MBA-4th Semester Talent Management MU0017

Q.1 What are competency characteristics? Describe some of them?

Answer:-

Competency characteristics
A competency is a reasonably profound and long-term component of a persons personality and
can forecast behaviour in a wide range of situations and job tasks. It also causes or forecasts
behaviour and performance of an individual. The competency forecasts which is evaluated on a
specific criterion or standard tells whether a person has performed well or poorly.

The combination of observable and measurable knowledge, skills, abilities and personal
attributes that contribute to enhanced employee performance and ultimately result in
organizational success. To understand competencies, it is important to define the various
components of competencies like following:-

Knowledge is the cognizance of facts, truths and principles gained from formal training
and/or experience. Application and sharing of one's knowledge base is critical to
individual and organizational success.
A skill is a developed proficiency or dexterity in mental operations or physical processes
that is often acquired through specialized training; the execution of these skills results in
successful performance.
Ability is the power or aptitude to perform physical or mental activities that are often
affiliated with a particular profession or trade such as computer programming, plumbing,
calculus, and so forth. Although organizations may be adept at measuring results, skills
and knowledge regarding one's performance, they are often remiss in recognizing
employees' abilities or aptitudes, especially those outside of the traditional job design.
Individual attributes are properties, qualities or characteristics of individuals that reflect
one's unique personal makeup. Individual attributes are viewed as genetically developed
or acquired from one's accumulated life experiences. Although personal characteristics
are the most subjective of the components, a growing, significant body of research links
specific personality traits to successful individual and organizational performance.
Individually recognizing and rewarding any of these sources of expertise provides a
strong basis for individual performance engagement. However, it is their combination
that results in the unleashing of resources that are all too frequently untapped.

Competency characteristics are content knowledge, behaviour skills, cognitive processing,

personality traits, values, motives, and occasionally other perceptual or sensorimotor capabilities
(reaction time for combat pilots, visual acuity for designers), which validly predict performance
outcome criteria. Some of the competency characteristics are described below:

Motives: An emotion, desire or psychological need that impels a person to certain action
is called motive. Motivation drives, directs, and selects an individuals behaviour toward

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certain actions or goals and away from others. E.g.: Achievement-motivated people
consistently set challenging goals for themselves and use feedback to do better and
achieve goals.
Traits: A trait can be thought of as a relatively stable characteristic that causes
individuals to behave in certain ways. For example, being a good listener.
Self-concept and values: In general term, self concept is an individuals perception
about Self in relation to several characteristics like academic, non-academic, racial
orientation etc. E.g. Self-confidence, a persons belief that he can be effective in any
situation is a part of that persons concept of self. Value refers to a persons attitude,
ethics, or character.
Knowledge: This refers to information a person has in certain specific areas. For
example, understanding and speaking different languages. This knowledge of languages
might differentiate the outstanding waiter or waitress who speaks many languages from
his or her average counterpart in a restaurant with an international clientele.
Skill: Skill refers to the ability to perform a certain level of physical or mental task. For
example, employee who is great at using Microsoft Word is termed as skilled employee
(in his profession).

Many organisations in India and abroad are putting their efforts in mapping competencies and
implementing assessment and development centres.

Q2. Define Talent Management. Discuss the Talent management Approaches?

Answer:-
A definition that is consistent with traditional approaches and captures what academic
researchers have been doing under the heading of talent management is as follows: the process
through which organizations anticipate and meet their needs for talent in strategic jobs. As
argued below, the clear focus on strategic jobs is the new idea in academic studies. This
definition is sufficiently suited to the academic need to stimulate theory development while
reflecting the interests of practitioners, for whom the interest in talent management is strongly
focused on a small number of roles, typically senior management and executive positions.

A system or organization responds to the competency gaps, especially in mission-critical

situations, by introducing efficient programs to attract, hire, develop, promote, and retain worthy
talent. The Talent Management system concentrates on the agencies which have quality people
with the suitable competencies in mission-critical activities.

In a competitive world, talent management is a necessary requirement for organisational success.

Talent management can be broadly defined as the techniques or systems designed to significantly
increase the output of an organisation by introducing highly efficient processes for attracting,

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recruiting, retaining and utilizing individuals with the required skills and aptitude to meet current
and future business needs. A recent study shows that 85% of HR executives are of the opinion
that the "single greatest challenge in workforce management is creating or maintaining their
companies' ability to compete for talent." Without doubt, effective talent management provides
one of the most critical points of strategic leverage today.

