The Next Phase of Talent Management

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May 8, 2008 - Lynn Jackson

What’s next in human resources? According to Dr. Jac Fitz-enz, founder and CEO of the Workforce Intelligence Institute, the emerging predictive analysis model is the next initiative that human resources professionals will have to embrace. Last year Fitz-enz researched 720 HR departments and found that HR is not properly aligned with the rest of the organization. HR has spent last 20 years gathering data and performing transactional duties for the organization. This has lead to the HR role being marginalized to fact checkers and data keepers when in fact the role of HR is crucial to the success of the organization because HR is responsible for all of the talent management in the organization. Recruitment, development and retention of key employees are all critical parts of talent management and all of the areas fall under HR. The question is what will HR do with all the data that has been collected for the last 20 years? According to Dr. Fitz-enz, HR has to take the next step and use the data to make decisions about how the talent will be managed in the organization.

The next phase for HR will be to predict what the needs of the organization will be and to develop systems to provide the organization with a roadmap to avoid the pitfalls of the past and stay ahead of emerging trends in the marketplace. Instead of analyzing turnover rates and cost per hire, in the future, HR will have to analyze turnover trends and determine why are people leaving the company and what effect that will have on the company’s ability to produce in the future. HR will have to look at how effective the organization is in getting commitment, engagement and leadership from its employees. These are the measurements that will predict how successful the organization will be in talent management for the future.

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Lynn Jackson is vice president of client services for OI Partners - Russell Montgomery & Associates (Memphis). She has more than 11 years of experience in career management, executive coaching and career counseling. Lynn is certified by the Institute of Career Certification International as a Fellow Practitioner. She also has a Masters Degree in Business Administration with a concentration in human resources. Lynn has coached more than 7,000 individuals through the career transition process during the course of her career with OI Partners. Lynn can be reached at 901-763-1818 or ljackson@oipartners.net.