THE CASE FOR TALENT MANAGEMENT

Executive Summary

1.     This briefing examines talent management from five perspectives – its imperative in terms of current business/employment conditions, trends and drivers, different focuses for initiatives, setting a business case and the talent management challenges that organizations face. A summary of Key Learning Points is provided to guide executive thinking.

2.     There are clear external drivers for introducing or realigning talent management. Skills shortages, increasing talent costs/market rates, talent being headhunted, restructuring/downsizing and better talent management in other organizations are five. Internal shortcomings are also driving developments – including increasing defection rates, demotivation, greater employee expectations and weak succession planning.

3.     Given such a complex subject and organizations' unique requirements, defining a key focus or thrust for talent management efforts is essential, as is doing the fundamentals well before trying to be too innovative. Focuses in some organizations include identifying top performers, learning/development, compensation/rewards, developing latent talent and improving retention.

4.     The critical issue is to ensure that talent management efforts contribute to business strategy, annual strategic goals/initiatives or pressing business issues. In this respect, talent management will have both current and future perspectives. A key decision is to determine whether specific talent groups or the whole workforce are the prime beneficiaries.

5.     It is essential to set a coherent business case for talent management efforts/investments though, advisers agree, this is not common practice. The case will reflect the organization's requirements, using metrics to monitor progress or for diagnosis. Financial figures – costs, expenses, ROI (return on investment), etc – will be featured, as will more longer-term value-creating outcomes.

6.     Respondents to a talent management survey report that barriers to talent management success will have to be overcome. Converting talent management theory into practice, levels of recognition, internal agreement on issues, how well talent groups are managed and the quality of an organization's value proposition are examples.

7.     Talent management can have other testing challenges, as advisers confirm. Three of significance are taking into account the disparate impacts of business slowdown, creating a logical, understandable talent process or framework, and tackling particularly difficult questions. Realism and some circumspection will be important to leaders of an organization's efforts.

8.     A case study on St Luke's Communications is provided for a range of experiences related to the issues above, including Key Talent Propositions and Practices from the employee-owned, inclusive business.

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