How do you evaluate your talent management strategy?

As organizations pivot towards a more agile and dynamic business environment, the efficacy of talent management strategies becomes paramount. A recent study by the Corporate Executive Board (CEB) revealed that companies with robust talent management systems experience a 26% boost in revenue per employee. To holistically evaluate your talent management strategy, consider these key metrics: retention rates, time-to-fill roles, internal mobility rates, and employee engagement scores. By aligning these metrics with business outcomes and juxtaposing them against industry benchmarks, organizations can gain nuanced insights into the effectiveness of their talent strategies and iterate for unparalleled success.

The most important aspect in a Talent Management strategy is, how you define Talent. Whether everybody HAS talents (specific skills, approaches etc.), or whether a Talent comes with a specific set of skills, experience and potential you need for the future. Then it is important, whether your strategy entails the definition of Talent for what? A leadership role or an expert role or both? Make sure that the strategy will align to all aspects of company challenges and needs, whether it is a new business, an acquisition, a turnaround, or bringing new skills to the company. Those business challenges should guide the way Talents are either attracted, hired, developed or retained.

A talent strategy can only be as good as the business strategy. What’s true for investors is true for talents, who choose to invest their time, skills and discretionary effort into building the business. You can either rally talent to execute a winning business strategy, or bring in talent who will help transform it.

As we see the constant changes in our business culture, we have to be prepared to pivot, and innovate our talent strategy. Embrace continuous improvement processes within your organization to identify opportunities to upskill your current talent to remain competitive. To assess your talent strategy, start by linking it to business goals. Define needed competencies and behaviors and set clear success metrics. Monitor and adjust strategies accordingly for optimal alignment and impact. Implement a culture of continuous learning where employees are encouraged to acquire new skills. This should include transparency of skills needed and access to training that promotes upskilling. This helps foster a culture of retention vs turnover.

Purpose comes first, everything else later. This is where most organizations go wrong. They treat Talent/Performance Management as a tool to measure performance to reward ir to punish it. A good framework is one that focuses on building/developing Performance. The whole perspective changes. The ideal flow should be: Purpose -> objectives -> goals -> metrics -> rewards

Choosing metrics has been one of the hardest parts of building a strategy for my organization due to having a poor ATS system. Having the right tools in place allows you to see, measure and track progress easily and efficiently. If not, it can mean manual tracking and data entry which can be a huge time suck. Before holding ourselves to metrics, I first want to make sure our systems can assist us in tracking that data so we can effectively report out on process improvements vs derailing a process by creating more work, and likely, a lesser morale because of the inability to easily access and decipher data.

It’s important to pair solid metrics with internal stakeholder feedback. It’s possible for your charts to all be green while your internal customers are unhappy. Customer experience ratings are instructive and help us continuously improve.

After defining your business goals and talent needs, the next step is to select appropriate metrics that will help assess the effectiveness of your talent management strategy. Metrics serve as indicators of progress and outcomes, and can be quantitative or qualitative. Some examples of quantitative metrics include employee retention rates, productivity levels, and revenue growth. On the other hand, qualitative metrics can include employee satisfaction, feedback, and recognition. It is important to choose metrics that are relevant, reliable, and aligned with your objectives.

One aspect that has been important and helpful in evaluating Talent Management Systems I've designed and implemented in the past is to differentiate the metrics to see what employees, managers and executives are experiencing. Your strategy may be working at one level and not others. This will help you determine where the issues are. I also find career velocity and internal career mobility to be great metrics to include, again at each of the levels I mentioned previously.

Selecting effective talent management metrics is vital. They should align with your objectives, be a mix of quantitative and qualitative measures, and remain relevant. Ensure data accuracy, consider industry benchmarks, and set measurement frequency. Feedback-related metrics offer valuable insights, and regular adjustments are essential as your strategy evolves. Transparent communication of these metrics fosters accountability and better decision-making. In summary, well-chosen metrics are crucial for evaluating talent management success and driving improvement.

In my experience, the most successful method to gather accurate data has been individualized communications: interviews, 360 performance reviews, exit interviews, and analytics. We've noticed a decline in the reliability of data collected during company-wide surveys. Anonymity is no longer a guarantee of openness, people need to be seen/validated. I am not saying, that we shouldn't run surveys, but combining them with one-to-one conversations. People have shown a tendency to be more open/honest when they feel their input matters and will be considered.

I think , at this stage of the process especially , its important to acknowledge the need to address data bias - the construct of the objective and purpose is key- it must be intentionally driven - While its widely acknowledged that data bias cannot be fully eliminated, awareness that #databias exists both in the data and the people who analyze it is a good place to start

As talent Management leader . The third step in evaluating your talent management strategy is to gather and analyze the relevant data that aligns with your chosen metrics. This data can be collected from surveys, interviews, performance reviews, assessments, or analytics tools. It is important to establish a systematic approach to gather and organize the data, and then apply appropriate techniques to analyze and interpret it. Additionally, comparing the data with benchmarks, targets, or industry standards will provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your strategy.

