Serving 77 of the Fortune 100 and 50 percent of the FTSE 100, The Hackett Group is well positioned to do a study on the economic payback of talent management practices. So the results in their new Book of Numbers research volume Talent Management: Buzzword or Holy Grail? should ring loud and clear from the HR suite to the board room.

Based on more than 125 HR benchmarks over three years, the companies using talent management outperformed their peers in four key financial categories. The results point to nearly $400 million in returns for a typical Fortune 500 enterprise:

• Earnings improvement of nearly 15%.
• 22% improvement in net profit margin.
• 49% improvement in return on assets.
• 27% improvement in return on equity.

We’ve documented similarly dramatic results with our studies over the years in the Hidden ROI of Talent Acquisition & Mobility and other papers. We’ve also seen the connection between our customers using talent management practices and their overall performance in our Taleo Stock Index.

Thanks to Jim Holincheck, Jason Averbook, and Forbes for the linkage to this important study. As we say at Taleo: Talent Drives Performance.