Streamline Training & Documentation: Fundamental Questions for Talent Management

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Fundamental Questions for Talent Management

Development Dimensions International has put together a booklet encapsulating their take on best practice in talent management. Two sections I found particularly handy list fundamental questions an organization must answer in order to have a coherent talent management strategy and ensure that needed talent is developed.

First, slightly edited, five questions to help in clarifying the organization's talent management strategy:

What are the pressing business drivers for developing our talent?

What business value should we expect if we're successful at talent management?

What will determine leadership success and failure in our organization?

Are we prepared to differentiate focus and investment in our employees based on their leadership potential? If not, why not?

What actions do we take to improve our talent?

Once the executive team has answered the above questions, they can go on to assessing the adequacy of the existing pool of talent within the organization. Five more questions to ask:

What are our most significant business challenges?

Do we have a sufficient pipeline of talent to address these challenges?

What may be happening in three to five years that would affect the number and type of leaders we need in order to be successful?

Where are our most significant leadership gaps? (E.g., you may have enough potential leaders to drive innovation and product development, but too few to handle the organization's anticipated global assignments.)

How are regular talent audits integrated into our business and strategic planning process?

With a clear picture of what human talent will be used for and where there currently are gaps, the organization can design team and individual development plans that implement the talent management strategy.

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Labels: Employee development, Leadership, Management practices

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