Talent Management Strategy: How to Set Yours Up to Succeed

Your Talent Management Strategy Is a Performance Multiplier
Your talent management strategy helps you decide who and when to hire, develop, promote, and exit. Done well, your people strategy has a measurable impact on your company’s health and performance. In fact, our organizational alignment research found that talent management strategy accounts for 29% of the difference between high- and low-performing companies across key outcomes:

• Profitable revenue growth.
• Customer loyalty.
• Leadership effectiveness.
• Employee engagement.

Few would argue that without an aligned talent strategy to support and enable your business strategy, even the best-laid plans can quickly unravel.

The Right Talent In The Right Roles
High performance cultures make deliberate choices to place the right people in the right roles at the right time — equipped with the skills and mindset to drive the organization forward. Achieving this requires more than filling positions; it demands a workforce that understands and believes in the company’s strategy, is ready to tackle new challenges, and aligns seamlessly with both the desired organizational culture and strategic objectives. When talent, timing, and purpose converge, organizations can move decisively and with full force toward their goals.

Basic Talent Management Strategy Questions Leaders Should Ask

What does it take to ensure your workforce is ready to succeed today and prepared for tomorrow? Strong talent management starts with asking the right questions — questions that connect your people strategy directly to your business strategy.

• Talent Capabilities
  Which critical, behavior-based capabilities are essential now and over the next 3–5 years to deliver on your organization’s strategic priorities? These capabilities should be assessed and measured with tools such as:
  
  — Job success profiles
  — People manager assessment centers
  — Leadership simulation assessments
  — 360 degree feedback
  — Training needs assessments
• Strategic and Hard-to-Replace Roles
  Which roles are most strategically vital to achieving your goals — those positions upon which your success depends? Which roles are hardest to replace, and which present the greatest risk if left vacant or misaligned?
• Talent Gaps
  Have you identified key leadership skill gaps?  Do you currently have the right people in these strategic roles and core competency areas? If not, what steps are needed to build a succession pipeline that ensures these pivotal positions are consistently filled with capable, ready talent?

It’s important to note that all three areas — capabilities, critical roles, and talent gaps — must be evaluated in direct relation to your business priorities. A talent management strategy untethered from the organization’s strategic goals will at best produce incremental results and, at worst, leave you vulnerable to strategy execution gaps. Aligning your people strategy with your top priorities is the only way to turn talent management into a true driver of organizational performance.

A High-Level 3-Step Talent Plan for the Future
Once you’ve answered the fundamental talent management questions, the next step is to create a forward-looking plan for attracting, developing, engaging, and retaining the talent your organization needs — today and in the years ahead.

1. Begin by identifying the most critical talent gaps.
   
   
2. Then tie those gaps directly to your strategic priorities so you can determine which roles and capabilities require the most immediate attention.
   
   
3. From there, develop a clear timeline that sequences talent initiatives, whether building internal capabilities or acquiring external expertise, in order of importance and urgency.

A well-structured plan ensures your organization has the right people, in the right roles, at the right time to execute strategy effectively and sustainably.

The Bottom Line
Make sure your talent management strategy is clearly understood by all stakeholders, equal to the challenge of the overall business strategy, and in sync with your organization’s culture and mindset.  Are you helping your talent to perform at their peak?

To learn more about how to take your talent management plans to the next level, download 3 Super Ingredients for Talent Management Success

by Tristam Brown: CEO

Tristam Brown is an executive business consultant and organizational development expert with more than three decades of experience helping organizations accelerate performance, build high-impact teams, and turn strategy into execution. As CEO of LSA Global, he works with leaders to get and stay aligned™ through research-backed strategy, culture, and talent solutions that produce measurable, business-critical results. See full bio.