Every couple of years, someone writes a scathing article about HR. You probably remember Why We Hate HR in Fast Company magazine. And each time there are measured responses in the blogosphere about HR’s role in the age of talent.

These press events get exposure for the author and provoke the business to start a dialogue with HR. Talent management makes headlines.

Now Rutgers professor Richard Beatty from publish or perish academia (with coincidentally a new book The Differentiated Workforce: Transforming Talent into Strategic Impact to promote) has made a presentation leading to this headline: Memo to CFOs: Don't Trust HR. Responses from Gartner's Jim Holincheck, The HR Capitalist, and ZDNet blogger Dennis Howlett are notable in their attention to detail, call for HR differentiation, and what business needs to do.

Now it’s our turn. Unfortunately for Beatty’s position, the world of research and hard data totally refutes his assertions on engagement:

• Engaged companies have a stronger bottom line and 2.6X growth in earnings per share according to Building Engagement in This Economic Crisis from the Gallup Management Journal.

• Highly engaged employee companies enjoy 26% higher employee productivity, lower turnover, higher talent attraction, and greater shareholder return; see findings in Watson Wyatt’s 2008/2009 WorkUSA Report.

• Talent management practices power engaged companies to achieve higher profit per employee by nearly 40%, as explained in Why multinationals struggle to manage talent from McKinsey.

• Increasing engagement in a 10,000 person organization can boost the bottom line by more than $40 million, as estimated in Employee Engagement: The Key To Realizing Competitive Advantage from DDI.

And be sure to read our forthcoming paper, Alignment Drives Employee Engagement and Productivity, which further articulates how engagement powers higher revenue per employee, higher performance, and greater shareholder return.