Ever since the importance of human capital in organisations has been recognized worldwide,
companies are developing talent management strategies that align people with business
objectives in order to overcome challenges and create a competitive advantage. By investing in
latest technology and continuing research, an organisation can effectively eradicate the problems
related to recruiting, on-boarding, talent development, talent retention and career planning. There
are several talent management approaches that can assist the organisation:

Applicant tracking

Organisations employing large numbers of workers face distinctive hiring challenges. Accepting
applications, interviewing, recruiting, and retaining hundreds or thousands of new recruits can
result in confusion, missed opportunities, huge consumption of time, effort and money.
Application tracking enables managers to review and recruit the right candidates quickly and
efficiently. Applicant tracking solutions are user friendly, require less training and do not require
expensive hardware or software.

Assessments

When there is a mismatch between an employee's job responsibilities and their natural talent,
they suffer from anxiety and stress that can lead to organisational problems and employee
behavioural problems. Assessments will help make the right hiring decisions and place the right
people in the right positions, which will lead to increased productivity, reduced stress, less
tension, decreased clash of interest and a positive impact on your bottom levels.

Employee career development

One of the major challenges encountered in organisations is the strategic personal development
of their human resource in order to ensure effective use of their talent. In order to efficiently
manage this crucial resource, organisations must identify their issues and then implement
training and employee development procedure for improvement. Employee Career Development
strategies ensure that the employees improve, in the areas in which they need further
development. Organisations should allow the employees to develop and manage their career
paths and calibrate them with organisational strategy, and identify highly talented and productive
employees who can replace the key executives.

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Learning management

Organisations use learning management as an aggressive strategy and a measurable impact on

employee performance. The learning management solutions help the organisations in reducing
the time and effort on training, in increasing the effectiveness of training, in enhancing
performance over time and in increasing the profit on investment they make in training. Learning
management programs enable organisations to manage the professional aspects of learning such
as recruiting, class employment, turnover and performance monitoring, making it simpler for
executives and employees to develop, implement and track personalized programs.

Q3. Briefly describe the different Talent Management Processes?

Answer:-
Talent management is the underlying process of analysing, developing and effectively utilising
the talent to meet business needs. It involves a particular process that compares current talent in a
department to the strategic business needs of that department. Results lead to the development
and execution of corresponding strategies to address any talent gaps or problems.

Organisation and workforce development helps to assist talent management processes with
leaders or management teams, at all levels, focusing on talent within or across departments.
Following are the processes for talent management, otherwise called as workforce planning:-

Organisational Assessment

An organisational assessment is the evaluation of organisational factors in the internal

environment which affects the competitive advantage of an organisation. An organisational
assessment is a process of taking steps to reflect and analyze the various functions within the
organisation. It categorizes the initial steps of a talent management process into:

Identifying organisational and departmental trends

Reviewing strategy, challenges, and opportunities
Prioritizing goals, work, and projects
Determining the factors affecting workforce planning.

Organisational effectiveness and employee development occurs when there is a firm alignment
between individual interests and organisational needs. To set the environment for talent reviews,
it is essential to first identify the organisational requirements. The goal is to show any changing
requirements, skills, and knowledge needed by the organisation.

Workforce Analysis

It is a systematic process in which an organisation identifies the critical jobs and competencies,
needed for the current and future employees, and develops strategies to overcome any gaps.

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Its main priority is using information to obtain an overview of the workforce and targeting talent
management initiatives which include:

Identifying critical job roles for analysis and planning.

Reviewing knowledge/skills/attributes needed.
Determining employee population for review.
Gathering demographic information.

After recognizing organisational priorities, the next step focuses on the roles and skills needed
for the department to be successful.

a) Identification of critical roles: The management team determines the key job functions
and roles that will be the primary focus of the talent review discussions.
b) Inventory of skills and knowledge: Here, the leaders discuss on skills, knowledge, and
performance that are prerequisite to success for the identified job roles. This information
serves as a basis for evaluating the performance and potential of a particular employee
group.

Talent Review

Talent review helps in developing a clear talent management strategy and to increase awareness
of available talent and successors in an organization. All organizations should conduct regular
talent review meetings to be prepared for a variety of business changes, such as mergers,
company growth, or a decrease in talent needs. It is designed to review the performance and
career potential of employees, to discuss possible vacancy risks of current employees, to identify
successors and top talent in the organization, and to create development action plans to prepare
employees for future roles in the organization.

A Talent Review is a process to involve more senior business executives in sharing and
analyzing talent information, mostly focusing on an overall succession management process.
Compared to talent alignment sessions, talent reviews present a chance to discuss talent at a
higher level of depth and focus.

