Workforce and talent management: ITIL 4 Practice Guide

Practice

Practice
ITIL

May 1, 2020 |

53 min read

Practice
ITIL

This document provides practical guidance for the workforce and talent management practice.

1. About this document

It is split into five main sections, covering:

general information about the practice
the practice’s processes and activities and their roles in the service value chain
the organizations and people involved in the practice
the information and technology supporting the practice
considerations for partners and suppliers for the practice.

1.1 ITIL® 4 qualification scheme

Selected content from this document is examinable as a part of the following syllabus:

ITIL Leader Digital and IT Strategy.

Please refer to the syllabus document for details.

2. General information

2.1 Purpose and description

Key message

The purpose of the workforce and talent management practice is to ensure that the organization has the right people, with the appropriate skills and knowledge, in the correct roles to support its business objectives. This practice covers a broad set of activities focused on successfully engaging with the organization’s employees and people resources, including: planning, recruitment, onboarding, learning and development, performance measurement, and succession planning.

The workforce and talent management practice is focused on the effective management of the organizations and the people dimension of service management within organizations. The scope, form, and institutionalization of this practice might vary depending on multiple factors, including the organization’s mission and the positioning, business and operating models, architecture, competence model, and others.

People are the most valuable asset of every organization; therefore, the effective management of the workforce is critical for an organization’s success. In a digital business environment, competent and motivated teams are extremely important for the creation and continual improvement of digital products. Formed around the organization’s products, these teams are instrumental for the product development and success.

The workforce and talent management practice is often supported by specialized roles and organizational structures; these can be positioned in various ways to support the IT and digital teams:

Most organizations have dedicated human resources (HR) management teams responsible for effective workforce and talent management.
HR teams may have different levels of expertise and focus to support IT teams:
- In some organizations, HR teams focus on core business units, with little resources dedicated to IT workforce and talent management. In these organizations, IT managers take responsibility for many aspects of IT workforce and talent management.
- In some organizations, HR professionals pay significant attention to IT workforce and talent management, applying the organization’s workforce and talent management approach to IT teams and employees, teams, competencies, and skills.
- In digital and IT-focused organizations, HR teams are primarily focused on IT workforce and talent management.

Either way, it is important to ensure that IT leaders, managers, and teams share responsibilities for effective workforce and talent management with the organization’s HR professionals; teams’ effectiveness, culture and competence, cannot be developed solely by HR professionals or IT managers and the value which HR management brings to an organization, cannot be delivered: it should be co-created by HR professionals, IT managers, and IT staff together.

In today’s VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) environment, effective workforce and talent management cannot be based on a fixed set of rules and procedures, rigid organizational structures, and predefined sets of competencies. The workforce and talent management practice should be based on the following premises to be effective:

organizations are open systems, their relationships with other systems cannot be ignored
an organization’s strategies continual evolve, so should the HR strategy
digital technologies change the way organizations work and the skills that organizations need
decisions should be driven by principles, not rules
organizations should recognize and embrace complexity and complexity-driven heuristics
organizational agility, adaptability, and efficiency should be enabled by the organizational structure and management practices
workforce and talent management is the responsibility of every team, manager, and leader in the organization, not only HR professionals.

2.2 Terms and concepts

2.2.1 Evolution of the role of the workforce and talent management practice

The role of the workforce and talent management practice has been evolving for more than a century, from a purely administrative role to a strategic HR management role. This evolution conforms with the changing understanding of the importance of people for an organization’s success (and the definition of that success). Organizations are moving from a focus on profitability to the ‘triple bottom line’, an approach that covers financial, social, and environmental aspects, as shown in Figure 2.1 (Bordoloi et al., 2018). The triple bottom line marks a shift from short-term financial goals to long-term sustainability goals, which is an integrated business method. Sustainable goals not only improve an organization’s brand and reputation, but drive stakeholder value for customers, employees, and society in the form of better health, climate, and resource utilization. Read more on the triple bottom line approach in ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value, section 3.4.

Image of Figure 2.1 shows Sustainability and the triple bottom line approach

Figure 2.1 Sustainability and the triple bottom approach

Value for employees is an important aspect of the triple bottom line approach. It reflects the well-known premise that happy employees make happy customers.

“Focus on making employees happy, and in turn, they will make your customers happy. What’s happening on the inside of the organization is felt on the outside by the customers.”¹

Image of Figure 2.2 shows a diagram representing employee experiences as a key factor of service experience

Figure 2.2 Employee experience as a key factor of service experience.²

A strategic focus on employees has changed an organizations’ approaches to the workforce and talent management practice. This practice is recognized as important and necessary, and its effect on an organization’s sustainable success is rarely disputed. Stakeholders expect organizations to effectively manage their workforce and talent.

2.2.2 Holistic approach

The workforce and talent management practice cannot be limited to administrative tasks, although these tasks are important. It is more than just recruiting, training, and reviewing employees’ performances, although these are the most visible activities. The practice must be holistic to contribute to value co-creation and the overall strategy of an organization. A well-known and widely adopted human resources management model is the ‘7-S model’ offered by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman in their book In Search of Excellence³and known as the ‘McKinsey 7S Framework.⁴ The model describes the following elements that need to be managed and balanced for the organization to be successful:

shared values (also known as superordinate goals in earlier versions)
strategy
structure
system
style
staff
skills.

These seven elements are equally important and should be aligned and balanced, as seen in Figure 2.3.

Image of Figure 2.3 shows McKinsey 7 S Framework diagram which describes the seven elements

Figure 2.3 The 7-S model⁵

The elements of the model should be supported by the organization’s workforce and talent management practice , as outlined in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1 The elements of the 7-S model that are supported by the practice

Element of the 7-S model	Role of the workforce and talent management practice
Shared values	To ensure that everyone in the organization shares the same goals, guiding principles, and values.
Strategy	To ensure a common approach to workforce and talent management, which is aligned with the organization’s overall strategy.
Structure	To establish and continually improve the organizational structure that supports the organization’s strategy and objectives.
System	To adopt effective, efficient, reliable, and continually optimized workflows and tools for the management of the organization’s human resources.
Style	To nurture a culture that effectively supports an organization’s guiding principles, values, and objectives. This includes the employees’ and leaders’ style, values, and behaviour.
Staff	To ensure that there are enough of the right employees within the organization to be effective, and that their performance and workload are adequate.
Skills	To ensure that the people in the organization are qualified for their jobs, have the right expertise and skillsets and are competent enough to be able to support the organization’s current and future needs.

Shared values and the organization’s overall strategy are usually inputs into the workforce and talent management practice. They are articulated by the organization’s governing body and executive management. The workforce and talent management practice is used to ensure that the strategy is communicated and adopted across the organization and to external stakeholders.

