Today's Biggest Talent-Management Challenges
Posted April 4th, 2010 by Editor
by George Anders - Do you have the right talent in your organization? The blunt answer for many of America's largest enterprises is: "Not yet" — and the reasons are striking.
At a talent-management meeting on March 17-18 in Coronado, Calif., experts from companies such as Cisco, Gap, Toyota, Wal-Mart and Oracle gathered to share perspectives. During formal remarks at the Conference Board event, most speakers did their best to stay upbeat. But a different story emerged in the hallway chatter between sessions.
Over coffee and muffins, attendees swapped wry stories of what it's like — even in a recession — to be battling a "talent problem." Hospital executives fretted about internal talent pipelines that keep producing the wrong kinds of leaders. Retailers fumed about promotion paths clogged with lackluster managers who can't be moved. And all sorts of attendees owned up to jitters about how well their companies' leaders can truly gauge a rising star's promise.
As one defense contractor put it, too many bosses' idea of talent assessment amounts to nothing more than "a lick-and-sniff dog test. It's all about whether they like someone."
How bad is it? Talent-management consultant Marc Effron hardly raised eyebrows at the conference when he unveiled a fresh survey with the following sober statistics:
- 18% of companies claim to be winning the war for talent.
- 72% portrayed it as an endless struggle in which they were neither gaining nor losing ground.
- 10% declared that the war for talent was winding down in defeat for their enterprise
I'm researching a book on how America picks its talent and I came away from the Coronado sessions focused on three big reasons for this year's talent turmoil. Here, in blunt language, are the issues that are jarring talent specialists the most, as well as some of attendees' best ideas about how to fix the situation.
We aren't sure what we're looking for. Even in the best-run organizations, there's always something a bit mysterious about "talent." When companies set ambitious goals but can't spell out a precise roadmap for achieving them, they usually end up hoping that an extra splash of managerial wisdom or technical know-how will make everything work out. In such situations, talent becomes clearly defined only after the fact.
That uneasy arrangement is getting even more awkward at companies where high-level strategy is rapidly changing. Boards and chief executives may have decisive ideas about how to revamp priorities to deal with emerging markets, changing labor costs, health reform or other profound changes in the business landscape. But it can take years to realign career development paths accordingly. In the mean time, if strategy and talent pipelines are out of sync, companies end up grooming lots of superbly qualified candidates for leadership in dead-end specialties.
George Anders is the author of three books and the former West Coast bureau chief of Fast Company magazine; he is researching a new book on how we pick talent in America. From Harvard Business