Be cautious of looking at data in isolation. Overlay them to create a richer picture which enables greater reliability with the insight this is providing you with. For example, high attrition alone could be due to a number of reasons, so overlay this with exit interview data, time to hire, and employee engagement scores to look deeper into the narrative sitting behind them.

Having metrics is nice, but collecting data must have a purpose. Revise the data being collected and analyzed to ensure it is relevant to your company’s objectives. If collecting data from different sources, make sure you are tracking the same data across all platforms.

Consider how your world view may affect your talent strategy. Most HR professionals are limited in the strategies they consider leveraging talent to a traditional employment paradigm, but the fact is there are dozens, if not hundreds of ways to engage human capital. From temp agencies to independent contractors to near shore vs offshore. A wholistic talent management strategy needs to consider all of them. Technology enables talent to exist without borders or boundaries, your talent management strategy should do the same.

As a talent leader, the fourth step is to identify any gaps and opportunities that arise from the analysis of your data. Gaps refer to areas where your talent management strategy is falling short of meeting your objectives or expectations. On the other hand, opportunities are areas where you can enhance or innovate your strategy to achieve better outcomes. It is important to prioritize these gaps and opportunities based on factors such as their impact, urgency, and feasibility.

In my experience this is a crucial part of your talent strategy. Some leaders tend to want to appease everyone, and in some ways try to fix every problem. It's important from an engagement standpoint to establish some "quick wins". Especially if you are sharing results of an engagement survey. Employees often express "survey fatigue" and begin to question if companies listen to their comments. Demonstrating that you are listening to them and taking action is important. But it is imperative that you align your responses and "quick wins" to your overall strategy and business objectives. Talent Strategies can quickly become unclear if you become to scattered in your approach of identifying the gaps and opportunities, in my experience.

Having set your objectives and key metrics for your Talent Management strategy, ensure to pay attention to what gaps exist and opportunities too. These will be peculiar to where you are as an organisation, where you're trying to go, what sector and industry you're playing in etc. Carefully analysing this will bring to the fore what you should be prioritising as your talent strategy is concerned.

The fourth step involves pinpointing the gaps and opportunities that your data analysis reveals. Gaps are the spots where your talent management strategy isn't hitting the mark or reaching the goals you've set. On the flip side, opportunities are the bright spots where there's room to boost or change up your approach for better outcomes. It's crucial to weigh these gaps and opportunities by how big of an impact they have, how urgent they are, and how doable it is to tackle them. This step is all about figuring out where you can close the distance between where you are and where you want to be, and spotting chances to innovate and enhance your strategy for managing talent.

Before implementing your talent management strategy, gather baseline data to understand the current state of your organisation's talent management practices. This will serve as a reference point for measuring progress and impact.

You can monitor the effectiveness with surveys, peer reviews and performance management. Make sure scorecards are objective and aligned with the learning outcomes you intended. Consistent and regular feedback with employees is key. Skills gaps, as well as desire and interest in continuous learning, should be evaluated regularly so that talent always knows they are in alignment with the org and their own goals.

After identifying talent management gaps and opportunities, the next step is to act decisively. Develop specific, measurable, and time-bound action plans. Assign responsibilities, allocate resources, and set realistic timelines. Monitor progress, gather feedback, and adjust strategies as needed. Ensure alignment with business goals, legal compliance, and employee development. Stay flexible in a dynamic environment. Continuous improvement is key. This proactive approach maximizes talent potential and enhances organizational success.

Don't overcomplicate the process. Getting the CEO and executives on board with the objectives is critical. If the process is overly complex, they will lose interest quickly. To do this, take baby steps if needed. Start with a 9-box or revised performance review process. Then, you can start adding capabilities to the process.

How is the people? This is the first and more important! You should keep in touch with your team, not only in how they doing in their assignments, but also how they feel: stress, unmotivated, tired.

Something critical in this process is really to dive deep into what performance will look like in this new talent strategy. Often, when it comes to metrics, we can get caught up in the hype for data and the appeal of multiple measurements but fundamentally the purpose of talent development is to increase the capacity for performance, so what does that look like and how are you measuring it?

These are the creative methods or sourcing techniques we use to collect and analyze the data that corresponds to managing our talent pool metrics. Aside from managing the company's talent pools using Excel sheets, Sage People Applicant Tracking Systems, or a database that contains top talents’ actual skills, job roles, etc., and then matching them against the employer’s culture and the job description/requirement-specific keywords, we also keep the job applicants interested with our company/business by engaging them with valuable contents through webinars, workshops, and content creation strategy on social media and email marketing where they can become more engaged, invested and in touch with the company's services/products on offer.