The BusinessWeek article You Can Lead. But Can You Inspire? offers 10 attributes of successful leaders. This is an important distinction. There are fundamental differences between a manager and a leader. While leaders influence, inspire, and drive people, the role of a manager is keeping day-to-day operations running smoothly.

Peter Drucker made the distinction this way, "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." and he acknowledged that “Leaders are not born, they are grown.” Employee development must reflect these differences and manage both sets of skills.

To identify, attract, fill, and retain your leadership talent, you need leadership development programs focused on hiring strategies, employee development, and career and succession planning.

Learn how developing effective leadership using a consistent talent management program at all levels across the organization can return significant business value in the Taleo Research paper, Seven Steps for Effective Leadership Development.

DiversityInc has published The 2010 DiversityInc Top 50 List and we can see that talent management is making a difference for these companies. This tenth annual competition is objective and based on a survey of more than 200 questions that paint by numbers what can be considered a picture of a company’s culture.

How do we know they are transforming corporate culture through talent practices and systems? Six of the top ten and more than half of the top 50 practice talent management because they are Taleo customers.

Now that diversity has been quantified a winning talent strategy, it’s gone from nice to have to need to have. Diversity proof points show that programs deliver business returns in leadership and on a global scale.

The key finding in CareerXroads 9th Annual Source of Hire Study: Meltdown in 2009 and What It Means for a 2010 Recovery isn’t about new hires at all. In a significant increase over 2008, Internal Transfers and Promotions were the source of 51% of ALL the F/T positions companies filled on average.

INTERNAL MOVEMENT

As the economy improves and hiring increases, this will likely be seen as an anomaly, not as a trend. Study findings on external hire sources list referrals as the number one source (26.7%). The corporate career site is in second position and accounts for nearly one-quarter (22.3%) of new hires.

2009 EXTERNAL SOURCES OF HIRE

We know there’s no lack of candidates using those career sites: 200 million candidates have applied to jobs via corporate career sites powered by Taleo's online recruitment solutions. Nearly 30% of those applicants—tracked since Taleo pioneered the online recruiting market in 1999—have applied through Taleo in the past 12 months.

Get the inside track on how career sites can be more than just a hiring portal in a webcast: Ready, Set, Go: Utilizing Technology Strategy to Increase New Hire Productivity on Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 12:00 p.m. ET / 9:00 a.m. PT.

A number of studies indicate job growth as organizations around the world emerge from recession mode in 2010.

But these optimistic trends are tempered by expectations of a rocky road. PricewaterhouseCooper’s 13th Annual Global CEO Survey further concludes:
Highly skilled still globally in demand
Specialists remain in demand, and many parts of the world are still struggling to attract and keep talent. Over the long term, businesses may live to regret the drastic headcount reduction they have made during the downturn.

The Conference Board CEO Challenge 2010 Survey found CEOs appear to be emerging from recession mode and priming for a return to growth…but The Conference Board cautions: U.S. Labor Market Faces Bumpy Road from Recession to Recovery.

It seems that One Ambivalent Economy + Many Cautious Employers = One Difficult Job Market in which “…job seekers will have to be more flexible, willing to take short-term assignments or relocate to places where jobs are plentiful.”

This all points to the need for agility for both jobseekers and corporations as we move Toward a Flexible Staffing Model. Consolidating recruiting and performance processes will provide more intelligent workforce insights for a clear view of the outlook ahead.

CIPD Next Generation HR research finds potential of a bright future, but challenges the HR profession to raise its sights to deliver on true potential. Among its recommendations:
Put true, game-changing insight at the heart of its work. Introducing the concept of ‘organisational insight’ – the combination of real business ‘savvy’ and a deep appreciation of the people, political and cultural factors that determine ‘what really goes on around here’ – the report unpicks the capacity of HR to offer unique solutions to the challenges of building organisations that last.

More tactical is step four in 5 Steps for Agility in a Volatile Economy which prescribes: Implement an integrated performance management system that supports a culture of coaching accountability and development.

