Effective talent management will play an even greater role in business outcomes in the new year, as CEOs zero in on productivity and performance amid economists’ predictions of slowing gross domestic product growth in 2025, experts say.
This emphasis comes as the world of work evolves fast, meaning talent leaders will increasingly need to focus on developing a workforce with the necessary skills and capabilities, says Sue Cantrell, human capital eminence leader at Deloitte Consulting. This is in contrast to traditional talent management, which was less forward-focused and largely concerned with providing learning opportunities focused on employees’ particular roles.
Cantrell says leaders need to keep a pulse on such shifts in talent management to avoid missing out on top talent and, by extension, to harness opportunities for organizational growth.
Cian O Morain, Gartner HR’s content strategy lead for heads of talent management, says three key trends have emerged that talent management leaders should focus on in the New Year.
Modernizing talent management to address shifting skills needs
O Morain says there is a “shift happening right now in what skills organizations need,” which is prompting many to reconsider how they go about ensuring the business has the right talent in the right places at the right times.
“How can we modernize how we go about talent management to be more responsive?” he questions.
To do so, many organizations are looking to AI, generative AI and other technologies to get better data on their workforce’s skills. Still, only 8% of talent management leaders believe they have reliable data on their workforce skills, O Morain says.
Cantrell says 2025 should see the continued rise of organizations pivoting from making talent decisions based on jobs and roles to focusing instead on skills.
“Organizations may also increasingly prioritize outcomes and weave skills into talent management practices to achieve them,” she says.
Reframing leadership readiness
Talent management leaders know their CEOs have ambitious growth and transformation agendas that will require strong leadership. However, only 46% of HR leaders say they are satisfied with the quality of their organizations’ leadership, notes O Morain, citing a Gartner survey.
Looking a few years out, leadership readiness will become an even more challenging, yet increasingly critical, priority, O Morain says. Organizations will place a greater premium on human leadership—leaders who are authentic with the workforce—and those who are equally agile in how they manage work and lead change, he adds.
Related: Read more about how HR leaders can prepare for the year ahead.
Employee growth as a key lever
In the New Year, talent management leaders will focus on employee learning and development as the key EVP lever to deliver employee performance and engagement, O Morain says. However, only 44% of employees Gartner surveyed say they are satisfied with the pace at which they are growing within their organization.
Increasingly, however, organizations will treat all workers as “high-potential” employees, giving them access to coaching, stretch assignments and leadership development, Deloitte found. Today, these opportunities can be made available at scale to everyone with the help of AI and other emerging technologies, Cantrell says.
“Advances in technology like AI are enabling coaching at scale, making it possible to measure human performance beyond simplistic outputs and inputs,” Cantrell says, adding the tech can also enable leaders to “collect data for hyper-personalized, individualized talent management practices.”
O Morain recently sat down with HR Executive for a video interview to discuss how HR leaders can best prepare for talent management success in 2025. Click here to see the video.
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