The organizational structure, system of management, and culture (known as structure, system, and style in the 7-S model) are defined, developed, and continually improved mostly through this practice, in conjunction with other practices.

2.2.3 Organizational structure forms

There are many organizational forms that are designed to optimize how human resources are positioned and managed to ensure optimal performance and strategic alignment. These forms aim to optimize solutions for the four universal problems of organizing:⁶

task division and allocation
integrated coordination
reward distribution
information provision.

The fundamental types of organizations are hierarchies, markets, and communities.

Key message

Hierarchical organizations are focused on the authority structure. They are oriented towards the owners’ objectives and the employees’ objectives and performance. Organizations tend to own the resources that they use. Formal agreements are typically employment contracts.
Market-like organizations are based on service relationships between members (such as divisions, partners, and employees). Members of an organization aim to achieve their own objectives; whereas an entire organization aims to balance value for its members. Every organizational member tends to own the resources that they use. Formal agreements are typically service contracts.

Community-based organizations focus on shared values, rules, and objectives. Resources are shared between organizational members. Entire organizations aim to balance the members’ contributions and value. Formal agreements are typically memberships.

The most established traditional organizational forms are hierarchical. Thee are increasingly unsuited to the demands of the VUCA environments. Market and community forms (also known as network, virtual, intelligent, boundary-less, self-managing, or center-less) offer greater flexibility, efficiency, and a wider and quicker access to resources. However, these types are rarely seen in a pure form. Real-life organizational forms are hybrids of two or three of these types. Some examples of hybrid organizational forms are shown in Figure 2.4.

Image of Figure 2.4 Figure shows examples of hybrid organizational forms

Figure 2.4 Examples of hybrid organizational forms⁷

Definitions: Functional hierarchy

A hierarchical structure, dividing the organization into departments based on its functions with multiple levels of hierarchy. The authority is centralized.

Multi-divisional

A hierarchical structure, dividing the organization into divisions with significant levels of autonomy and responsibilities for achieving its objectives. However, the objectives and policies are set by a central authority. Divisions can be formed on a product, territory, market, or other basis.

Matrix

A combination of two hierarchies (functional and product, functional and project, or others), with some authorities and responsibilities within every dimension of the matrix.

Clan organizational culture

A family-like or tribe-like organizational form that emphasizes the consensus and commonality of objectives and values and is often combined with autocratic leadership.

Adhocracy

A non-hierarchical, flexible, adaptable, and informal form of organization with a minimum formal structure. It usually includes several specialized multidisciplinary teams, for example a product or service-focused team.

Holacracy

An organizational form in which authority and decision-making are distributed throughout a system of self-organizing teams of very similar rights, authority, and responsibilities.

Collaborative community

A collaborative organizational form where independent members participate in the whole problem-solving process, with the community commonly playing an important integrating role.

Crowd contest

A collaborative organizational form where independent members develop potential solutions to standalone problems and typically do not participate in selecting the winning contributions or integrating them into higher-level solutions.

Online labour market

An organizational solution where organizations employ online labour market technology to facilitate the brokering of micro-tasks among internal employees and/or external service providers.

The adoption of a new organizational form requires large-scale transformation and cannot be performed overnight. The workforce and talent management practice plays a significant role in the organizational planning and implementation of a selected organizational form, in conjunction with other practices (such as the organizational change management, relationship management, strategy management, and project management practices, among others).

It is important that the organizational form is not the only consideration of organizational design, and that the form or structure of an organization helps the overall organization improve how it delivers products and services to consumers. It is important to consider the organization holistically, as described in section 2.2.2.

2.2.4 Workforce management

The terminology of the workforce and talent management practice has evolved, adopting terms such as labour, human resources, personnel, human capital, and workforce to describe the people of an organization. ITIL uses the term workforce management to describe the practices that ensure that organizations have enough people in the right places, to fulfil the jobs required for achieving the organizations’ current and anticipated objectives. Organizations might use different terminology to describe the same practices, according to their cultural, social, and industrial context. For convenience, any member of a workforce is referred to as an employee in ITIL, regardless of how they engage with the organization. This definition will become especially important in understanding and managing the employee journey and employee satisfaction as defined in the following sections.

Definition: Employee

Any individual engaged to work within an organization. This includes but is not limited to: permanent members of staff, contractors, volunteers, and members of another organization’s staff who are working under the organization’s authority. Also referred to as a ‘member of workforce’.

Workforce management is closely connected with organizational planning (see 2.2.3), talent management (see 2.2.5), and other practices, such as the capacity and performance management, organizational change management, and relationship management practices (see respective practice guides). It is also important to consider the supplier management practice and the organization’s sourcing strategy, which is likely to impact on the organization’s attitude towards workforce sourcing.

Workforce management includes:

ensuring that the organization has enough people to fulfil its plans and accommodate all necessary unplanned work
ensuring a good balance between the cost of the workforce and the value enabled by the workforce
ensuring a positive employee experience.

To achieve these goals, organizations must identify, manage, and continually optimize the employee journey for all people in the organization, whether they are permanent, temporary, or part of a partner or supplier’s staff working within the organization.

Definitions: Employee journey

The complete end-to-end experience that an employee has with the organization through touchpoints, relationships, and interactions.

Employee experience

The total of the functional and emotional interactions with an organization as perceived by an employee.

The employee journey can be mapped using the service relationship journey model described in ITIL 4^®: Drive Stakeholder Value and shown in Figure 2.5.

Image of Figure 2.5 shows a diagram representing how the employee journey can be mapped using the service relationship journey model described in ITIL4

Figure 2.5 Service relationship journey model

Table 2.2 describes the basic content of the interactions between an employee and an organization throughout the employee journey, either when applying for a new role within an organization or in moving to a new role or team within the organization.

Table 2.2 Employee journey steps

Employee journey step	Employee’s and/or team’s activities	Organization’s activities
Explore	Understand the requirements and expectations from a job, role, or team Look for vacancies and opportunities Publish a CV or resumé Use peer connections to collect information and attract attention	Understand requirements and expectations from an employee or team Look for candidates Publish a vacancy description Use internal and external recommendations to attract attention and identify candidates
Engage	Send a CV or resume to a selected organization(s) Attend an interview Discuss terms of work	Contact selected employees and/or teams Conduct interviews Discuss terms of work
Offer	Discuss the offer(s)	Make a job offer
Agree	Sign work contract as needed	Sign work contract as needed
Onboard	Get familiar with the organization, attend onboarding training and other activities, pass any required tests and exams	Provide training and awareness, familiarize the newcomer(s) with the organization
Co-create	Work at the organization according to the contract or agreement and in line with the organization’s values and culture	Work with the employee and/or team according to the contract or agreement and in line with the declared organization’s values and culture
Realize	Provide feedback about the employee experience Discuss and demonstrate performance Participate in personal, team-specific, and organizational development planning Review and adjust the work contract	Employee performance Process employee’s and/or team’s feedback Discuss employee’s and/or team’s performance Involve employees and teams in personal and organizational development planning Review and adjust work contracts and agreements, organizational values, and culture

Table 2.2 describes the basic activities involved in each step of the employee journey in a generic way. The activities should be adjusted for different types of work relationships (permanent, temporary, volunteer, outsourced, and others) and for employee profiles, sometimes called employee personas. These tailored descriptions can be used as models for managing the employee journeys and improving the employee experience.

