As consultants in the Talent Management space, my colleagues and I are usually asked some variation on the following questions: what companies are the leaders in talent management practices? Who are the organizations that do talent management – talent acquisition, development, performance, succession, workforce planning, talent mobility, etc. – well enough to have it truly impact company performance? Dr. John Sullivan, in his blog post “Where to Work if You’re a Talent Management Rock Star” over at TLNT.com provides a list of companies that satisfy the following criteria to identify 15 companies for talent management rockstars:
- Firm is included in the current BusinessWeek or Fortune rankings as a top place to work.
- Firm has won awards or been written up for excellence in talent management.
- Firm has been a “launching pad” for talent management leaders who now serve in a leadership role at other major firms.
- Firm has continued to grow and hire, in spite of economic turmoil.
While I have the utmost respect for Dr. Sullivan’s expertise and opinions in the area of talent management, I have to say, honestly, that I am somewhat dubious of the validity of the above criteria for truly identifying great organizations for talent management. Having worked for a company that participated in the process of making the Fortune Great Places to Work list, and having spoken with many representatives at companies that have made that list repeatedly over time, I know that many of those organizations expend many resources over months to gather the information requested (some even have whole teams dedicated to the effort year round). More often than not, the effort is led by the Marketing department, not HR, leading me to believe that rather than a true reflection of the organization’s talent management prowess, inclusion on the lists is more a result of fantastic packaging and marketing.
As for many articles being written about the organization’s talent management practices, well, I know again from experience that being selected as a subject of such an article is often less a result of objective assessment of an organization’s talent management excellence and more a result of someone knowing someone at the publication. The fourth criterion, company continuing to grow and hire in spite of economic turmoil, can be attributed to any number of factors other than talent management.
That leaves the third criterion as the one I find most compelling: Firm has been a “launching pad” for talent management leaders who now serve in a leadership role at other major firms. What is most compelling, to me, about this criterion is that it acknowledges that there are true talent management innovators out there who have done amazing things to change the talent management game at the companies named. And then they have moved on to other companies. To replicate what they already did. And more often than not, the replication – the clone – is not as effective at the second organization as it was when it was done originally.
I think what makes the listed organizations great at talent management is that they have had incredibly innovative, original thinkers in the space. But it is quite challenging to replicate innovative talent management at another place. First of all, I think “replicate innovation” is something of an oxymoron. That observation aside, there are many environmental conditions that make innovative, original talent management possible. Such conditions may include enlightened leadership, being in a recession-proof industry, readily available financial resources, etc. Truly innovative, transformative talent management happens when insightful, original thinkers recognize a certain alignment of organizational, business and environmental planets and take advantage of it to introduce a new idea, a new process, a new technology that they then execute exceptionally well.
So, if one’s career goal is to be a talent management rockstar, by all means, study the organizations Dr. Sullivan lists. However, don’t study their talent management practices so that you can replicate them somewhere else (in rock music, that’s known as covering a hit). Instead, study the conditions in which the innovative talent management practice, process, etc., was executed. Learn how the confluence of the idea, the environment, and the competencies of the talent management innovator resulted in the great practice and business results. Then, find an organization in which to be a talent management original.
Hi Suzanne, Helpful points regarding taking best practices and then trying to apply them in your own organization. There’s more to it than simply cloning. While I agree that the Best Place to Work criterion is not necessarily helpful, there is more to being selected than having your marketing folks fill out the paperwork. It’s much about the feedback from randomly selected employees completing surveys. And while we can discuss the merits of that, the point is that there’s more than you represent in the blog.
Your blog could be really helpful here in offering your criteria for defining organizations with effective talent management practices, and maybe even mentioning some names. Are there case studies available in the public domain that discuss effective practices?
Bruce Kestelman, Leader/Consultant in Organization Development and Coaching, Architect of Great Work Places and Customer Experiences