PLEASE VISIT OUR SPONSORS

Assessment & Evaluation

Published March 2008

How Effective Are Your Company's Strategic Talent Management Initiatives?

 

  Sir Andrew Likierman and Dr. Douglas A. Ready

Yes... finally... interest in talent management has reached the appropriate level - fever pitch. No longer solely the domain of HR departments, CEOs have come to realize they need talent management to execute their strategic objectives. The time has come for HR professionals to move from talking about the need to become strategic business partners to delivering by designing and executing talent initiatives that are strategic in nature and focused on building and sustaining competitive capacity.

This is an historic opportunity for the HR function to deliver value at least equal to any other functional expert on the CEO's team. Yet it is this same fever pitch condition that worries us HR might rush to offtarget programs, processes and metrics characteristic of the competencies craze of the mid-1990s. Thus, we feel compelled to say: "Yes, seize the moment, but take the time to get it right."

But what does getting it right mean when it comes to a company's talent management initiatives? Sooner or later, you will be asked, "Are our talent management processes working? Are they effective?" These are valid questions, and it's essential to think through them in advance to avoid that "deer in the headlights" look when your CEO asks you. We want to offer six questions for talent management professionals to consider in thinking how they might go about measuring the effectiveness of their companies' initiatives. Whenever possible, we have included examples of what some leading companies are doing in response to these questions.

1. Have you framed your organization's talent management agenda correctly? This question is an invitation to put all of the problems, issues, concerns and challenges involved in measuring talent management into an appropriate perspective for your company. Get the issues on the table, but don't be overwhelmed by them. Help your CEO create your company's talent manifesto. Capture the high ground, and then follow up with specifics that will reinforce your policy statements.

For example, companies such as GE have talent manifestos that are unambiguous about people being central to their organizations' competitive advantage. This framing puts CEOs out in front by their statements linking people to the creation of "an undeniable competitive advantage," as GE's CEO Jeff Immelt said concerning his company's talent practices. If employees know the CEO is firmly behind getting talent management right, they will quibble less about whether or not the measures and metrics are perfect; they will get down to work on doing the right things and doing things right.

2. Have you engaged all key stakeholders in clarifying your organization's views on talent management? Answering this question will help you "take action before getting started," as New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra might have said. Instead of succumbing to the temptation of offering a variety of talent initiatives immediately, HR professionals would be well served to engage their line counterparts in an intensive dialogue about what they hope to gain from such initiatives. Fundamentally, it is important to get to the heart of the matter by addressing questions such as: "Can we clarify what we mean by talent management?", "What exactly do we believe the differences are between 'strategic talent management' and 'strategic HR?'" and "Just who is it we are talking about when we use the term 'talent?'" It is not a matter of finding the right answer but finding the answers that are right for your organization.