Talent management is a unique function that integrates all of the activities and responsibilities associated with the management of the talent life cycle regardless of geography—from attracting and acquiring talent to developing and retaining it. A key measure of
success is the ROI 1 on the investment of talent as a resource, when the ‘return’ is considered broadly to include benefits beyond financial ones alone. 2 Consider an example. If two restaurants
within a quick-serve chain invest in 20 employees per restaurant and one achieves 20% higher sales than another, that restaurant is providing a higher return on the labor dollars invested. Or, if they both achieve the same sales, but the average labor cost invested in one
is 10% less than the other, it too has achieved a higher return on invested talent. We could generalize this then to two competing burger chains operating in the same territories with approximately the same supply and capital costs. If one is able to leverage its talent
investments more than the other, the shareholders will achieve a higher return on investment, other things being equal. In this situation, how well talent is leveraged will provide a
competitive advantage.