Retooling HR

Professor John W. Boudreau – research director at the University of Southern California Business School – urges you to rethink how your human resources (HR) unit recruits, develops and retains crucial talent, that is, people. Boudreau advocates using metrics from the business side to evaluate how talent contributes to your firm and how your people’s needs vary under changing business conditions. He asks you to examine how you will muster sufficient people with crucial skills, now and in the future, and suggests strategically rethinking your workforce as the demand for pivotal skills spikes or shrinks.

Your Best Talent

As the 2008 financial crisis began, Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, advised companies to set aside a “bucket of money” to retain their best performers. Few of the executives listening to Welch had a retention fund, and most were unsure how to determine which staffers to work to retain.