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If you’re a senior HR leader, you’re expected to have your finger on the pulse of the organization’s top talent and the broader issues impacting your workforce. The best HR professionals routinely track and report workforce metrics, and have a strong sense of the marketplace implications for recruiting and retention.  In short, they’re proactive, not reactive when it comes to managing talent.  

Yet, I still see competent HR leaders blindsided by talent questions from the CEO. Here are five questions you should anticipate:

1) What segments of our workforce produce the most value for us? Especially in large organizations, there are pockets of skilled labor that produce most of the real value for the company. Maybe it’s the engineering department or the sales force; perhaps it’s your research scientists. While there are a myriad of support functions in any organization, a select group of employees might be where all the value lies in terms of revenue, customer service, etc. You’d be wise to build and share a model of your workforce that identifies A, B and C level jobs (in order of importance).

2) What areas of our workforce will be most impacted by retirement? This is particularly important if your company employs a lot of hard-to-find technical talent that is nearing the end of their careers (e.g., defense oriented companies or the manufacturing sector). Not only do you need to have this updated information at your fingertips, you need to have built recruiting, promotion and knowledge management plans to meet the challenge head on.

3) What areas of the talent market are heating up, and how does this impact us? Any talent plan that doesn’t take into account the marketplace is doomed to fail. HR must have a strong sense of what jobs or skill sets are hot right now, and must anticipate where the next war for talent will emerge. For example, if your company wants to get into the 3D printing or drones business, you’re going to have to compete hard for the talent that has this knowledge and skill set. 

4) What skills will we need over the next 5 and 10 years? How will we build that capability? Speaking of skills… the proactive HR leader is constantly polishing their crystal ball to look to the future. Where is the company going… and what skills will we need to make that journey a success? What are we doing right now to retrain our people or hire for these skills? Many companies evolve their core competency over time (e.g., Corning or IBM). What are you doing to reshape your workforce to facilitate this shift?

5)  What is our voluntary turnover in critical areas?  Why are we losing people?  What is it costing us in customers, productivity, innovation, quality? Nothing gets the CEO’s attention quite like an outflow of talented managers, top talent or A-level job holders. You can expect this question any time one of the CEO’s favorite employees leaves for greener pastures. Whether fair or not, the finger is often pointed at the HR department along with the question of “how did this happen?” Best to have a retention or replacement plan in place for your most talented employees, and to monitor and raise the flag on any concerning turnover trends.  

The best HR leaders have already asked themselves these questions and are reporting and making recommendations on a regular basis (a quarterly report or Executive Committee presentation on talent is a good way to stay in front of these issues). Don’t wait for your CEO to ask obvious talent questions that you should already be working on! Brainstorm with your team all the right questions about talent, and craft your answers in the form of tangible plans that demonstrate you are protecting and sustaining your company’s most valuable asset.   

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