Development Planning

Development planning refers to the strategic quantifiable goals that a person, organisation or
agency plans to achieve within a certain period of time. It deals with the implementing
development activity in the organisation after the talent review. Given below are some of the
development planning activities:

Review development assignments for on-the-job learning.

Identify appropriate training and education programs.
Explore formal and informal mentoring initiatives.
Plan and conduct development discussions.

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Follow-up sessions to review outcomes of development discussions, assignments, and

learning plans.

Talent Review discussions help managers to identify the development priorities for the
department. Consequently, managers or senior leaders are better prepared to have follow-up
development discussions. These discussions have the advantage of helping managers to include
job experiences, development assignments, or training in the short-term that can help organize
employees for future responsibilities.

Q4. Explain the key Compensation principles. What do you mean by Total
rewards? Describe the elements of Total rewards?

Answer:-
Principles of Compensation Plans

Compensation can be defined as a systematic approach to provide monetary value to employees

in exchange for work performed. Compensation is used as a tool by the management for a
variety of purposes to further the existence of the company. Compensation may be varied
according to the business needs, goals, and available resources. We need to view compensation
plans from a different perspective and understand the principles and make the employees
understand how to create value work. There are few key compensation principles.

a) Consider the unique characteristics and specific needs of organisation:- The unique
characteristics and specific needs of the organisation need to be considered for the
formulation of compensation plans. An understanding of compensation plans among
competitors will create a competitive edge. The process should be developed in
alignment with the strategic requirements of the company.
b) Integrated total rewards system:- Compensation plans need to be expanded and
integrated along with the programs, tools and practices that impact the action of people,
so as to effectively manage and maximize talent. Compensation needs to be viewed as
part of an integrated total rewards system that consists of both what the organisation is
willing to offer and what the individual perceives as rewarding for his/her contribution to
the organisation. Integrated total reward system can be achieved by a fine combination of
cash compensation, employee benefits and services, recognition responsibilities and
development.
c) Aligning rewards to organisation strategy:- Individuals should be able to relate to
rewards that should be aligned with the strategy and key drivers of the organisations
success. The importance of programs applied universally in an organisation may vary
among individuals of an organisation. To make the rewards more meaningful
organisations need to divide their internal environment at a macro as well as micro level.
Macro level will be based on the different talent populations and micro level is based on
the managers understanding of what motivates the individual.

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d) Creating magnetic culture through rewards:- Rewards should result in the creation of
magnetic cultures. Magnetic culture is defined as an environment that draws people,
retains them and gives them good reasons to contribute in an energized fashion.

Defining the Elements of Total Rewards

All of the tools available to the employer that may be used to attract, motivate and retain
employees can be termed as Total Rewards. Total rewards include everything the employees
perceive to be of value resulting from the employment relationship. The general elements of total
rewards include salary, bonuses, stock options or participation in the equity of the organisation.
All these elements involve financial investments. Rewards which do not result in monetary
benefit can also be used. Examples of such rewards are developing skill, putting into practice
ones ideas. These help in reducing the financial investments of the company and provide a
higher degree of satisfaction to certain individuals. The Elements of total rewards include the
following:-

1. Compensation:- Providing monetary value in return for the work performed is known as
compensation. Job performance and job satisfaction can be improved by providing
compensation. The business needs, goals and available resources are factors that govern
compensation plans. Compensation may be used to Recruit and retain qualified employees,
Increase or maintain morale/satisfaction, Reward and encourage peak performance, Achieve
internal and external equity and Reduce turnover and encourage company loyalty etc.

2. Benefits:- Benefits provided by the organisation can be either due to legal compliance or other
benefits which the company is willing to provide to employees though not mandated by law.
Facilities such as minimum wage, overtime, leave under Family Medical Act, unemployment
and workers compensation and disability are enjoyed by employee since they are made
mandatory by law. Benefits such as Hazard Pay, Health Care, Maternity, Paternity, and Adoption
Leave, Paid Holidays, Pay Raise, Severance Pay, Sick Leave, Termination, Vacation Leave,
Work Breaks and Meal Breaks are benefits provided by employers to employees in order to
retain them within the organisation.

3. Work-life:- Attracting, recruiting, motivating, and methods employed to retain the workforce
determine the success of an organisation. Organisations need to be really flexible in order to
retain and develop the workforce and so as to enjoy their commitment and loyalty towards the
organisation. Organisations need to constantly work on improving the quality of work life of the
employees.

