The Role of HR in The Age of Talent whitepaper prompted some blog buzz, including The HR Capitalist posting—and thread of comments—When People Say HR Stinks, It's Simple...Don't Stink... It revisits the controversy around the role of HR as a business partner.

We think that talent management is best implemented as a partnership between the business and HR. We already know it’s a top business priority. Interestingly, the study results from a small sample of respondents from Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) show a sharp difference from North America (NA). Their encouraging perspective?

• HR reports directly to the CEO in 71% of companies in ANZ versus 58% in NA.

• 78% of respondents from ANZ claim that HR is either respected or highly respected and occasionally or frequently consulted on corporate strategy versus 64% in NA.

• 32% from ANZ assess their organizations as being well prepared or very well-prepared to address coming talent management challenges versus 18% in North America.

In the age of talent, we agree that HR is a profession in transition, especially when it comes to realizing the transformational power of unified talent management on organizations. We understand the pain but we also see the gains, and agree with the comments of report author Alan Schweyer, Executive Director of the Human Capital Institute:

“…the most successful organizations make talent management a priority for every leader, manager and supervisor…”

“…the gap in awareness between talent management and HR, is narrowing, as is the time spent in each activity…”

Take the time to make talent management happen in your organization, to realize HR elevation, deliver the payoff to the business, and perhaps even add to your own compensation.

The new Taleo Research white paper Unified Talent Management: Critical to UK Business discusses how UK businesses are under increasing pressure to optimize business processes and assets in an uncertain economy.

Yet they face increased talent shortages, lack unified talent systems and strategies, and must adjust career site strategies to accommodate an increase in online jobseekers.

Key findings show that talent management is acknowledged to be highly important and critical to business success but presents execution and technology challenges. A closer look at the survey analysis paints an impressionistic picture where the dots are clearly disconnected:

• 89% of respondents indicate that talent shortages are impacting or highly impacting leadership development in their organizations.

• 76% expect the current talent shortage to remain the same or increase (40%) over the next 12 months.

• And less than one-third (30%) have a talent management strategy in place.

The study also reveals that during the current economic downturn, the value of unified recruiting and performance management is top of mind:

• 74% see an increased need to retain top performers by driving the focus on performance management and career planning.

• 67% think succession planning and internal mobility programmes can maximise the value from current employees.

• 63% report the importance of quality of hire increases in this current climate compared to a high growth period (53%).

Nearly 200 UK HR leaders contributed survey answers and direct responses. This one summarizes what the results quantify:

“We need to be better at integrating a talent management approach across all aspects of business. We also need to have a well documented approach which is then owned by the business but co-authored/driven/facilitated by HR. This should be one of the major functions of an HR department.”

The journey from Personnel Department to Human Resources and Talent has taken decades. And the magic words most often used to elevate—or perhaps better define—the function in the eyes of the business include efficiency, strategy, and transformation.

These words always look good up front on the PowerPoint slides when approaching the executive table for HR initiative blessings and budget funding. But what do they really mean? And what results will they achieve?

The Human Resource Executive Online article, Talent and Transformation, says this:

While HR groups must clearly define what strategic means in their own organizations, the study's findings point toward a growing consensus about what "strategic HR" is.

Survey results found that 70% of HR leaders view talent management as a key strategy. They are not alone. Executives have also made talent management a top business priority along with talent retention.

Our key takeaways:

• Effective HR/business partnerships are built on actions that actively engage people in the recruiting and performance processes. You need a unified system that candidates, recruiters, hiring managers, executives, and employees can easily use and will rapidly adopt.

• Getting a seat at the executive table requires more than selling a program and simple ROI. You need to commit to tangible benefits of value creation and metrics for measuring recruiting and performance results such as quality of hire. Initiatives must respond to business challenges such as growth plans, leadership gaps, the need for innovation, or higher productivity, instead of HR compliance programs.

Making the words efficiency, transformation, and strategic HR equate to real business partnership value requires talent management to be a core element of the business process, not principally an HR activity. Embedding talent management into the business process—facilitated by HR and owned by line managers and employees—puts the strategy into practice.

Long relegated to HR journals, research papers, and occasional magazine features, talent management is now appearing regularly in mainstream news.

As we’ve progressed from the agricultural, industrial, information, to the talent age, the performance generated from successful talent management is Empowering the Next Level of Business Results.

