Press Releases

Gaps in Leadership Pipeline Identified as Top Talent Challenge

Bersin & Associates Research to Be Unveiled in Authoria Webcast

Waltham, MA – March 22, 2007 – 

Authoria, Inc., the leader in integrated talent management solutions, today previewed findings of a Bersin & Associates study that shows striking changes in workforce issues and talent-management practices among U.S.-based employers. Industry analyst Josh Bersin will discuss the research findings in a complimentary Authoria Webcast on March 28.

Over the past 12 months, Bersin & Associates, a leading independent research and advisory services firm focused on enterprise learning and talent management, conducted extensive research about workforce-management strategies and the talent challenges and issues faced by U.S.-based organizations. Significant trends that emerged include:

• “Gaps in the leadership pipeline” was the talent challenge most often identified by respondents as a top talent challenge for their organizations (51 percent of respondents) 
  
  
• “Leadership development” was identified as both the talent-management process most in need of improvement, and the function that best defines talent management (80.6 percent of respondents)
  
  
• Only 23 percent of respondents cited the “pending retirement of key workers” as a talent challenge
  
  
• In 69 percent of responding organizations, talent-management strategy is the responsibility of groups other than the HR organization – e.g. the CEO, top management, and/or line-of-business executives

“What clearly emerges from this study is that organizations are realizing the urgency of treating talent as a corporate asset, and managers are beginning to act on it,” said Josh Bersin, President of Bersin & Associates. “In particular, the need to take a systematic approach to leadership development – the cycle of recruiting, identifying, developing, measuring, and motivating an organization’s leaders – has become a high priority at senior levels throughout the organization, and not just within the HR function.”

The Bersin & Associates research study, High-Impact Talent Management, is the first comprehensive analysis of the talent-management market and will be published in May. The research, based on a survey of 700 organizations and interviews with 60 HR executives, provides a detailed look at HR best practices, HR systems, business outcomes, organizational models, and workforce issues.

Attendees at the free March 28 Webcast will receive a complimentary executive summary of the survey results.

WHO:   
Josh Bersin, President, Bersin & Associates;
Nina McIntyre, Senior Vice President of Strategic Talent Management Marketing, Authoria, Inc.;
Peter Cohen, Vice President of Product Marketing, Authoria, Inc.
       
WHAT:    
Webcast: “High-Impact Talent Management”

WHEN:   
Wednesday, March 28, 2007, from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM EDT

WHERE:  
Please visit www.authoria.com/high-impact to register for this free online event.

This event is the third in the Authoria 2007 Talent Management Webcast Series, which will examine best practices and trends in strategic talent management throughout the year.

About Authoria
Authoria® helps the world’s most competitive employers achieve superior business results, by optimizing the way they recruit, develop, compensate, retain, and engage top talent. Designed for business managers as well as HR professionals, the company’s integrated talent management (ITM) solutions enable more effective recruiting, performance management, compensation management, and succession planning across an organization. Authoria serves more than 300 large organizations and 4 million managers and employees with our on-demand Internet-based solutions. Customer companies include Boeing, Pfizer, and Reuters.