Provide Superior Employee Development

Developing Employees

National Instruments offers employees numerous opportunities for career development including multiple levels of leadership training, annual performance reviews, and the NI rotation program. Developing employees into leaders, whether as individual contributors or supervisors, empowers employees to multiply their knowledge by motivating team members and helping their colleagues to be more effective. Managers and supervisors apply leadership training to help their staff enhance their performance by giving them regular, constructive feedback.

Three Levels of Leadership Training
Leadership development includes three levels of training: the Supervisory Development Series (SDS), the Management Development Series (MDS), and the Leadership Development Series (LDS).

SDS and MDS training develops the people leadership skills of NI management through group discussion and role play. Both series cover topics such as the essential skills for supervising, leading change, coaching, delegating, and building an environment of trust.

NI developed LDS training for top-level management at NI to more clearly articulate and gain alignment on the roles, responsibilities, and business issues that NI leaders face. Led by several NI officers and Dr. Truchard, this highly interactive training features thought-provoking discussions and exercises. LDS training covers the following areas:

• NI core ideology
• NI strategic vision
• NI business model
• Leadership strategies
• Leadership in the areas of quality and NI culture

In 2010, the company committed to offering MDS training to all managers. Additionally, NI established leadership competency models at the executive level and in several other departments to ensure successful career development plans.

In 2011, NI plans to launch the People Development Series (PDS) for individual contributors at NI corporate headquarters. PDS training was piloted in 2010 with 14 participants and offers similar skills training to those employees who are individual contributors rather than supervisors.

Employees Graduated From Leadership Training Worldwide

+ Denotes a class that was piloted in 2010 and did not occur in previous years.
¹The 2010–2011 class was in progress at the time of reporting and had 28 employees enrolled.

Leadership Training Instructors
Leadership training is possible because employees volunteer their time and effort to help their colleagues be more successful and productive at NI. In 2009, NI created the SED Circle of Excellence to annually recognize those individuals who consistently go above and beyond in the areas of training, development, mentoring, and other SED activities. In 2010, 58 employees were awarded the SED Circle of Excellence for their efforts.

Employee Performance Reviews
Employees meet with their managers individually for a performance review at least annually. It is important that employees receive feedback from their managers to be recognized for their accomplishments and to make improvements as needed. In 2009, NI established standard guidelines and a review form for all US employees and, in 2010, developed these tools for NI branch offices to ensure each employee worldwide receives meaningful, constructive feedback at least on an annual basis.

NI estimates that 72 percent of US employees received performance reviews in 2010, an increase of 20 percent from 2009. NI is working to refine the tracking process to collect data from employees worldwide and currently can track data from the Americas and Europe. In 2011, NI is committed to ensuring at least 90 percent of US employees receive feedback through annual performance reviews.

Percent of Employee Performance Reviews Completed^1,2

¹Estimates are calculated based on the number of performance review forms completed by supervisors and submitted to the human resources department.
² Data is from NI corporate headquarters only.

CASE STUDY

NI Rotation Program

Jenny Mojica

The NI rotation program helps employees further develop skills, knowledge, and perspectives outside of their primary job function. The program allows selected employees to revisit their college internship days by taking a role in another group for several months. The program is designed to facilitate career progression in top-performing employees while meeting business demands.

Jenny Mojica started in the Multimedia group as an intern and continued her full-time career there for three more years. Before starting a rotation, Jenny looked for a group at NI where she could learn new skills but also bring information back to the Multimedia group on how the teams could collaborate to benefit the company. Working with her manager, Jenny quickly selected the Public Relations (PR) group because it gave her access to acquire new skills and increase collaboration between the teams. After a few months of planning, Jenny relocated her desk and focused 100 percent of her time on the new group.

“In the PR group, I learned the process to write a news release, how we interact with external publications, and new ways to earn the trust of project stakeholders. I also learned what multimedia tools are most useful to the PR group and could better understand how to work with them as a client in my Multimedia role. On top of all that, I gained a higher level of visibility to upper management that helped me gain self-confidence.” Participating in the NI rotation program opened a door for Jenny's next career step, working full-time on the PR and Community Relations teams.