Most accounting firms (and all businesses in general) have a clear understanding and plan for their operational strategy. However, when asked if they have a clear strategy regarding their human capital more than 80% say they have 'no plan" or "very little of a plan" (e.g., they may have a staffing plan or do some sort of succession planning). Yet, when asked how important their people are to the ongoing, long-term success of their business the overwhelming response is, “critically important.” Thus, there is a large disconnect between the practice of talent management and its idealized state. Accordingly, this session helps organization leaders understand the robust nature of talent management and how they can begin thinking and creating a more strategic approach to the acquisition, engagement, development, and retention of their most valuable asset – their people.

During this session participants will explore a framework that they can use to immediately begin assessing their own organization in terms of talent management without over-engineering the process. Participants will be intellectually stimulated to think about the people-side of their business in a more comprehensive and deeper manner; thus, positioning themselves to identify areas of enhancement that drives their operational strategy.

The final product of this workshop will be a completed audit of your firm's talent management practices and recommended action plan to be presented to your firm's most senior leaders.

Learning Objectives:

• Discover a Talent Management framework that facilitates a deeper and more comprehensive analysis of your organization’s human capital


• Explore why, and how, hiring the right person (i.e, talent acquisition) the first time using validated instruments increases productivity and drives employee retention – as well as how bad hires waste money


• Once the right person is hired, we explore how to get them engaged (i.e., talent engagement) so that they work hard for you, get along with others, and become loyal (which mitigates turnover)


• Once you hire the right person and then get them engaged, you will explore ways to develop (i.e., talent development) your people so that they can build their talents into strengths and apply them to the job – this is the number one driver of employee retention


• Explore what it means to leverage talent – this domain of talent management involves career pathing, succession planning, mentoring etc. which allows your organization to maximize its collective talent


• identify how all of the collective domains of talent management drives talent retention – which not only saves money but headaches as well identify various tools that are readily accessible to support the analysis and practice of all talent management domains