Why Talent Management Matters More than You Think

Talent Management Matters
Because companies on average spend over one-third of revenue on employee salaries and benefits, talent management matters. Are you getting the necessary return on your people investment? Have you been able to attract, develop, engage and retain the top talent that fits your unique culture and drives your business strategy forward in a way that makes sense?

When you can say “yes,” you will be well on your way to establishing a high performance organization where talent and talent management matters.

Why Talent Management Matters
Our organizational alignment research shows that companies and teams who align their culture and talent with their strategy consistently outperform their peers in terms of revenue growth, profitability, customer satisfaction and employee engagement. It also shows that the attraction, development, engagement, and retention of talent accounts for 29% of the difference between high and low performing organizations in terms of:

• Revenue growth
• Profitability
• Customer retention and loyalty
• Leadership effectiveness
• Employee engagement and retention

Think of Talent as a Key Asset
Because of this, the most effective leaders know how to get and keep the talent required to get to the next level. They think of talent as the asset they build and manage to create a unique advantage that cannot be duplicated by their competitors. For companies that depend upon their employees to succeed, you need to shape and implement a smart talent management plan that works for you. You need to be able to get the right people with the right abilities to perform consistently and you also need to be able to plan to have the right people in place as leaders for the future.

The Workforce of Today Has Greater Demands than the Workforce of Yesterday
While more true for some industries and companies than for others, the right talent has always been a necessary ingredient for business success. And the workforce of today has greater demands than the workforce of yesterday. As you design your talent management strategy, you will most likely need to account for today’s employees who value learning and growth more than ever before, care more about their profession than the organization, seek meaning in what they do on the job, and consider work-life balance as critical.

3 Steps to Make Talent Management Matter
When you have established the talent management foundation you need to succeed — your business strategy is clear and your organizational culture is aligned with that strategy — it is time to:

1. Hire Right
   Create profiles for each job opening. They should take into account more than behavioral competencies. You should have a clear picture of the ideal candidate in terms of what knowledge and experience they bring and, most of all, the attitude that will fit with the team and the organizational culture.
2. Encourage and Provide Relevant Opportunities for Learning and Growth
   Just as a coach scouts for top talent and develops young athletes for success, so must winning organizations identify and develop top talent where it will have the greatest impact. Make sure your learning and development strategy tightly aligns with the overall business strategy and clearly provides individual career development opportunities.

   You are on the right track when the target audience, their bosses and the leadership all agree that your learning initiatives are on target and your succession pipeline is full with qualified successors in key roles.

3. Think and Plan Ahead
   High performing organizations need to be proactive regarding succession planning. They must constantly be attracting, identifying, developing, and retaining high potential employees from within and outside the organization — not just for their leadership pipeline but also for important current and future positions and skills.

The Bottom Line
With alignment around a clear business strategy and a high performance culture, it will be much easier to attract, develop, engage and retain top talent that fits together. This alignment of strategy, culture and talent creates an organization where trust, engagement, and ownership will show up in business results.

To learn more about how to talent management matters, download The 3 Research-Backed Ingredients for Talent Management Success