Talent Readiness Strategies
Meeting HR's #1 Responsibility
Supply of talent constantly changes. New people enter the organization, contractors are hired and terminated, capabilities and skill sets expand with training and development or contract as people retire or resign, and mergers and acquisitions change the talent mix overnight. Demand for talent changes as the work to be done changes - contracts are signed, new products are developed, business strategy shifts, new competition emerges, and technologies are invented or refined. Maintaining a supply of talent to match demand as it emerges is a principal responsibility of HR but requires commitment to talent readiness by executive leadership and the organization at large. To implement a talent readiness strategy:
- Create a sense of urgency around talent readiness. Start by developing a data-driven business case to persuade senior business leaders that a talent readiness challenge faces the organization.
- Align talent readiness strategy with business strategy. HR needs to insert itself into business strategic planning by demonstrating, with data and logic, the impact of having the right talent - and the detriment of lacking the right talent - on the business.
- Find and fill the most significant gaps. Work with business managers to identify not only where talent gaps currently or may soon exist, but where those gaps have the greatest effect on operational performance.
- Craft and execute a comprehensive workforce plan. The plan should include detailed knowledge of the current talent supply and all sources of supply; detailed understanding of the business's demand for talent now, in the near-term, and in the future; methods and measurements for keeping your finger on the pulse of employee engagement and addressing any dips in engagement levels; and a strategically relevant "dashboard" of metrics to monitor progress.
- Adopt a decision science approach to talent readiness. It's time to take a more disciplined and data-driven approach to talent, to base talent decisions (wherever in the business they are being made) on more complete, rational, and strategic analyses. See Beyond HR: The New Science of Human Capital, by John Boudreau and Peter Ramstad.
- Be global in thinking about talent. The global nature of the talent market offers plenty of challenges (recruiting, training, compensation and benefits are all affected by cultural differences), but also offers opportunities. Those who meet the challenges first, or do so better, can gain advantage, market strength, and access to a greater variety of talent.
This Re.sults report describes a framework for matching talent supply and demand - the flow of talent through the enterprise - over time. It describes the importance of a decision science approach to talent management. And it provides examples of leading practices in the core talent management processes of workforce planning, recruiting and acquisition, learning and development, and employee engagement and retention.