The Maltese economy continues its evolution into an information and service nexus where creating value is based on people, their intellect and knowledge, and their willingness to invest this within their organisation. In this environment, people leverage their capability, augmented by physical assets or technology, to create true value within an organisation. As a result, a large chunk of an organisation's assets are related to intangible capital tied up in knowledge and human talent. What would happen to a business if all its people left tomorrow?

Organisations must stop considering their employees as a "cost" and instead view them as an "asset". This implies making a paradigm shift from a more traditional and administrative human resource function towards strategic talent management that ensures the management of people (talent) specifically suited to today's dynamic competitive environment.

Given the impact of people on an organisation's overall business performance, it is also critical for organisations to understand the value of people over extended periods of time in order to make intelligent decisions about how to invest in their employees in order to increase this value and extend an employee's life-time within an organisation. This is known as employee life-time value (ELTV), and can be enhanced through strategic talent management.

This concept also provides the perfect opportunity for HR professionals to have a stronger role in their organisation's success. HR professionals should work more closely with finance managers to measure employee value. They should become more data driven and proactive, and capable of having a say in the strategy development of the organisation.

Clearly, organisations need to mainstream talent as a strategic priority. Today, an organisation cannot expect to survive and thrive unless it creates and sustains an environment where it has a strong talent pool that it is willing to invest in, create value for, and commit to the organisation. To do this, the organisation must also create value for the employee. Hence the focus on strategic talent management in order to ensure that the organisation is capable of building a sustainable future through, but also for, its people. Safeguarding the future value of one's business is all about safeguarding the future of one's workforce, whilst leveraging and developing the capability of said workforce.