Talent Planning and Project Management

In many cases, succession planning only identifies individuals that are to replace existing individuals as they move up the ladder or out of the organization. This process is a “matter of fact” and does not include major planning for the individual to replace, but more like a placeholder. Grooming of the individual is either not provided, or at best, of a routine type nature.

In an era in which corporations are touting their greatest assets are their people, is it not important to have a good idea of those assets capability and plan skill acquisition accordingly?  Companies typically expend a great deal of effort in monitoring, and making the maximum use of the other hard assets such as machinery and the like.

If the human resources are truly the key to a company’s success, as it can be, then why is relative little effort spent on cultivating, cataloging and capitalizing on the human resource capability.