Definitions:

Employee persona

A fictional yet realistic description of a typical or target employee of an organization.

Employee journey model

A detailed description of the organization’s approach to the management of the employee journey, tailored for a specific employee persona.

The employee journey models typically include:

an employee persona description
possible positions in the organization
forms of employment
sources of candidates
the searching and recruiting approach
work contract terms
the negotiation approach
the onboarding approach
the performance management approach, including performance review and development planning
the training and development approach
the exception handling approach
the life events handling approach
the offboarding approach.

The employee journey models aim to ensure value co-creation for the organization and the employee by:

creating a positive employee experience
maintaining employee satisfaction, loyalty, and commitment
monitoring, maintaining, and continually improving employees competence.

The employee experience is created through the physical work environment, social interactions, work interactions, and the essence of work to be done. To improve the employee experience, organizations employ approaches such as personalization, transparency, simplicity, authenticity, and responsiveness⁸. The ITIL guiding principles can be helpful for this purpose, as shown in Table 2.3.

Table 2.3 ITIL guiding principles applied to the employee experience

ITIL guiding principle	Application to employee experience
Focus on value	Understand how the employee sees their contribution to the organization’s mission and vision and what value is expected by the organization and its consumers, and ensure that employees have a ‘clear line of sight’ to consumers. Ensure that there is a shared understanding of value. Ensure that the employee’s journey is tailored to optimize the agreed value.
Start where you are	Take the employee’s previous experiences into account, regardless of whether they were with the same or another organization(s). Account for cultural differences. Ensure effective onboarding.
Progress iteratively with feedback	Collect and discuss feedback regularly with employees. Actively manage competence and performance development.
Collaborate and promote visibility	Be transparent and honest with employees, involve them in discussions and important decision-making as often as possible. Create organizational structures that allow for the creation of cross-functional, diverse teams whenever possible.
Think and work holistically	Ensure that employees have a shared vision of the big picture and that they understand how they contribute to the organization’s success and benefit from it. Analyse and improve all areas of the employee experience (physical, social, and work).
Keep it simple and practical	Keep procedures, structures, and interactions simple and practical. Avoid excessive bureaucracy.
Optimize and automate	Keep optimizing work, physical, and social environments and interactions. Automate where possible and beneficial.

2.2.5 Talent management

Talent management describes work that ensures organizations can meet current and forecasted requirements and that this is achieved in the most efficient way. It is sometimes called competency management or skills management. Organizations might use different terminology to describe the same practices, according to their cultural, social, and industrial context.

Talent management is focused on the competencies of employees, which includes knowledge and skills.

In its simplest and most widely adopted form, talent management considers the competencies of individual employees and small teams. Less commonly, an organization can adopt a holistic approach to understand and develop a competency pool of the whole organization. Other approaches to talent management include:

technical expertise only (hard skills) versus a holistic skill set (hard and soft skills)
formally recorded competencies versus implicit competence⁹
based on objectives versus based on competency models.¹⁰

These and other options are usually selected and defined by the organization’s workforce and talent management strategy, which is agreed as a part of the organizational design.

In ITIL, a simple model is used to identify the competencies required for specific activities in addition to technical knowledge and skills. The model defines five key competency profiles, as described in Table 2.4. It is important to note that these competencies describe the roles, activities, and/or skills of an individual or team and are not directly tied to titles or positions.

Table 2.4 Competency codes and profiles

Competency code	Competency profile (activities and skills)
L	Leader Decision-making, delegating, overseeing other activities, providing incentives and motivation, and evaluating outcomes
A	Administrator Assigning and prioritizing tasks, record-keeping, ongoing reporting, and initiating basic improvements
C	Coordinator/communicator Coordinating multiple parties, maintaining communication between stakeholders, and running awareness campaigns
M	Methods and techniques expert Designing and implementing work techniques, documenting procedures, consulting on processes, work analysis, and continual improvement
T	Technical expert Providing technical (IT) expertise and conducting expertise-based assignments

Every ITIL practice guide includes a competency profile for each practice’s activity. A competency profile includes one to five letters (L, A, C, M, T) in order of decreasing importance for that activity. For example, the code TMC suggests that the most important competencies for that activity are technical expertise, implementing methods and techniques, and coordination and communication skills, in order of importance. Leadership and administrative skills are not important for this activity.

An organization can use this model and recommendations from the ITIL practice guides to identify, assess, plan, and improve the competencies of employees. Organizations can also assign roles and responsibilities to better qualified employees and combine people to perform roles, when there are not any individuals available who possess a full skill set. The competency profiles for the workforce and talent management practice are provided in section 4.

Talent management is not limited to competency assessment and planning. It should also include active professional development through training, certification, job rotation and cross-training, and other techniques. Increasingly popular approaches include internal and external consulting, mentoring, and coaching for individual employees and teams. In Agile organizations, self-organized teams direct their own competency assessments, planning, and development. ITIL® 4: Create, Deliver and Support recommends creating T-shaped and comb-shaped resources to help individuals and teams learn skills beyond a single area of expertise and promote knowledge sharing, continual learning, and the removal of resource bottlenecks in delivering products and services to customers.

Definitions:

Consulting

Helping people and organizations improve their performance by providing technical and professional advice based on the consultants’ significant understanding, knowledge, and experience. The relationship is usually limited to an agreed period of time to solve a specific problem.

Mentoring

A service relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. Mentors provide insight and guidance to their mentees when the latter encounters challenges in their professional journey. Mentors might have little expertise in their mentee’s subject matter field, but they generally understand how to navigate organizations.

Coaching

A form of personal and/or professional development in which an experienced person, called a coach, supports an individual or team in achieving specific personal or professional goals by unlocking their potential and providing tools and techniques to inspire confidence. The aim of coaching is to transform and achieve better results, without directly advising or implementing ready-made solutions.

Self-organized team

A team that has the autonomy to choose how best to accomplish their work (including assessing, planning, and developing competencies), rather than being directed by others outside the team.

