What is a talent management strategy?

A talent management strategy is a systematic and intentional approach to effectively attracting, retaining and deploying a workforce. Its goal is to supply your organization with the right people with the right skills in the right positions at the right time. A talent management strategy acts as the blueprint for how a company handles its employees from the moment they’re hired until they leave. It’s like a carefully crafted plan that guides everything from finding the best people for the job to helping them grow and succeed within the company. Just as a chef carefully selects the right ingredients and follows a recipe to create a delicious dish, a company uses its talent management strategy to carefully choose the right employees and develop them in ways that align with its goals. It’s about making sure everyone is in the best position to contribute to the company’s success.

Companies with effective talent management strategies generally don’t struggle to fill vacancies, either because current employees feel well taken care of, candidates have been vetted and/or headhunted long in advance, or because the company itself is known as a great place to work. Companies with an ineffective talent management strategy often struggle to fill vacancies. Their employees may be generally unhappy, and/or the company may experience frequent turnover. Word of mouth may then spread about the company being a bad place to work, and this impression could be perpetuated online via reviews.

Creating a talent management strategy

Generally speaking, most (if not all) talent management strategies have a few things in common. If you are looking to create your own talent management strategy, here are a few important basics it could include:

• Talent acquisition is at the very top of the staffing food chain and the first step in nearly every talent management system. Your employer brand, along with your reputation in the industry, could help make talent acquisition easier for your company. Some HR professionals specialize in recruitment and talent acquisition , with inside knowledge of who is available, and what competitor compensation and job offers look like in the job market. At other companies, an HR generalist may assume this role (along with others listed below).
• Onboarding usually aspires to make new hires feel welcome and confident in their ability to join your team and contribute. Proper onboarding has countless benefits, making it a vital part of any talent management system. Poor onboarding could leave a negative and lasting first impression, setting the stage for how the rest of your employment relationship develops. Onboarding as part of a talent management system helps put your company’s best foot forward, so you may avoid these issues and create a fruitful employment relationship from the get-go.
• Performance management could also be included in employment contracts in an effort to avoid informally assessing performance and giving raises and bonuses subjectively. With a talent management strategy, people managers may be empowered to give career guidance and feedback to their direct reports. This guidance and feedback could then be captured and retained by HR, with the aim of establishing long-term performance for achievements to be rewarded, or any issues to be corrected. Failing to take performance management seriously could lead to the wrong people being promoted or let go, which could then harm your company and wouldn’t be fair to your employees.
• Professional development, in the context of a talent management strategy, helps ensure employees are able to set goals for themselves and find tools to help them reach those goals. This could be through coursework, earning a certification, improving certain skills, or taking on greater opportunities. Having a strategy in place that facilitates your employees’ ability to upskill could not only make your workforce more capable, but also increase the quality and types of services your company can offer. Not having a strategy in place could result in employees feeling stagnant and unappreciated, which could then lead to turnover .
• Rewards and retention could also be part of your talent management strategy. Integrating rewards and retention into your talent management strategy helps your employees feel fairly compensated and recognized for their special achievements. Not having a formal strategy in place for rewards and retention could cause employees to leave your organization if they get a higher-paying offer.
• Discipline may also feature in your strategy. Again, a good talent management strategy would include policies, rules, and guidelines that reflect your company’s values and corporate culture. This could also be weaved in to how your company hires, so you could find people who fit in well with your company culture. If your company is in an industry where safety is paramount, for example, hiring people with an excellent safety record and plenty of related certifications could be part of your talent management strategy.
• Analytics or any other forms of measurement also play a role in a talent management strategy. It may be useful to have methods to collect data and sentiment around employee satisfaction, efficiency, and complaints, as well as specific numbers on whether or not your employees and company are performing at their best. Talent management strategies usually feature ways of measuring employee engagement and actioning the results. It is also useful to take action based on the data collected.

Evaluating your talent management strategy

There are a few key performance indicators you could examine to tell whether or not your talent management strategy is effective:

• Measurable employee satisfaction: High satisfaction levels likely mean your employees feel valued and appreciated within the organization. Low satisfaction levels could require more thorough investigation and action before they take hold. Surveys, feedback mechanisms, and other tools could be used to gauge employee satisfaction.
• High employee retention rates: Retention rates give insight into whether employees are willing to stay with your company in the long term. High retention rates suggest that employees are satisfied with their roles and the organizational culture, while low retention rates could be a reflection of your compensation policies, friction with managers you have in place, or dissatisfaction with the nature of the work your employees do.
• Increased productivity and engagement: High-performing employees tend to exhibit increased productivity and engagement. Tracking these metrics may help assess the impact of talent management initiatives on individual and team performance. Underperforming, disengaged employees tend to be a drain on resources and drag those around them down.
• Flexibility, innovation, and personalization: Flexibility, innovation, and personalization help cater to employee preferences and evolving organizational needs. This adaptability help keep your talent management strategy relevant and effective in a dynamic business environment. If you find that there is little to no conflict with the rules and policies you’ve set out, and those following them, it could be a sign that your strategy is flexible, innovative, and personalized.

Prioritizing your talent management strategy (or creating it if you don’t have one) is one way to build and sustain a successful workforce.