Companies drop talent management ball

At a time when organisations need to opti mise their workforces by addressing talent challenges promptly and appropriately, most companies are still struggling to institutionalise effective talent management practices and programs, a recent study has found.

The study, conducted by Hewitt Associ ates, found that only 17 per cent of com panies said their workforce strategy was consistently aligned with their business strategy across the organisation, while even fewer (7 per cent) reported consistently using a specific framework to ensure in vestments in talent management are aligned with business results.

Furthermore, increased awareness of the importance of talent management had not led to well-executed talent management programs that are aligned with business imperatives, the study concluded.

“Today’s uncertain economic environment has created an even stronger sense of ur gency among companies to address talent issues quickly and effectively,” said Cather ine Mudford, leader of Hewitt’s talent man agement practice in Australia and New Zealand.

“Organisations need to make talent man agement a shared business and HR respon sibility, where business leaders consistently emphasise the importance of talent man agement, are actively engaged in the process and hold themselves accountable in tangible ways for engaging and developing talent at all levels.”