I’d like to focus on just one of the roles that he mentions, the Talent Deployment Manager. First, it’s not a new role. It’s been around for some time in professional services organizations. For example, in consulting firms, where new teams are always being formed to tackle recently sold engagements, this role is either played by the HR person assigned to the market or specialty ‘vertical’ that will deliver the project or the partner in charge of the vertical.

Tools for Talent Deployment

In support of this effort, most of the large consulting firms have a solid database of individual performance on projects, including new skill pickup that occured as a result of the work. However, outside of consulting, it has been my experience that such detailed and current database information is the exception, not the rule (with the possible exceptions of ‘high potential’ pools or succession planning data).

Recognizing the fact that most organizations do NOT have really current data on incumbent employees, one staffing firm that I worked with had developed an internal, individually updated employee profile system for sale to clients. It was successful, largely because employees, acting on self-interest, kept their profiles current. And the companies that bought the system were also well served, because for the first time their information on the incumbent population was as good as that available to external recruiters (to whom the incumbents were sending resumes).

What about Redeployment?

At no time is the Talent Deployment Manager’s role more critical than when an organization is going through major change, be it a merger, reengineering or other types of restructuring. If no one knows where the ‘critical’ talent is in an organization, or knows the skills and experience of incumbents that would enable them to be successfully ‘repurposed,’ the change management process can become a nightmare. Decisions to ‘build, buy or borrow’ talent (to quote Dave Ulrich) must be informed by real data, or they are likely to produce less than satisfactory results.

Our Challenge

For those of us who are responsible for influencing top management thinking about talent, wide distribution of Dave’s article, followed by some thoughtful discussions would not be a bad idea. What he’s describing is not some ‘future state.’ It’s probably happening today inside one of our more formidable competitors. It’s up to us to sound the alert, and have some good ideas about how to meet the challenge when asked.

Here are other thoughts:

Some of the strategy roles mentioned in the article also ensure that Recruiting strategies are aligned to the overall HR strategy, as is my case. When HR strategies shift, the talent strategy needs to as well

In the game of battleship, your article would be referred to as a ‘Direct Hit’.

‘Sourcers aren’t necessarily a new role, but a new breed of strategic sourcers and talent scouts are emerging as equals to full lifecycle and hiring process management recruiters. These are not just Internet researchers ? they are the absolute best at uncovering and building relationships with hidden pools of talent.’

Let me look into my own crystal ball here and share how far this trend is about to go very shortly.

Demographic and economic trends are both serving to significantly tighten the labor pool. This will decrease the supply of available talent and incrase dramatically the demand for talent. The signs that this change is occurring are already all around us. This increase in demand is already manifesting on the major job boards. You can look at profiles of specific skill sets and see the frequency of times the profiles are being reviewed is increasing exponentially. More people are looking for a shrinking pool of talent. More candidates are starting to leave their phone numbers off their resumes to combat the barrage of phones calls they receive as an ever decreasing member of the talent pool.

Whoever captures that talent moves their business forward and deprives their competitor of the same talent needed to create and sustain competitive advantage. She or He who can consistently and rapidly identify, market to and capture that talent has in essence captured the market share that individual person will generate through superior performance. Assuming they are an ‘A’ player.

The sourcing role therefore will only become MORE, not less prominent as you mentioned in your article. It has to, as there are no people to recruit if we can’t identify the talent. We will see more ‘Samauri’ or ‘Master Recruiter’ hybrids emerge. Ask Gerry Crispin about the Master Recruiter if you seek a kindred spirit on this topic.

Corporations with highly developed sourcing competencies coupled with the relationship, corporate branding and strategic vision will move to the forefront. Those ignoring the vision will progressively become less able to compete.
There simply will be fewer people for those roles to speak with, because someone with the skill identified and captured them first.

The tighter the labor market becomes the higher the premium the sourcing competency will carry.

I strongly urge anyone reading this article to deeply heed the material contained.