Applied Research

Setting Talent Strategy

We believe that organizations that successfully develop and manage their human capital possess a true and robust competitive advantage. In order to help our clients achieve this goal, we engage them on activities that allow them to surface their personal views on the kind of talent they see as essential to the success of their organization. We encourage the various parties in the process to discuss and come to a consensus on their definition of talent. Lastly, we help them define the main axes of their talent management strategy - i.e., how they wish to organize, manage, and motivate talent in a way that supports their business strategy through effective practices – i.e., recruiting, selecting, developing, rewarding, and retaining talent.

Example. The new Head of HR of a pharmaceutical company felt it was necessary to do what had never been done before: draft a formal talent charter that would lay down the organization’s “talent philosophy” and key practices. We designed and conducted a multi-pronged diagnostic approach, which included about 40 interviews at all levels of the organization, an organizational survey addressed to a representative sample of the organization, and a benchmark study of 4 organizations comparable in size to the client organization. With our help, the Head of HR assembled a Talent Executive Committee composed of heads of busines units and HR Business Partners to oversee the definition of the Talent Charter over the course of 6 months during which the Committee and members of the HR organization met on a bi-monthly basis to review progress.