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If I had to run down the biggest myths around talent planning in companies, I’d start with these few:
- The idea that, despite constantly saying “war for talent” in speeches, executives don’t really care about talent planning. They view it as “a HR thing.”
- That talent planning is even strategic, and not just a series of cover your ass moves by a hiring manager.
- This idea that all your hires will be “A-Players.”
- An over-reliance on measures of supposed competence when hiring.
- Once someone is hired, no real idea how to build teams that will grow together.
The umbrella term “talent planning” refers to (a) getting good people and (b) organizing those people in ways where they can grow individually and benefit the company. Often, we do neither. And now we have some new research on that!
Some talent planning research
This article called “The Best Companies Don’t Have More Stars; They Cluster Them Together.” Another way to think about this: the A-Player issue above. Everybody who hires for their team wants “the superstar,” but honestly, most employees are drones. And very few people “hit the ground running” either. (That would happen more with internal recruitment, i.e. promotion, however.)
