At Knowledge Infusion we work with both end user organizations and vendors helping to define the future of talent management. After three years of intense focus and growth of the industry, there are still wildly divergent points of view in the market of what true talent management is...WHAT it looks like, HOW it should function, and WHO is responsible for it. The verdict is still out whether HR departments, business leaders and talent management vendors will be able to transform to deliver to the potential.
Here are a few of the measures of success that will define the day when we (the collective human capital management and talent management community) will know we've made it...
Talent planning is as essential to the business planning process as the budgeting process
Talent dashboards show the correlation between business KPI's (sales, service,production, and quality) and talent attributes (competencies, training, compensation, performance, potential, source of hire)
Competencies are developed by the business, managed by HR
Talent management suites are bought by CEO's, CFO's, and GM's
All business leaders understand and measure the correlation between employee engagement and customer engagement
Talent management applications look and feel like consumer applications...easy, simple and content rich
Talent management applications leverage operational data to measure talent productivity and quality
Employees have access to relevant information to help them identify career and development opportunities that leverage their interests and abilities
Organizations know more about their employees than they do their candidates
Talent management include intelligence to identify employees at risk and alerts to managers about relevant development and mobility opportunities for their employees
For now, I'll take even one or two of these as a sign of industry health. Let's all think big and create change.
Good thoughts here, Heidi.
A few other indications that "we've made it:"
1. Talent management is not considered an "HR process." It's supported by HR, but owned by the business.
2. Companies know as much about their employees as they do about their capital equipment.
3. HR doesn't need to coax, cajole and threaten managers to complete performance reviews. (If reviews are that difficult to prepare or deliver so little value to managers, perhaps it's time to rethink the process.)
4. Managers know as much about their employees as outside recruiters do.