Turn? Tencent's internal management "living water plan" exposure!

Tencent launched the "Living Water Plan" at the end of 20 12, hoping to establish a smooth internal talent flow market mechanism and form a culture, which can not only help employees freely find development opportunities within the company, but also quickly support the talent demand of key products and businesses of the company, and achieve a win-win situation for employee development and company strategy. Since 20 13, the living water program has helped more than 5,400 employees find new development opportunities internally, which not only effectively supported the rapid growth of key businesses, but also trained more broad-minded and compound talents for the company. After more than four years of deep cultivation, most employees are familiar with the "living water plan", and living water has become an important cultural symbol of Tencent. ?

The origin of the living water plan

In 2065,438+00, the number of Tencent employees exceeded 65,438+00,000. With the expansion of the organization, the demand for employees to apply for internal employment is increasing. At the same time, the company's multi-field business is developing at a high speed, and high-quality talents are urgently needed to supplement it. But at that time, it was a matter of great courage and concern for employees to apply for internal employment. The biggest worry comes from "What does my boss think of my transfer application?" What if he disagrees? "When employees are ready to communicate with their current bosses and change jobs, many people are prepared for' I will leave if I can't communicate'. In fact, some management cadres really replied that employees "either stay in our team or leave".

Faced with this situation, Tencent introduced the internal talent market rules on 20 1 1, stipulating that "any employee who has worked in his current position for one year and whose latest performance is not' lower than expected' can apply for internal recruitment, and the current boss cannot stop the transfer". The introduction of this rule is a great change from management thinking to product thinking based on user value.

In 20 12, Tencent launched an IT platform for internal recruitment to help employees query internal recruitment information and complete the application. However, the internal talent market was not very active at that time. From time to time, it was reported that management cadres did not allow employees to transfer their jobs internally, which caused contradictions. Tencent management realized that "the release rules are far from establishing a smooth internal talent flow market mechanism", and the rules were written in documents, but they did not form a culture that was deeply rooted in people's hearts, and the management thinking did not really change into a product thinking oriented to user needs. Therefore, the living water plan was launched at the end of 20 12, hoping to promote change. The word "living water" is taken from the famous saying of Zhu, a poet in the Song Dynasty, "Only when the canal is so clear can there be living water at the source", which means that employees can freely find interesting development opportunities in the company through the living water plan and keep their passion and vitality forever.

Implementation of domestic water use plan

20 13 is a crucial year for the implementation of Tencent's living water plan. The project team realized that the internal talent market is inactive because employees still have various concerns, which mainly come from three aspects: first, they are worried about the current superiors' views on internal recruitment and job transfer, and they are worried that their superiors will not agree or even prevent them from jumping ship; Secondly, I am worried that the feedback from the recruitment department is cold when applying internally, and I am afraid that my application will sink into the sea; Finally, I am also worried that it will be difficult to adapt and integrate after moving to a new department. The project team decided to promote a cultural change, so that management cadres can keep an open mind about employees' job hunting and job transfer, and eliminate employees' worries to the maximum extent.

1) Cultivate the market mechanism with the living water culture: take the user's demand as the guide, and completely transform the management thinking into the product thinking.

Managers are not open enough to running water, which shows that management thinking still has the upper hand. It is necessary to make all managers feel that running water is "natural and supportive" in Tencent through cultural changes. When most managers change to product thinking based on employees' needs, the market mechanism will have soil.

In the early stage of cultural change, there must be a considerable density of information for in-depth dissemination. We invited representatives from all levels of the company to speak out and speak for the living water. As the initiators of the living water project, Tony, co-founder and CTO of Tencent Group, and Xidan, senior vice president of Tencent Group, are happy to express their views on the living water project to all employees. Tony said affectionately: the good development opportunities of the company should first be open to internal brothers and sisters. He also called on management cadres to keep an open mind and support employees to change jobs based on career development choices, which is a very positive demonstration for the whole team. Xidan encourages employees to actively try suitable new opportunities in the company, challenge themselves passionately on the new stage and achieve greater success.

(Photo 1: Cultural Publicity Part of Living Water Plan: Sponsorship and Xidan's Views on Living Water)

The project team also created a serial cartoon "Little T Changing Jobs" to promote the living water culture. Little T in the cartoon is an engineer who has worked in Tencent for three years. He hopes to apply for a new team and get more learning and growth. During the application process, he encountered difficulties that other students might encounter, such as: where to find internal recruitment information? How to apply and interview? How to communicate with your current boss? Combining these specific scenes, the cartoon introduces how little T overcame difficulties and troubles, and finally successfully applied for the job and maintained a good relationship with his current superiors.

The first issue of the comics was well received, and many employees left messages interactively. The project team carried out some interesting interactive operations according to employees' messages, and made targeted designs in the second and third phases, which further won the love and praise of employees. This serial cartoon has played a very good role in promoting the infiltration of living water culture.

(Figure 2: The cover of the first issue of the comic book "Little T's Job-hopping")

For a typical scenario, "How to communicate with the current superior after the internal application is successful", the project team even prepared a strategy, which was viewed more than 2,000 times within 1 hour after the internal forum was launched.

