Talent Intelligence

Among the excellent essays in The Economist’s special report on Managing Information is one titled Data, data everywhere. And a Talent Management magazine article smartly implores us to Put Data to Work.

But a Taleo Research survey found US HR and Line of Business executives are not receiving access to talent management data that ensures they have the right talent to meet their ever changing business challenges. In fact, LinkedIn and Facebook probably offer more information about a company’s talent assets than their HR technology systems have today.

Key findings of the gap between the talent intelligence required by organizations to steer their growth initiatives and the limited insight that they can currently access today include:

• All companies (100%) want to understand the correlation between the quality of their current staff versus initial assessments when hired. However, only 17% of these organizations have access to reliable data.
• 99% want to see the gap between job requirements and actual staff skills, but only 21% have access to reliable data.
• 99% want to understand the level of “flight risk” of their top performers but only 23% have visibility and confidence in the data from their current systems.

The Talent Intelligence – Key to US Business Success study found executives have less than 25% of the talent intelligence they need to plan and manage growth.

Data may be everywhere – but that’s part of the problem. Talent intelligence capabilities must be timely, intuitive, and not require separate processes. With a unified approach to talent data, real intelligence on a company’s most valuable asset – its workforce – is immediately available to generate key insights for decisions that drive business performance.

About the Author: Alice Snell, Vice President, Taleo Research

Alice Snell is Vice President, Research at Taleo Corporation (www.taleo.com). Ms. Snell has been tracking and analyzing the intersection between technology and talent management for nearly two decades. She published The Job-Seeker’s Guide to On-Line Resources in 1994 and has authored a library of articles and reports on talent management technology and processes. Ms. Snell also produces the award-winning Taleo Talent Management blog that covers talent management definition, practices, and the latest research in the field.

Ms. Snell is frequently called upon to provide expert commentary on talent management issues and is quoted in leading media including The Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, Chief Executive, The New York Times, Human Capital Magazine, CNBC.com, The Daily Mail and Investor’s Business Daily.

Ms. Snell has been named #5 in the Top 25 Most Influential in Talent Management, and #15 in the Top 25 Most Influential in Online Recruiting.

Prior to joining Taleo in 1999, Ms. Snell was a senior analyst at Kennedy Information. Ms. Snell holds a Master of Science degree from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts cum laude from Brandeis University.