Lance A. Berger is a management consultant specializing in talent management, change management and compensation. A former general partner for the largest compensation practice worldwide at The Hay Group, he co-wrote and co-edited The Compensation Handbook. The Change Management Handbook, and Deengineering The Corporation. He has been a featured speaker at the United Nations, The Conference Board, American Management Association, and the American Compensation Association.

Dorothy R. Berger is a consultant in talent management. She co-edited The Compensation Handbook, Fourth Edition, The Change Management Handbook and Deengineering The Corporation. She is the editor for in-house newsletters and publications.

From the publisher

The research has shown that, in most organizations, the infrastructure of human resources systems and processes is a jumble of unconnected, incomplete, and inconsistent methodologies. Senior executives and human resources practitioners understand the connection between organization excellence and effective people management. But most organizations, do not have a systemized approach for making this linkage - and it's hurting their business. The search for this linkage is over. The Talent Management Handbook reveals how to connect organizational excellence to people management by systematically identifying, keeping, developing and promoting the organization's best people.

Featuring the contributions of leading executives, human resources practitioners, and consultants, this book presents a comprehensive approach to talent management. You will learn the power of integrating your company's infrastructure of HR assessment, planning, and development tools into a single, cogent system. The Talent Management Handbook explains how to align your company's people with the current and future needs of the organization by placing employees in positions that maximize their value.

The authors identify three key steps to a human resources strategy that will drive your organization's success:

1. Identify, select, and cultivate "Superkeepers" - the employees your organization can not afford to lose

2. Locate and develop highly qualified backups for key positions, which are critical to organizational continuity

3. Allocate resources to employees based on actual and/or potential contribution to organizational excellence

The book also explains how to build all your HR disciplines on the "building blocks" of organizational competencies, performance appraisal, and forecast of employee/manager potential. You'll discover how to enhance employee improvement through coaching, mentoring, constructive dialogue, and feedback from many organization levels. You'll also learn about powerful reward systems, that support different talent management strategies. The Talent Management Handbook explains how to create a talent management system that dramatically improves your organization's return on its HR investment, while increasing the overall performance and satisfaction of every member of your organization.