Measuring the ROI of talent management

This paper aims to consider how effectively today's organizations assess the return on investment (ROI) of their talent management initiatives. It aims to explore the question: How do they know whether the money they spend on recruitment, development and succession management generates a worthwhile commercial benefit to the organization?

Based on research conducted with a number of global organizations – including Fujitsu, British American Tobacco, Premier Foods, PepsiCo and Marks & Spencer – this article looks at the steps organizations take to assess the ROI on their investment.

The paper presents practical case study material from npower – the UK gas and electricity supplier. The case study shows how the business worked to identify leaders and future leaders from its existing talent pool and how this talent management initiative was measured, creating a clear benchmark from which to measure and review future talent investment.

The paper ascertains the key ROI trends and themes that occupy present‐day HR professionals in the UK and outlines a number of practical approaches HR professionals can adopt to evaluate whether their investment in talent is delivering value for the business.