Formulate a Strategy
In addition to gaining commitment for technical talent management,
a successful technical talent management program must have a strategy
for achieving the goals, fulfilling the roles, and ensuring accountabilities.
In addition, talent strategy should align with the organization’s larger
business strategy. A key mechanism by which organizations link business
and human capital strategy is through strategic workforce planning, the
supply and demand analysis of human capital talent that ensures that an
organization is either building or buying the talent it needs to reach its
strategic goals.
It is worth noting that, in recent years, workforce planning has taken
on broad implications for managing not just talent but also how the organization
achieves its strategic goals (Rothwell, Graber, & McCormick, 2012).
For example, IBM has a robust workforce management process to
manage talent supply and demand globally. Workforce management
fl ows from the annual enterprise strategy. The long-range corporate and
business-level strategies are established each spring. Th e HR implications
of the corporate strategic planning process are determined, and longterm
work force goals (both capacity, in terms of headcount, and capability,
in terms of required skills and expertise) are established. Critical job
roles and skills are identified, and new HR priorities are created that align
with the strategy. Then, each fall, the organization sets business direction
for the following year and determines the associated headcount plan,
including anticipated hiring and attrition numbers. Skill and pipeline
gaps are quantified, and specific plans are put in place to develop, contract
or outsource, or hire talent. HR programs are designed for the
coming year, and any required investments are quantified. Tracking and
evaluation (headcount, hiring, and attrition against plan and forecast) is a
key component throughout the workforce management cycle.