ITIL v5 Compass
Management Practices
Workforce and Talent Management

Workforce and Talent Management

Definition

"Ensure organizations have the right people, with the appropriate skills and knowledge, in the correct roles to support its business objectives."

The practice must:

  • Ensure continual alignment of workforce and talent management to organizational business strategy
  • Ensure motivated and competent people effectively contribute to organizational objectives
  • Ensure administrative processes support the organization's strategy and objectives

Key Terms

Employee: Any individual engaged to work within an organization.

Employee journey: The complete end-to-end experience that an employee has with the organization through touchpoints, relationships, and interactions.

Employee persona: A fictional yet realistic description of a typical or target employee of an organization.

Culture: A set of values shared by a group of people, including expectations about how people should behave, and their ideas, beliefs, and practices.

Processes

Organizational Planning

  1. Strategic analysis
  2. Service value streams analysis
  3. Organizational design
  4. Initiate and monitor organizational changes
  5. Organization monitoring and review

Employees' Journey Management

  1. Analyse workforce requirements and identify employee journey model
  2. Verify and adjust the employee journey model
  3. Follow the model
  4. Manage exceptions
  5. Review the employee journey models

Talent Management

  1. Define a competency vision
  2. Assess competency
  3. Plan development and optimization
  4. Steer the development programme
  5. Manage exceptions
  6. Review competency development programme

Key Metrics

MetricWhat it measures
Strategic objectives supported by workforce and talent approachStrategic alignment
Satisfaction with workforce managementStakeholder satisfaction
Plans affected by workforce or skill gapsRisk indicator
Attrition rate and exit reasonsRetention
Employee satisfactionEngagement
Time to fill rolesRecruitment efficiency
Skill development progressCapability building
Staffing vs. service demandCapacity planning
Critical position coverage rateBusiness continuity
Diversity metricsOrganizational health

Key Roles

  • Human resource manager

Recommendations for Success

  • Share workforce management between HR and line managers (not HR alone)
  • Prioritize employee experience and satisfaction
  • Align workforce and talent strategy with organizational goals
  • Balance quick wins with long-term development focus
  • Use technology wisely but keep the human touch
  • Simplify employee journeys

Software Tools

  • Analysis and reporting tools
  • Learning Management System (LMS)
  • Talent management and HR tools
  • Collaboration and communication tools
  • Survey tools
  • Workflow and task management tools