BOOK RECOMMENDATION

Book Review by Brian Davis - The War For Talent

The War for Talent is a must read for business leaders and entrepreneurs. As change agents, you can not look to the future of your business without recognizing the impacts of our nation’s workforce demographics. Once you understand these statistics you too will be a believer that there is a huge battle looming – the battle for human capital.

In The War For Talent, the authors present five tenants that must be present to even compete in the War for Talent:

1. Embrace a talent mindset. Talent development is the direct responsibility of every successful leader, from renowned CEOs like Jack Welch to the smallest small-market entrepreneur. The war for talent cannot be delegated to HR – every leader in your company must get in the trenches and make a contribution.

2. Craft a winning employee value proposition. Company leadership must

address people management with the same vigor it brings to customer management and with the same commitment to value.

3. Rebuild recruiting strategy. You must take a proactive approach to finding talent — going out, finding great candidates, and approaching them, regardless of whether they’re actively looking for work.

4. Weave development into the organization. If you don’t take an active role in developing your best and brightest talent, you will lose them, and will have trouble attracting great talent to take their places.

5. Differentiate and affirm employees. To maximize the efficiency of your talent pool, you need to make certain you are differentiating your best managers from your mid- and low-level performers.

The War For Talent does spend some time on concepts already present in the minds of all entrepreneurs. However, it also forces us take a bigger picture view of the total employee life cycle process.

My ratings: Readability: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Relevant Content: 4 out of 5 stars