Your Talent Management Strategy Should Be Offense, Not Defense

While some companies are better than others at talent management, for many it is a game of defense. It becomes a top priority when a superstar is about to leave the company. Or when a superstar does actually move on, leaving a void to be filled.

To be fair, most companies do conduct regular performance reviews to evaluate talent and capabilities. But this is typically done on an annual basis, meaning an employee that is not successful could linger for months. Conversely, an unsatisfied employee who is successful might lose patience for the next review and leave sooner. And while many HR departments maintain an open-door policy, this symmetrical ‘annual’ talent management review does not fit today’s dynamic workplace.

A number of Human Resource applications have emerged that go beyond traditional talent management cycles with on-going, day-to-day management. Companies embracing these solutions are more nimble and better prepared to attract and retain key employees. In other words, they are shifting to offense, leveraging talent management to build competitive advantage.

Nucleus Research highlighted the key players in the Value Matrix for Talent Management. This is our first value matrix on the topic. But if the current trend to integrate talent management into a fuller Human Capital Management (HCM) suite continues, this Value Matrix may become obsolete within a few years. Yes, talent management is moving that quickly.

To be clear, talent management itself won’t become obsolete, but is finally being viewed as part of the bigger HR picture. And as vendors add valuable new features while making the apps easier to use, we see talent management rising as a priority and naturally becoming part of the greater HCM suite as opposed to a stand-alone app.

What’s accelerating the rise of talent management, beyond the need to understand performance on a more continuous basis, is the introduction of analytics that can provide deep insight. This is helping companies understand individual employee, team and department performance with more granularity.

Perhaps the most important driver is talent management’s move to better understand on-going performance. With the ability to see performance in the moment, companies can quickly make changes that will ultimately improve productivity. And they can identify strong talent and understand when they need to provide incentives to keep top employees on board.

Done correctly, talent management can improve productivity and operational efficiency, while helping companies attract and retain the very best team for success. No wonder talent management is rising.