2.2.6 Culture

The organizational culture is an important part of an organization’s identity, image, and eventual success or failure.

Definition: Culture

A set of values shared by a group of people, including expectations about how people should behave and their ideas, beliefs, and practices.

Culture maps are described in ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value as a useful tool for designing products and services for different audiences. Culture maps are also useful in organizational design, where organizations have significant cultural diversity. Figure 2.5 shows the culture of two groups of people mapped to eight dimensions to identify similarities and differences. In this figure, each dimension is represented as a spectrum of opposite extremes.¹¹

Figure 2.5 Culture maps comparing similarities and differences

The workforce and talent management practice, in conjunction with other practices (including the strategy management and relationship management practices, among others) ensures that the culture of an organization is based on shared and clearly articulated values and principles and that the cultural differences are effectively addressed. Organizations should embrace and inspire diversity, including cultural diversity and diversity in personal background.

2.2.7 Conscious leadership

Leadership and leaders are an important driver of an organization’s success. Successful leaders embrace more than just an understanding of value and what makes a good vision and plan.

Good leadership competencies include:

emotional, social, and systems intelligence
cognitive flexibility
self-leadership
discerning thinking
complexity thinking
conversational intelligence, multimodal communication skills.

Effective leaders:

engage, inspire, and motivate people by behaving with integrity to generate respect and empower employees
focus on value by being prepared to reprioritize to stay aligned with the overall vision
create a healthy culture by consistently following the organization’s values
create and communicate a clear vision
show a commitment to knowledge and continual learning.

In a VUCA business environment, more organizations should adopt sustainable values that are supported by conscious leadership.

Conscious leadership balances the common global good and individual self-interests. This is leadership guided by a vision and driven by values that target not only the success of the organization but also the well-being of all stakeholders, including employees, customers, investors, partners, society, and the environment. Conscious leaders speak with integrity, lead with authenticity, and hold themselves accountable. They listen with the intent to understand and not just to respond, and they do it by being in tune with themselves and the world around them.¹² For additional details on digital leadership, refer to section 8 of the ITIL® 4: Digital and IT Strategy.

2.3 Scope

The workforce and talent management includes:

holistic organizational planning, including the organizational structure, culture, competencies, and other factors
managing and improving the organization’s identity and image
managing the organization’s workforce
managing the organization’s talents
managing and improving the employees’ journeys and experience
ensuring ongoing oversight of people’s roles, behaviours, and experiences in the organization.

There are some activities and areas of responsibility that are not included in the workforce and talent management practice, although they are still closely related to workforce and talent management. These are listed in Table 2.5, along with references to the practices in which they can be found. It is important to remember that ITIL practices are combined in the context of value streams to enable value creation.

Table 2.5 Activities related to the workforce and talent management described in other practice guides

Activity	Practice guide
Managing organizational changes	Organizational change management
Managing internal relationships as well as relationships with partners and consumers	Relationship management
Managing project-specific training, onboarding, and other workforce-related projects	Project management
Planning capacity and identifying demand for change in the number of employees	Capacity and performance management
Identifying and managing people-related risks	Risk management
Defining sourcing strategy, including sourcing of workforce	Supplier management

2.4 Practice success factors

Definition: Practice Success Factor

A complex functional component of a practice that is required for the practice to fulfil its purpose.

A practice success factor (PSF) is more than a task or activity, as it includes components of all four dimensions of service management. The nature of the activities and resources of PSFs within a practice may differ, but together they ensure that the practice is effective.

The workforce and talent management practice includes the following PSFs:

ensuring the continual alignment of the workforce and talent management approach to the organization's business strategy
ensuring that motivated and competent people effectively contribute to the achievement of the organization's objectives
ensuring that the administrative processes for this practice effectively support the organization's strategy and objectives.

2.4.1 Ensuring the continual alignment of the workforce and talent management approach to the organization's business strategy

Organizations’ strategies continually evolve. In a digital economy with high levels of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, organizations move from long-term, rigid, and detailed plans to an agile approach with goals that are continually redefined and adjusted based on the analysis of external and internal factors. (See more on this in the strategy management practice guide and ITIL® 4: Digital and IT Strategy).

To support these changes in strategy management, organizations must adopt an agile approach to organizational planning. This implies:

adopting organizational forms that are optimized for agility and efficiency
nurturing an organizational culture that is optimized for agility, creativity, and efficiency
inspiring and promoting servant leadership
planning for changes that are in demand in the organization’s workforce.

Organizations optimized for agility, evolution, and efficiency tend to demonstrate the following features:¹³

They scale-up by adopting small teams and flatter structures. The adoption of adaptable organization systems (such as holacracy, cells, network, and so on) allows organizations to expand or reduce without significant changes to its organizational structure. Organizations can also add new capabilities, experiment, and innovate.
They utilize a connected workforce. People working in different locations form effective teams, by using digital technologies to collaborate and communicate. This approach increases efficiency, velocity, and resilience. The wide adoption of remote working, including working from home, ensures continuity in times of disruption, such as environmental and social events.
Employees are encouraged to think like entrepreneurs. They should think and work holistically, focus on value, innovate, and voice their opinions. This increases the organization’s innovative potential, safety culture, and stimulates the individuals’ development and growth opportunities.
They focus on needs, rather than on formal requirements. Organizations should aim to enable value for stakeholders by addressing their wants and needs, not focusing solely on the customers’ articulated requirements. This improves the customer and user experience and stimulates the organization’s development. The essential principles for this feature are: focus on value, holistic thinking, and iterative progress based on feedback.
Agility and adaptability are key features of successful digital organizations. Successful organizations adopt and promote agile ways of planning, execution, and improvement. They continually adapt to the changing environment and the internal circumstances. This approach includes flexible planning, the adoption of Agile and Lean methods, optimizing for complexity, and experimentation.
They demonstrate creativity and innovation. Creative and innovative solutions improve the organization’s positioning, create competitive advantages, and optimize the internal methods of work. Techniques such as design thinking are widely adopted to support creativity and innovation.
They adopt emerging digital technology. Many of the features mentioned here are supported by digital technology. The most important features include: collaboration and communication solutions, cloud solutions, machine learning, and advanced analytics. The early adopters of these technologies often demonstrate better performance than their more conservative competitors.
They embrace and promote diversity. In a diverse world, diversity, inclusivity, and equality are not only the ethical choices of responsible organizations; they also ensure a diversity of cultures, backgrounds, and approaches. This helps organizations to: innovate, see opportunities, and understand and cater to diverse consumer groups and societies.
They embrace democratized learning and development. Organizations move from a directive long-term approach to learning and development, to a more democratic and flexible approach. This includes peer-to-peer consulting, coaching, and mentoring, and on-demand training, even if the topic is not directly linked to the employee’s work responsibilities. Organizations inspire employees to learn what is important and relevant to them and share knowledge by forming internal and external communities. Additional details on knowledge-sharing tools and techniques can be found in the knowledge management practice guide.
They embrace the triple bottom line approach, as well as sustainability. Organizations move from purely financial objectives and indicators to more holistic values, principles, and goals. The most common approach is the triple bottom line approach which consists of three parts: financial, societal, and environmental values and goals. This is also known as 3-P: people, profit, and planet, with all three Ps being equally important.

