Aligning talent with strategy is the key to business success

Companies that align talent with business strategy outperform others by 16 percent, retain 30 percent more top performers, and see 34 percent higher employee performance according to The State of Talent Optimization Report (registration) from The Predictive Index.

The report claims there is a strong correlation between talent optimisation and company performance. It surveyed 600 executives across 20 industries to suggest that companies with aligned talent and business strategies are more likely to outperform other companies, retain top talent, see higher employee performance, and achieve strategic success rates of nearly 90 percent.

“While most organisations have a business strategy and a financial plan to support it, The State of Talent Optimization report finds only 36 percent have a talent strategy—and a mere 12 percent align their talent and business strategies,” said Mike Zani, CEO of The Predictive Index. “However, those that do have talent strategies designed to hire, manage, and engage their people in a way that aligns with business objectives significantly outperform other companies. The essence of leadership is aligning employees with the business strategy to achieve maximum success.”

Key findings from the report:

• People are a company’s biggest expense and most valuable asset: Executives say 64 percent of costs are labor costs, and also attribute 72 percent of their company’s value to employees.
• Having no talent strategy is the norm: Only 36 percent of companies have a talent strategy, and a mere 12 percent align their talent strategy with their business strategy.
• Talent optimised companies outperform other companies: When companies implement specific talent optimisation practices, their strategic success rate rises to 89 percent.
• Talent optimisation increases retention: Companies that optimise talent are 30 percent more likely to keep their top performers.
• Talent optimisation boosts performance: Organisations that practice talent optimisation have 34 percent higher employee performance.
• Talent optimisation improves efficiency: Talent optimised companies spend 31 percent less time on people problems.

In addition to uncovering the business value of talent optimisation, The 2020 State of Talent Optimisation report also claims to offer data and insights into how hiring, management, and employee engagement practices impact business outcomes, including:

• Bad hires are prevalent: Executives say only 49 percent of last year’s hires were good hires.
• Talent keeps execs up at night: Executives’ No.1 concern is employee performance and productivity.
• When it comes to engagement, execs are in the dark: Only 22 percent of companies know what’s driving employee disengagement.