Nov 2018) Your Approach to Hiring Is All Wrong (Harvard Busi- ness Review, May-Jun 2019)

2.

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— Gathering feedback – as much as needed, and as often as possible An interview with Regula Vijgenboom, Head of GBS HR Operations

HR Lineup: Regula, in two sentences, what is the new Customer Feedback Functionality? Regula: It’s an additional opportunity for us as GBS HR Operations to hear from our customers and to better understand what we are doing well, so we can continue do- ing that, but even more importantly to understand where we need to improve. Feedback Functionality that has been launched and why your feedback is so important. We recently connected with Regula to discuss the new Customer

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HR Lineup: There was already a process in place where customers can provide feedback to GBS HR Operations. What is the difference in the new feedback process? Regula: That is correct. Whenever a ticket in AskHR is being resolved, we ask our customers about their overall experience, and also ask them to indicate how much effort it took for them to get their ticket resolved – and we will continue with that. However, we identified a gap that it was difficult for our customer to give us feed- back – either good or bad - which was not specifically related to a ticket. With this new functionality, we are bridging this gap and making it easier for everybody to get in touch with us and share feedback on how we are doing. No seriously, if the feedback is positive, it gets forwarded to the respective team or team member. They then validate and ana- lyze the type of feedback, and we respond with a thank you note to the customer. If the feedback is negative, the responsible team or team member has to dig deeper into what went wrong, where, and how this feedback can be converted into a pro- cess improvement. Also, in this case se- nior leadership gets involved to ensure the proper quality. We of course keep the customer informed on the progress during this process. HR Lineup: What happens with the feed- back after you received it? Regula: Depending on the content of the feedback we celebrate or not [laughs].

HR Lineup: How do you expect this functionality to impact the relation- ship between the businesses and GBS HR Operations? Regula: We sincerely do hope we can fur- ther improve and strengthen the relation- ship with our customers and their overall experience working with us. On one hand because it will help us to better under- stand their needs and implement appro- priate improvements in our day-to-day work. On the other hand, we aim for more personal interaction with our customers. We are aware that communication through a semi-automated ticket system can sometimes appear a bit impersonal, so we are doing our best to remedy that. And we think this is a fantastic opportu- nity for our teams to break down the “ticket wall” and give our services a more personal touch. HR Lineup: The functionality has been in place since the end of last year. What was the experience over the first couple of months? What can you already say that you’ve learned during this time? Regula: We are actually very positively surprised by how much feedback we’ve already received. Usually when you im- plement a new functionality it takes a while for customers to get used to it, but we already see a constant increase in the usage, which makes us very happy. It is still too early to deep dive into the data, but the general trend we currently see is that most of the positive feedback was related to collaboration and customer service beyond expectations, while the areas in which we have the most potential for improvement seem to be related to process, quality and timeliness.

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HR Lineup: Going forward, what do you want to tell your customers: how should they use this feedback functionality?

What is really crucial to make this new functionality a success is to understand exactly what the feedback is about. So, if we could ask for one thing, it’s that when customers provide their feedback, we’d appreciate a detailed description and context to the feedback to avoid un- necessary going back and forth, which creates additional workload for both sides, and that’s the exact opposite of what we want to achieve. We are convinced that the Customer Feedback Functionality is really an addi- tional opportunity for us to engage in a dialogue with our customers and together improve our services to meet their needs.

Regula: As much as needed, and as often as possible. [laughs]

We really appreciate every single piece of feedback we get. The negative ones because they tell us exactly where we can further improve, and the positive ones because it feels good to see what we’re doing right – and to be able to recognize our teammembers for their efforts. And let’s be honest, everyone deserves a pat on the back every now and then for their hard work, which then of course also helps to keep spirits up.

To share your thoughts, please visit MyServices/ Human Resources and click on Share your feedback.

“Thank you sincerely for your support. It was a complicated scenario which re- quired patience and engagement of mul- tiple stakeholders and you did very well with both.” Feedback from Fatima Seedat, regional HRBP MO MEA (related to a visa sup- port ticket in Egypt) “After submitting the negative feedback, I was immediately contacted personally, which I appreciate a lot. However, I’m hopeful that my feedback will provoke a discussion on ticket handling, RCA and implementing long-term process improvements.” Feedback from Ewelina Bartczak, re- gional HRBP IA CH (related to vacation management process)

We look forward to hearing from you!

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— Employer branding landing page Learn how we work to make ABB an attractive employer in the eyes of candidates – and what you can do to help!

Visit our new Employer branding landing page for an overview of the University Relations, Early Talents and Employer branding team, program and activities. We work together to keep ABB among the most attractive employers globally – and we have tips for how you can also do your part! Learn about our initiatives and programs to attract early talents, and how you can contribute by sharing jobs on social media or becoming an ABB Talent Ambassador where applicable. Also, you will get useful information on our ABB brand, our tem- plates, and how you can welcome early talents in your team while staying mindful of our diversity and inclusion ambitions. There is so much you can do, and by telling your own story you can contribute to ABB’s brand!

Visit the Employer branding page today to learn more.

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— LinkedIn Training Find out how to

leverage the platform to help attract top talent

We are pleased to share that we are offering training for hiring managers, facilitated by our account partner at LinkedIn. Join us to learn more about optimizing your profile, posting your open positions, and leveraging your networks to more effectively use the platform for attracting and engaging with top talent. The live sessions will take place on April 28, 2022 , at 8:00am CET and 4:00pm CET respectively. They will be hosted via Microsoft Teams Webinar, and participants will be able to ask questions using the chat feature.

Please click one of the links below in order to register to attend the session that is most convenient for you. A recording will be made available for those who are unable to attend, and will be placed on the Recruiting toolbox for managers on Inside+.

• LinkedIn Session One:

8:00am CET, April 28, 2022

• LinkedIn Session Two:

4:00pm CET, April 28, 2022

We hope you can join us!

Helpful Links

• Single Cycle

• Global Onboarding Portal

• Recruiting toolbox for managers

• FusionOne

• Leadership Learning

• AskHR

— GBS HR Your People Partners Trista Schlick, Global HR Communications & Experience Lead trista.schlick@ch.abb.com

https://go.insideplus.abb.com/about-abb/global-business-services/gbs-human-resources

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