Talent Management

Chief executive officers are adding talent management to their agendas in growing numbers, according to a white paper by the Economist Intelligence Unit, in cooperation with Development Dimensions International (DDI). Talent management now takes more than 20% of a CEO's time, the white paper reports.

Although CEOs are taking more responsibility for people-related issues, they are not necessarily being guided by an overall strategy, the research suggests. CEOs are spending as much as half the time they devote to "people issues" identifying, preparing, and monitoring promising executives, and, in many cases, participating directly in such development activities as mentoring and teaching leadership skills.

Major findings of the paper include:

• Seven of the 20 executives interviewed spend at least 30% of their time on talent management; another eight estimated their commitment to be at least 20%.
• Although the executives interviewed engage in talent development activities and succession planning, much of their involvement is ad hoc and doesn't stem from a formal plan explicitly linked to corporate goals.
• Although the CEOs say that strong talent management leads to improved financial performance, they don't measure return on investment explicitly.

HRfocus, August 2006

According to a global study of companies with "world-class HR organizations" by the Hackett Group:

• Achieve 67% less voluntary staff turnover than typical companies by focusing on strategic workforce planning
• Require 46% fewer new recruits than typical companies
• Fill positions 11% faster
  
• Spend 13% less than their peers - $ 2150 versus $ 2482 per employee - and
• Operate with 15% fewer staff - 11.5 compared to 13.5 HR staff per 1,000 employees.

The Book of Numbers study, based on analysis of Hackett's database of 2,100 global companies, identified the following as key areas for top-performing HR teams:

• senior management consultation related to strategic workforce planning,
• training of critical skills and competencies,
  
• talent management practices including identifying key performers and implementing formal retention programs for them and regularly reviewing succession plans with senior management
• making diversity part of the strategic resource planning

Personnel Today (UK), July 18, 2006

Australian businesses aren't doing enough to recognize and retain talent. An online survey of 152 chief executives, directors, general managers, human resources managers and line managers by the assessment company SHL found only a slight increase in talent-management strategies compared with 2005.

• 70% of the companies surveyed said talent management was either very important or critical to their business, but 95% said they weren't happy with their present strategies.
• 57% said they had a talent-management strategy in place, an increase from 43% in 2005.
• 91% rated recognizing an employee's potential as important, only 17% said they felt their company did it well.

Sunday Telegraph (Australia), July 16, 2006