Keep Your Keepers! A Winning Talent Strategy for 2017 – Part 1
Build a Foundation of Integrated Talent Management that Drives Engagement!
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As we embark on a promising new year, organizations are positioning talent strategies to meet their business goals. Regardless of the industry, achieving alignment of talent goals with business objectives is essential for strategic and organizational success. Foundational to effective talent management is an integrated approach that facilitates engagement. To effectively identify your organization’s top talent management priorities, it is crucial to understand your business strategy. Only then can talent management processes be aligned effectively to that strategy.
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No industry is more disciplined in analyzing data relevant to investments than are Private Equity firms. Their financial, operational and market analyses are comprehensive and rigorous to ensure the best investment decisions for their investors and portfolio companies.
Organizations have been utilizing the 9-box approach to succession planning for many years, yet the challenge of measuring potential is often very subjective and based on who knows whom! Organizations have sought to reduce the impact of the “halo effect” or “fair-haired” syndrome by developing leadership competency models and applying them to the evaluation process. However, the challenge of actually measuring one’s potential relative to competencies generally remains subjective. Finally, there is a behavioral analytics approach that removes the subjectivity of predicting leadership potential. How is it accomplished?
Is your Board and executive team developing human capital strategies to gain competitive advantage and accelerate their business goals? Is your organization seeking new ways to positively impact engagement and retention? If so, they are not alone! Deloitte Consulting and Bersin identifies three primary areas of strategic focus in their Global Human Capital Trends report: Lead & Develop, Attract and Engage, and Transform and Reinvent. Among these strategic trends, leadership, retention and engagement, talent acquisition and reskilling HR were the top urgent needs to support business priorities and goals. Additional research by Aberdeen Group of Best-in-Class organizations demonstrates that top performing organizations, successfully utilize behavioral assessment as an enabler in each of the strategic talent needs.
November 11 proved we love our Veterans! There were many stories shared of heroes who humbly said they were just doing their jobs, like the heroic story from the Battle of Iwo Jima, of Hershel “Woody” Williams, the oldest living Medal of Honor recipient at 92. He only knocked out seven concrete enemy pillboxes and cleared the way for Marines to press the attack on the island – he was just doing his job along with 6,800 American service members who died and thousands more who were injured taking the island back from 22,000 Japanese defenders. 
Since the 1960s, outplacement has benefited millions of transitioning employees. By providing effective outplacement services their former organizations reaped tangible economic benefits. Those same benefits, both for employees and organizations, are needed today. In fact, the business case for providing outplacement is actually stronger today than in those early years of the fledgling career transition industry. To put it succinctly, whether recruiting or seeking to engage and retain those all-observant millennials, how you treat their friends in a layoff is only a text away from going viral! Given that reality, it is counter-productive that at best only 30% of companies offer outplacement and with declining program budgets and services. What gives?
Organizations like to focus on the positive when developing strategic plans based on the best business and economic scenarios, yet it is often the negative economic surprises that drive organizational change. After over 30 years in business, I recently developed a retrospective of the primary global, national and regional economic drivers covering over 50 decades. It is gripping to review the succession of economic downturns, mergers, reorganizations, natural disasters, war, disruptive global and workforce trends, technological change, and industry upheavals which impact organizations and their employees at the visceral level. (
The ticker tape parade in NYC last Friday was a well-deserved home coming celebration for our USA Women’s World Cup Soccer champions. Their amazing win against defending champion Japan on July 5 was a climatic burst of electrifying fireworks for our national holiday weekend celebration. After waiting 16 years to bring the trophy home again, this team could not be denied. When Wombach stated pre-match, “We have to bring the fire,” she was prophetic. The most watched soccer match in US history, this blow-out statistic will go down in the sports annals: 26.7 million US viewers. And by the way, the men’s World Cup drew only 17.3 million US viewers in July, 2014. Advertisers and promoters take note — women athletes can draw a crowd! This spectacular win is great for the team, the sport, women’s athletics and for the nation. We love winners and this World Cup team defines for us all what a true winner is. This team and the individual players provide a model you can emulate for your own success. What are the SUCCESS lessons?