I am pleased to be listed among the Top 25 Influencers in Online Recruiting and hope that the research cited on this Taleo blog helps you improve the recruiting and talent management practices in your organization.

Obviously, learning from data-driven sources about best practices and processes for recruiting is valuable. However, one of the overarching key messages here is the place recruiting and talent management deserves in the more general context of business management.

Much can be learned from business gurus, academia, and strategic improvisation that can be actionable for talent management, as well as more broadly instructive about the global economic marketplace and business landscape where we all compete. The greater the knowledge and insight we have, the better we can do the work that powers our companies to succeed and pull up a seat at the executive table.

Here’s a great resource: The Thinkers 50, a biennial list of the most influential living management thinkers. You can leverage their wisdom to enhance your development as a talent management professional and expand your influence in your own organization.

The demographics of developed countries and the composition of today’s workforces mean that many managers are supervising four generations, and most organizations are recruiting and retaining workers of all ages. As the youngest, most technologically savvy generation—the Millennials—has come on the scene, a lot of energy has been spent trying to understand their habits and motivations in order to attract them and maximize their productivity.

Pew Research Center’s report Millennials: Confident, Connected, Open to Change is a fascinating, comprehensive look at the values, attitudes and behaviors of America’s next generation in many areas, including work.

Of equal interest is the analysis that compares and contrasts the Millennials with Gen X, the Boomers, and the Silent generation. The full study is a reflection of America at a point in time, and a reminder of how multi-dimensional each generation and each individual is.

It may be that the differences among the generations come as much from life stage issues as from unique personalities and novel experiences. With these insights, better understanding of our workers and our candidates can improve the efficacy of our talent management practices. And good talent management drives better performance from talent of all ages.

Newsweek’s Lay Off the Layoffs article points out that kneejerk downsizing is actually bad for business. Written by Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, the piece cites numerous studies rather than rely on journalistic anecdotes.

Echoing last year’s prophetic comments of the Wells Fargo chairman on talent, the Southwest Airlines HR leader quoted in the article said:

"If people are your most important assets, why would you get rid of them?"

Research has proven that layoffs don’t work. All they do is create active disengagement, lower the stock price, and damage the brand. In fact, the damages to the bottom line are proportional to the severity of the layoffs.

Managing talent in tough times requires understanding the talent management correlations. The new perspective is focused on cutting costs while taking a strategic talent perspective and being mindful of the talent and brand connection.

In the spirit of the holiday, and like in previous years, Taleo’s third annual Valentine’s Day survey polled working Americans to gauge their work/love balance and see if they were feeling the love in the workplace.

When asked about feelings of engagement:

• 84% like what they do.
• 15% love their job enough to marry it.
• 33% are open to looking for a new position.
• 12% are actively pursuing new opportunities.

Among other factors, marital status and income level significantly influence engagement at the workplace. Our findings show:

• Married workers are more likely to be highly engaged (56% vs. 46%).
• Workers earning greater than $50,000 are more engaged than those earning less than $35,000 (65% vs. 40%).

Our survey findings reflect anticipation of a positive surge in the job market. This means you should prepare for other companies attracting your top talent. Even last year, 20% of job churn was voluntary since the best and brightest usually have their choice of workplace in any economic climate.

At a time when companies are finally able to start thinking about growth, they can’t afford to lose top talent to their competitors. The right talent management tools are playing an even bigger role in cultivating the relationship between employers and employees and relationships ultimately drive employee retention.

Legend has it that the CEO of an ERP software company used to count cars in the parking lot at the end of the day to measure employee engagement. Just like the outmoded technology of ERP for managing people, the archaic concept of face and desk time no longer equates to productivity.

Today’s workforce is more mobile, socially networked, cloud computing based, and faster than ever before. Talent management software as a service mirrors this fundamental change in how we work.

Much like assessments deliver higher quality of hire than gut feelings, studies are a much better gauge of engagement. Hard performance numbers in the form of key performance indicators provide a higher level of insight. Talent analytics delivered in real time on dashboards and performance reports paint a more accurate picture of workforce quality.

