Talent comes from learning

Vincent Belliveau, General Manager EMEA, Cornerstone OnDemand explains why many leading organisations are turning to talent management solutions to gain competitive advantage.

“There are clear financial reasons for implementing a talent management strategy at any point in the economic cycle.”
-Vincent Belliveau

There is a lot of buzz around the term "talent management" - but what does it actually mean?

Vincent Belliveau.  In Human Resource Management, the term talent management originally meant identifying and grooming potential high-flyers in management roles and identifying successors for senior management.  HR Directors came to realise that such a narrow focus failed to ensure that the right people with the right skills were deployed in the right roles - which is absolutely critical in delivering competitive advantage and achieving business objectives.  However, it was impossible to roll out organization-wide talent management until the introduction of talent management systems.  These systems include functionality to track each individual's performance against pre-agreed goals, record their career aspirations and development, equip managers with actionable information about their teams, and help executives manage talent planning by building a pool of suitable candidates for mission critical job roles.  The wealth of resulting data helps executives to ensure that the right people with the best mix of skills and abilities are in the most suitable role at the right time.

Training and talent management is a cost to the organisation - why should it be prioritized?

VB. There are clear financial reasons for implementing a talent management strategy at any point in the economic cycle. According to research from Bersin & Associates, companies with intermediate to advanced levels of talent management performed better financially during the recession and generated higher revenue per employee.  They also benefitted from a lower level of voluntary turnover, avoiding the costs and productivity gaps associated with recruiting new employees. 

How can organisations get the best return on investment from their talent management strategies and systems?

VB. To get the best return on investment, executives need to adopt a holistic approach and link talent management and organizational learning at the strategic, planning, process and system levels.  This was borne out by research which found that organisations with combined talent management and learning management systems experienced the strongest revenue growth. 

For example, it is more cost-effective to develop talent internally rather than recruit new employees.  A combined system enables executives and managers to identify people with potential and then map out and track the learning and development plans that will make them suitable candidates for any given role within the organisation.  An embedded learning management system can automatically provide links to relevant learning opportunities and record learning completions, enabling managers to instantly identify who is ready for promotion or a sideways career move and bridge skills gaps.

This system can also be used to automate the learning programme for new starters, so each individual receives an email with portal access to their own personalised induction plan.  This may include generic courses to introduce the company, its structures and practices, job specific training, and links to social learning opportunities that will help to speed the integration of the new employee into the organisation and reduce their time to productivity in their new role.  Similar programmes can be deployed for new managers and for other roles or career milestones.

A talent management system without learning in essence only works at a tactical level - you can identify talent, but then what? ; the combination of talent and learning makes it a strategic solution that delivers real benefits to the organisation.  Perhaps most importantly, talent that is able to grow within an organisation is less likely to leave, creating a pool of talented, experienced and loyal employees who will help to deliver business success.

Is there any way to achieve these benefits without incurring a massive increase in costs?

VB. It's surprisingly affordable to roll out a talent management strategy - particularly when compared to the potential financial benefits.  Software as a service (SaaS) solutions can be implemented rapidly and cost effectively with no up-front hardware costs, and with the peace of mind that the same infrastructure is being used successfully by other organisations.  Also, executives need to remember that employees are developed most effectively through a combination of formal and informal learning.  Learning does not have to mean expensive training courses, when e-learning, social learning, coaching and mentoring can all deliver excellent results.  

Biography

Vincent Belliveau is Cornerstone OnDemand's General Manager of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).  Prior to joining Cornerstone OnDemand, Belliveau served as the North East Europe Director of IBM's Master Data Management (MDM) and Information Integration Solutions. Belliveau was also a consultant with McKinsey & Company earlier in his career.