Viewing Talent Needs as a Supply Chain

An interesting view of talent needs, from Knowledge@Wharton, look at them as a supply chain:

" ... This is a fundamentally different paradigm in terms of thinking about talent," according to Cappelli, the author of a book coming out in April titled, Talent on Demand: Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty. His theory, he suggests, addresses a major complaint about the field of human resources -- that it is "touchy-feely, squishy stuff with little applicability to business problems. HR practices have typically been about meeting individuals' needs, figuring out what psychological profile they fit and what should be done to help them grow and advance. But if you're an employer who is worried about issues like the finances of the company, you would like HR to think about personnel from the perspective of money and costs, and what happens if you don't have the right people in place to do the necessary jobs." .... "