Executive leaders in companies of all sizes now can benefit from aggregate performance information with a drilldown capability. HR and line managers can determine the best sources for top candidates, top performers, and overall process performance.

They should also take the advice of those that practice superior talent management and achieve #1 on Fortune's list of Best Companies to Work For. As SAS Institute’s CEO Jim Goodnight says: "My chief assets drive out the gate every day. My job is to make sure they come back."

Your executive leadership should be counting on retention, analytics, and studies instead of counting cars.

Implementing an effective succession plan can produce big results in an organization. The Bersin & Associates Case Study, Hardwiring Performance Measurement: North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System Focuses on Talent Management to Increase Patient Care Quality, describes how the health care leader transformed their culture using small successful changes:

By looking at the entire employee lifecycle, from hiring to career development to succession, the health system was able to systematically and rapidly make overall improvements in talent management, company culture and business results.

In particular, North Shore-LIJ identified key positions, developed high-potential employees, and created talent pools for succession management. An integrated approach delivered consistency across the process from quality of hire to development and succession.

To learn more about creating a winning process for succession planning in your organization, attend this webcast:

Succession Planning: Why It's Important as the Economy Recovers on February 10, 2010: 11:00 a.m. PT / 2:00 p.m. ET.

We know that HR needs Seats at Executive Tables. Also key to better business performance is leadership diversity. 2009 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women Board Directors and 2009 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women Executive Officers and Top Earners present disconcerting conclusions:

• Women held 15.2 percent of board seats.
• Women of color held 3.1 percent of all board director positions.
• Women’s share of board chair positions remained flat at 2.0 percent.

As Women Missing From Key Leadership Positions notes: Nearly 30 percent of companies surveyed had no women executive officers at all, and less than one-fifth of companies had three or more women executive officers.

And yet:

“…companies with more women in leadership, on average, outperform those with fewer women, and those with three or more women board directors do even better.”

These results show what we already know:

“It’s not enough to recognize the need to advance women into leadership positions. It’s time to execute on it.”

People sometimes refer to character as makeup. Not the cosmetic kind but the qualities that really make up a person. Organizations also have makeup. That’s the corporate culture and employment brand you experience as projected by the level of talent that works there. And it all starts with leadership.

As an HR professional, how do you transform your organization? The work is hard but the formula is simple. You need to attract and retain top talent. You need to make the investments in people and systems to formalize your processes. And you need to elevate your message all the way to the board room. They are listening:

Talent Management: Top Business Priority
Executive Views: Talent in Tough Times
CEO Talent Perspectives

According to The Wall Street Journal’s article HR Executives Suddenly Get Hot:

“…65 current and former human-resources managers serve as outside directors on 101 boards…”

However, in the UK the IDS report The HR Function – A survey of HR structures, pay and conditions says:

"...the most senior person in HR reports directly to the CEO at only 48% of organisations. HR is represented at board level in 67% of SMEs but only 55% of large organisations.

An i4cp study addresses this question: Should the Head of Human Resources Report to the CEO? The answer is yes if you want revenue growth and increased market share.

McKinsey’s article, Competing through organizational agility, begins with this wise comment:

Market turbulence did not begin with the fall of Lehman Brothers, and it will not end when the global economy recovers.

In fact, in a kind of Moore’s law (the one which describes the exponential increase in the power of information technology) for business, market and economic turbulence has persistently accelerated over recent decades. Today, turbulent conditions are the new normal – presenting a dynamic, competitive environment for businesses to navigate.

Whether your organization focuses on strategic, portfolio, or operational types of agility, successful organizations all require agility in their talent management practices. What does that mean?
• Real-time information about your talent: your employees, your new hire candidates, even your alumni so you can quickly draw on superior talent.
• Reporting and analytics that inform leadership: not only what talent is available, but also the direct match between skills and jobs that map to the company’s priorities.

After all, alignment inside has been shown to drive engagement and productivity:

The benefits of enhanced agility…include higher revenues, more satisfied customers and employees, improved operational efficiency, and a faster time to market.

We predicted “recovery” would be a buzz word for 2010, and it is appearing—albeit with some trepidation—early and often in articles such as Even in a Recovery, Some Jobs Won't Return and EU economic recovery is gathering momentum although at a modest pace.

