Thought Leadership in Action

The key to success in building a talent strategy is understanding your own company well. It seems obvious, but HR leaders who try to put together a talent strategy without considering the organization’s mission, culture and overall business strategy aren’t likely to see success — and may undermine the organization itself.

Here are three tips for building a talent strategy that will serve your organization well.

1. Reflect Your Organizational Culture

An organization's talent management strategy should reflect its company culture, says Chris Lennon, vice president of product management for cloud-based talent management solutions provider SilkRoad. If your company culture is built around fast growth, your talent strategy should reflect that through hiring for growth and rewarding employees who can contribute to the bottom line. An organization whose culture reflects its dedication to social issues through its business strategy would have a talent strategy that seeks out and finds people who would fit that model — and find ways to keep them.

Lennon says agility is a trait he’s seen in company cultures that has an effect on talent management. “Many companies are moving away from annual performance reviews in favor of an agile approach to performance management,” he says. This may include tech-based employee surveys that implement more frequent feedback, open communication and collaboration, he says.

2. Create Alignment

The talent management strategy should align with the overall business strategy, says  Ann Parker, manager of the human capital community of practice at the Association for Talent Development. You already benchmark and track business goals, so do the same for your talent strategy: Map out goals for recruiting, retention and performance over months and years, based on what the business as a whole is expecting.

One way to create alignment is to consider talent management as part of service delivery, says Kelli Allred, manager at Jabian Consulting, which focuses on areas of human capital management to drive engagement and employee performance. “Employees are customers that buy into the vision and mission and need to be kept engaged. Construct an engagement model based on values and utilize the model throughout the employee lifecycle.”

In addition, communicate the talent management strategy and ensure people understand how it’s linked to the direction of the organization, Parker says. Communicate that strategy to relevant stakeholders in the same way the mission and values are communicated, so everyone understands how talent strategy affects the organization’s vision. “This is important because the organization’s leaders are showing that they care enough about developing employees by including the talent management strategy in broader planning efforts and tying talent management performance to specific organization performance metrics.”

3. Be a Leader

HR should be a strategic part of any business, but HR leaders also need to be business leaders. “Create space for talent management at the leadership table,” Allred says. A top staffing officer, vice president of human resources or other HR leader should be on leadership teams to consult on the strategic direction and tactical plans of an organization. Looking for ways to serve internally and raise the department’s profile will help other departments and leaders understand the strategic role HR plays within the organization.