Four critical actions for CHROs to shape a talent strategy for rapidly changing business needs
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Talent Strategy for Growth: A CHRO's Guide
Ambitious growth goals in a VUCA environment put pressure on talent strategies
Regardless of headwinds, CEOs are still prioritizing growth, with talent, people management, and culture as their top challenges to lead and grow. As the pressure for growth mounts, CHROs must develop a robust talent strategy that steers organizations through the current volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous (VUCA) headwinds and fuels growth.
The 2025 CHRO Talent Strategy Guide is designed to empower CHROs to align talent strategies with CEO growth priorities. It provides best practices across four initiatives to shape an effective talent strategy and:
Deliver current and emerging skills needs
Develop transformation leaders and managers
Sustain workforce morale through transformation
Enable the growth of the human/tech augmented workforce
About talent strategy
Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) are increasingly being asked to develop and clearly articulate their organization’s talent strategy. Their role requires them to be strategic value providers — from managing activities to developing a robust, strategic plan for competing for and retaining talent in this ever-changing talent landscape. With 53% of HR leaders expecting an increase in talent competition in the coming months, organizations need a thorough talent strategy that addresses both its current and future talent needs.
However, many CHROs cannot develop clear and compelling talent strategies because they struggle to translate their organizational strategy into talent imperatives. They find it difficult to prioritize HR and talent management initiatives to address these new talent imperatives.
To identify talent imperatives, CHROs should:
Understand the organization’s priorities
Identify long-term "talent enablers" associated with those priorities
Recognize medium- or short-term talent challenges that impact them
This is an unprecedented opportunity for CHROs to redefine their role and establish themselves as proactive, strategic leaders. They can use the Gartner research to avoid common planning pitfalls and establish a clear and compelling talent strategy.
Talent Strategy FAQs
What is a talent strategy?
A talent strategy defines your plan to optimize the value of your talent assets. It addresses how and why the organization must attract, engage, retain and develop talent, and drive continuous performance improvement.
What key questions should a talent strategy address?
A list of key questions a talent strategy should address include:
What skills and capabilities must we build, buy or borrow?
What talent segments must we attract and retain?
What organizational design elements must we maintain?
What leadership mindset and behaviors must we foster?
What culture and ways of working must we co-create?
What employee experience and the employee value proposition must we deliver?
What challenges do CHROs face in developing talent strategy?
Chief Human Resouces Officers (CHROs) face challenges like accelerating skills gaps, a deficit in future-ready leaders, employee change fatigue, and mismatched AI expectations while developing their talent strategies.