While any talk of recovery is welcome, there is also important learning to take from the experiences of the economic downturn. Mercer’s Managing talent after a downsizing, for instance, cautions:

Companies need to remember that, regardless of economic conditions, their best talent always has options. Even today, not every company is having a hard time.…The main thing companies need to do to secure their longer-term success is to identify their key talent, hold on to that talent, and do the best they can to develop that talent.

Organizations have sought to mitigate the negative effects of the economy on their talent management, workforce performance, and business bottom line. As 2009’s economic conditions fade, successful organizations can face their talent management challenges by leveraging strategies and powerful, unified solutions designed for 2010 and beyond.

Learn more in a global study from Taleo Research, Talent Management Lessons from the Great Recession of 2009.

We know that talent management delivers higher earnings for companies that practice and execute this HR strategy. But what are the key process drivers inside the results?

Aberdeen’s Integrated Talent Management: Improving Business Results through Visibility and Alignment points to alignment of people to company goals. The results include increased profit and engagement:
• 7x greater profit per FTE
• 19% greater employee engagement

Best in class companies that integrate at least two talent processes also enjoy 49% more positions with identified successors.

A Taleo Research paper further explains the power of integrating recruiting and performance management. The Value of Unified Recruiting and Performance Management explains how strategic recruiting linked to performance reviews, goals, succession, and development creates immediate value in proactive sourcing, improved candidate evaluation, and quality of hire. These integrated processes enable:
• Faster candidate identification.
• Improved employer branding.
• Higher quality of hire.
• Comprehensive talent profiles.
• Increased job visibility for employees.
• Access to external succession candidates.

For those of us who’ve been measuring the financial and business impacts of talent management for years, findings that correlate a talent management strategy to hard dollar business performance are no surprise. Here are some examples that should perk up the ears in the C-suite of any company:

Talent Management Correlations
Advantage: Talent Management
Talent Management Is Innovation
Talent Quotient: Quantify the Financial Impact of Talent

Now The Hackett Group’s Alert on its Performance Study on Talent Management Maturity provides these highlights of success for companies executing a talent strategy:

• 18 percent higher earnings.
• Significant net profit margin improvement.
• Greater return on equity and assets.
• Better talent/business alignment.
• Stronger corporate culture.
• Higher retention.
• Faster recruiting.

This study involved 60 companies over three years and tracked 19 measures of business performance. Overall, the clear differentiator that made these companies more successful was their use of technology. As the key findings noted:

TMMLs [talent management maturity leaders] also have a more advanced technology infrastructure to access talent-related information. Their talent management applications are better integrated, and talent reporting is more standardized, detailed and recurring.

Hackett Managing Director of HR Transformation had this to say:

"These companies were better able to attract high-quality staff, retain key talent, and develop the skills they need to support strategic business goals, and the focus on people also has a measurable impact on business performance."

According to The Wall Street Journal’s Federal Jobs: Easy to Spot, Hard to Get, the US Federal Government expects to hire more than 250,000 people over the next three years. These projected hiring needs are listed by skill and agency at Where the Jobs Are 2009: Mission-Critical Opportunities for America.

While the private sector lost employees over the last three years, the number of federal government employees has risen during the same period.

And although the USAJobs hiring process as described in the article clearly had bumps in the road for some applicants, several agencies are making great strides in automating recruiting.

FEDERALTIMES.com’s DHS plans hiring overhaul article outlines how the Homeland Security Department has adopted a unified hiring system strategy that will:

• Provide process metrics for the hiring process.
• Enable managers to create online job postings.
• Market vacancies to targeted populations.
• Enhance the applicant experience.
• Help HR review, rate, and track applicants
• Assist managers with interviews and job offers.

Jeffrey Neal, the personnel chief for the Homeland Security Department, will rely on talent metrics and analytics to drive the culture change he needs to achieve success:

"Hiring managers who are told, ‘You're the problem and here's the data that shows it,' start making decisions quicker. It's amazing how that works."