After more than two months of high-density information dissemination, employees have a deeper understanding of the concepts of internal talent market and running water, and understand that "personal application and job transfer based on career development" is the direction that the company strongly supports. The voice of the middle and high level of the company also made the management cadres realize that they should keep an open mind about the internal job transfer of employees, and the management thinking began to change to the product thinking. The living water culture has been infiltrated initially, but it still needs the tools behind it and in-depth operation to continuously strengthen it.

2) Guarantee the market mechanism with rules and platforms: cancel the two buttons.

When Tencent released the internal talent market system at the end of 20 1 1, the most breakthrough provision was that when the internal application of employees was successful, the current boss could negotiate to retain them, but he could not stop them from transferring out. The longest negotiation holding period is 90 days. During the demonstration of this regulation, more than 30 internal management cadres were interviewed, and more than 83% of the management cadres expressed their support, but at the same time said: We do not prevent employees from transferring out, but employees need to inform us when applying for internal employment. This requirement is a very stressful regulation for employees, but considering that the veto power of management cadres has been abolished in the system, we should also give due consideration to the demands of management cadres and proceed step by step.

Therefore, when designing the IT platform of the internal talent market, HR colleagues adopted a compromise design: when employees click "I want to apply", a prompt box will appear, which contains two options: "Apply and notify the current superior" on the left and "Apply, I wonder if I will meet the current superior" on the right. Most employees will choose the right button, and the application information of Ta will be sent to the interviewer, who can interview Ta. When the interviewer is ready to fill in the evaluation in the system, there will be a prompt: the candidate has not communicated with the current superior. Please remind Ta to communicate with the system for confirmation before the process can proceed to the next step. This design takes into account the demands of management cadres, but it is not a small psychological threshold for employees. The whole 20 12 internal talent market has fewer employees using IT system, which has a lot to do with this design.

During the implementation of 20 13 living water plan, the project team re-examined this rule and intended to change this inhuman design. The project team once again visited the management cadres interviewed two years ago. It is gratifying that after the in-depth promotion of the living water culture, almost all management cadres said that "it is impossible to ask employees to know themselves when applying for a job". The project team took advantage of the situation and canceled the prompt box and two buttons mentioned above. The subtle changes in this link have significantly lowered the psychological threshold for employees to apply for internal employment.

3) Promote the market mechanism with information transparency: launch linkshow to connect key products and internal talents.

The essence of the living water plan is to connect the demand and supply of talents, and the two sides choose in both directions through the market mechanism. Through regular inventory, Tencent identified the strategic products that the company needs to focus on development and investment. The living water plan will help these products better spread the information of talent demand and help attract talents.

Alex, the general manager of recruitment and deployment of Tencent Group, hopes to build a stage for the company's fast-growing product leaders, make roadshows on this stage, speak for his products like an entrepreneur, promote projects and attract talents at the same time. According to this concept, a communication platform connecting projects and talents-Lianxiu was born soon. Some product or project leaders will sign up for linkshow, and share product development ideas and plans, team atmosphere and help to employees' growth through on-site sharing and company-wide live broadcast, so as to attract interested students to join.

Since its launch, Linkshow has helped 36 product or project teams to spread their brands internally, attracting more than 1.62 million people to watch on-site and online, and helping key projects to introduce talents from within. This open and transparent way has further strengthened Tencent's living water culture.

(Figure 3: 3: At the LINK SHOW, a product manager is speaking for his product. )

In addition, the project team will push the "internal recruitment project" email to employees every week, spread the talent demand of the company's key products and projects to the target audience by designing attractive internal recruitment advertisements, and attract interested employees to apply.

4) Pay attention to the voice of employees and protect the living water culture with agile optimization.

After the 20 13 project, the living water culture has penetrated deeply in Tencent, and the talent market mechanism has become smooth, which is also clearly reflected in the data: 20 1 100, the number of people who want to change jobs in Tencent exceeded 65,438, an increase of 58% over the previous year, of which 54% entered the company's strategic products.

However, a product will always encounter various new problems and challenges during its operation, which requires continuous attention to the voice of users, agile response and optimization, and the living water plan is no exception.

2065438+July 2005, an employee joked in the internal forum that it was inconvenient to open the internal application website in the office, and he was a little worried that his application information would be seen by his superiors. The project team immediately upgraded the living water IT platform, launched a mobile application portal, and launched a video of "Living water platform, privacy", telling all employees that they can apply for internal positions with one click while lying on the sofa. The system design fully protects the information security of candidates and is very private.

2065438+April 2007, an employee spoke in an internal forum, saying that when he applied internally, the interviewer of the recruitment department "leaked" his application information to his current superior, which put him in a very embarrassing and difficult position. After discovering this situation, the project team immediately carried out information confidentiality education for all interviewers and managers, and at the same time formulated a punishment mechanism for leaking internal candidate information. The project team implanted these complaint and punishment mechanisms into the IT platform, and every logged-in interviewer and manager had to click "OK" to operate.

