Book review: Talent Intelligence: what you need to know to identify and measure talent

Lisa Winnard

In today’s complex and challenging world of talent management, you could be forgiven for looking at the mass of tools and processes for measuring talent, and feeling overwhelmed by it all.

Talent Intelligence provides more than two decades of research and insight into measurement methods across the globe and offers a practical and straightforward guide to what businesses and HR Professionals really need to consider in effective management and measurement of their talent.

Both authors, Nik Kinley, a London-based independent consultant who specialises in measurement and behaviour change, together with Shlomo Ben-Hur, an organisational psychologist and professor of leadership, provide a provoking overview of the issues, challenges and lack of progress from our generation of talent measurement. They also provide detailed case studies. along with facts and figures relating to the impact that this very issue is having on businesses.

What I found compelling about this book is that it brought together all of the issues and complexity around talent management, simplified them and provided the pros and cons of each method in turn, from intelligence testing through to 360-degree feedback tools. The authors suggest how businesses can navigate and utilise each measurement tool, and how best to use them to complement and build robust and valid measurement.

It is often said you are able to see your own business more clearly by looking at those of others, and I think the case studies in this book help to do this. As a result, the book helps to focus on reviewing how your business measures talent. But more importantly, the guides and tips provided in this book allow HR professionals to make better informed choices around the best measurement methods to use.

I felt that the book was a real educational journey. The authors make what is, in parts, a detailed and complex subject into an engaging and readable piece of work. The simple models, theories and suggestions used throughout are instructive and practical.

From setting your strategy and foundations, to choosing your vendors and tools, this book will challenge what you think you know about talent measurement and the questions you should be asking to drive your approach to managing and measuring talent in your business. This is essential reading for any HR professional who is responsible for talent management and measurement.

Lisa Winnard is HR Director of Sesame Bankhall Group