A study from Veritude presented an interesting contradiction for us. As you can see on the chart below, HR is close to last on the strategic value for an organization, but customer service is #1.

This shows again the confusion between Talent Management and transactional HR. Of course printing a check is important as is making sure that the administrative system is working well, but that is not the same as having effective talent management in place.

We see Talent Management directly impacting customer service and consequently should rank much higher in importance. Indeed, customer service is defined as: the provision of labor and other resources, for the purpose of increasing the value that buyers receive from their purchases and from the processes leading up to the purchase. And that article also highlights the importance that outstanding service organizations put on training and recruiting.

So our conclusion is that if HR is close to last, talent management is close to first!