Aberdeen's TM study reviewed

Aberneen’s article points to several conclusions that talent acquisition is no longer a viable total solution for organizations lacking a total talent strategy. As employers face an aging workforce and possibly a lack of skilled talent in the employable population, employers must adopt broader talent management policies and strategies, rather than simply being reactionary in recruiting policies. While the study’s subtitle is “Hiring right, hiring smart,” I did feel that an overall TM strategy was the real focus. Unfortunately the majority of the time Aberdeen defined TM as the staffing practice. There were a few occasions they talked about broader TM including succession, career development and internal mobility. However, the focus on staffing quite frankly irked me a bit.

Really the whole point was to encourage employers to go beyond the traditional talent pool, something a lot of the bloggers (see below) have been talking about in the recent past, so this is not new news. Also included as strategies were improved pre-hire assessments and onboarding policies.

I was most disappointed by the study’s key performance metrics. They showed stats on cost per hire and time per hire, but only a narrative on “quality of hire.” This metric was the one of most interest for me and I’d love to know how people out there calculate and measure this. However, there was no discussion on the calc, simply a statement it was the most important metric. I suppose that’s why you have 5 major vendors sponsoring the study, so they can contact you and tell you how.

All in all, it’s nice to see the work we do on the blogs validated by a “real study.”

Here are some recent links from other blogs:
On passive candidate pools: Michael Specht, Andrew, and Me
On ROI: Oursourcing Blog
Applicant Tracking Systems: Andrew and Me