2.4.2 Ensuring that motivated and competent people effectively contribute to the achievement of the organization's objectives

Ensuring that motivated and competent people effectively contribute to the achievement of the organization's objectives, depends on an effective workforce management practice (see 2.2.4) and talent management practice (See 2.2.5), in conjunction with other practices.

To ensure the realization of this PSF, organizations create and maintain effective approaches to:

the management of the employee journey
continual learning and development
maintaining a healthy organizational culture
conscious leadership.

By combining these approaches, organizations:

identify the organization’s needs in its workforce and competencies
ensure that the required workforce and competencies are available when needed
ensure that the people in the organization share the organization’s values, understand the objectives, and follow a shared set of principles
ensure that the people in the organization satisfy their needs for safety, autonomy, professional and personal development, and purposeful contribution
ensure that the physical, social, and work environment and interactions in the organization are optimized for the effective contribution to the organization’s objectives and aligned with the organizational culture and principles.

2.4.3 Ensuring that the administrative processes for this practice effectively support the organization's strategy and objectives

The workforce and talent management practice includes an important administrative feature. Organizations need to understand how many teams and people they have and their workload, competencies, current and future availability, work performance, associated costs, and so on. This is important for the effective management of the workforce, and to ensure conformance to agreed rules and compliance to relevant regulations.

The workforce and talent management practice ensures the effective integration of the administrative procedures into the organization’s teams, practices, value streams, policies, processes, and procedures. The aim is to ensure a sufficient level of control, conformance, and compliance without excessive bureaucracy or a negative effect on performance and motivation.

To achieve this, it is recommended to follow the ITIL guiding principles, especially:

focus on value: introduce controls that clearly contribute to value creation for stakeholders
think and work holistically: analyse and optimize controls in the wider context of the organization and environment
progress iteratively with feedback: listen to feedback from employees and other stakeholders, optimize administrative procedures and controls following their requirements and suggestions
optimize and automate: many controls and communications can be effectively and conveniently automated to minimize extra efforts, associated costs, and distractions.

2.5 Key metrics

The effectiveness and performance of the ITIL practices should be assessed within the context of the value streams to which each practice contributes. As with the performance of any tool, the practice’s performance can only be assessed within the context of its application. However, tools can differ greatly in design and quality, and these differences define a tool’s potential or capability to be effective when used according to its purpose. Further guidance on metrics, key performance indicators (KPIs), and other techniques that can help with this can be found in the measurement and reporting practice guide.

Key metrics for the workforce and talent management practice are mapped to its PSFs. They can be used as KPIs in the context of value streams to assess the contribution of the practice to the effectiveness and efficiency of those value streams. Some examples of key metrics are given in Table 2.6.

Table 2.6 Example of key metrics for the practice success factors

Practice success factors	Key metrics
Ensuring the continual alignment of the workforce and talent management approach to the organization's business strategy	Number of strategic initiatives not supported or otherwise negatively impacted by this practice’s strategy, and the associated impact Number and percentage of strategic objectives supported by the organizational strategy Stakeholder (employees included) satisfaction with the organization’s approach to this practice
Ensuring that motivated and competent people effectively contribute to the achievement of the organization's objectives	Number of plans and agreements negatively affected by lack of workforce and/or competence, and the associated impact Number and cost of idle (not engaged in valuable activities) employees Attrition rate Employee satisfaction Employer image/brand of the organization Employee lifetime value and ROI on employees and/or teams
Ensuring that the administrative processes for this practice effectively support the organization's strategy and objectives	Stakeholder satisfaction with the workforce and talent administration Relevant audit findings and success in passing audits Cost to value ratio of the administrative controls and procedures

The correct aggregation of metrics into complex indicators will make it easier to use the data for the ongoing management of value streams, and for the periodic assessment and continual improvement of the workforce and talent management practice. There is no single best solution. Metrics will be based on the overall service strategy and priorities of an organization, as well as on the goals of the value streams to which the practice contributes.

3. Value Streams and processes

3.1 Value stream contribution

Like any other ITIL management practice, the workforce and talent management practice contributes to multiple value streams. It is important to remember that a value stream is never formed from a single practice. The workforce and talent management practice combines with other practices to provide high-quality products and services to consumers. The main value chain activities to which the practice contributes are:

plan
design and transition
improve.

The contribution of the workforce and talent management practice to the service value chain is shown in Figure 3.1.

Image of Figure 3.1 shows Heat map of the contribution of workforce and talent management process

Figure 3.1 Heat map of the contribution of the workforce and talent management practice to value chain activities

3.2 Processes

Each practice may include one or more processes and activities that may be necessary to fulfil the purpose of that practice.

Definition: Process

A set of interrelated or interacting activities that transform inputs into outputs. A process takes one or more defined inputs and turns them into outputs. Processes define the sequence of actions and their dependencies.

Workforce and talent management activities form three processes:

organizational planning
employees’ journey management
talent management.

3.2.1 Organizational planning

This process is focused on defining and implementing an organization-wide approach and strategy for the workforce and talent management practice, and its continual maintenance in line with the organization’s evolution and changing direction.

This process includes the activities listed in Table 3.1 and transforms the inputs into outputs.

Table 3.1 Inputs, activities, and outputs of the organizational planning process

Key inputs

Activities

Key outputs

Organization’s principles, policies, and vision
Organization’s business strategy
Organization’s portfolios
External factors, including risks and opportunities
The workforce and talent management performance reports

Strategic analysis
Service value chain analysis
Organizational design
Initiating and monitoring organizational changes
Organization monitoring and review

Strategic and service value chain analysis reports
Organization’s workforce and talent management strategy, including organizational values, structure, and culture
The workforce and talent management guidelines
Organizational changes and improvement initiatives

The workforce and talent management performance reports

Figure 3.2 shows a workflow diagram of the process.

