Retaining Talent
Seven battle-grounds to fight and win a new talent war
“Too many companies are wasting their resources - their people and their financial leverage - by perpetuating outdated approaches to talent management.”
DeAnne Aguirre, Laird Post & Sylvia Ann Hewett
Trouble in the world of talent management
March 2010, and the brightest and best in talent management are attending a Conference Board event in California. For delegate George Ambler¹, the speakers attempt to project a positive and up-beat message. But the mood among delegates in the coffee breaks is very different. They are discussing the problem of talent management. A public sector delegate is concerned that internal talent pipelines keep producing the wrong kind of leader. Someone from a retail firm expresses her frustration that promotion paths are being blocked by mediocre managers. Other delegates share their anxieties that their organisations are struggling to identify genuine talent. Ambler came away from the event asking some challenging questions: do we know what we're looking for? Or are we still in the dark about the concept of talent? is talent management simply a slogan? Is anyone putting this stuff into practice to make it stick? is anyone tracking what we’re doing to see if it works? And do we know what to do to get better?
¹ http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/03/todays_biggest_talent_manageme.html
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2010
2
The War For Talent: 10 years ago
Remember “The War for Talent”. In 2001, this was a key book in the evolution of the discipline of talent management. Previously, a mix of activities, everything from recruitment, performance management, career development and succession planning, talent management arrived on the scene with the publication of “The War For Talent”. Business success arises when organisations follow the five tenets of: develop a talent mind set: building an obsession with people to drive business performance create an employee value proposition:
“Too many companies are wasting their resources - their people and their financial leverage - by perpetuating outdated approaches to talent management.”
DeAnne Aguirre, Laird Post & Sylvia Ann Hewett
Trouble in the world of talent management
March 2010, and the brightest and best in talent management are attending a Conference Board event in California. For delegate George Ambler¹, the speakers attempt to project a positive and up-beat message. But the mood among delegates in the coffee breaks is very different. They are discussing the problem of talent management. A public sector delegate is concerned that internal talent pipelines keep producing the wrong kind of leader. Someone from a retail firm expresses her frustration that promotion paths are being blocked by mediocre managers. Other delegates share their anxieties that their organisations are struggling to identify genuine talent. Ambler came away from the event asking some challenging questions: do we know what we're looking for? Or are we still in the dark about the concept of talent? is talent management simply a slogan? Is anyone putting this stuff into practice to make it stick? is anyone tracking what we’re doing to see if it works? And do we know what to do to get better?
¹ http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/03/todays_biggest_talent_manageme.html
© AM Azure Consulting Ltd 2010
2
The War For Talent: 10 years ago
Remember “The War for Talent”. In 2001, this was a key book in the evolution of the discipline of talent management. Previously, a mix of activities, everything from recruitment, performance management, career development and succession planning, talent management arrived on the scene with the publication of “The War For Talent”. Business success arises when organisations follow the five tenets of: develop a talent mind set: building an obsession with people to drive business performance create an employee value proposition: