How do you measure your talent management against the best?

One way to look at this from a new angle is to look at the usual benchmarks from a qualitative perspective. Running sorts of due diligences on typical data, like retention and succession, to dive deeper into the data and extract meaning from the numbers. Making it practical: all leavers are not the same, have we looked at resignations through the performance, diversity, knowledge, skills lenses? Lots of data on competitors are available these days thanks to open source intelligence and social media.

The talent management piece which is highly crucial needs to be attended right from scouting for talent. A larger emphasis on quality of hire surely gives you an edge over others. Surely the engagement score, performance evaluations are the metrics but when you have hired the right fit through a robust hiring process makes individual aligned to the vision of the organization. Not necessary that you will find the talent from a competitor; try exploring cross industry hiring, such people bring in a diverse perspective into the business and perform with a zeal. The two aspects which would set you apart is quality of hire and cross industry hiring.

This involves staying updated with emerging trends, tools, and methodologies within the current landscape. We can evaluate employee satisfaction, engagement levels, and turnover rates to provide insights into the success of retention initiatives and overall organizational culture. Feedback from clients helps in identifying areas of improvement and evaluating the competitiveness of the best talent management.

?? Top 3 methods for benchmarking your talent are:- ? Participating in Management Competitions, see how your teams fare against the best in the Industry ? Writing Research Papers by employees to overcome industry challenges, is your talent coming up with solutions? ? Is your Talent getting invited to Industry Seminars & Conferences as a Subject matter experts ? An organisation which motivates and develops it talent to perform in the above events, would definitely have ?? engagement driving retention and attracting the best talent.

Benchmarking talent management involves measuring key talent metrics such as employee retention rate, employee turnover rate, and engagement score, among others. It's important to track the time it takes to fill a position and to measure the quality of hires by assessing their performance and retention. Additionally, one should measure the rate of internal promotions, lateral moves, and factors such as employee performance, inclusivity, competitiveness, and leadership. This helps in making proper comparisons, identifying gaps, and taking measures to improve.

I agree with this. But I will add that when formulating talent strategies, it is essential to not only look internally but to look externally as well. Utilizing external data to see where talent pools are located and what competition is doing can help underpin strategies. Especially in today's rapidly changing labor market, many companies have struggled to hit DEI initiatives and retain candidates. I feel that companies fell short this year due to poor strategy formulation, to begin with. Perhaps they did not utilize data to help make these decisions around talent. With the proper data, many companies can determine if a build vs. buy is better. As well, they can genuinely formulate sound strategies.

First and foremost, HR needs a seat a the table…you can have the best innovation strategy, product development and market opportunities but without the people it will not happen…a business strategy needs to be informed by the state of the current environment and resources available and then needs to be paired with any future state and aspirations a business has…the people and thus talent strategy is the difference between a pipe dream and an aspiration that motivates people and starts a movement. The people strategy mustn’t be an after thought that comes after the facts have been decided. It is the foundation for inspiration and dreams turning into reality.

In my opinion this is the only way to approach this subject. It doesn’t matter if you hit all your internal KPIs for talent management if the talent you bring in does not help the business achieve its goals. KPIs must never become the end-target but rather provide guidance for future efforts.

"What we measure is what we control and can improve." I believe there is atmost clarity around leadership expectation and actual performance delivered when leadership and member spend time in transforming expectation to tangible measurable outcome. It looks difficult and time consuming but if one is ready to accept the fact that feedback is essential, ideally have the flexibility around the approach adopted to reach there. Feedback from juniors and seniors will later play a vital role to know what is it we could've have done differently. Feedback works best when it is lined up with a target in mind just like our school days - we use to receive feedback from teachers with a focus on marksheet and hence improvement was obvious outcome.

Feedback should be taken, wherever possible, from clients and customers. In 100% cases - they are right. However, customized feedback should be developed taken from new joiners, and left employees - this also has almost 100% purity.

Based on my experiences, companies that listens to their employees and stakeholders (and do something) should also has high engagement points. They saw that their contributions and feedbacks really matters. When they engage with the company they willingly to do extra mile for their company and increase company’s reputation. In the end it will increase overall company’s performance.

Employee feedback is crucial in understanding the impact of your talent management practices. Conduct employee surveys, focus groups, or feedback sessions to gather insights on areas such as career development opportunities, performance management, leadership effectiveness, and overall satisfaction with talent management initiatives. Use this feedback to identify strengths and areas for improvement.

In evaluating talent management against the best, it's crucial to personalize your approach. To truly measure success, consider what "best" means to you. Is it about following established standards or aiming higher? Post-pandemic, a one-size-fits-all strategy no longer suffices. Staying relevant, effective stakeholder management, and streamlined operations set your unique path for growth. Instead of chasing the industry rat race, focus on setting practical, attainable goals. Remember, less can often yield more.

Learning from others is the best way to measure talent. - Meet people - Network with professionals - Stay updated - Engage in Online Communities - Be innovative and share ideas and insights

Think ahead Most leaders know what kind of talent they are looking for right now; But few people think about whether the new employee they hired has the skills that match the organization's long-term strategy. If you know where you want to go; Focus your efforts on hiring someone with the skills, abilities, and expertise necessary to advance. Don't think that every person you have today will be there tomorrow, and you should think about long-term goals at the same time as implementing short-term goals. Therefore, as a top talent development manager, be sure to think about the future when hiring.

Once succession plans are developed for critical roles, a more general and scalable succession planning model can be developed for additional roles throughout the organization. Each time a team member is identified for a key role, include a process for identifying a replacement for the individual if a critical gap develops. In addition, training and development resources should be provided to all team members with succession planning in mind, so that employees can continuously learn new skills and be better prepared for new roles in the future.

You should absolutely draw inspiration from others, but don’t just copy and paste. Truly understand the unique factors in your company first, then draw inspiration that you can then start iterating a solution. Finally, don’t expect to get it perfect the first time out. Success takes time and is always changing.

Only evaluation is business results. A proper metric can be created in counting how talent strategy contributed to business results - numbers and not stories..

Three things to measure such as employee retention, engagement, and performance while evaluating your talent with outcomes. Compare these pointers with industry to identify gaps and areas for improvement, accordingly you can assess and act upon it for further improvement.

All people who consider themselves as high talent (and where the organisation agrees) are usually highly committed to the organisation so they want to stick around, but they are also driven by achievement, development and progression. As such, whilst talent management should ultimately deliver business results, the medium term measure of robust talent management is a) how much of you talent do you hold on to and b) how much of your talent progresses through the organisation.

Assess the effectiveness of your leadership development programs and initiatives. Measure the impact of leadership training and development on the performance and engagement of your leaders. Use tools such as 360-degree feedback assessments to gather comprehensive feedback on leadership competencies and behaviors.

You are either involved in the talent game or you lose. Life can lead to gaining strong employee experience or trying to reach the top candidate. According to research conducted by Forrester, the number of brand touch points needed to effectively engage candidates and influence their decisions includes 8. In this way, the way of marketing the brand story is very important. Seeing a post related to social networks, reading employee testimonials and following the company's activities online, or even registering among candidates, will lead to clicking on communication letters and requesting sufficient opportunities for employees.

Talent management is the process of providing answers to these questions and focuses on how talent management responds to business strategy and is based on goals that are usually in the field of human resources. The people strategy supports the business strategy and the ultimate goal of the organization forms the main framework of this strategy.

Just running the talent management programmes takes up most of the time and energy of the HR function whose responsibility it is to make sure the activities take place. The next important thing is following up on the outcomes, ensuring the objectives are met and monitoring metrics. This requires working with multiple stakeholders and convincing the business to commit to actions. Are we giving the responsible parties the time, resources, technology and empowerment needed to do the follow up? The business can lose trust if there is no follow up and impact on the commitments made and we are likely to see less engagement the next time we run the programme.

For organizations grappling with similar dilemmas, a compelling recommendation is to establish a dual-focused evaluation framework. First, incorporate metrics that track short-term achievements, such as monthly revenue and customer acquisition rates. However, simultaneously invest in long-term indicators, such as customer lifetime value and brand loyalty. By integrating these metrics, organizations can foster a culture that values sustainable growth over immediate results. Additionally, employing techniques like scenario planning can prepare teams for different future states based on current actions.

Something I find key in talent management is the succession plans. Have you identified the key positions for your business or unit ? Have you identified the successors for those positions when/if the current holders leave? Are you sure those “successors” know where they are going and if they are happy with this plan ? The more you have a pool of “talents” and the organisation is aware of their capabilities and their wishes , the best a career plan can be built. Communication is key ! Ask people where they want to grow to. Tell people what you can propose to them and try to match things as much as possible. Sounds simple but it is everything but :)