Figure 3.2 Workflow of the organizational planning process

Table 3.2 provides examples of the activities of the organizational planning process

Activity	An internal IT service provider within a parent organization	An external digital service provider organization
Strategic analysis	The executive leaders of IT and HR analyse the parent organization’s strategy and agree what the organization’s requirements are in relation to the IT organization and its associated objectives. The resulting report should include principles, objectives, and requirements for the IT department’s workforce and talent management practice.	Executive leaders of the organization analyse the organization’s vision and strategy and agree on the principles, requirements, and objectives for the organization’s workforce and talent management practice.
Service value chain analysis	The IT executive leader, HR executive leader, and the leaders of the key organizational teams analyse the value chain, key value streams, and supporting organizational solutions of the parent organization. Based on this analysis, recommendations for the IT organizational form and other practice solutions are defined. The resulting report should include requirements and recommendations for IT workforce and talent management to ensure alignment and effective support of the value chain.	Managers of the organization’s teams, together with the HR director, analyse the service value chain and key value streams. They define organizational forms and the practice’s solutions that optimally support the organization’s operating model. The resulting report should include requirements and recommendations for workforce and talent management to ensure alignment and effective support of the value chain.
Organizational design	IT managers and HR business partners for IT plan and agree the IT workforce and talent management strategy and approach, document supporting guidelines, and obtain approval from IT and HR executive leaders and other relevant stakeholders. The resulting programme of changes might include organizational changes, improvement initiatives, employee journey models, communication campaigns for values and principles, and other relevant initiatives.	Managers of the organization’s key teams and HR managers plan and agree a workforce and talent management strategy and approach, document supporting guidelines, and obtain approval from the executive leaders and other relevant stakeholders. The resulting programme of changes might include organizational changes, improvement initiatives, employee journey models, communication campaigns for values and principles, and other relevant initiatives.
Initiating and monitoring organizational changes	Approved organizational changes and other initiatives are planned and implemented through other practices (organizational change management, project such as management, supplier management, relationship management, and change enablement practices among others). The HR and IT managers of the relevant authority initiate, approve, oversee, and sponsor these initiatives. Progress is reported and, where needed, corrected.	Approved organizational changes and other initiatives are planned and implemented through other practices ( such as the organizational change management, project management, supplier management, relationship management, and change enablement practices among others). The organization’s HR and the team managers of the relevant authority initiate, approve, oversee, and sponsor these initiatives. Progress is reported and, where needed, corrected.
Organization monitoring and review	IT, HR, and other relevant executive leaders analyse the IT workforce and talent management and, where needed, initiate corrective actions, from strategy reviews to specific initiatives corrections.	The organization’s executive leaders analyse the IT workforce and talent management and, where needed, initiate corrective actions, from strategy reviews to specific initiatives corrections.

3.2.2 Employees’ journey management

This process is focused on end-to-end employee journeys across the organization, from understanding the demand for the workforce, to offboarding. It describes universal activities that aim to ensure that all employee journeys are successful and relevant to the organization’s needs, and ensure a positive employee experience.

This process includes the activities listed in Table 3.3 and transforms the inputs into outputs.

Table 3.3 Inputs, activities, and outputs of the employees’ journey management process

Key inputs	Activities	Key outputs
Organization’s principles, policies, and vision Organization’s workforce and talent management strategy and guidelines Environmental factors New demand for workforce Changes in workforce	Segment the workforce and identify the employee journey model Verify and adjust the employee journey model Follow the model Manage exceptions Review the journey	Employee journey records Exception reports Employee journey review reports

Figure 3.3 shows a workflow diagram of the process.

Image Figure 3.3 shows the workflow of the employees journey management process

Figure 3.3 Workflow of the employees’ journey management process

Table 3.4 Activities of the employees’ journey management process

Activity	Working with permanent employees
Segment the workforce and the employee identify journey model	Upon request for a new employee or a change in the current employee’s journey, the team manager and/or HR manager identify the type of the position (role) for the employee and the respective employee journey model.
Verify and adjust the employee journey model	The team manager and/or HR manager review the selected model and confirm that it is suitable for the situation. If needed, the individual journey may be adjusted based on the selected model in order to fit the specifics.
Follow the model	HR and team managers follow the selected model with agreed amendments. This typically includes (depending on the starting point of the journey): requirements for the role/job competency profile procedures for the key touchpoints at every step of the employment journey professional development and career options other relevant recommendations.
Manage exceptions	If an exception occurs during the employee journey, HR, and team managers handle it in line with the organization’s values, culture, and established practices. Where reasonable, deviation from the procedures is possible, as long as they follow the values and principles, and enable value for the stakeholders. Exceptions are documented and reviewed for future references and lessons learned.
Review the journey	Upon significant exceptions, or regularly, HR and team managers review the employee journey models to confirm or update them based on the collected feedback, reviewed requirements, employee journey records, and new opportunities.

3.2.3 Talent management

This process is focused on ensuring that the organization has sufficient competency to fulfil the current and anticipated needs.

Table 3.5 Inputs, activities, and outputs of the talent management process.

Key inputs	Activity	Key outputs
Organization’s workforce and talent management strategy, including organizational values, structure, and culture Workforce and talent management guidelines Organizational changes and improvement initiatives Environmental factors Industry competency models and best practices	Defining a competency vision Competency assessment Planning development and optimization Steering the development programme Managing exceptions Competency development programme review	Competency vision Competency assessment report Competency development programme and plans, including learning and development plans Progress reports Exception reports Competency review reports

Figure 3.4 shows a workflow diagram of the process.

Image of Figure 3.4 shows workflow diagram of the Talent Management process

Figure 3.4 Workflow of the talent management process

Table 3.6 Activities of the talent management process

Activity	Working with permanent employees
Defining a competency vision	HR managers and team managers, together with key subject matter experts within the organization and, if needed, external consultants, identify the organization’s vision for key and supporting competencies. Where relevant, this can be based on industry competency models, but they should always be treated as a supplementary source of recommendations. Key sources are the organization’s vision and strategy.
Competency assessment	HR managers and team managers, together with key subject matter experts of the organization and if needed, external consultants, assess current competencies of the organization’s employees, identifying gaps, risks, and opportunities. Where there are limited resources, the assessment can be limited to the key employees and competencies only. However, a holistic approach is recommended.
Planning development and optimization	Based on the competency assessment. HR and team managers together with key subject matter experts of the organization and if needed, external consultants, plan competency development programmes for the organization. The programme should be integrated into the employee journey models and support the organization’s approach to professional development.
Steering the development programme	HR managers oversee and steer the development programme realization, including training and development, internal and external consulting, mentoring and coaching, periodic assessment, rotations, and other agreed initiatives. Records should be kept, and feedback collected and processed, to serve as an input to the review and update of the competence vision.
Managing exceptions	If an exception occurs during the development programme realization, HR and team managers handle it in line with the organization’s values, culture, and established practices. Where reasonable, deviation from the procedures is possible, as long as they follow the values and principles and enable value for the stakeholders. Exceptions are documented and reviewed for future references and lessons to be learned.
Competency development programme review	HR and team managers review the competency development programme and vision to confirm or update them based on the collected feedback, reviewed requirements, employee journey records, and new opportunities. This occurs regularly or following significant exceptions.

