Strategic trends in talent management over the next 5-10 years include prioritizing talent management functions over other HR functions, learning from both next and best practices, increasing levels of boldness and innovation, making decisions based on metrics and data rather than intuition, emphasizing rapid learning, taking a global approach, increasing collaboration across functions, developing agility, proactively addressing people management issues, and leveraging technology. Functional areas will see improvements in internal movement, retention, recruiting, onboarding/offboarding, and succession planning.

1. EMERGING TRENDS
IN TALENT
MANAGEMENT
© Dr John Sullivan
(Johns@sfsu.edu)
www.drjohnsullivan.com 1

2. Global reach of Dr. John Sullivan
Work Published (43 Countries)
Publicly Presented/Advised (27 Countries)
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3. The goal for today
To show you the major strategic and functional
trends that will drive global talent management over
the next 5-10 years
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4. Part I
Let’s first look at…
12 strategic trends in TM
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5. TM has 8 options for increasing productivity
Buy Build
Recruit regular employees Develop internal talent
Borrow Retain
Borrow contingent labor Retain key internal talent
Move More productive
Redeploy internal talent Make internal talent more productive
Release Use substitutes
Weak & excess labor (Tech, contingent, outsource, cust.)

6. TM trends
Strategic trend – Prioritization on TM
- “Talent Management” functions receive
priority over other HR functions
- Why - because data demonstrates their
increased impact on innovation, productivity
and business results
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7. Which HR functions add the most to performance?
Increasing innovation Skills training
Productivity improvement Compensation
Retention Benefits
Employer branding Performance mgmt.
Talent acquisition Relocation
Internal movement Compliance
Leadership and succession HRIT
On boarding/off boarding HR administration
Learning & development 7

8. TM trends
Strategic trend – Learn from and adapt the
usable parts from both next & best practices
- “Next practices” now frequently supplant
best practices in order to build a competitive
advantage
Two comparison examples >
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9. Differentiating between best and next practices
Examples:
Recruiting
 Standard practice – recruit using newspaper ads
 Best practice – recruit using referrals
 Next practice – recruit using Facebook to generate
referrals
Best practice sharing
 Standard – no formal process
 Best practice – a knowledge website
 Next practice – wikis and internal social networks
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10. “Next practices” vs. “best practices”
Next
practices
1%
Best practices
25%
Standard HR practices
65%
Below average practices 9%
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11. “Next practice” firms that are ahead of the curve
Google
Microsoft
Zappos
Facebook
DaVita
Sodexo
Booz Allen
U.S. Army
Infosys
Apple
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12. Zappos is a “next practices” company
Some quick Zappos “next practice” examples >
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13. Zappos understands the cost of a bad hire
Even the best recruiting fails occasionally… so
Zappos offers $3,000 to anyone who agrees to quit
during their initial training… 2 - 3 % take the cash
Also
Every Zappos’s employee is on Twitter
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14. Employer branding with a story book
Zappos publishes a book full of 300+ employee
written stories about what it’s like to work there
(Available on Amazon)
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15. Zappos TV…
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16. Zappos pre-identifies fakers prior to the interview
Because they put such a high value on “authentic”
customer service…
they assess an applicants behavior during the
shuttle ride
SW Air uses a similar approach 16

17. Zappos toga party and chug contest on YouTube
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18. Zappos Adidas events
Held Adidas day for it’s employees, which included a
shoe lacing competition, a float contest, a costume
contest, and a design a pair of Adidas shoes contest
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19. O M G!
Any questions at this point?

20. TM trends
Strategic trend – Boldness becomes common
- Formerly conservative firms/organizations
are becoming bold in Talent Management
Three quick “best practice” examples >
20

21. Employee videos are powerful branding messages
(Yielded 1,000+ videos)
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22. Using a video to recruit… says innovation
J&J, Deloitte, British Navy & MITRE have used them
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23. UK intelligence service cover story test
to attract and excite
Cover story test
Cards in a bowl
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24. TM trends
Strategic trend – Innovation dominates
- Innovation and idea generation… supplant
working hard and dependability as the
primary goals
24

25. Continuing on with our “value of innovators”
calculation at Google >
25

26. The best firms quantify the $ value of top talent
(The performance differential)
One top-notch
engineer is worth “One great
“300 times or more…
than the average” programmer is worth
1000 good
(Google) “would programmers.”
rather lose an entire Bill Gates
incoming class of
engineering
graduates than one
exceptional
technologist”
Alan Eustace, VP of
Engineering, Google Quote Courtesy of AIRS 26