4. Performance and recognition:- Recognition for performance is an integral and important

component of the total rewards portfolio and provides a high return on investment. Workers
value recognition for achievement more than any financial reward. Awards directly associated
with performance further motivate individuals to perform better. These recognition programs are
highly cost effective and valued by employees and are able to reinforce desired behaviour among

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employees. It is a proven fact that there is a strong link between non cash incentives and
improved job performance.

5. Development and career opportunities:- Career opportunities can be defined as 'providing

employees an opportunity to grow', especially to those employees who deliver performance.
Development could be in terms of a promotion, increase in pay, acquiring higher skills and
opportunity to avail certain exclusive perks. Career development cannot be viewed as a
managerial responsibility but it is a composite process. Factors that need to be considered are the
people involved, their ambitions, generating roles in accordance with their potential, and creating
job positions to satisfy the growth and development ambition of employees.

Q5. Explain the role of IT in Talent Management Systems?

Answer:-
Talent management is an ongoing procedure of methodically recognizing, assessing, and
developing the talent for upcoming crucial roles. This helps in ensuring the stability and
successful organisational performance.

No modern form of technology has a greater effect on the field of HR and the roles of HR
professional than talent management systems. Talent Management Systems, which are
commonly referred to as TMS by HR professionals, are a set of software applications that helps
qualify candidates, manage talent and retain human capital within an organization. As the
expectations of executives and the roles of the average HR department change in the corporate
environment, the need for high-quality and fully integrated TMS grows.

The globalization and advancement in information technology (IT), in which developing

countries play a major role, has caused a war for talent. To meet challenging growth targets,
service providers find that recruitment and retention are of key importance. For developing
countries globalization offers the opportunity for economic development. The major concern for
todays organization is how IT can be used to support organizational growth targets.

Traditionally human resource management (HRM) has had a people-oriented approach. However
today, when the competitive demands of the marketplace require a reorientation of strategic
human resource philosophies and practices, emphasis is being given to a knowledge-based
administration using technology as a tool.

Considering the current competitive atmosphere, organisations must implement some innovative
technologies and skills to manage the talent more efficiently. Examples for some modern
technologies adopted by HR departments of various companies for talent management include
portal, interactive voice response system, candidate tracking system, intranet, and human
resources information system.

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A ruthless re-evaluation, assessment, and investigation are the most essential practices that
companies must adopt to develop a proficient IT infrastructure for talent management. With the
emergence of different types of software providers, technologies, and different requirements,
organisations were confused in the beginning. Hence in order to avoid such confusions with
regard to developing IT infrastructure and prevent problems of wrong decision making,
organisations must adopt the process of evaluation, assessment, and investigation.

As talent management plays a vital role in corporate success, organisations must be careful while
dealing with talent management solutions around old software. Creation of a talent management
system takes much thought and is an ongoing progress. This system can be easily used at
different levels of the organisation and employee needs. Additionally, development of a
successful IT infrastructure should be cost effective. Therefore, it is very important that proper
awareness is developed while integrating technology into the HR systems.

In the current competitive world, technology and innovation play a crucial role. Hence,
companies are considering the most cost-effective and functionally effective options to run their
business worldwide.

Data can be used by professionals who work in the Human Resources department in a number of
different ways. You have to consider how organizing company data and running specific reports
can help you do your job in HR before you reject the efficiency of any type of program. If you
work in HRM, you can integrate your TMS system and your application tracking system so that
you can easily sift through applications and organize them. This helps you efficiently identify
quality applicants or place others on a wait list for future job postings.

Another benefit of a quality TMS system is that other departmental managers can enter data and
rate an employees progress. This helps HR assess the employees performance to see if they are
candidates for a raise or a promotion. By having this system in place, you can retain those who
are an asset and discipline those who have not been committed to their job. If there is room for
improvement, managers and HR professionals can provide their employees with training
materials so that employees can further their skills. By keeping track of the talent in these
software systems, only the best applicants are chosen and only the best employees are retained.
This eliminates costs and reduces the time it takes to manage human capital.

Assessing an organizations human capital to ensure that everyone has the right skills is very
important. By using a TMS, organizations can eliminate hindering talent gaps that might exist to
create a skilled workforce. Today, HR is all about strategy. Using specific metrics and data to
assess the quality of the workforce is extremely important for recruitment, training and even
incentive purposes. By working as a team, HR managers, supervisors and departmental managers
can all work together to make better organizational talent decisions.

