An organization’s talent is a precious enterprise asset. Accordingly, talent strategy is an aspect of the overall corporate strategy that management cannot afford to miss. This issue of Board Perspectives: Risk Oversight discusses current challenges and effective practices in the board’s oversight of talent strategy, drawing from experience.

In a study of the top risks for 2016, for more than 500 participating C-level executives and directors rated succession challenges and the inability to attract and retain top talent as the fourth-highest risk. Holding its position as a top-five issue in surveys we have conducted in prior years, this risk was accompanied by another risk related to organizational culture issues around resistance to change.