The New Dictionary of Hiring

Talent Risk

/TAL-UHNT RISK/

NOUN

Talent Risk is the threat to business results when necessary people may be unavailable, unattainable or lost when they are needed.

MEANING

Companies keep registers for financial risk, cyber risk, supplier risk and regulatory risk. Then they build the growth plan around five nearly impossible hires and call them “open reqs.”

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If the business can't launch, deliver or expand without someone you might never find, there's a business risk to manage. Give it an owner, a deadline and a contingency plan. Moving the requisition to the top of the spreadsheet doesn't do any of those things.

Defined by:
James Ellis,
Employer Brand Labs

Category:

Essentials

Related Terms:

Single-Person Dependency

→

Strategic Dependency

The New Dictionary of Hiring card: Talent Risk, noun. The threat to business results when necessary people may be unavailable, unattainable or lost when they are needed. Abstract iridescent glass shape on a white background.

MAKE THE CHANGE

Instead of:

Treating hard-to-fill hiring as an HR problem.

Ask:

Which parts of the plan are exposed because we aren't confident we can obtain or retain the people they require?

EXAMPLE

A growth target depends on a scarce skill that takes months to hire. The risk appears nowhere in the executive review because it's listed as an open requisition.

HOW TO USE IT

Bring the highest-impact hiring and retention exposures into the regular risk review. Give each one a business consequence, likelihood, owner and response.

SAY IT TO LEADERSHIP

We track the risks that could keep this plan from happening. The possibility that we won't have the people to deliver it belongs on that list.

NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH

Acquisition Risk: Acquisition Risk is one part of Talent Risk, the chance of failing to bring a specific capability in on time. Talent Risk also covers losing the people you already have.