HR professionals have made major strides toward becoming strategic partners. But they need to do more - by generating value through savvy decisions about talent. HR leaders typically assume that, to make such decisions, they must develop sophisticated analytical tools from scratch. Even then, the resulting tools often fail to engage their peers. In "Retooling HR", John Boudreau shows how HR leaders can break this cycle - by adapting powerful analytical tools already used by other functions to the unique challenges of talent management. Drawing on his research and examples from companies including Google, Disney, IBM, and Microsoft, Boudreau explains six proven business tools leaders already use. And he shows how HR can apply these tools to talent management. Examples include: using engineering tolerances to find pivot points that job descriptions miss; using inventory and supply-chain analytics to ensure a ready supply of the right talent; applying logistics tools to optimize succession planning and leadership development; adapting consumer research tools to find untapped value in total rewards; and, retooling HR builds on Boudreau's bestselling book "Beyond HR", which traces HR's evolution as a decision science. For HR professionals seeking to sharpen their decision-making prowess, this provocative new book blazes an innovative new path.
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Better Talent Models Lead to Better Talent Decisions 1
The Hidden Power for HR in Using Proven Business Models
1 Using Performance Optimization to Retool Work Analysis 25
From Job Descriptions, Competencies, and KPIs to Return on Improved Performance
2 Using Portfolio Diversification to Retool Talent Scenarios 57
From the Right Talent for the Future to Talent Hedging Against a Risky Future
3 Using Consumer Research to Retool Talent Supply Strategies 89
From Let's Make an iDeal to Optimized Talent Segmentation
4 Using Inventory Optimization to Retool Talent Gap Analysis 121
From Turnover and Hiring to Talent Inventory
5 Using Workforce Logistics to Retool the Talent Life Cycle 149
From Mapping How People Move to Optimizing Talent Networks
6 Retooled HR: From Risk-Minimizing Administrator to Risk-Optimizing Partner 179
Making Organizations More Adept and Accountable for Talent
Notes 195
Index 201
About the Author 213