Dr. Melanie Stopeck Provides Insight on Talent Assessment
Tucson, AZ — On Tuesday, March 28, the Race Track Industry Program hosted Dr. Melanie Stopeck, Managing Director, Talent Management and Organizational Development at Citigroup. She spoke in the RTIP’s Human Resource Management class.
As a managing director, Dr. Stopeck is responsible for talent strategy, succession planning, performance management, diversity, and organizational development for Citigroup’s Global Consumer Banking business. She also manages the annual employee opinion survey process for 230,000 employees across Citigroup.
In her lecture titled “Talent Strategy & Handicapping: Citi’s Approach to Talent Assessment,” Dr. Stopeck provided an overview of Citigroup and explained the importance of finding and identifying forward compatible talent. According to Dr. Stopeck, the key traits of forward compatible people are adaptability, boldness, curiosity, collaboration, and determination.
The second half of Dr. Stopeck’s lecture concerned the assignment of talent designations to high performing employees. The three designations are expert resource, promotable, and high potential. She discussed the reasons why it is important to invest in high potentials and the difficulty in identifying them accurately. Dr. Stopeck concluded the lecture by using horse racing as a metaphor for handicapping talent and that the process is akin to using the Daily Racing Form to try to pick the “winners.”