Measurement: Crucial for Today’s Talent Management Professionals

The 2008 global financial crisis forced many organizations to re-think the way they manage and develop talent.  After organizations responded to the initial crisis by making significant cost and headcount reductions, many talent management professionals scrambled to demonstrate the value of talent management related programs to the organization.  More importantly, executives recognized the urgent need to quickly innovate after cutting costs in order to retain market share and speed ahead of the competition.  The role of the talent management professional emerged as an important piece in the organization’s ability to survive the recession and thrive beyond the crisis to succeed in the future.  Talent management professionals continue to be faced with a challenge to demonstrate the monetary value of talent development investments targeted to the right people, at the right time, and for the right reasons.  The key to success is in measurement.  Without measurement, talent management professionals are at risk of failing to demonstrate value. 

 

For example, consider the OD leader of a large healthcare provider whose entire team was eliminated because the leadership was unable to see the contribution the work of this team made to its competitive advantage or the bottom-line.  Or, think about the training leader of a regional non-profit whose role and team were under consideration for elimination because the head of the organization had no data about how the work of this team made a difference to the operational efficiency of the organization.  The ability to demonstrate the value the talent management team makes has never been more critical than it is now.