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How to Break the Barriers for Strategic Talent Management

How to Break the Barriers for Strategic Talent Management

http://info.profilesinternational.com/profiles-employee-assessment-blog/bid/103430/How-to-Break-the-Barriers-for-Strategic-Talent-Management

Edited by Christina Krenek

According to the latest report from Gallup, the U.S. economy looks pretty unpredictable. Economic confidence has decreased, 55 percent of Americans say the economy is “getting worse,” and with the U.S. presidential elections coming up this year, the economy is as uncertain as ever. But a shaky economy is no excuse to brush off strategic talent management strategies! In fact, it’s a time to make sure you have the best talent management in place so that your business survives through whatever the economic world brings.

The Aberdeen Group’s recent report, Human Capital Management Trends 2012, found that last year, HR executives spent so much time on tactical activities that they were not able to devote enough time to talent strategies, such as development and recruiting. Organizational growth and developing talent requires a level of investment most organizations are unwilling to make in an uncertain economy.

The report did find that 55 percent of organizations believe HR has become more strategic, but that being said, today’s greatest barriers are those preventing HR from aligning talent and workplace initiatives with overall business initiatives. These top barriers include:

• Lack of HR leadership
• Lack of support among business leaders
• Lack of buy-in from senior management

These barriers are caused by a disconnect between HR and the overall organization. To overcome these barriers, the report identifies best-practices to make talent management more strategic and close the gap between HR and the rest of the organization. These best-practices include:

• Align goals and objectives. To have an effective and strategic talent management program, HR must fully understand the organizational goals, and then align talent management initiatives and practices with the overall business objectives. Strategic talent management is a two-way street, so it’s important for business leaders to be involved too.     
• Identify gaps between the talent supply and demand. This is an up-and-coming trend in the area of talent management. Top organizations are beginning to look for gaps between the workplace supply and business demands to ensure all business requirements are met efficiently. To identify these gaps, companies are using skill gap analysis and scenario planning, which will keep HR prepared for all current and future business needs. 
• Focus on efforts to improve employee engagement. It can’t be said enough, employee engagement is incredibly important in all aspects of business and impacts the success of the employees, teams, leaders and the organization as a whole. Keeping employees engaged and motivated is a must in today’s economy!

Are you interested in reading more from the Aberdeen’s latest research? Download the full report!