Talent drives business performance and superior employment branding attracts top talent. But what about the connection between talent management and a company’s brand perception?

BusinessWeek recently posted their Best Global Brands 2008 list. Six of the top ten and more than half of the top 50 have used talent management initiatives to attract the top talent they need to distinguish their brands. On the magazine’s Best Places to Launch a Career 2008 list, seven of the top ten employ talent management. (We know because they are Taleo customers.)

SHRM’s study, The Employer Brand: A Strategic Tool to Attract, Recruit and Retain Talent, says that organizations that define and align their employment brand will attract and retain people with a tighter culture fit.

Another talent and brand connection is employee satisfaction. In The Value of Being a Best Employer, Peter Cappelli cites Knowledge@Wharton’s Does the Stock Market Fully Value Intangibles? Employee Satisfaction and Equity Prices that says research connects how good a place is to work and the employment brand to a 2X+ return compared to the overall market.

Although any good news on the stock market is hard to come by these days, here are some bullish words of encouragement. Wells Fargo’s Chairman Dick Kovacevich takes a more positive view of the economy and the market’s immediate profit-focused misperception of relationship of talent to stock price:

“There may be doubts how long (the recovery) will take, but it will get done and sooner than most people think…Why do stock prices go up with layoffs? Why is it good to lose good people?”

Maybe more CEOs and boards will take a long-term holistic talent view that upstages short-term financial thinking?