Jim Holincheck

There has been a lot of interesting discussion in the blogosphere about the notion of Recruitment leaving the HR organization (see Dave Lefkow’s post on ERE). Here is a quote from that post: “Instead of being HR’s red-headed stepchild that’s locked away in the basement (only to see the HR team take all the credit for the big accomplishments of your team), it’s time for truly strategic talent management departments to secede from HR. To stop sitting at the “people-people” table and start sitting with the “businesspeople.”

I disagree with the premise of recruitment being thought of as talent management (follow this link to my research about talent management application suites). Sorry folks, it is not. It is part of talent management, but only a part. It does not deal typically with the contingent workforce, which is becoming an increasing percentage of the workforce. What about internal mobility? retention? development? even separation (I know we do not like to talk about it in the HR world, but it is important)? In my opinion, strategic talent management can happen only when it deals with the full workforce and in an integrated way with the talent lifecycle.

I wholehartedly agree with Dave about the need to start sitting with “businesspeople”. However, to help the “businesspeople”, all of HR, not just the “red-headed stepchild”, needs to start focusing on what the business needs to successfully leverage talent.