1. This is the beginning of talent management, not the end.

2. Confusion and distraction will certainly be among the immediate consequences.

3. Innovation will continue to come from the best-of-breed talent management vendors.

4. HR technology should be owned by HR and not IT.

5. Organically developed talent management has never been more meaningful.

Administrator Talent Crisis

• Nationally, more than 40 percent of the top investment executives within universities and endowments left in 2005 and 2006, according to a 2007 compensation survey by Mercer
• A national study of 323 chief academic officers, conducted by Eduventures Academic Leadership Learning Collaborative, found that 43 percent of provosts surveyed are holding their positions for shorter periods of time.
• A 2009 study of chief academic officers by the ACE found that the average tenure was 4.7 years on the job — less than half that of presidents

Where to Go From Here

• Provides cascading goals that align the objectives of the institution with the professional goals and needs of the employee. Managing and measuring the employee performance of each of these goals is critical to performance management, but without automation and integration, it becomes a time-consuming, daunting task.
• Assesses critical competencies and skills based on pre-defined criteria for staff success. Institutional leaders need an easy-to-use system that helps them predict and address potential competency gaps, performance strengths and opportunities.
• Reviews and measures performance on a ongoing and interim basis. The cascading goals an employee will be assessed by might not reflect the institution’s current goals and objectives. Automated and integrated systems make managing and assessing performance an ongoing process — always keeping the employee and the institution aligned.
• Identifies and tracks high-performing individuals. Performance management enables institution leaders to know who is a high-potential employee with the skills and motivation to transition into a leadership or administrative staff position.
• Enables the creation of development plans that engage employee career development. Identifying high-performing, high-potential employees is great, but even more important is creating career development plans for those employees.

• Build with an eye toward integration – E-learning may be a natural starting point for healthcare organizations implementing new talent initiatives, but onboarding, performance management and succession initiatives all benefit from strong tie-ins to a learning management system (LMS). For example, performance assessments can automatically generate development plans for any area where deficiencies are identified. Don’t overlook targeted, formal development programs for employee supervisors. Extra training will prepare them to mentor and coach employees and maximize the value of your investment.

• Automate job descriptions with a foundation of competencies – Establishing the competencies – the knowledge, skills and behaviors that are used to develop people in your healthcare organization – is a critical step for success of any talent management initiative. In the healthcare setting, it’s a requirement because compliance demands it. Maintaining one set of job descriptions and competencies is one way to integrate multiple locations common in large healthcare systems into a single culture and to build job profiles that will guide career development, training and performance improvement across your organization. You will also find it easier to deliver the ROI because the business impact of career planning is 45 percent higher for organizations with good or excellent leadership competencies. (Bersin & Associates,  Competency Management 2008)

• Build internal talent pools – Every healthcare organization needs to fill positions in critical roles such as nursing, IT and senior management. Yet, suitable candidates are hard to find. Most healthcare employers understand that the only solution is to “grow their own” talent. Implementing appropriate talent management and learning tools and processes makes identification of high-potential employees and development of critical skills far easier to accomplish.

• Collaborate to build a comprehensive succession strategy – Most healthcare organizations have a critical need to develop their next generation of leadership. The current senior leaders must understand the critical need to address this gap. HR can – and must – play a crucial role in facilitating this conversation, and technology can provide a key assist to identify the gaps and assign development plans for designated successors.

• Leverage the power of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) – SaaS technology allows healthcare employers to rapidly implement talent solutions at a far lower cost and with greater operational efficiency than traditional legacy on-premises ERP implementations of the past. The advantages include rapid deployment and easy scalability, and a lower cost with higher satisfaction, as well as less time to ROI.

At the Crossroads

Many of us have recently endured a bruising U.S. presidential electoral cycle centered squarely on economic and labor market issues and chock full of speechmaking focused on the need to create new jobs at any cost. We also hear a message of doom and gloom from loads of CEOs who echo a lingering message that they simply can\’t find enough skilled workers.

A Skills Shortage?

With Bosses Like These, Who Needs Enemies?

• Only 32% of respondents have received training and development to better perform their job in the past six months;
• Only 25% have established career goals with their manager/employer;
• A full 66% said they haven’t received useful feedback from their manager/employer; and
• Only 19% said their employer’s performance review process helps them increase their potential through education and training.

Narrow the Gap at Home

• The current state of learning and training in organizations;
• The state of recruiting and the perceived “skills gap” in hiring decision-making; and
• The role of technology in the workplace and how we work.

Is the Future Already Here? Broad Themes for 2013

Learning & Development: You Can’t Hire Your Way Out of This One

The Shifting Nature of Employee Learning

Filling Talent Gaps

How Does Technology Fit Into This Picture (and What Is SnapChat)?