HR Pulse - Spring 2009 - (Page 20) Talent Management from the Top Down NewYork-Presbyterian’s Approach to Tending the Leadership Pipeline By Anne Coulter T “We want to be an organization that looks five, 10, 15 years down the road, and our formalized talent management process gives us insight to the talent we have in house on a year-by-year basis.” he idea of managing talent is nothing revolutionary—it’s been a central HR responsibility since the profession was born. The concept of creating a unified talent management (TM) strategy that integrates a variety of HR processes aimed at attracting, retaining, and developing employees in alignment with business objectives, however, is relatively new. The need to identify and cultivate future leaders will become increasingly important in the health care profession, as economic pressures increase and workforce shortages continue to strain the system. Developing new leaders is critical to maintaining both business continuity and competitive advantage, yet only a minority of organizations has a well-defined TM strategy in place. The State of Talent Management Health care certainly is not the only industry playing catch up when it comes to implementing a formal TM approach; in fact, few organizations in any industry are beyond the early stages. Only 5 percent of 900+ survey respondents in multiple industries described their organizations as being in an “advanced” stage, with a clear TM strategy and related operational programs in place, according to the 2008 Talent Management Factbook® published by Bersin & Associates (www.bersin.com). One in four reported that their organizations had not even begun to develop a strategy. In terms of the maturity of TM strategies, the health care industry ranked third in the Bersin study, behind the technology and financial services industries; 39 percent of health care organizations described their TM strategies as either advanced or “intermediate” (in the process of developing and implementing their strategies). The most common challenges cited as obstacles to implementing a strategy were: • Defining a talent management strategy in general • Defining the specific objectives, programs, and measurements • Communicating the value of talent management to the organization. Another significant barrier is that few organizations in any profession have staff members who possess the expertise needed to put a TM strategy in place and make it work. Only 14 percent of the survey participants in the health care industry reported having “most” or “all” of the necessary skills. Again, even with this low figure, health care ranked third behind technology (22 percent) and financial services (17 percent). The upshot is clear—organizations need to both develop and recruit for those skills. One Successful Approach NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (NYP) is an award-winning organization that began establishing a systematic approach to TM about five years ago. NYP defines talent 20 HR Pulse Spring 2009 http://www.bersin.com
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