There’s an article over in CFO magazine called Memo to CFOs: Don't Trust HR – hmmm.  Apparently Rutgers University's Richard Beatty, spoke at the CFO Rising conference in Orlando recently, and said that most HR departments don’t have the analytics to support making good decisions.  OK, there’s some truth in that, but the assertions it also makes about whether there is evidence to support the value of employee engagement is a little less acceptable.  So I kind of went “huh”, then “WHAT?”, but then it took a whole new interesting turn…

“Most companies today spend too little effort on attracting and retaining top strategic talent and too much on satisfying the rest of the employee base”

"If you don't emerge from this market with better talent in the roles that really make a difference, I don't think you're trying."

There’s definitely truth there.  Most organizations don’t have any framework in which to target their talent efforts…and the current market is an enormous opportunity for organizations to fix this, and to emerge from the situation in a much better place re talent.  You do it through good workforce planning, and the current market is an excellent time to start.  Yes, you will need some analytics (there’s a lot of software for that), a proven approach to workforce planning and the right tools to support it, and some techniques to ensure the business in engaged to the process and getting value.  And guess what?  The spreadsheets you are using today aren’t necessarily helping…nor is the staffing tool you’re having the IT department build.  Why?  They don’t have “a proven approach and the right tools to support it”…and if you are an HR person who is still taking those unsuccessful approaches even now while organizations are in most need of a better way – you probably will end up being out of the trust loop.  BUT, those HR departments who are doing workforce planning well definitely don’t have to worry about THAT!