The War for Talent (Hardcover)

by Ed Michaels (Author), Helen Handfield-Jones (Author), Beth Axelrod (Author) "In 1997, we at McKinsey & Company coined the term the war for talent and soon realized we had named a phenomenon that many people..." (more)
Key Phrases: talent mindset, talent review process, stronger talent pool, The Home Depot, Greg Summe, Arrow Electronics (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Talent, as defined by Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield-Jones, and Beth Axelrod, is shorthand for a key employee who possesses "a sharp strategic mind, leadership ability, communications skills, the ability to attract and inspire people, entrepreneurial instincts, functional skills, and the ability to deliver results." It's also, they contend in The War for Talent, an overarching personnel characteristic that companies of all kinds will require throughout their organizations in order to survive the competitive recruiting era that we appear to be entering. Michaels, Handfield-Jones, and Axelrod, authors of a 1997 McKinsey Quarterly article that uncovered a definitive connection between top performers and superior corporate achievement, spent the intervening years studying 13,000 executives in 27 companies to identify the programs and behaviors that help today's foremost firms attract and retain the best kinds of employees. The authors outline five common "imperatives" that they found these companies employed to strengthen their talent pools ("Embrace a Talent Mindset," "Craft a Winning Employee Value Proposition," "Rebuild Your Recruiting Strategy," "Weave Development into Your Organization," and "Differentiate and Affirm Your People") and construct a practical framework for making it happen in your company. --Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly
The consulting firm McKinsey & Co. coined the phrase "War for Talent" several years ago when its surveys revealed a diminishing talent pool. The basic McKinsey principle asserts that employers must adopt innovative recruitment techniques, and the authors offer many examples from companies like the Limited, Enron and Amgen. Among their suggestions: offer mentoring programs; encourage employees to switch departments; and with senior hires, look for "leadership style and values" consistent with "the company's culture." Employers will find this book useful if somewhat dry. McKinsey's name along with extensive publicity will help initial sales, but the boilerplate content may not maintain them.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Press (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578514592
• ISBN-13: 978-1578514595
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #88,243 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A worthwhile read, October 20, 2003

By	HR Monkey "HR_Monkey" (SIN) - See all my reviews

Easy reading, entertaining, interesting and informative. Light on details but a very good general overview of the topic.

Conceptually excellent. The value is in how you implement the recommendations - which is where you will find this book wanting.

If you get nothing else out of this book, the quote from Dee Hock (founder of Visa) will make it worth buying:

"Hire and promote first on the basis of integrity; second motivation; third capacity; fourth understanding; fifth knowledge; and last and least, experience.

Without integrity, motivation is dangerous; without motivation, capacity is impotent; without capacity, understanding is limited; without understanding, knowledge is meaningless; without knowledge, experience is blind."

26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Talent Myth, July 19, 2002

By A Customer

The New Yorker (July 22, 2002) had an article that referred to "The War for Talent" that summed up what I felt after finishing the book (I paraphrase): The book largely amounts to an argument for indulging A employees, fawning over them, and "allowing them to find out what they like most to be doing." Malcolm Gladwell's article really articulated my feeling about Enron, my former company and how management talked about encouraging risk and allowing "A talents" to be the dynamic driving force WITH little regard to organizational structure or goals. The resulting chaos of having dozens of self-proclaimed geniuses pursuing their objectives, while often hidden from outsiders, makes me very wary of some consultant's pet theory that ignores divisions duplicating efforts, repeating mistakes, raiding each others "talent" employees, low office morale and intense political jockeying for advancement (which, ironically, was independent of performance). This book is another tiresome example of tired old "hero" worship; it makes me regret ever having gone to b-school. We MBAs are really screwing things up.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The War For Talent Is About to Begin In Earnest, October 22, 2003

By	Bill Humbert (Marion, IA United States) - See all my reviews

The War for Talent is a great book for the leaders of an organization to read. Why? They are the ones who can affect the culture of the organization. Most workers, even A Players, do not have the power to drive cultural change.

As a contract recruiter (www.recruiterguy.com), when I go into a company for the first time, I interview the managers and ask them, in their view, "Why would a top performer want to work for this company, in this position, for you?" As the competition for talent begins to gain steam over the next few months, companies who do a better job of addressing the needs of the Gen X'ers will find themselves in the enviable position of attracting the replacements to the Baby Boomers who are retiring or otherwise leaving the workplace. Sure there is still a surplus of workers as a result of the recession. However, companies who do not have a recruitment strategy will soon find themselves spending much more money to attract the best talent.

In The War For Talent, the authors used specific examples of companies who had either a recruiting or attrition problem and then solved it by improving their Employee Value Proposition (EVP). For instance, SunTrust had a problem where they were losing 46% of their branch employees in their Publix supermarket branches in Georgia and 55% of their high performers. The book discusses the steps they took to dramatically lower their attrition rate in a relatively short time.

Unfortunately for the book, it came out just as Enron was spinning into the ground. Therefore, some people have focused more on the Enron EVP and other qualities and possibly not enough on the other companies' qualities. Enron, while it was growing, appealed to a specific group of people who were not afraid to take what now appears to be excessive risks. There are many examples of other companies with other EVP's who have survived and possibly thrived during this recession. They were able to attract and retain the high performers, who generally tend to be more strategic and less tactical than their counterparts.

Just as Brad Smart in his book "Topgrading" focuses on recruiting, developing and mentoring the A Players, the authors of The War For Talent stress the importance of the A players in a company. It is surprising that "The Peter Principle" came out in 1969 and we are still discussing the concept but in different terms.

The War For Talent concepts should be discussed from the boardroom to your hiring managers. Your leaders need to embrace a talent mindset (title of a chapter in the book), develop a winning differentiation for your company, and develop recruiters who have the ability to attract A Players.

Read this book if you want to win "The War For Talent." .........