After a stimulating week at Taleo World in Las Vegas with record attendance in the face of a tough economy, we were struck by just how much innovation and value our customers are generating for their business.

Hundreds of HR leaders representing nearly all industries, geographies, and philosophies met to network and discuss talent management. Dozens of companies presented real-world talent strategies that produced significant results. Our 2009 Customer Innovation Award winner North Shore – Long Island Jewish Health System drove $25 million in operating margin improvement!

These are the kinds of success stories that happen when HR sets the table by showing the money and quantifying the financial impact of talent management.

BusinessWeek’s Gap To Employees: Work Wherever, Whenever You Want describes how companies have increased engagement and performance by placing workplace before marketplace. And it’s especially interesting to read that these cutting edge people programs are not lumped under HR and human capital. People are called talent and the programs are called talent management:

“In our business, merchandisers spend years developing expertise and the gut instinct to predict fashion trends,” added Severson. “To see that knowledge and talent walk out the door is devastating.”

“There are very few talent management programs that don’t create a sense of entitlement,” he said. “This is an agreement between the employees and the company that in exchange for the most incredible freedom to do your job in a way that makes sense for you, you will perform highly.”

So now if it's administrative, it's called HR like HRMS. And if it's performance enhancing or business effective, it's talent management. This is a subtle but very powerful distinction. Advantage: talent management.