HR is a profession in transition.

The term "Talent Management" is now part of the corporate lexicon and has become a board level concern. Yet the HR profession, which evolved from "personnel" in the 80's and 90's, seems unable to make a definitive move up the corporate ladder - in prestige or influence. In some ways, it's almost as if corporate leaders have made a collective, unconscious decision that talent management is too important to be left to HR.

Across the board, leaders say that talent management is the most difficult, least understood and most important thing for organizations to master. Accordingly, the most successful organizations make talent management a priority for every leader, manager and supervisor while leveraging the expertise of a reinvented HR group.

One thing is clear, the gap in awareness between talent management and HR, is narrowing, as is the time spent in each activity. Results from Lawler and Mohrman's work in 2003 compared to the findings in Mercer's 2006 report, and this study, provide evidence of a significant shift in HR's attention toward talent management. Nevertheless, HR has a long way to go in preparing itself for the human capital related challenges facing organizations.

"Leadership in HR does not have the respect of organizational leadership. Until that is resolved, we are overhead."

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