4. Organizations and people

4.1 Roles, competencies, and responsibilities

The practice guides do not describe the practice management roles such as practice owner, practice lead, or practice coach. They focus instead on the specialist roles that are specific to each practice. The structure and naming of each role may differ from organization to organization, so any roles defined in ITIL should not be treated as mandatory, or even recommended. Remember, roles are not job titles. One person can take on multiple roles and one role can be assigned to multiple people.

Roles are described in the context of processes and activities. Each role is characterized with a competency profile based on the model shown in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1 Competency codes and profiles

Competency code	Competency profile (activities and skills)
L	Leader Decision making, delegating, overseeing other activities, providing incentives and motivation, and evaluating outcomes
А	Administrator Assigning and prioritizing tasks, record-keeping, ongoing reporting, and initiating basic improvement
C	Coordinator/communicator Coordinating multiple parties, maintaining communication between stakeholders, and running awareness campaigns
М	Methods and techniques expert Designing and implementing work techniques, documenting procedures, consulting on processes, work analysis, and continual improvement
Т	Technical expert Providing technical (subject matter) expertise and conducting expertise-based assignments

Examples of other roles which are responsible for workforce and talent management activities are listed in Table 4.2, together with the associated competency profiles and specific skills.

Table 4.2 Examples of roles with responsibility for workforce and talent management practice activities

Activity	Responsible roles	Competency profile	Specific skills
Organizational planning
Strategic analysis	Executive leaders of the organization HR executives External consultants	TC	Excellent understanding of the organization’s vision, strategy, and objectives
Service value chain analysis	Executive leaders of the organization HR executives External consultants	TC	Excellent understanding of the organization’s business and operating models, value chain, and value streams
Organizational design	HR executives, Organization’s leaders and managers External consultants	MCTL	Good knowledge of organizational design theory and best practice, excellent understanding of the organization, planning, and design skills
Initiating and monitoring organizational changes	Team managers HR managers	CAT	Good knowledge of the agreed initiatives of the organization
Organizational monitoring and review	HR executives, Organization’s leaders and managers External consultants	TCM	Excellent understanding of organization, good understanding of the agreed organizational design, understanding of the changing demand and opportunities
Employee’s journey management
Segment the workforce and identify the journey model	HR managers Team managers	ATC	Good understanding of the organization’s employee journey models Good understanding of the organization’s needs and workforce and talent management guidelines
Verify and adjust the model	HR managers Team managers	MCT	Good knowledge of the organization’s workforce and talent management guidelines and the employees’ journey models
Follow the model	HR managers Team managers	AC	Good knowledge of the organization’s workforce and talent management guidelines and employees’ journey models
Manage exceptions	HR managers Team managers	MTC	Good knowledge of the organization’s workforce and talent management guidelines and employees journey models
Review the journey	HR managers Team managers	TMA	Good knowledge of the organization’s workforce and talent management guidelines and employees journey models

Defining a competency vision	HR managers Team managers Subject matter experts Organizational consultants	TMCL	Excellent understanding of the organization’s vision, business strategy, and workforce and talent management strategy Good knowledge of the industry competency models Good knowledge of the industrial, market, and economical development trends and associated opportunities

Competency assessment	HR managers Team managers Subject matter experts Organizational consultants	TCA	Good knowledge of competency assessment techniques and tools Good knowledge of the agreed competence vision and the organization’s workforce and talent management strategy and guidelines
Planning development and optimization	HR managers Team managers Subject matter experts Organizational consultants	TMC	Good knowledge of the agreed competency vision, and the organization’s workforce and talent management strategy and guidelines Good understanding of the organization’s competency assessment report
Steering the development programme	HR managers Team managers	TLM	Management and communication skills, good knowledge of the organization’s workforce and talent management strategy and guidelines Good knowledge of the development programme
Managing exceptions	HR managers Team managers	TLM	Management and communication skills and good knowledge of the organization’s workforce and talent management strategy and guidelines Good knowledge of the development programme
Competency development programme review	HR managers Team managers Subject matter experts Organizational consultants	TMCA	Excellent understanding of the organization’s vision, business strategy, and workforce and talent management strategy Good knowledge of the industrial, market, and economical development trends and associated opportunities Good understanding of the development programme and ongoing performance

4.1.1 Human resource manager (HRM)

The key role specific to this practice is the HR manager. This role can be combined with the team manager role, depending on the practice’s scope, but it is more likely to be a dedicated job or even a team. The evolution of the practice and its role in organizations, has led to the evolution of the role of the HR manager.

The HR manager’s professionalism is based on:

core professional knowledge, usually obtained with relevant education
industry-specific knowledge, obtained with practice and supported by specialized training and certification, and with professional communities
organization-specific knowledge, obtained with practice and internal communities
professional code of ethics
knowledge of adjacent subject matter areas.

To keep their competencies relevant, HR professionals continually maintain their professional development and engage in professional communities, to share and exchange knowledge and experience.

The key competencies of an HR manager are similar to those of a successful leader and include:

emotional, social, and systems intelligence
cognitive flexibility
self-leadership
discerning thinking
complexity thinking
strategic thinking
conversational intelligence, multimodal communication skills
empathy and collaboration skills.

The responsibilities of an HR manager include all aspects of the workforce and talent management, as described in Table 4.2. The specific allocation of duties to professional HR managers, the organization’s leaders, and team managers is subject to the design of the workforce and talent management practice of the particular organization.

4.2 Organizational structures and teams

A specialized HR team is incorporated into the organization when they are develop the workforce and talent management practice. The positioning of the IT and HR teams might differ, depending on the role of technology and IT teams in the organization. Typical models include are explored in Table 4.3.

Table 4.3 Example positioning of HR teams towards IT teams

Role of IT and IT team	Positioning of HR team	Role of HR and HR team in (IT) workforce and talent management
IT team acts as an internal service provider within a parent organization with relatively low IT dependency	HR team is focused on key business functions and teams of the organization, with only a minimum focus on IT teams	HR acts as a regulator and internal consultant, the majority of the workforce and talent management activities are performed by IT leaders and managers
IT team acts as an internal service provider within a parent organization with high IT dependency	HR team pays significant attention to IT as a key business enabler	There is a dedicated HR manager or team (often called HR business partner) supporting IT leaders and managers throughout the workforce and talent management processes
Organization is an IT service provider, digital technology is its key competency and area of business	HR team is created to support an IT-related business, digital technology is among the key competencies of the HR managers	HR team is specifically focused on workforce and talent management for the IT organization and works in close collaboration with IT leaders and managers

The examples described in Table 4.3 are extremes, whereas real-life scenarios are usually more complex. It is important that this practice takes this positioning into account and develops the IT practice accordingly. An effective practice is not possible without close the cooperation, and preferably collaboration, between IT and HR leaders and managers.

