We are about halfway through some research into how organisations align their talent strategy with their business strategy. There is a clear pattern emerging about process, with companies taking two distinct approaches to getting their leaders’ attention on talent. Different trends may emerge as we have not yet finished the research, but so far we are seeing HR and talent leaders who have convinced the board that the best companies have a talent process.
This group has designed a number of processes, implemented the technology, and run the reports that tell the board the results of the process activity. The focus is on making sure processes are consistent, cover the key areas of the population that are important to the company, and are carried out to agreed standards and time frames. Measures tend to be about what has been done rather than the results achieved. The process tends to be hierarchical, involving middle to senior managers and companies mainly say the energy for the talent process comes from HR.
The second group say they don’t yet really have a robust talent strategy. They are engaged in getting the leadership team to understand why the talent agenda is important. These HR /talent teams are less focused on the process and more focused on creating insight among the company leadership. Methods fall broadly into collecting external data, such as benchmarking other companies, demographics and the characteristics of the different generations now in the workplace. They are also using internal data to model the impact of the people they have now against future needs. So, for example, they are asking how the company will look in five years’ time if they keep losing women at the same rate. Or, if they fail to find people with the potential to fill key roles, what will that do to the company growth plans? Or if they set certain targets, how big a difference will it make?
This type of scenario modelling helps company leadership understand the degree to which they need to change and the impact of those changes. This can be powerful, especially in an organisation that has relatively unsophisticated leaders, who have little experience of the impact of talent initiatives and, therefore, have not experienced first hand what the changes and interventions HR is suggesting may do. For these organisations’ measures, or models of measures, become the tool to introduce the processes. HR, by creating insight, pulls leaders energy towards talent strategy.
These trends got me thinking. Why aren’t we seeing companies that are doing both? HR seems to go for either/or solutions when, to my mind, great talent strategy (or any other strategy for that matter) needs both good processes andinsight.
If you think you are doing both, we would love to interview you for the research. Then, again, if you think you just have a great approach to talent strategy, we would also be interested. You can read more about it at http://www.orion-partners.com/2012/01/does-your-talent-strategy-work/