Managing talent well has become crucial for finding opportunity in the midst of change, as leaders must shape a workforce with the skills to deliver on strategy now and in the future. Financial capital isn’t the main limiting factor in rising to today’s challenges – talent is. The key to success is a talent-first mindset. Too many organizations go from initiative to implementation without thinking about the talent required. By putting talent first, the human resources function becomes a true driver of business value. We establish talent management as a distinct competitive advantage, matching talent to where the most value is at stake. By delivering on dynamic talent allocation, closing skills gaps, and transforming core systems, we partner with organizations to build the talent capabilities they need to sustain and scale impact.
Establish a talent-first organization
What we do
Support roles and individuals that create disproportionate business value
Pinpoint critical positions with the most value and strategic importance; place the right people in these roles and support them comprehensively.
Enhance skill pools to unlock growth
Assess where a company is long and short on talent by analyzing the capabilities needed to achieve business goals; close the gaps with precision by leveraging upskilling and redeployment where possible.
Design people processes and systems to propel the organization forward
Empower the human resources function to be more strategic and analytics-based; shape capabilities to build and retain the workforce needed to advance the mission.
Featured Capabilities
Complementary to our expertise and knowledge, we offer proprietary analytics-powered digital solutions to address pressing talent questions and make faster decisions rooted in data instead of instinct.
People Analytics: With the predictive power of machine learning, People Analytics generates insights to dynamically allocate talent, identify drivers of performance, plan for the future, and boost workforce motivation while minimizing attrition.
Skills Finder: Powered by artificial intelligence, Skills Finder inventories and baselines employee skills to inform talent decisions, enable internal mobility, and discover untapped potential within the organization.
Strategic Workforce Planning: To prepare for the future, Strategic Workforce Planning enables translation of business drivers into demand for skills and capabilities, assesses expected supply within the organization and in the labor market to anticipate gaps or overages, and identifies how to solve them through reskilling, hiring, and redeployment.
Talent and Org Intelligence: An advanced analytics tool that delivers role, skill, and experience benchmarking, Talent and Org Intelligence offers an assessment of how a company’s workforce stacks up versus competitors.
Talent Match: Through collaborative technology that enables dynamic problem solving, Talent Match helps allocate top talent to critical roles, assemble agile teams, and implement strategic succession planning.
Examples of our work
Turning CEO conviction into value
Operational challenges at an industrial company had hurt financial performance, inspiring the CEO to seek a new approach to talent. By identifying top value-driving roles and enhancing pockets of critical skills, we protected more than $500 million in annual income.
Building talent to future-proof
An insurance company wanted to meet changing customer expectations and invest in digital enablement, but success would require enhanced and fundamentally new skills. After quantifying workforce needs across the business, we created a tailored talent program including development to enable current employees to fill important skill gaps.
Cutting time to attract talent in half
The human resources team at a large consumer goods company struggled with a lengthy hiring process for important but hard-to-fill roles. Shortly after adapting agile methodologies and practices, the team achieved aggressive hiring targets in half the usual time.
Featured Experts
Faridun Dotiwala
Partner Mumbai
Leads performance transformations that boost organizational health, facilitating stronger leadership, shaping culture, and counseling...
Neel Gandhi
PartnerNew York
Advises leading organizations on how to strengthen their talent-management capabilities and build an HR function that operates...
Leads Talent Value Leader Academy
Arne Gast
Senior PartnerAmsterdam
Offers extensive global expertise in people and organizational performance, including organizational design, transformational...
Bryan Hancock
PartnerWashington DC
Supports private, public, and social sector clients through expertise in talent management, organizational design, and workforce...
Asmus Komm
PartnerHamburg
Unites diverse teams across the globe on their talent management, leadership, organization design, and change-management initiatives...
Dana Maor
Senior PartnerTel Aviv
Coheads the People & Organizational Performance Practice globally and leads it across Europe. Passionate about shaping organizations...
Featured Insights
Article
Increasing your return on talent: The moves and metrics that matter
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Five actions can transform an organization’s talent system, establishing a culture of performance while boosting employee experience.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
The human side of generative AI: Creating a path to productivity
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The number of employees who use generative AI is expected to soar, freeing many to focus on higher-level cognitive work. Can organizations use this moment to make jobs more people centric?
Article
The organization of the future: Enabled by gen AI, driven by people
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Generative AI can empower people—but only if leaders take a broad view of its capabilities and deeply consider its implications for the organization.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Some employees are destroying value. Others are building it. Do you know the difference?
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More than half of employees report being relatively unproductive at work. New research into six types of employees shows how companies can re-engage workers while amplifying the impact of star performers.
Featured Podcasts
McKinsey Talks Talent
Bryan Hancock, Bill Schaninger, and other talent experts help you navigate a fast-changing landscape and prepare for the future of work by making talent a competitive advantage.
Podcast
Managing in the era of gen AI
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Will middle managers survive the latest bout of disruption and delayering? Should they?
Podcast
Workers wanted: How to fill the skilled-trade shortage
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In the United States, demand for skilled workers has skyrocketed—and the unmet need for tradespeople risks putting prosperity and even national security at stake. What’s next?
Podcast
Why so many bad bosses still rise to the top
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Narcissism. Overconfidence. Low EQ. Why do we persist in selecting for leadership traits that hamper organizational progress—and leave the right potential leaders in the wrong roles?
Podcast
Rethinking organizational health for the new world of work
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Yes, organizational health still drives long-term performance—but the way leaders measure and diagnose health should change, new research shows.
More McKinsey podcasts on talent
Podcast
Getting a read on the state of organizations
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A new McKinsey report reveals how organizations are faring in a post-COVID-19 world. Here, two of its coauthors offer suggestions for managing through the uncertainty.
Podcast
Back and forth: COVID-19’s impact on business in 2021—and today
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The years-long pandemic persists. How can companies continue to adapt?
Podcast
Culture in the hybrid workplace
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Hybrid work is happening. Your culture will need to catch up—fast.
Podcast
The search for purpose at work
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Purpose is personal, but companies play a critical role in how we express it.