The establishment of living water culture is hard-won, and every bad case may have a great impact on living water culture. The project team does not ignore every user's voice and feedback, timely introduces measures and constantly optimizes them, and cares for the living water culture and brand like their own children.

Effectiveness of living water plan

Tencent's living water plan has been implemented since the end of 20 12, and after more than four years of in-depth operation, it has brought positive effects and results to the company in many aspects.

1) Promote the healthy flow of employees and the survival of the fittest, and support the rapid development of key businesses.

Over the past four years since the implementation of the Living Water Plan, more than 5,400 employees have been helped to change their jobs, and most of them have entered Tencent's key products or projects, which has strongly supported the rapid development of these products. Take WeChat as an example. In the last three and a half years, more than 300 employees joined the WeChat team through the Living Water Program, accounting for about 60% of the talents introduced by WeChat, which provided strong support for the agile innovation and rapid growth of WeChat products. Zhang Xiaolong, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent and President of WeChat Business Group, also affirmed the Living Water Plan. He said: "The living water plan has been thoroughly implemented, which has promoted the active flow of employees, solved most of WeChat's talent recruitment and avoided brain drain. It is worth encouraging and persisting! "

Due to the free flow of internal talents, some products with unclear directions or not recognized by users naturally cannot retain talents, which accelerates the rapid failure of products and objectively promotes the natural elimination and metabolism of business.

At the same time, the internal running water also effectively promotes the control of the total manpower. Fast-growing teams introduce talents from the inside and reduce the introduction from the outside. Some employees of mature teams may not be full after being transferred out. It is conservatively estimated that if 30% of the employees transferred from living water are not replenished, this plan will reduce the growth of 1.600 people for the company. According to the public data in Tencent's financial report in recent three years, the per capita labor cost is equivalent to saving about 953 million yuan, which effectively improves human efficiency.

2) The living water plan accelerates the iteration and online speed of new products.

Tencent Cloud is a fast-growing product in recent two years. In 20 16, more than 50 employees joined Tencent Cloud through the living water plan, which strongly supported the rapid iteration of Tencent Cloud. Wang Huixing, vice president of Tencent Cloud, said: "Tencent's talent team has a solid accumulation, but different businesses have different life stages. Some businesses have entered the platform period after rapid development, and some experienced talents have joined the new growth business through the living water plan, which not only has professional and technical counterparts, but also has a high degree of cultural matching and a good pulling effect, which greatly accelerates the incubation and development of new businesses. "

3) The long-term performance of the employees of running water transfer has been improved, which has stimulated personal vitality.

What changes have been made in the performance of employees who have changed jobs through running water? By tracking and analyzing the four performances of employees before and after job transfer, the project team found that the average performance of the second and third times after job transfer was higher than that of the penultimate and third times before job transfer, and there was a significant difference in statistics. Taking more than 400 employees who changed jobs in the second half of 20 15 and had five performance evaluations as an example, the average performance of the second and third time before job transfer was 3.07 and 3.30, respectively, and the average performance of the second and third time after job transfer was 3.39 and 3.38, respectively, which was improved, and the T test was significant. This data shows that: on the whole, employees who have transferred from living water have greater vitality and better performance in their new posts.

4) Employee satisfaction has improved.

Tencent launches a survey on the engagement and satisfaction of all employees every year. One of the topics in the questionnaire is: When I need to find a more suitable development opportunity within the company, I can successfully achieve it. The score of this topic has been significantly improved in the last two years, indicating that employees' satisfaction with internal career development is constantly improving.

(Table 1: Tencent employees' satisfaction with internal career development has been continuously improved in the last two years)

When employees are satisfied with their internal career development opportunities, they will actively share Tencent's living water plan with others, which is a valuable attraction for students who consider Tencent's job opportunities. On the famous Q&A website Zhihu, someone asked: Which department of Tencent is the most worthy of joining at present? Why? A Tencent employee's answer got 1200 likes. The core of his answer is: in the Internet era, business changes rapidly, organizations will adjust rapidly, and the boundaries of departments are very dynamic. The most important thing in any position is to do things best and improve your ability, because Tencent has a strong living water plan. As long as you prove your ability, there will be countless opportunities to apply and choose internally.

After more than four years of deep cultivation, living water has become an important cultural symbol of Tencent. Xidan, senior vice president of Tencent Group, firmly believes that the market mechanism is one of the effective measures to prevent diseases in large enterprises. He said: "The living water plan provides a market mechanism for the effective allocation of talents. When each individual can constantly find a more passionate stage in the organization and glow with new vitality, the whole organization will become more energetic. " Tencent is also exploring the construction of a flowing IT platform with more open and transparent information. I hope that the person in charge of the project team can better introduce business planning, talent demand, talent development and other information through short videos on this platform, and employees can discuss or evaluate with their real names. This product directly faces the needs and voices of employees and makes information more open and transparent. I hope this product can make a living water culture to a higher level.

Talents have living water and organizations have vitality. The living water plan will become Tencent's long-term and in-depth plan, so that the benign flow of talents can quickly support the company's fast-growing products, keep employees passionate and energetic, and promote Tencent to continuously create products that surprise users.