TALENT MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION:
Talent management refers to the process of developing and integrating new workers,
Dev
eloping and retaining current workers, and attracting highly skilled workers to workfor a
company. Talent management in this context does not refer to the management ofentertainers.
The term was coined by David Watkins. The process of attracting andretaining profitable
employees, as it is increasingly more competitive between firms andof strategic importance,
has come to be known as "the war for talent."
DEFINING TM
TM is a strategic and holistic approach to both HR and business planning or a new routeto
organizational effectiveness. This improves the performance and the potential of people – the
talent – who can make a measurable difference to the organization now andin future. And it
aspires to yield enhanced performance among all levels in the workforce,thus allowing
everyone to reach his/her potential, no matter what that might be.
HISTORY
Talent management is a process that emerged in the 1990s and continues to be adopted,as
more companies come to realize that their employees’ talents and skills drive theirbusiness
success. Companies that have put into practice talent management have done soto solve an
employee retention problem. The issue with many companies today is thattheir organizations
put tremendous effort into attracting employees to their company, butspend little time into
retaining and developing talent. A talent management system mustbe worked into the
business strategy and implemented in daily processes throughout thecompany as a whole. It
cannot be left solely to the human resources department to attractand retain employees, but
rather must be practiced at all levels of the organization. Thebusiness strategy must include
responsibilities for line managers to develop the skills oftheir immediate subordinates.
Divisions within the company should be openly sharinginformation with other departments in
order for employees to gain knowledge of theoverall organizational objectives. Companies
that focus on developing their talentintegrate plans and processes to track and manage their
employee talent, including thefollowing:
•
Sourcing, attracting and recruiting qualified candidates with competitive
backgrounds
•
Managing and defining competitive salaries
•
Training and development opportunities
•
Performance management processes
•
Retention programs
•
Promotion and transitioning
Talent management is also known as HCM (Human Capital Management), HRIS (HR
Information Systems) or HRMS (HR Management Systems), and HR Modules.
TM INVOLVES
Talent management is the integration of different initiatives, or constructs, into a
coherentframework of activity. There are certain crucial components and a useful model
fordefining TM is to think of it in these key words:
• Ethos – embedding values and behavior, known as a “talent mindset,” to support the
view that everyone has potential worth developing.
• Focus – knowing which jobs make a difference and making sure that the right people
hold those jobs at the right time.
•Positioning – starting at the top of the organization and cascading throughout the
management levels to make this a management, not HR, initiative.
•Structure – creating tools, processes and techniques with defined accountability to
ensure that the work gets done.
•Sys tem – facilitating a long-term and holistic approach to generate change.
IMPORTANCE OF TALENT MANAGEMENT
Talent management (TM) brings together a number of important human resources (HR)
and management initiatives.
Quite often, organizations adopting a TM approach will focus on co-ordinating and
integrating:
•
Recruitment - ensuring the right people are attracted to the organization.
•
Retention - developing and implementing practices that reward and support
employees.
•
Employee development - ensuring continuous informal and formal learning and
development.
•
Leadership and "high potential employee" development - specific
development programs for existing and future leaders.
•
Performance management - specific processes that nurture and support
performance, including feedback/measurement.
•
Workforce planning - planning for business and general changes, including the
older workforce and current/future skills shortages.
•
Culture - development of a positive, progressive and high performance "way of
operating".
An important step is to identify the staff or employees (people and positions) that arecritical
to the organization. They do not necessarily have to be senior staff members.Many
organizations lost a lot of "organizational knowledge" in the downsizing exercises of a few
years ago. The impact of the loss was not immediately apparent. However, it didnot take long
for many companies to realize their mistake when they did not have peoplewith the
knowledge and skills to either anticipate or solve problems that arose.
TRADITIONAL UNDERSTANDING OF TALENT MANAGEMENT
Traditional talent management systems have clearly defined components including:Training
and development, skill inventories, performance management, recruiting, andsuccession
management. According to Kevin Wheeler, internationally known expert intalent acquisition
and management says, “Most companies perform two or threecomponents of a talent
management system well, but the total system seems to be elusivewithout executive level
involvement.”
CURRENT APPLICATION OF TALENT MANAGEMENT
In current economic conditions, many companies have felt the need to cut expenses.
Thisshould be the ideal environment to execute a talent management system as a means
ofoptimizing the performance of each employee and the organization. However, withinmany
companies the concept of human capital management has just begun to develop.“In fact, only
5 percent of organizations say they have a clear talent management strategyand operational
programs in place today.”
INTEGRATING TM THROUGH A SYSTEM
This will not operate in isolation from strategy, business planning and the
organization’sapproach to people management. In this sense, the work of talentmanagement
cutsacross what has been a traditional HR silo. If integrated, it functions in a morefacilitative,
OD-like nature. It will also reach higher up the organization than other HRinitiatives, often
attracting the attention of boards and senior teams. Similarly, TMreaches down the
organization, to include new recruits along with tenured professionals.Lastly, talent planning
must be done in parallel with business planning, creating a richintegration of people and
strategy. One way of achieving such system integration andalignment is the CRF Talent
Management System.
This systemic view of talent has five elements:
1.N eed – the business need derived from the business model and competitive issues.
2. Data collection – the fundamental data and “intelligence” critical for good talent
decisions.
3.Plan n in g – people/talent planning guided by data analysis.
4.A ctivities – the conversion of plans into integrated sets of activities.
5.R es u lts – costs, measures and effectiveness criteria to judge the value and impacts of
TM.
Using this system can help TM become a strategic differentiator rather than a standard set
of HR processes – if the right conditions, context, timescales and offerings exist in the first
place. System integration and alignment ensures that TM efforts are rational and fitfor
purpose. Since the arrival of the current era of “talent” is widely acknowledged, it’snot
surprising that renewed significance is being placed on the management of that talent.And as
talent continues to be viewed as a strategic differentiator, its management willtake more of a
strategic role. How fascinating it will be to take the pulse of talentmanagement in the
business community in another five years. We believe that while themanagement of talent
will most likely become embedded in the fiber of cultures by then,the HR executives who led
those initiatives will have achieved much more prominence.
OPPORTUNITIES AND BENEFITS OF INTEGRATING TM WITH BUSINESS
STRATEGY
In summary there are many benefits of taking on the complicated multi-layered project of
creating an integrated talent management and workforce planning structure.
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Predictability of performance
•
Higher customer satisfaction rates
•
 Lower employee turn-over
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Increased profits as a result of right people/right time
•
Increased revenue as a result of efficiencies
•
Increased employee engagement
•
Assurance of stable management team today and in future

10 TALENT MANAGEMENT PRIORITIES FOR HR

Based on interviews in case organizations with HR/OD practitioners, talent managers
andtalented individuals, it concludes with these 10 priority issues. They will guide the
choiceof appropriate approaches and practices that could make a difference to talent
management efforts:
1. Rethinking/establishing the talent focus
2. Positioning talent management
3. Integrating talent and business
4. Leading the talent focus
5. Examining culture and talent mindset
6. Assessing capability and accountability
7. Process design and implementation
8. Assessing talent performance
9. The talent agenda
10. Reviewing talent management
CONCLUSION:
The current discussions about traditional understanding, current application andintegration
with business strategy are also helping organizations to focus on the talentmanagement issue.
It may not be possible to simply go out and recruit new people tomeet operational needs.
Many leading companies have decided to develop their ownpeople, rather than trying to hire
fully skilled workers.
In summary, every organization should be implementing talent management principles
and approaches