New Research Confirms Business Benefits Of Integrated Talent Management

NEW YORK, Feb. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Amid a shaky job market and predictions of massive turnover once the economy rebounds, a new study confirms that companies with integrated talent management processes not only achieved greater year-over-year profitability, but are also better positioned to achieve long-term success than companies with disparate HR processes and employee database systems.

The study, " Integrated Talent Management: Improving Business Results through Visibility and Alignment," was conducted by the Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), with support from TalentScope, Inc., the only fully-integrated provider of talent management solutions.

"This research confirms what we've advocated for quite some time: successful businesses must do more than just manage personnel. Instead they must cultivate human capital talent to support their long-term objectives," said Jim Hatch, CEO of TalentScope. "Especially in this economy, businesses must identify and work to retain top talent in order to survive. This requires an integrated approach that provides a true picture of human capital resources for more effective workforce planning."

The Aberdeen report finds that leading companies with integrated talent management processes averaged seven times greater year-over-year profit per full-time equivalent and a 19 percent year-over-year increase in employee engagement versus non-integrated businesses. Those same businesses have nearly 50 percent more positions with identified successors—a key component to managing attrition due to retirement or resignation.

"Seventy-six percent (76%) of the executives Aberdeen surveyed for this study indicated that organizational effort on talent management will increase in 2010," said Kevin Martin, vice president and principal human capital management analyst at Aberdeen and co-author of this research report.  "However, as this effort increases, so must the focus these organizations place on bridging the distinct processes and workflows of disparate business units, validating the business impact of talent management and garnering support among business line leaders. For these represent some of the primary barriers to effective talent management."  

Aberdeen's research shows a strong relationship between the standardization of talent management processes and the integration of those processes. In fact, 85% of top-performing companies (with respect to employee performance, hiring manager satisfaction and employee engagement) indicate they have at least partial integration of talent management processes and workflows, whereas 63% of bottom-performing organizations indicate no integration of talent management processes at all.