5. Information and technology

5.1 Information exchange

The effectiveness of the workforce and talent management practice is based on the quality of the information used. This includes, but is not limited to, information about:

the organization’s strategy
the organization’s environment and key stakeholders
the organization’s portfolios: resources, products and services, and customers
the organization’s architectures
industry trends and opportunities
the labour market situation and trends
the workforce and talent management methods, tools, and techniques
the culture and climate of the organization
the ongoing performance of the organization

This information may take various forms. The key inputs and outputs of the practice are listed in section 3.

5.2. Automation and tooling

The automation of the practice is evolving, with technology becoming increasingly important. For example:

The utilization of machine learning and advanced analytics creates new opportunities for analysis, planning, and forecasting.
Communication and collaboration technologies enable new forms of learning and knowledge sharing.
Learning and content management systems make online training and collaboration easier and more efficient.
Technology connects organizations, creating a decentralized, organic community where market-based organizational forms are both possible and effective.

Table 5.1 lists the specific means of automation that are relevant to each activity of the workforce and talent management practice.

Table 5.1. Automation solutions for workforce and talent management activities

Activity	Means of automation	Key functionality	Impact on the effectiveness of the practice
Organizational planning
Strategic analysis	Analytical tools, collaboration and communication tools	Strategic mapping Remote communications	Medium
Service value chain analysis	Analytical tools, collaboration and communication tools	Value chain mapping Business and operating model mapping Remote communications	Medium
Organizational design	Organizational structure modelling/mapping tools Process documentation and mapping tools Communication and collaboration tools Journey mapping tools	Mapping and modelling Communications Workflow and records management	High
Initiating and monitoring organizational changes	Workflow and records management tools Communication and collaboration tools Programme and project management tools Reporting tools	Workflow and records management Communications Reports generations	High
Organization monitoring and review	Analytical and reporting tools Communication and collaboration tools	Analysis, report generation Remote collaboration Report distribution	Medium to high
Employee’s journey management
Segment the workforce and the identify journey model	HR management automation systems	Employee journey mapping	Medium
Verify and adjust the model	HR management automation systems	Employee journey mapping	Medium
Follow the model	Workflow and records management tools Communication and collaboration tools	Activities planning, communication, and recording	High
Manage exceptions	HR management automation systems Workflow and records management tools Communication and collaboration tools	Activities planning, communication, and recording	High
Review the journey	HR management automation systems Analytical and reporting tools Communication and collaboration tools	Analysis, report generation Remote collaboration Report distribution	Medium to high
Talent management
Defining a competency vision	Communication and collaboration tools	Remote collaboration	Low to medium
Competency assessment	Assessment tools Survey tools Communication and collaboration tools Skills databases	Running surveys Remote communications Analysis and reporting	Medium to high
Planning development and optimization	HR management automation systems Workflow and records management tools Communication and collaboration tools e-learning and content management systems	Activities planning Communication Reporting Training design, delivery, and record keeping	High
Steering the development programme	HR management automation systems Workflow and records management tools Communication and collaboration tools Programme and project management tools e-learning and content management systems	Workflow and records management Communications Reports generations Training design, delivery, and record keeping	High
Managing exceptions	HR management automation systems Workflow and records management tools Communication and collaboration tools Programme and project management tools e-learning and content management systems	Workflow and records management Communications Reports generations Training design, delivery, and record keeping	High
Competency development programme review	HR management automation systems Analytical and reporting tools Communication and collaboration tools e-learning and content management systems	Analysis, report generation Remote collaboration Report distribution Training and development record keeping, and reporting	Medium to high

6. Partners and suppliers

Very few services are delivered using only an organization’s own resources. Most, if not all, depend on other services, often provided by third parties outside the organization (see section 2.4 of the ITIL® Foundation: ITIL 4 Edition publication for a model of a service relationship). This means that organizations work with employees from multiple organizations, with various levels of integration into the organization. Therefore, the term ‘employee’ as defined in section 2.2.4 as ‘any individual engaged to work within an. This includes, but is not limited to: permanent members of staff, contractors, volunteers, and members of another organization’s staff who are working under the organization’s authority’.

Organizations need to adjust their workforce and talent management practice to the sourcing model and overall architecture. This can be done by tailoring the employee journey models to different forms and terms of engagement (see sections 2.2.4, 2.4.2, and 3.2).

Where organizations aim to ensure an efficient and effective workforce and talent management practice, they usually try to cooperate more closely with their partners and suppliers, removing formal bureaucratic barriers in communication, collaboration, and decision-making. Refer to the ‘supplier management’ practice guide for more information on this topic. Additional details on when to ‘make versus buy’ products, services, or components; what to consider when outsourcing, and as well an overview on service models that can be used (that of a service guardian, single provider, retained service integration, or service-integration-as-a-service) are included in the ITIL® 4: Create, Deliver and Support.

Practice-specific roles and teams are described in sections 4.1.1 and 4.2; these are sometimes outsourced. However, this approach only proves to be effective for administrative activities. Strategic and tactical activities are usually too important and organization-specific to be outsourced. External consultants are often involved planning and assessing the workforce and talent, but the responsibility for the final decisions remains within the organization.

7. Important reminder

Most of the content of the practice guides should be taken as a suggestion of areas that an organization might consider when establishing and nurturing their own practices. The practice guides are catalogues of things that organizations might think about, not a list of answers. When using the content of the ITIL practice guides, organizations should always follow the ITIL guiding principles:

focus on value
start where you are
progress iteratively with feedback
collaborate and promote visibility
think and work holistically
keep it simple and practical
optimize and automate.

More information on the guiding principles and their application can be found in section 4.3 of ITIL Foundation: ITIL 4 Edition.

8. Acknowledgements

AXELOS Ltd is grateful to everyone who has contributed to the development of this guidance. These practice guides incorporate an unprecedented level of enthusiasm and feedback from across the ITIL community. In particular, AXELOS would like to thank the following people.

8.1 Authors

Antonina Klentsova, Roman Jouravlev.

8.2 Contributors

Ariana Bucio Ramirez, Ana Yasmeen Chong Rosales.

8.3 Reviewers

David Cannon, David Crouch, Erika Flora, Irina Matantseva, Irina Mikhailava, Oksana Tomilets, Mark Smalley.

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