How to develop an innovative and holistic talent strategy

Talent strategy should drive your business strategy.

Your people are your biggest asset, as the saying goes. So shouldn’t your talent strategy not just connect with, but directly drive your business strategy?

Although sometimes associated solely with talent acquisition, talent strategy is a holistic approach to optimize the talent lifecycle: from hiring to onboarding, engaging, developing, and offboarding.

It’s about who you’re moving where in the organization, how you’re acquiring the skills needed to drive growth, how you’re engaging employees and maximizing productivity, and beyond.

When done right, an effective and intelligent talent strategy:

Enhances organizational performance and competitiveness
Reduces employee turnover
Drives innovation
Positions the company for future growth and success

In the midst of economic volatility and technological transformation, to run a business without a thoughtful and intentional strategy is to run a business on luck.

Considerations for developing an effective talent attraction strategy

Talent strategy starts with the first step of the cycle: attraction.

In a competitive job market, continuing to revisit and innovate on your talent attraction strategy is essential. By considering key factors and utilizing relevant data, companies can enhance their recruitment processes and attract top talent.

The first step is to consider how your existing attraction and recruitment strategy fits in industry trends and labor market dynamics. Ask questions such as:

Who are the major employers in your market that you’re competing against? How strong is their employer brand? What benefits do they offer?
If you want to expand your business and open a new store or branch, what does the talent pool look like in that geographic location?
Can you drop certain job requirements — such as bachelors degrees — to expand your talent pipeline?

Beyond industry and labor market trends, there are a number of other elements to evaluate.

1. Recruitment technology

Leveraging technology can streamline and optimize the recruitment process. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) like Greenhouse can help manage the hiring workflow, simplifying candidate tracking while also facilitating efficient communication and collaboration among hiring teams.

Incorporating Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) tools also optimizes sourcing capabilities, ensuring a more organized and proactive recruitment process.

2. Channel approach

A strategic channel approach takes into account both external AND internal talent pools.

External channels, including job boards like Indeed and professional networking platforms like LinkedIn, expand the reach to a broader audience. Employing a diverse channel strategy ensures comprehensive coverage and access to a variety of skilled candidates.

But organizations should also look internally for new talent. Education and skilling programs that build internal talent pipelines should be a critical part of talent acquisition strategy.

“Clearly in healthcare, there is a challenge across so many of our priority roles. When we look at the external pipeline, while it is challenged in most of the markets where we serve, we also recognize the opportunity that — what better way to develop a pipeline for the future than from our own workforce.”
Levi Lovercamp, Chief Workforce Planning Officer, Bon Secours Mercy Health

3. Channel partnerships

Schools and universities offer direct access to emerging talent. Collaborating with educational institutions and establishing recruiting pipelines can provide access to a pool of candidates with relevant skills and knowledge.

Organizations should also look beyond traditional four-year institutions and consider other innovative skilling providers, such as bootcamps and other short-form learning opportunities.

4. Employer branding

Building a strong employer brand is critical to attracting top talent. Research has shown that 69% of job seekers would reject a job offer from a company with a bad reputation.

Companies should regularly evaluate and enhance their brand, eliciting employee feedback and taking into account:

Compensation
Benefits
Culture
Company purpose
Career development opportunities

For more detail on employer brand, read our blog post on the 5 pillars of an EVP that attracts and retains talent.

5. Mix of benefits

Offering a competitive mix of benefits is a key differentiator in talent attraction. For example, a 2024 benefits survey reveals that almost 60% of employees say they’re willing to give up some salary in order to get better health care benefits.

Take a look at your offerings to make sure you’re keeping up with the competition. Consider:

Health insurance
Flexible work arrangements
Professional development opportunities
Mental health benefits
Childcare subsidies
Wellness reimbursement
PTO
Digital coaching
Education benefits

Leverage internal talent to create pipelines for hard-to-fill roles

Finding and engaging the right talent in the right places is central to talent strategy.

And it’s not just about external hiring. Internal talent pipelines are a critical — and often overlooked — way to get the talent you need in high-demand roles.

(As a bonus, focusing on internal career development doesn’t just fill open roles. It helps retain and engage your workforce as well.)

Building internal talent pipelines means connecting talent development investments with strategic skilling needs within the organization.

Identify gaps in skills or competencies required for future success

To start building talent internally, organizations should first determine key skill gaps and prioritize education and training accordingly.

HR leaders can determine these gaps by looking at:

Time to hire
Cost of talent acquisition
Demand for role
Time and cost to upskill

These factors can point to roles that would be better found within your organization.

Once you identify the roles you need to fill, evaluate entry-level roles that can serve as a starting point for the career path to those roles. These can include jobs that tend to have high turnover, high volume, or a good foundation of skills. For example, a customer support representative can be skilled into another support-oriented role, such as an IT support specialist.

Next, map those roles to areas of high need to create a career path. From these starter roles, consider what education and training can build the skills needed for an employee to take the next step on their given career path.

Read our blog on matching skills and careers for more strategies to build talent pipelines and optimize outcomes.

How to develop a talent retention strategy

The elements of an organization’s employer value proposition that attract talent also help retain talent.

But keeping the right talent goes beyond the employer brand. An effective talent retention strategy considers different factors to take a comprehensive approach that addresses the diverse needs and expectations of employees.

Retaining talent means taking the right approach in the middle of the employee lifecycle – at the engagement and development phases.

Pay for today, growth for tomorrow

Competitive compensation and benefits packages are still fundamental in attracting and retaining talented professionals. Organizations should benchmark their compensation against industry standards and ensure that their benefits packages align with the evolving needs of their workforce.

