Alice Snell, vice president, Taleo Research

It’s no secret that we are in an uncertain economy. Yet, even as the economic downturn continues, the war for talent is intensifying. Today, it’s essential UK businesses focus on talent management in these times of change. .

In the last ten years staffing and business challenges have changed dramatically. Talent shortages are now much greater than they were in previous economic slowdowns. Now companies realise how important employees are in enabling them to reach their business goals, especially if they are to prosper in more testing times. Companies are looking for better ways to gain a competitive advantage through talent management processes.

The Taleo Research white paper, ‘Unified Talent Management: Critical to UK Business’. presents the views of 186 UK businesses. The research examines talent management and its impact on business performance, especially in the context of tough economic conditions, and the challenges associated with executing a talent management strategy.

The study reveals that during the current economic downturn, the value of unified recruiting and performance management is top of mind.  Of those organisations asked, 74% recognise the need to retain top performers by focusing on performance management and career planning.  Succession planning and internal mobility programmes are seen by 67% of respondents to be helpful in maximising the value from current employees.

Interestingly, 89% of companies can see that talent shortages—which are expected to remain the same or increase over the next 12 months—are impacting the leadership development in their organisations. And as such, they recognise in the current climate the quality of hire is even more important than in a high growth period.

In contrast to this, only 30% of organisations have a talent management strategy in place, with respondents citing lack of a unified talent management system and management buy-in challenges.

So where do you start?  Define a strategy, implement a usable and unified talent management system, and get buy-in within the organisation: from employees, line management, executive leaders and the board.

Decisive action now will positively impact your business tomorrow.