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.

• 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.”

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.

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.

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.