The Differentiated Workforce: Translating Talent into Strategic Impact

by Brian E. Becker, Mark A. Huselid, Richard W. Beatty

Do you think of your company's talent as an investment to be managed like a portfolio? You should, according to authors Becker, Huselid, and Beatty, if you're interested in strategy execution. Many companies fall into the trap of spending too much time and money on low performers, while high performers aren't getting the necessary resources, development opportunities, or rewards. In The Differentiated Workforce, the authors expand on their previous books, The HR Scorecard and The Workforce Scorecard, and recommend that you manage your workforce like a portfolio--with disproportionate investments in the jobs that create the most wealth. You'll learn rise above talent management best practice and instead create a differentiated workforce that can't be easily copied by competitors; differentiate those capabilities in your company that are truly strategic; identify your wealth-creating A positions; create a new relationship between HR and line managers, and articulate the role each plays in a differentiated workforce strategy; and develop the right measures for your organization. Based on two decades of academic research and experience working with hundreds of executives, The Differentiated Workforce gives you the tools to translate your talent into strategic impact.

Genres: Business, Leadership, Nonfiction

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 10, 2009

Reviews

[Sharon Orlopp · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for HR professionals as well as leaders who really want to differentiate their workforce and their results.

There are many gold nuggets of information as well as critical research data throughout the book. Some key takeaways include:

1. Instead of thinking of it as a war FOR talent, think of it as a war WITH talent. Talent can be a strategic asset that differentiates you from your competitors.

2. Firms with high-performance HR systems have a 10 - 15% higher market value to book value as well as stronger financial performance.

3. "A" players should fill "A" jobs.

4. "C" players must be removed from "A" jobs.

5. Determine which jobs are wealth-creating jobs, wealth-neutral jobs, and wealth-destroying jobs. An example of a wealth-destroying job is a pilot---a poor pilot can have horrendous results.

6. Top software developers are more productive than average software developers by a factor of 10,000.

7. IBM has dual career paths..."rainmakers" and "tiger teams." Different compensation, mentoring and training plans.

Highly recommend!

[Javier Castillo Gil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book with a sharp message: not all roles add the same strategic value, and talent investments should reflect that. It’s a more sophisticated take on workforce planning and challenges the one-size-fits-all mindset that still dominates many organizations.
While it’s clearly written with HR in mind, it’s a book CEOs should seriously consider if they want to truly tap into their business’s full potential through talent. Strategic alignment starts here.

[Jerrid Kruse · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit obvious, but an important point most organization don’t enact (particularly educational organizations). Essentially, identify strategy and then align the people of the organization to achieve that strategy. Unfortunately, many organizations treat everyone the same and don’t strategically invest in people.

[Andrea Carando · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hi everybody! I'm an MBA student at Boston University and I am looking for an HR manager to conduct a quick interview where we discuss the topics of this book and how you agree/disagree with these. It is for a final paper.
Thank you, and if you could maybe spread the word to somebody you know I would really appreciate that. My email is: acarando@bu.edu

Thank you!

[Arun Narayanaswamy · Rating 2 out of 5]

20% of this book is filled with a word “strategic”. Frankly very unstructured, weak un-relatable examples and a bit boring narration. Overall there is nothing strategic (other than the overly abused words) and almost nothing to learn.

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book to learn about measuring HR performance and linking to strategy. However, much like other books discussing HR strategy--this is all very good in theory but hard to promote in practice. The very idea that you start with strategy and then align your goals and performance metrics to those strategies seems so simple--yet I have found that encouraging people, especially clients, to spend the amount of time necessary to create a robust workforce strategy is even worse than pulling teeth. Still, though, an interesting read.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a really interested take on workforce strategy and HR philosophy. I agree with some of the larger points of this book (a one-size-fits all approach to HR doesn't work and workforce strategy should be aligned to business strategy), but not some of the finer implied points (paying attention only to A players and largely ignoring B and C players). Overall, a good text for generating discussion and streamlining ideas about workforce strategy.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting ideas, writing was redundant. How many times can you say strategic in a sentence?

[Erika]

Jumala pärast, leidke palun sõnale "strateegiline" sobiv sünonüüm. Selle sõna konsentratsioon raamatus avaldab muljet.