Customer Reviews

Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business

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Quality talent is the key to success in any company/organization and TALENT FORCE provides an encouraging fresh approach for those who recognize the changing landscape of today's business world and the dire need to embrace new practices in order to recruit and retain superior quality talent.

Mr. Stringer and Mr. Rueff effectively communicate a practical and powerful guide for building and maintaining a highly successful organization by addressing real-world business issues and providing innovative game plans for execution. A must read for CEOs, HR execs and hiring managers. A most beneficial read for anyone involved in seeking a job.

My travels within the HR community have convinced me that regardless of the articles written and conference speakers devoting their time to this topic, many HR professionals struggle with the concept. This isn't because they don't understand staffing, performance management and succession planning individually, but moreso because it's rarely presented from a systems approach.

It's not always been clear how it all fits together and how to think strategically about it. Rusty and Hank have captured it in an easy to understand way. This is a must for any HR professional whether tactical or strategically-inclined.

The concept of labor being a fluid, dynamic entity is not necessarily new but the jerky speed with which work forces mutate, adjust and become more/less relevant always catches business leaders, union organizers, governments and workers themselves by surprise. It's just that now the work force, like businesses around the world, are changing with ever greater rapidity.

This book is not a management tome about motivating one's work force. It's a fast read that is a combination wake-up call (or reminder) that the global labor situation is changing and a compliation of current practices to deal with the new change factors.

Who should read this book? I would imagine the ideal reader to be:
- CXOs who want to understand what's happening to their workforce today
- HR professionals who want to get ahead of the change curve
- Execs in growth oriented firms as they will face workforce issues (e.g., skills shortages, changing demand for workers by country, etc.) more acutely than any other

We should consider ourselves lucky that Hank and Rusty have taken the time to share with us their deep knowledge of such a critical component of the successful enterprise. At the risk of sounding cliche, the next wave of the talent war is already upon us. Those who will win are already aligned with the thoughts and processes of these authors. If you're haven't already gotten it--you're behind. Time to catch up by digesting a heaping of the Talent Force today.

Within an organization, talent management is very easy to talk about but very difficult to implement. In many organizations, talent management is seldom carried out in a systemic manner. Organizations that can connect the many facets that make up this area of human asset management will have a competitive advantage attracting, motivating and retaining superior talent.

The authors have clearly approached the talent management issue in their book in a "big picture" way. This book is an easy read and provides an outstanding blueprint for HR executives to follow.

Talent Force gives clear insight into understanding the rapidly changing workforce. Rusty and Hank introduce the concept of "Q-talent" and the lack of it available. This is a simple but very powerful idea that gives motivation for all students to strive to become that much sought after "Quality Talent."

Everyday, students across campus complain about the tight job market. But they must realize that no will ever turn them away for being "too talented." Never have I gotten a letter stating, "Dear Candidate, I regret to inform you that we are unable to offer you a position due to your excessive talent and ability to grow our business."

Whether you are an HR executive or a student seeking a first job, you need to read this book!

I read this book because one of the authors is a friend of mine from college and because I know that demographics are working against us - the amount of talent leaving the workforce as Baby Boomers retire isn't being replaced - in numbers, experience, or skills. This trend has vast implications for all of us, yet it hasn't become a prevalent part of business conversation yet. I hoped this book would help me think about that fact.

Having read the book, I recommend it somewhat different reasons. Yes it helps you understand this trend, and yes Rusty is a great guy. But you need to read this book because it helps you put your talent in a strategic frame of reference. The skills of the people in your organization are paramount to your success, and this book describes that and reinforces that point in fresh and salient ways.

Initially I thought this book would mostly be for leaders in large organizations with lots of ongoing hiring. I was wrong. As a small business owner, I have many ideas and processes in mind to help me as I move forward. I believe a line manger or leader in an organization of any size will gain value from this book.

If you care about keeping the talent you have and expanding or replacing it rapidly and effectively, you must read this book.

Must read for human resource personnel,ceo's,entrepreneurs and any employee looking for work that needs a look into the way human resource folks judge true talent. This is the real mindset of the kind of folks that build the successful money makers. The culture building of a business's employees has never been revealed as openly before. I purchased 2 copies one for me and one to pass on to human resources and management of my company.

Rusty & Hank have captured this complex and nuanced topic in a way which I believe everyone will finally understand. Talent has too long been on the lips of CEOs and pushed to the back room with HR. Talent force unveils this deeply misunderstood topic in a way which makes clear its level of importance as well as the path to success.

What we have in this brilliant book is a rigorous and eloquent analysis of challenges to which Rueff and Stringer refer in this excerpt from the Introduction: "This book is about how to find, attract, and retain high-quality talent in the midst of a new global economy that makes it more difficult and more important than ever to have the best people contributing to your organization. It's about how technology is changing the ways that both individuals and companies approach the job market. It is about how these forces and others will shape the talent market during the next decade and beyond and what smart companies will do to stay ahead. Most importantly, it is about the human factor involved in all of this and how expectations, views, and approaches to work are changing for participants in today's talent market."

Rueff and Stringer carefully organize their material within nine chapters whose subjects range from "The Quality Talent Imperative" to "Talent Forces of Tomorrow." They address a number of real-world business issues which include those specifically related to developments and challenges when managing talent capital. In a perfect world, every organization will have the right person in the right place at the right time. Also, every organization will have a "deep bench" of talent immediately available whenever needed. In reality, it is possible but highly unlikely that any organization has the right person in every place or even in most places, and always or almost always at the right time. More often than not, organizations must make do with adequate talent in many -- if not most -- positions.

As I read this book, I especially appreciated a number of reader-friendly devices throughout Rueff and Stringer's narrative. For example, their provision of boxed supplements such as "The Parable of the Talents" (pages xx-xxi), "Will the United States Experience a Labor Shortage?" (pages 15-16), "The Benefits of Automated Qualifying [Interview] Questions" (pages 87-88), and "Blogs Bring Media Power to the Masses" (pages 120-122). I also commend Rueff and Stringer for including a number of checklists which summarize their key points and, later, expedite a review of them. For example, a list of proactive, strategic steps that various organizations are taking to meet their long-range talent needs (pages 72-74), five ways that senior managers can contribute to their organization's talent goals (pages 97-98), and "Ten Qualities of Great Recruiters" (pages 138-139). Well-done.

In "The Parable of the Talents," an important question is raised which remains relevant more than 2,000 years later: Do we figure out how to take one talent and turn it into 10, or do we bury our talent in the ground to protect what we have? For Rueff and Stringer, this is an "awesome challenge." I agree. What they offer in this book is a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective response to that challenge. Only a fool would immediately agree with every observation, accept every premise, and implement every recommendation. No system is seamless, much less appropriate to every organization every time and in every situation. However, after modification, what Rueff and Stringer offer in this book can help almost any organization (regardless of size or nature) to find, attract, and retain high-quality talent.

According to an ancient Chinese proverb, "The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now." Why wait?