IDC performed a survey at the Taleo WORLD conference in May 2006 and compiled their results into a new survey called “Talent Pulse Survey”.

Two key learnings for us: (1) retention is a key concern and (2) competencies are well used among Taleo customers.

To the question: “Which of the following issues are you most concerned about regarding your workforce of the future?” — retaining top talent was the #1 issue.

Many Taleo customers have responded to improving retention by implementing Taleo Workforce Mobility to facilitate the mobility of internal talent. They (56%) nevertheless also are concerned about the impending labor shortage.

The good news is that close to 40% of the organizations responding use competencies for all positions and 32% use them for select positions. Another 21% plan to implement competencies.

We have covered here before how competencies are in fact the foundation of a good talent management strategy. Taleo has historically spent much more time developing competencies than many other vendors and offers skills and competencies embedded in the solution. The high results coming from the survey (even surprising the IDC analyst) are a good testament of the hard work done in this area.