But pay is no longer enough to retain employees. They seek opportunity for growth and will quickly change jobs to find it.

Education and skilling programs act as a retention tool for participating employees, but top-notch programs also paint the picture of opportunity for all employees by helping them understand their potential effectively target engagement of those in the most business-critical, highest turnover roles.

Recognize, celebrate, communicate

Implementing employee recognition programs can also be a powerful tool to acknowledge contributions and boost morale. Recognizing achievements both big and small can help create a positive work culture where employees feel seen and celebrated.

This can be achieved through tactics such as:

Company awards
Public acknowledgments
Simple expressions of appreciation
Company Slack channels dedicated to recognition
Time in company or department meetings set aside for praise

Effective communication with employees is also important — whether it’s about their roles and responsibilities, career growth programs and systems, the state of the business, and beyond. Transparent communication fosters trust and helps employees feel connected to the organization's goals. Regular feedback, open lines of communication, and supportive management all play a role.

By addressing these considerations, organizations can create an environment where employees feel valued, supported, and empowered to contribute their best and grow their careers, ultimately leading to increased job satisfaction and reduced turnover.

Skilling employees for the future of work

An organization’s talent strategy isn’t just about the short term. If talent strategy drives business strategy, employers should think about equipping employees with skills that will benefit both the individual and the organization in the future — think offering equitable AI skilling for your workforce or fostering the durable skills needed to improve customer experience.

Top strategic benefits of upskilling and reskilling

When it comes to building skills, you may hear the terms upskilling and reskilling. They are distinct but both important to a company’s talent strategy.

Upskilling is the process of learning new skills to become better at your current role. It can help employers retain employees and build unique skills within the organization that are scarce in the job market at large.

Reskilling is the process of learning new skills to transition into a new role. It can help organizations move talent into new roles entirely — particularly ones in demand in the future of work.

Whether employees choose the upskilling route to remain in their current career path or the reskilling route to transition to a new one, the ultimate goal (and most attractive benefit) of skills training is career growth and mobility. This helps organizations:

Promote employees into open roles in their departments
Proactively combat the scarcity of digital and technical skills
Equitably prepare employees for an AI-powered future
Reduce recruitment costs by building talent from within

For more detail, read our beginner’s guide to upskilling and reskilling strategy.

Budget management for higher ROI

An effective talent strategy means deciding where to allocate limited human capital dollars to drive the highest return. This involves:

Assessing the organization's goals
Identifying critical roles
Understanding the skills required for success

By aligning talent investments with business objectives, companies can get the highest return by enhancing employee engagement, productivity, and overall performance.

When it comes to the optimal return, it’s not just because you’re offering talent development programs to meet employee expectations. These programs shouldn’t be just another benefit. Employees should see real return in the form of job placements and promotions, while employers see more robust talent pipelines and access to the skills they’re paying to build.

In addition, a well-crafted talent strategy considers not only current needs but also future demands, ensuring the organization remains agile. It involves fostering a culture of continuous learning and development to equip employees with the skills necessary for evolving roles.
Think of an effective talent strategy as a dynamic roadmap that guides human capital allocation. For a real-world example, read more about how Tamla Oates-Forney, former CHRO at USAA, switched from a just-in-time hiring and development model to a more long-term approach of strategic workforce planning to “make sure our investments in learning and development are meeting the company at its point of need. That way, when you need that talent, it’s already skilled and ready.”

Opportunity Employers are at the cutting edge of talent strategy.

Opportunity Employers center their talent strategy on creating opportunity for all. They seek to actively remove barriers to career growth and unlock talent potential systematically and at scale.

These organizations put their talent first — and see the business results follow.
When they focus on talent development programs, Opportunity Employers look to remove 8 blockers that prevent well-intentioned programs from driving the outcomes — and ROI — needed for people, business, and innovation.

Inequitable programs: Many traditional policies and structures unintentionally prevent frontline workers from accessing the program — such as BA requirements, tuition clawbacks, and more.
Financial barriers to entry: Keep in mind that not all employees can afford to pay for education upfront and wait for reimbursement.
Lack of cultural support: Real change takes cultural change, but many organizations and systems aren’t set up for that. Managers are incentivized to retain top performers, meanwhile executives may not see the transformative potential of opportunity.
Lack of employee visibility into opportunities: Workers can’t grow their careers if they don’t know the full scope of options available to them.
Failure to see beyond gateway jobs: Companies often set workers up for the next step in their careers — and then stop there. They fail to use that next step as a springboard to a variety of in-demand roles.
Employee occupational identity: Not every employee grew up with a community and network of different professionals. Not every employee went to college. They might not have the same experience navigating the job search and application process as their white collar peers.
Training for the skills of yesterday instead of agile skills for tomorrow: Beware of building career growth into jobs that will be obsolete in a few years.
Antiquated HR team structure: HR teams and structures are still rooted in practices and methodologies from 30 years ago. They haven’t adapted to how teams and organizations operate in today’s dynamic market. For more details on how to become an Opportunity Employer, read our guide.

How Guild can help

When it comes to developing intelligent talent strategy, Guild can help. Through employer education benefits, we rewrite the playbook so opportunity is within reach for all.

Based on a tuition assistance model — as outlined in this guide on education benefits —Guild’s approach to employee education enables organizations to remove barriers to employee growth and put new skills within reach.

Workers have access to a range of programs from schools committed to data-backed outcomes with the support they need along the way. Employers get the data, marketing support, and strategic consulting they need to customize for their business and see maximum ROI.

And they both unlock opportunity — for individuals to grow their careers, and for HR leaders to grow their business.