What Is Talent Management?
Talent Management covers the entire employee lifecycle — from attracting and recruiting the right people to ensuring successful offboarding. Actively working with Talent Management is essential for retaining skilled employees and ensuring your organization performs at its best.
Strategic Talent Management
According to Harvard Business Review, company culture plays an equally important role in success as business strategy itself. Yet few organizations manage to implement a clear culture strategy in practice. Many initiatives are launched — which is positive — but without linking them to the business plan, results can become vague.
As HR becomes more integrated with business goals, it’s increasingly important to demonstrate how HR contributes to measurable success. Talking isn’t enough — tangible results and data are needed.
A study from the Stockholm School of Economics found that individuals who identify strongly with their organization and receive positive feedback are more open to change. Talent Management, therefore, involves identifying motivation factors and helping employees connect their identity with the culture and behaviors that drive success.
A Fair Workplace Creates Motivation
Retaining and developing talent is at the heart of Talent Management, especially when it comes to promotions and leadership roles. Harvard Business Review reports that companies where employees perceive fairness in promotions experience:
- Three times higher profitability
- Half the employee turnover
- Stronger performance in growth, productivity, and innovation
Three Key Priorities in Talent Management
Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends 2017 survey identified three top HR priorities for the future: the organization of the future, career and learning, and attraction and recruitment.
Do you have concrete data showing how HR contributes to these areas in your organization? The future relevance of HR depends on our ability to demonstrate business impact today.
Here are three ways to achieve results with your Talent Management strategy:
1. Integrate Culture into Business Strategy
Creating a positive and engaging workplace is just as important as focusing on sales and customer satisfaction. A strong corporate culture leads to higher revenue, better profitability, and happier customers. HR should have a central role in the management team — and HR goals must be treated as core business priorities.
2. Use and Analyze Data
Gut feelings and opinions are not enough. HR needs to rely on clear metrics and present solid business cases. Driving change requires communicating in ways that resonate with your audience — whether that’s HR peers, managers, or executives.
3. Take Initiative — Just Start!
Reading articles and going back to old routines won’t create progress. Successful organizations act — they test, learn, and adapt. Don’t wait for the perfect solution; it probably doesn’t exist. Start small, take action, and build momentum from there.
