Aligning Talent Management Strategy with Business Strategy

Talent management is a strategic approach to creating a superior workforce, and reflects an organization’s commitment to attract, develop, motivate and retain productive, engaged employees.  Since the goal of talent management is to create a high-performance, sustainable organization that meets its strategic and operational goals and objectives, an organization’s talent management strategy must be linked to its business strategy.  Recruiting, developing, motivating and rewarding employees for job performance based on organizational goals are all essential aspects of talent management, and must be fully integrated into all employee-related processes, including job descriptions, training and development, performance goals, metrics and performance reviews.

The alignment of talent management to business strategy begins with a careful analysis of an organization’s strategic and operational goals and objectives.  Based on this analysis, the management team, in partnership with HR, can identify and understand the implications on talent strategy and planning.  Once the team understands how the business objectives will impact the organization’s talent, they can then define specific talent goals and initiatives and formulate their talent strategy and commitments, which may include:

• Communicating and engaging employees in the organization’s business strategy;
• Implementing a leadership development program for high potentials;
• Developing a strategy for succession planning;
• Conducting assessments at all levels of the organization to determine skills gaps;
• Providing comprehensive training that addresses skills gaps;
• Matching performance goals to business strategy and rewarding employees who meet their goals;
• Designing recruitment programs to identify and attract the right talent.

Organizations that recognize the importance of adopting a talent management strategy that aligns with their business strategy can expect to be more successful in attracting and retaining the talent needed to achieve their strategic goals and objectives.