The Art of Talent Management

21st September 2018  |  Seb Sperring

can’t remember the last time I spoke with a ‘Personnel Manager’. Can you?

Nowadays it’s far more common to be speaking to the HR Director, Chief People Officer or (my personal favourite) the Chief Happiness Officer.

The Business Partner model can take some of the credit for this evolution but, maybe, it’s more to do with organisations realising success is fundamentally linked with the people that work there.

With that realisation, HR practitioners are often relied upon to deliver far more value back to the business in terms of strategic direction. Personally, I think this can only be seen as a really positive result of the HR evolution – the transactional work of a personnel department is, of course, as important as ever but now HR often take their rightful place on the board providing levels of insight that, in days gone by, may have been sadly lacking. As times have changed so have many of the incumbent processes – the recent trend for organisations to move away from an annual appraisal process to a continuous check-in model is just one example. 

But why stop there?

Regular check-in’s between managers and employees are certainly an improvement, on the dreaded annual meeting. The key, however, is to make sure that any data gathered can be used effectively and allow companies to make decisions based on science rather than someone’s subjective opinion.

Here’s where the art of Talent Management really comes to the fore. Utilising people data, making informed assessments and creating strategic plans are examples of the additional value that modern HR practitioners are now able to deliver.