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Organization, Talent Article, talent management strategy
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Making talent a strategic priority

  • Finding and retaining talented employees is at least as challenging today as it was ten years ago. Demographic trends, globalization, and the growth of knowledge work have intensified the external pressures on companies—but many of them compound the problem by failing to make talent management a strategic priority.
  • Executives can act on their rhetoric about the importance of employees in creating competitive advantage and embed a robust talent strategy in the overall business strategy if they focus on all workforce segments and not just on the top performers, create different value propositions for employees with different characteristics, and increase the role and capabilities of the human-resources (HR) function.
This article contains the following exhibits:
  • Exhibit 1: Business and HR leaders identify many reasons for an inability to deliver value through talent-management practices, and seven obstacles stand out.
  • Exhibit 2: The suitability of job candidates varies across countries as a result of language problems, educational systems, and cultural issues.
  • Exhibit 3: Executives do not see the HR function as having the influence and capabilities to shape effective talent-management strategies.
  • Exhibit 4: Organizations cannot afford to neglect the contributions of all but the highest-ranking employees.

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