The Society for Human Resource Management yesterday released the results of a survey of HR issues – read the summary here (if you are an SHRM member, get the full report here). Its probably no surprise that talent management tops the list of HR priorities in most companies.
The report notes that talent management has evolved from “an administrative process into a continuous organizational practice” that includes succession planning, leadership development, and retention and career planning.
Three-fourths (76 percent) of 203 respondents in the poll said talent management is a top priority at their organization. Among those ranking it a top priority, 90 percent were at organizations with 500 or more employees; 69 percent were medium-sized employers (100 to 499 employees), and 75 percent were small (one to 99 employees).
“More than half (53 percent) of 384 HR professionals surveyed said their organization has specific talent management initiatives in place. Organizations with such initiatives, the survey found, were more likely to:
• Have formal budgets for recruiting candidates and developing and retaining employees.
• Consider talent management a top priority for their organizations.
• Be large organizations with 500 or more employees; publicly or privately owned for-profit organizations; and have five or more staffers in their HR departments.
• Have HR working directly with employees or managers in talent management. More than three-fourths of those polled said this was the case.
• Have their HR people rate their organizations more highly regarding workplace culture, planning, development opportunities, professional advancement, reward management, recruitment and retention.
They also were slightly more likely to prepare junior or mid-level employees for senior leadership roles.
Not surprisingly, the survey found, HR was primarily responsible for recruitment, with development and retention falling to the employee’s supervisor. However, less than one-third (31 percent) of those polled said their organizations had formal budgets for retaining employees, and overall the retention budget was significantly lower than for recruiting and developing employees.”
Talent management becomes key component of HR