Recent talent management features in the news include The Sunday Times of London’s major spread available at TimesOnline, and Fortune magazine’s article titled Does your employer deserve you?, where John Cheese of Accenture says this on how to spot a talent-powered company:

“There should be a lot of upward mobility, and lateral movement as well, within the ranks. Talent-powered organizations give their employees frequent, constructive feedback on their performance.”

We agree that unified workforce mobility, recruiting, and performance management that take the process from an annual event to a regular occurrence can make all the difference.

Development Dimensions International (DDI) with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) recently published Growing Global Executive Talent which points out that talent awareness is not enough. Immediate action is required according to the more than 400 executives polled. 55% felt that business performance would likely suffer due to a lack of talent.

Aberdeen’s recent study of more than 9,000 organizations, The Looming Leadership Void: Identifying, Developing, and Retaining Your Top Talent, reveals that less than half have a succession planning strategy in place today. However, 73% will develop one in the next year. Aberdeen offers a proven roadmap to success:

• Gain senior management support.
• Standardize employee evaluation.
• Target key positions for succession.
• Define position attributes and behaviors.
• Establish position skills and knowledge.

To learn how succession planning plays a key role in talent management, join Kevin Martin, Research Director HCM, Aberdeen Group and James Harvey, Product Manager, Taleo Corporation on May 28, 2008 for an informative webcast, “Best-in-Class Succession Planning, The Real Scoop”.

Interesting findings are presented in the Results from the 5th Annual Rocket-Hire Online Screening and Assessment Usage Survey article, which is subtitled:

Quality screening and assessment tools can pay off, if you demonstrate their value.

Study data shows a significant increase in the use of screening and assessment: 57% now use online prescreening to sort applicants.

Note the dramatic increases in the usage rates of common assessment tools from 2002 to 2007:

Also there are the standard measures of automation in the hiring process:
• 79% of all respondents use an applicant tracking system (ATS).
• 100% of those who make > 5,000 hires use an ATS.

Overall satisfaction was high with 65% of prescreeners and 77% of assessors feeling the tools added value. And 42% of those not using them are considering one or both.

Our takeaways are:
• You need to collect metrics to evaluate and adjust assessments.
• Well-designed and validated assessments are critical to value and satisfaction.

Although the term inflection point has its root in mathematics, Andy Grove described it in business terms in his 1996 book, Only the Paranoid Survive as “An inflection point occurs where the old strategic picture dissolves and gives way to the new.” In 2008, the term inflection point is an apt description of the state of talent management and HR. The prevailing view of HR as a cost center tasked with primarily personnel issues has transformed. Study after study acknowledges the critical role of talent management in business performance, executed in partnership with a mission-critical, strategic HR department.

How organizations successfully accomplish talent management brings us to another inflection point, another point of change. That is in the technology tools and platforms that support and drive talent management strategies and processes for business performance.

Today, Taleo announced our acquisition of Vurv. This inflection point delivers on the promise of a unified talent management platform. Not only is this combination of interest to industry and financial analysts, but it also represents an important—and positive—development for both of our customer bases, and the broader market.

Now, the industry’s leading talent management resources will be focused on a single development investment. That development powerhouse—along with more Software as a Service (SaaS) and talent management experts than any other vendor—will create the next-generation of talent management applications.

More details are just a click away...

In the midst of economic uncertainty, a majority of respondents to Knowledge Infusion and ERE’s The Future of Recruiting & Sourcing Survey consider recruiting and sourcing in the top third of business—not HR—but business priorities.

That’s because best practices for finding and hiring great talent is never out of style—regardless of the economic season. We also see the advantages for all size businesses using new processes and tools for recruiting and sourcing.

Yesterday, smaller businesses:
• Relied on simple career sites, print ads, and limited job board access.
• Missed relationship building with passive candidates.
• Lacked sophisticated job board tools.
• Had to manually troll the social networks.

Today, technology and targeted marketing has leveled the playing field.

Join me—Alice Snell, Vice President of Taleo Research; Krista Bauer, Talent Acquisition Recruiter with MobiTV; and Kevin Nanney, Senior Director of Products with Taleo, as we explain how to hire smarter and faster in a slow economy using innovative sourcing channels and real-world examples.

Register for the Innovative Sourcing in Today's Economy webcast on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. PT / 12 noon ET.