Talent Strategy & Organizational Alignment

Aligning Talent Strategy and Organizational Development

Tailoring and aligning talent management strategies with an organization’s business challenges, key business objectives, and cultural environment is required to ensure both uninterrupted organizational continuity and bottom-line success.

CSI Executive Search understands that talent management strategies need to be tailored to fit an organization’s business, key business objectives, and environment to ensure top operational performance.  However, companies traditionally struggle to develop talent management strategies for a variety of reasons including:

  • Lack of awareness of the value of strategic talent management
  • Insufficient HR leadership in talent management / organizational development
  • Insufficient HR and training resources to implement talent management strategy
  • Lack of CEO and senior management buy in for strategic talent management
  • Inconsistent application of talent management strategy
  • Poor communication between/among HR leadership, CEO, and senior management

Nonetheless, a coherent talent strategy which addresses an organization’s challenges, key business objectives, and environment and has “buy in” from the CEO remains a critical linchpin to stability and success organizationally and operationally.

How Do You Identify And Mitigate Risk In Talent Management? 

In forming a coherent talent management strategy, identifying and mitigating risk is key.  Consider the following risk areas:

  • Communication With Leadership.  Clearly defining the talent development process is key to success.  Educating leadership as to skills needed to accomplish business objectives organization-wide is essential.  Pulling leaders up to a broader perspective of organizational talent needs – rather than focusing only on their particular group’s talent needs – must occur.  Simply, all leaders need to “see” the skills and experiences valued and sought across the organizational portfolio in order to participate in the talent solution conversation.
  • Leadership Buy In.  Is talent management part of the CEO and senior management team’s DNA?  Are these leaders pro-actively and consistently participating in talent management initiatives?  If not, why not.
  • Vacancy Cost.  What are the vacancy costs for critical positions? for more common positions? Is our talent pool ready now for inevitable transitions?
  • Talent Implications of Current and Future Business Objectives.  Are anticipated shifts in talent due to business objectives put into the talent management plan early enough to meet the need?
  • Preparing Existing Talent For Success In Internal Advancement.  Do we know our team members’ individual capabilities, proficiencies, limitations, and aspirations?  Are high performance team members developed in the most critical skill priorities for advancement?  Are enough team members being developed continually in our most common skills required?  If not, why not?
  • Proficiency Transition Time.  How long does it take team members to become proficient in their new roles? What is the cost of this transition time?
  • Cost of A Bad Promotion, Transfer, or Hire.  Solid empirical evidence supports the cost of a bad promotion, transfer, or hire.
  • Wasting Resources – Accountability.  HR is a strategic partner to every leader in an organization. Talent Management is equally leadership’s and HR’s responsibility.  Rather than recreating the wheel, utilize HR, your internal resource partner, to maximize talent management productivity.

How Do You Measure “Risk of Loss” in Your Talent Portfolio?

In reviewing the “risk of loss” profile for any particular role, consider the following questions:

  • Is this person a top performer?
  • If so, do we have upward mobility suitable to a high performer in this person’s role?
  • How competitively is the person’s role recruited?
  • What are the person’s capabilities, proficiencies, limitations, and aspirations?
  • What is the employee’s level of engagement?  Has it dropped?
  • What “runway” does the person have left in their career?
  • Is this person proven as valuable in mentoring and preparing the current or next generation of our workforce?
  • Does this person have a unique value to our organization’s current or future business objectives?
  • How does the employee’s pay grade rate against industry benchmarks?
  • Will this person look outside for upward mobility in their career?

CSI understands the challenges of creating and implementing talent management strategies and the critical role they play in healthy organizational development. We excel in identifying and placing organizational development and talent management executives. Give us a call today to discuss how we can help you respond to your most challenging talent management needs, 1-877-329-1825, or contact us here.