Talent Management: What Is It, Who Owns It, and Why Should You Care?

Talent management has been practiced by organizations for decades but is gaining new urgency as companies find they cannot quickly muster the talent they need to achieve their most critical goals.

The fact that success comes down to people and what they know how to do is no surprise to learning professionals, but most have been notably absent from key roles in talent management. These roles are often filled instead by HR executives who bring people-processing skills, such as recruiting or succession planning, to a task that is really about building and leveraging corporate know how.

But that picture may be changing.

Talent management as a corporate area of focus has been building steadily. Like a fast-approaching car, the closer it gets, the more of it we are able to see clearly, despite the fact that there is no real roadmap and no single individual or group behind the wheel.