Elizabeth Craig and Lauren DeSimone

When Professor William Kahn first introduced the concept of engagement more than two decades ago, he observed that, for employees to engage at work, they must see meaningful benefits from investing their time and energy; they must have physical, cognitive and emotional resources available to invest; and they must feel that it’s safe (that is, without negative consequences) to invest themselves.

What Executives Really Need to Know about Employee Engagement

In this employee engagement study, Elizabeth Craig of the Accenture Institute for High Performance and Lauren DeSimone of the International Consortium for Executive Development Research, explore this topic in depth. Based on research, they identify the key drivers of engagement, revealing how companies can create it in their organizations and, more importantly, sustain high levels of engagement over time.

How to Turn Data into a Strategic Asset

One of the most lucrative assets companies own could be the data they possess. The challenge is turning it into relevant, usable information. Analytics can be a powerful tool in this effort. Accenture profiles a five-step model for putting analytics at the center of corporate decision making.

How to Organize Your Analytical Talent

Companies increasingly rely on a relatively scarce resource to maintain their competitive edge: the people who are able to use statistics; rigorous quantitative or qualitative analysis; and information-modeling techniques to make business decisions. Or, in shorthand, “analytical talent.”

For business leaders, the importance of such people poses several challenges, but in our experience one question stands out: What’s the best way to organize analysts? Executives have … [ Read more ]

How to Keep Your Best Executives—The Key: Make It Easier for Them to Leave

Historically, there is a significant increase in the number of executives leaving their companies as market conditions improve and more job opportunities open up. Accenture research shows that executives tend to stay longest with those companies that offer the greatest opportunities to enhance their employability. By providing the three opportunities that executives want most, companies will be in a better position not only to retain … [ Read more ]

Chapter 7: The Talent Powered Organization: Next Steps and the New Imperatives

The seventh and final chapter of The Talent Powered Organization maps out a talent agenda that is based on the five imperatives set out in the preceding chapters, and which will advance progress toward achieving high performance. The agenda is strategic and long-term, presenting a “call to action” to an organization’s leadership as a primary audience, but also to other stakeholders, reiterating that talent management … [ Read more ]

Chapter 6: The Talent Powered Organization: Embedding and Sustaining Talent Power

In this sixth chapter of The Talent Powered Organization, the authors explain the importance of understanding and measuring how talent contributes to an organization’s performance. Once that is understood, it is clear that everyone in an organization must be involved in multiplying talent—from top leaders to HR, to line managers, to employees. Therefore, the second part of this chapter focuses on the need to:

* Maintain … [ Read more ]

Rethinking Retention: If You Want Your Best Executives to Stay, Equip Them to Leave

Rather than guaranteeing employment security, many firms now claim to provide opportunities for employees to accumulate skills and experiences that both improve company performance and enhance employees’ employability in the labor market. This “employability approach” encourages and often expects individuals to take greater personal responsibility for their careers.

Since many believe that the employability approach allows, and even invites, the loss of talent, organizations are often … [ Read more ]

Chapter 5: The Talent Powered Organization: Engagement

In this fifth chapter of The Talent Powered Organization, the authors address the question of engagement which, they argue, is the engine of the modern organization and a prerequisite for high performance.

Engagement – that is, the extent to which employees take responsibility for the organization’s goals – is the “magic” ingredient that lifts performance above that of a peer organization. This quality is highly measurable … [ Read more ]

Chapter 4: The Talent Powered Organization: From Talent Development to Deployment

Chapter 4 of The Talent Powered Organization turns the reader’s attention to talent development and talent deployment as key organizational capabilities of talent-powered organizations that support talent multiplication and competitiveness.

Accenture High Performance Business research shows that few companies are achieving high performance in learning and skills development of their workforces. Indeed, the nature of skills required by modern business is changing, and with it the … [ Read more ]

Talent: Leveraging Your Most Important Competitive Asset

In the global competition for talent, some companies may view the endgame as a matter of adding the right individuals. But the key to winning on talent is multiplication, not addition. Companies that build this critical capability will generate superior effort, creativity and results from their workforces.