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Q6. Write short notes on:

a)Promoting ethics in workplace

Ethics act as a basic business term as it is applicable to all workplaces. Employees who do not
follow ethical values in their workplace can increase the possibility of both organisational
corruption and legal problems. In any job, it is very important that employees behaviour must be
in agreement with both workplace policies and relevant state and federal laws. Failing to follow
workplace behavioural ethics can damage and even destroy organisations. Four keys to promote
ethical behaviour in the workplace include:-

i. Confess:- When employees commit a mistake and fail to raise the issue to management
so that the issue can be resolved then the situation becomes worse. Most of the times,
problems escalate rapidly and turn bitter. The situation becomes even worse when
employees start blaming each other as to who was the culprit. When the employees
commit mistake, the best way to resolve it is to inform their manager and take the blame.
This blame game may result in complete disaster and hurt workplace morale. In most of
the cases, blaming each other or mud-slinging results in workplace enmity and work in an
organisation comes to a halt.
ii. Follow the book:- Another common mistake that employees do is attempting to resolve a
problem by bending the rules. This gives rise to new array of problems. Performing some
acts such as backdating the documents or signing the documents for their managers might
resolve the issue at that point. But, later those fraud activities will result in some serious
problems once the culprit has been found out. Hence, it is better to confess to a problem
and possibly be seen as not competent enough, than covering up a problem for short term
gains, without considering the outcome. Employees even though have good intentions
sometimes become too absorbed in the thought of getting something done, which may
give them result opposite to what they had intended.
iii. Good communication and information:- In todays business scenario, it is evident that
success of a business depends on good communication. Communication plays a crucial
role in an ethical workplace because the way an employee communicates can either
create or destroy the positive framework of a workplace. Some acts such as gossiping,
which may seem undamaging, may result in distrust and unfaithfulness and create rivalry
in the workplace. Open and consistent communication helps to keep employees and
managers informed about the recent events.
iv. Consider the Problem Trio:- Greed, lust, or anger can be considered as the three
major problems that are the root cause for failure in workplace ethics. The best example
for greed is an employee who steals or performs illegal business dealings. Greedy
decisions are the outcome of a wish to get more than they deserve from their position in
the company. Lust is generally seen in improper relationships that are not accepted by
any organisation. For example, a manager/assistant relationship based on nepotism can
create a direct and negative impact on working environment and also serve to erode the

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organisations chain of command depending on wrong collaborating. Anger is mostly

seen in employees who have the feeling that the organisation owes them something
because of poor working environment, bad salary, or other disturbances. In this case,
employees more often become greedy or choose a self-destructive form of action against
the organisation.

b)Talent Review
Talent review helps in developing a clear talent management strategy and to increase awareness
of available talent and successors in an organization. All organizations should conduct regular
talent review meetings to be prepared for a variety of business changes, such as mergers,
company growth, or a decrease in talent needs. It is designed to review the performance and
career potential of employees, to discuss possible vacancy risks of current employees, to identify
successors and top talent in the organization, and to create development action plans to prepare
employees for future roles in the organization.

A Talent Review is a process to involve more senior business executives in sharing and
analyzing talent information, mostly focusing on an overall succession management process.
Compared to talent alignment sessions, talent reviews present a chance to discuss talent at a
higher level of depth and focus. It provides an overview of how to encourage a discussion of key
talent in the given ways to:

Identify readiness and potential for future assignments or positions.

Review possible succession plans.
Determine strengths and development needs of employees.

Having set the organisational goals, management teams can start with the process of reviewing
talent in the organisation. The type and significance of a talent review can vary based on the
department's need. Talent review examples include:

Talent inventory which in turn involves the current performance and future
capability of a selected employee group:- The objective is to get a combined
perspective of strengths, requirements and development opportunities for specific
employees, and to identify the organisation's "talent pool." Readiness for major
assignments or future jobs is considered.
Succession planning which recognises the potential successors for key roles:- In
association with a general talent inventory, management teams can also focus on vital job
roles to assess current and future bench strength.
Capability planning which focuses on the competence and availability of staff to
provide key services:- As a substitute to evaluating prospective successors for particular
job roles, the management team uses a similar method to review key jobs, efficiency, or
competencies that need to be implemented in the organisation. Knowledge Transfer
focuses on the supporting, developing, or transferring of skills and knowledge in the

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organisation. Knowledge transfer begins with an account of proficiency in the

department, and continues with a discussion about workforce learning. Knowledge
transfer programs facilitate managers to recognize internal "leaders" who can motivate
and increase knowledge of other team members through informal mentoring or peer
teaching relationships.

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