Why HR Should Place Talent Management at the Core?

Karen Minicozzi is vice president, human capital management product strategy, for the EMEA region at Workday. Having spent more than 15 years as an HR practitioner, Minicozzi understands the talent challenges facing HR leaders. In this interview, she discusses the democratization of talent management, and why HR shouldn’t think about talent in isolation.

Industry experts, including Josh Bersin, have talked of a shift away from traditional talent management to more people-focused initiatives. What does this mean for talent programs in the future?

I think it’s about eliminating the narrow focus on traditional talent management and creating programs that enable and engage every employee across the business. Traditional talent management is about process automation and tends to focus on a small number of identified “high-potential” employees. But a smarter approach is people enablement—allowing every employee to discover, explore, and even create career options. In other words, it’s where all the touch points of an HCM system work together to help both the employee, and the business, grow. In my experience, engaged employees drive better business outcomes and are more energized and enthused about their work and their employer.

What role does technology play in driving better employee engagement?