Companies Struggle with Managing Talent
According to a press release, the study of 700 senior-level talent leaders, reveals that 92% recognize superior talent as providing a vital competitive advantage; however there is a key gap in talent management execution – specifically, lack of accountability. Few organizations consistently hold managers (7%) or senior executives (10%) accountable for developing their direct reports through performance management processes.
Other struggles revealed in the study include:
- Gaps in talent development capabilities – Only 5% of organizations report having the managerial capability to grow people in their jobs or provide feedback to support employee development consistently across the organization.
- Lack of alignment between human capital and business strategy – While human capital is viewed as important, only 17% of respondents indicate their workforce strategy is consistently aligned with their business strategy across the organization.
- Inconsistent execution of talent programs – Most companies have fundamental talent management processes in place, such as workforce planning, high-potential development programs and succession planning. However, few consistently execute these programs across the entire organization.
- Limited use of meaningful analytics – Most organizations track traditional workforce measures, such as headcount, turnover and cost-based metrics, but few have graduated to tracking the metrics that matter. A mere 10% of companies consistently measure the effectiveness of talent management programs and even fewer (7%) consistently use quantitative frameworks to align human capital investments with their business strategy.
The Hewitt and HCI study, "The State of Talent Management: Today's Challenges, Tomorrow's Opportunities," found that organizations making significant strides in managing talent have differentiated themselves in the following ways:
- Depth and consistency of practices: These companies have effectively institutionalized specific talent management programs-such as conducting talent reviews, performing succession planning, and improving manager ability to develop employees-and are applying these programs more deeply and broadly into their organizations.
- Higher commitment for talent development: Successful companies view talent management as a shared business and HR responsibility and require active engagement, commitment and accountability from leaders and managers.
- Progressive and innovative practices: Some organizations are introducing new and innovative ways of managing talent, including progressive approaches to workforce planning and more effective employer branding strategies. While still an emerging trend, a growing number of companies are also using predictive analytics to guide human capital decisionmaking and business alignment.