27. A billion-dollar employee?
Game changers are worth a lot:
 If you hire a single game changer at Google
(where the average employee generates $1.3 million
in revenue each year)
 And that game changer produces the expected 300
times the average
 For every one you hire… you add over $390
million in revenue every year
 And if the new hire stays for only two and half
years… they will generate over $1 billion in
revenue
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28. Approaches for increasing innovation
Some examples >
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29. Examples of how other firms excite innovators
Examples of approaches that excite:
 Intel allows you to work a strategic partners
 IBM allows you to appeal a bad promotion
 Google, Genentech and 3M offer free time
 Schwab collection of “noble failures”
 GE measures managers on “imagination”
 P&G and IBM get ideas from others
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30. TM trends
Strategic trend – Internal consulting center
- HR acts like a consulting center for
increasing productivity
- It identifies barriers to productivity
- It improves best practice sharing
- It does not make decisions, it advises
managers on risks and benefits
A “best practice” example >
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31. At Zappos, HR acts as a consultant
At Zappos…
HR doesn't decide
HR operates as "risk advisors"
We “empower the manager to make a decision”
#hrhappyhour 2010
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32. TM trends
Strategic trend - Metrics drive decision
making
- Decisions are made based on data and
metrics, rather than past practices & intuition
Three “best practice” examples >
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33. What is the success % of Perf. Management programs?
1. The firm went back 2 years and identified that they
had 1,019 people rated #3, “needs improvement”
2. They calculated that they spent an average of
$13,090 per year… on their performance
management (training, coaching, counseling and
manager time)
3. They identified 2 years later… the number that
were currently ranked as #1’s
4. That number was 0
Conclusion – Perf. management has a low ROI
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34. What does this 15 yr. Rand study say about T&D?
If the performance level of a recent hire is rated at
50% after their 1st year… or at the 90th percentile
Performance %
100
80
60
40
20
Years of service
their performance level will remained essentially
unchanged until year 20… when they retire
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35. TM trends
Strategic trend - Learning dominates
- Google learning speed (At meetings)
- Parallel benchmarking increases learning
- Learn from other business processes (Supply
chain, lean processes, mass customized manufacturing & pattern buying)
- Learn from other industries
- Provide integrated solutions
A quick “best practice” example >
35

36. Rapid learning is the top concern at Google
Google continuous learning / “Testing on the toilet”
www.flickr.com/photos/gubatron/246489031
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37. TM trends
Strategic trend - A global approach to TM
- Global TM is needed for rapid growth
- Countries share the same TM problems
- Expect increasing levels of aggressiveness
outside of the US (UK, India, China & Auz)
- Remote work is an increasing trend
A “best practice” example >
37

38. Remote work increases access to global talent
Results Only Work Environment
•Pick your hours
•Pick where you work
•No in-person meetings required
The business impacts:
The cost of turnover is $102k per
employee, ROWE teams have 3.2 % lower
turnover ($13 million per year)
When workers switch to ROWE, their
productivity jumps by 35% 38

39. TM trends
Strategic trend – Collaboration across
functions produces a $ business impact
- 100 foot rule
- Coffee line
- Shared shuttle
- Laundromat
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40. TM trends
Strategic trend - Agility becomes a critical
success factor
- A range of options must be provided
- Strategies must shift with the economy
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41. TM trends
Strategic trend – Take proactive actions
- Seek out people management problems
- Proactively identify and “fix” bad managers
- Identify and re-recruit top employees
- Proactively recruit on “bad days”
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42. TM trends
Strategic trend - Technology impacts
everything
- Talent management learns when to
recommend technology over people
- Open source has an impact
- Social networks and the mobile platform
dominate communications
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43. Part II
A quick view…
of some best practices by functional area
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44. TM trends
Improving internal movement
- Proactive and targeted movement
- Project opportunities can be bid on
(Whirlpool and Google)
- Rewards for releasing vs. hoarding talent
Two examples >
44

45. Facilitated internal movement is a trend
Career mobility team – use it to proactively and
accurately place and to speed up internal movement
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46. Best practices in internal movement
National Oilwell Varco offers a NFL style
draft for first year college hire rotations
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47. TM trends
Retention trends
- Be prepared for an upcoming turnover spike
- Identify “who” is at risk of leaving
- Prioritize people & personalize the approach
- Be proactive – ask “why do you stay?”
- Use post-exit interviews to find out “why”
- An algorithm for predicting turnover
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48. TM trends
Recruiting – A centralized function
- Center of excellence model dominates
- Most sourcing, branding and referrals are
done by a centralized group
- Enables better candidate sharing
- Global sharing of best practices
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49. TM trends
War for talent returns
- The power shifts back to candidates (you
must become candidate centric)
- The candidate experience must improve
- Talent communities build relationships over
time (Microsoft)
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50. TM trends
Recruiting – Referrals dominate
- #1 in both volume and quality
- Responsiveness is the key
- Over 50% of all hires is the target if you
utilize social networks effectively
An example >
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51. Educate your employees so they can act like recruiters
Source: Whirlpool 51

52. TM trends
Recruiting – Employer branding is essential
- The only long-term recruiting strategy
- Leverage your employees social networks
- Measure & manage your negatives (glassdoor.com)
- Be authentic in your messages
An example >
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53. Google demonstrates “authentic messaging”
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54. TM trends
On and off boarding receive new attention
- Decrease time to initial productivity
- ID why they said yes… to improve
- Social media simplify managing alumni
groups
An example >
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55. Boomerangs are high quality permanent hires
Microsoft alumni network
Also Deloitte, E&Y, Booze, McKinsey and IBM 55

56. TM trends
Succession planning must improve
- Designate and pretest immediate back fills
- Be ready for a retirement boom
- Identify external candidates
- Identify the “non-obvious”
56 last

57. Did I make you think?
If these combined examples of “leading edge” TM
approaches… were equal to 100 points on a scale…
What point score would you give your firm today?
www.drjohnsullivan.com
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