3 Steps to Better Leverage Talent Management

Better Leverage Talent

Smart leaders better leverage talent because they are keenly aware that their success depends on the success of their team. No matter what business you are in, how you consistently attract, develop, engage, and retain talent matters.

Talent Management Matters
Our organizational alignment research found that talent accounts for 29% of the difference between high and low performing organizations in terms of revenue growth, profitability, and customer loyalty. Without an engaged and productive workforce, your organization will not perform at its peak. People can be your competitive advantage when you learn how to better leverage talent management for business success.

The Role of Business versus HR
Leadership plays an all-important role in setting the stage for attracting, developing, engaging and retaining the employees an organization needs to thrive. But when you look to which department should enable talent directives, it is Human Resources. Sadly, however, many HR departments are not truly sitting at the executive table and miss the opportunity to have a meaningful impact on the business.

This should and must change. And the ball is in HR’s court.  HR is positioned to directly contribute to the bottom line when they are working in sync with their organization’s overall strategy.

3 Steps to Better Leverage Talent Management
To earn a position of credibility and respect at the executive level, HR needs to better align and quantify workforce performance by:

1. Ensuring Clear, Compelling, and Implementable Business Strategies
   First, HR must deeply understand the business strategy. Strategic clarity accounts for 31% of the difference between high and low performing organizations. For it to be effective, your talent management strategy must be 100% aligned with the business strategy.

   HR must understand where the business is going and how it intends to get there if they are going to create meaningful workforce strategies that help make it happen.

2. Creating an Aligned and High Performing Organizational Culture
   Secondly, HR should help ensure that the organizational culture is 100% aligned with the business strategy. Culture account for 40% of the difference between high and low performing companies. Because strategies must go through culture and people to get implemented, HR should play a critical role in ensuring the way people think, behave, and work drives the strategy forward and creates a foundation for successfully attracting, developing, engaging, and retaining top talent that fits.
3. Differentiating Your Talent
   Lastly, HR should design a clear talent management strategy to attract, develop, engage, and retain the employees needed to execute the short- and long-term plans of the business.  Top people leaders know different talent contributes differently to every organization. Because of this, strategic HR leaders design and implement the right talent strategy for their unique situation and various levels of employee performance and employee potential.

The Bottom Line
When HR prioritizes and focuses on the activities that are most urgent and most important to the business, they earn a seat at the table and can contribute meaningfully to the business strategy on the front end. Then, using people analytics to guide them, they can use lagging indicators to measure the impact and value of talent vis-à-vis the strategic goals.

To learn more about how to better leverage talent, download The Top 3 Talent Management Ingredients for Success