Research Reports

A hallmark of our approach is providing talent management, succession planning, and organization development services that are based on rigorous research findings. Our ongoing research projects that provide the foundation for an evidence-based approach to talent development and succession management solutions include national benchmarking surveys, case studies of organizations with exemplary practices and outcomes, quantitative studies assessing the ROI of talent management practices, and meta-analytic studies of data collected via our assessment tools.

Webinars

Talent Management and Succession Planning Best Practices

As part of the American Hospital Association’s Health Forum, this webinar presents findings and practical applications from the semi-annual Healthcare Talent Management Survey, which provides senior management teams, boards, and HR/OD executives with direct evidence of the impact of talent management and succession planning capabilities on hospitals’ financial, workforce, and value-based purchasing performance metrics. The webinar presents a practical framework of best practices across a series of capabilities, including talent assessment, role-based leadership development, and onboarding practices. The webinar concludes with a presentation of several case studies of leading health systems (Cleveland Clinic, Sutter Health, HCA, and others) highlighting the execution of talent management and succession planning best capabilities.

Assessing the Health of Your Talent Management Capabilities

This webinar presents research findings and industry best practices on how to assess your current talent management ecosystem to drive employee engagement and organizational performance outcomes. The webinar includes discussion of the key drivers of the need for investment in talent management and tools for assessing and improving your organization’s talent management capabilities.

Research Reports

Impact of Talent Management Practices on Hospital Clinical, Financial, & Workforce Metrics (2015)

This report summarizes the key findings and resulting practical applications of Healthcare Talent Management Survey 2015, a semi-annual survey administered to a national sample of senior executives at hospitals and health systems. The survey assesses the impact of talent management and succession planning best practices, including utilization of Talent Management Success Factors and associated policies and practices, on numerous financial, workforce, and clinical performance metrics. Given the ongoing roll-out of the Affordable Care Act and increasing pressure on hospital organizations to demonstrate the value of their services via clinical quality performance metrics, the survey also assesses the impact of talent management practices on the Value-Based Purchasing performance outcomes released by CMS in January, 2015. Overall, this report describes the primary survey findings and offers a series of practical recommendations for hospital organizations seeking to enhance talent management and succession planning capabilities.

Impact of Talent Management Practices on Hospital Clinical, Financial, & Workforce Metrics (2013)

This report summarizes the key findings of Healthcare Talent Management Survey 2013, a semi-annual survey administered to a national sample of senior HR officers at hospital systems. The survey’s purpose is to develop practical recommendations by measuring the impact of talent management practices on key clinical, financial, and workforce performance metrics of hospital organizations. Facing numerous challenges to address what many have dubbed a healthcare leadership crisis, including demographic, marketplace, and economic challenges, human resource professionals are under increasing pressure to ensure a sustained pipeline of leadership talent. While many exemplary hospital organizations have shrewdly invested in talent management practices to meet these critical challenges, it remains unclear whether such investments yield returns on clinical, financial, or workforce performance metrics.

Talent Management System Best Practices in Healthcare Organizations (2010)

This report assesses and synthesizes the talent development and succession management best practices across 15 best practice healthcare systems. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with top human resource and organization development officers across 15 national healthcare systems with stellar reputations for talent management practices, this qualitative study sought to identify (1) high potential identification practices and policies, (2) leadership competencies and other defining characteristics of high potentials, and (3) high potential development practices and policies. Through content analysis methods and other qualitative analysis techniques, this report reveals a series of dominant themes characterizing the talent management systems at best practice healthcare organizations. On the basis of these research themes, a model of Talent Management Best Practices in healthcare organizations is presented and supported with data analysis results and sample excerpts.