Talent Development
Sustainable Development Goals:
We invest heavily in talent management to cultivate strong leadership and maximize organizational potential. We prioritize hiring and developing people who embrace our high-performing, team-oriented culture.
Our commitment to promoting from within whenever possible allows us to leverage employees’ deep knowledge and insights, strengthening the business from within. By tapping into our internal talent pipeline, we fill many leadership positions with existing team members, enhancing business performance while recognizing and rewarding our most dedicated employees.
TALENT REVIEW PROCESS
Our Organization & Talent Cycle (OTC) is a core process of the IDEX Operating Model. OTC provides a disciplined approach to connecting company strategy with action, aligning human capital with business needs, and accelerating talent potential.
As part of our OTC process, we conduct regular, in-depth talent reviews with business leaders, our executive team, and the IDEX Board of Directors to assess workforce capabilities and culture. While we follow a shared OTC methodology, each business has autonomy to adapt practices to meet the local human capital needs and to identify high-impact actions to drive growth and human capital strategy. We prioritize identifying stretch opportunities to help team members grow by moving skilled employees between businesses as opportunities arise and interests align.
Performance Feedback
Performance management and professional development are ongoing, collaborative processes that help employees grow and succeed. Employees and leaders engage in open and honest conversations to discuss business and development goals, review progress, recognize accomplishments, exchange feedback, and identify areas for improvement. These continuous dialogues help align business objectives with employee professional growth. Formal performance reviews and constructive feedback sessions occur at least twice a year. By fostering feedback loops, we reinforce employees’ value and contributions, strengthening their sense of belonging and purpose within the organization.
LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP TRAINING
Our agile talent development approach advances our human capital strategy, helping us attract, nurture, and retain the exceptional talent we need now and in the future. Employees have access to resources designed to build and enhance their skills for success in their current role or future positions, including personalized development plans, tuition reimbursement, on-the-job training, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), and opportunities to attend local and external training programs.
Whether an employee aims to improve skills for their current role, strives to enhance capabilities for future opportunities, seeks to develop team-oriented capabilities, attends local training opportunities, or acquires professional certifications or degrees, we provide development solutions to meet their needs. Additionally, each year IDEX invests in a Global Leadership Conference to align top leaders with the company’s strategic vision and strengthen critical leadership skills.
Our talent development philosophy is rooted in the 70-20-10 approach, meaning 70% of an employee’s development should focus on experiential learning, 20% on mentoring and coaching, and 10% on formal training. This model empowers employees to chart their development plans and career paths through resources such as on-the-job stretch assignments, training programs, and professional certifications.
Each business has the flexibility to develop and adapt talent development approaches to meet the unique needs of their teams and talent, enabling leaders to identify stretch opportunities that can empower employees to grow their careers. Our adaptable training framework meets evolving business needs, ensuring employees at all levels have access to personalized development opportunities that fit their roles and aspirations.
The IDEX Academy is more than a global leadership training program. It’s a catalyst for growth strategy and culture at IDEX, deepening our talent pipeline across multiple levels of leadership. The Academy offers a variety of accelerated, on-the-job learning opportunities, allowing emerging leaders from different geographies and business units to practice new leadership behaviors, share best practices, address business challenges, and build strong support networks. Most of our Academy training content is delivered by IDEX leaders who use their knowledge of our businesses to produce tailored learning material and experiences.
Since 2022, 60 high-potential leaders from around the world have participated in the Academy’s signature leadership cohort experiences, including the Leadership Excellence, Business Leader Excellence, and Management Excellence programs. In particular, the Leadership Excellence Program is developing the next generation of IDEX senior leaders through real-world problem solving initiatives. The focus on practical learning is designed to ensure that leaders are ready to lead and innovate in a dynamic business environment.
Intense days-long Rapid Improvement Events (RIEs) unlock potential and ignite collaboration and momentum in a business. These events help identify solutions to challenges that may have held teams back from achieving their full potential. RIEs engage people from the front line to management in inclusive problem solving together. Active participation from all levels of the organization is required, including active sponsorship and engagement from senior leaders.
Participants in the IDEX Academy Leadership Excellence Program gathered with key employees and leaders in November 2024 at our Airtech business in Rutherford, New Jersey, which develops and manufactures precision pneumatics for many industries. This event was aimed at dramatically improving production cell efficiency to ramp up production of a pneumatics component for a key customer. It also gave Leadership Excellence Program participants an opportunity to address real-world business challenges in a hands-on setting.
RIEs are designed to deliver massive breakthroughs in performance, not small, incremental gains. The events require precise planning, long hours, and commitment from everyone involved. Because we believe that inclusion and problem-solving go hand-in-hand, employees from the shop floor to the leadership team are included and every voice is heard. This collaborative approach not only produced remarkable results but also fostered ownership and accountability among team members.
By the end of the weeklong RIE at Airtech, the team surpassed every goal they set, achieving immediate, significant gains in quality and output.
Airtech’s RIE journey is more than a story of operational improvement—it’s a testament to IDEX’s fundamental belief in the power of leadership development, teamwork, collaboration, and inclusion.
