Better Talent Management: 5 Tips You Can Implement Today

Better Talent Management Drives Measurable Results
Research consistently shows that organizations investing in talent management outperform their peers. A recent Bersin study found that companies with advanced talent strategies generate 26% more revenue per employee and experience 41% lower turnover.

Our own organizational alignment research reinforces this impact: talent management alone explains 29% of the performance gap between high- and low-performing companies in terms of:

• Revenue
• Profitability
• Customer loyalty
• Leadership effectiveness
• Employee engagement

In other words, how you attract, develop, and retain talent directly shapes your organization’s bottom line.

The Definition of Better Talent Management
We define talent management as the strategic capability to attract, develop, engage, and retain the right people — ensuring that your workforce aligns seamlessly with both your organizational culture and your business objectives.

The Goal of Better Talent Management
The goal of talent management is to drive sustained organizational excellence through people. This means attracting, developing, engaging, and retaining the right talent—those who align with your unique culture and business strategy.

When done well, effective talent management creates a competitive edge, enabling your company to thrive in both strong and challenging markets. When done poorly, inconsistent or misaligned approaches can stall growth and undermine performance.

5 Best Practice Tips for Better Talent Management
Here are five best practices to leap ahead of your competition through your people:

1. Aligning Individual Goals with Your Business Strategy
   Once your business strategy is clearly defined and widely understood, the next step is translating it into the critical few actions and key behaviors required at every level of the organization.  When employees see how their work directly contributes to organizational goals, they become more engaged, accountable, and motivated, driving both personal and company performance.
2. Ongoing, Meaningful Feedback
   Effective talent management depends on managing performance in real time. Leading organizations have discovered that annual performance reviews alone fall short — frequent, timely feedback is far more impactful.

   Employee feedback is most effective when it is continuous, specific, and sourced from multiple perspectives—including peers, customers, partners, direct reports, stakeholders, and leadership. This approach ensures employees understand how their contributions drive results and where to focus their growth.

3. Development Opportunities
   Employees thrive when they have clear opportunities to learn, grow, and advance—a signal that their organization values them and is committed to investing in their careers.  Providing meaningful career development not only enhances engagement but also strengthens overall talent management, ensuring your workforce remains capable, motivated, and aligned with business goals.
4. Helpful Technology
   Multiple options now exist to support HR in their role of optimizing the effectiveness of employees.  From help in recruiting the right talent, identifying skill gaps, assessing performance and potential using simulations, monitoring progress against identified behavioral goals, and addressing development needs, technology is a tool that can greatly benefit HR if implemented correctly.
5. A Workable Succession Plan
   Avoid disruptions caused by key vacancies by proactively identifying your most strategic roles and the employees who are critical to your success.  Develop and prepare high-potential talent so that when important positions open, you have qualified, ready candidates — ensuring continuity, minimizing risk, and maintaining organizational momentum.

The Bottom Line
For organizations that depend on their people to drive success, business outcomes are directly tied to how well talent is managed. Designing and executing a robust talent management strategy is a critical driver of performance, engagement, and long-term competitive advantage.

To learn more about how to take your talent practices to the next level, download 5 Key Succession Planning Trends and Lessons from the Field