TALENT MANAGEMENT

Talent management implies recognising a person's inherent skills, traits,

personality and offering him a matching job. Every person has a unique talent
that suits a particular job profile and any other position will cause discomfort.

Talent management refers to the process of developing and integrating

new workers, developing and retaining current workers, and attracting highly
skilled workers to work for a company. Talent management in this context does
not refer to the management of entertainers. The term was coined by David
Watkins of Softscape published in an article in 1998. The process of attracting
and retaining profitable employees, as it is increasingly more competitive
between firms and of strategic importance, has come to be known as "the war
for talent."

History

Talent management 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 their business success. Companies that have put into practice
talent management have done so to solve an employee retention problem. The
issue with many companies today is that their organizations put tremendous
effort into attracting employees to their company, but spend little time into
retaining and developing talent. A talent management system must be worked
into the business strategy and implemented in daily processes throughout the
company as a whole. It cannot be left solely to the human resources department
to attract and retain employees, but rather must be practiced at all levels of the
organization. The business strategy must include responsibilities for line
managers to develop the skills of their immediate subordinates. Divisions within
the company should be openly sharing information with other departments in
order for employees to gain knowledge of the overall organizational objectives.
[4] Companies that focus on developing their talent integrate plans and
processes to track and manage their employee talent, including the following:

• Sourcing, attracting, recruiting and on boarding 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).

Human capital management

Companies that engage in talent management (Human Capital

Management) are strategic and deliberate in how they source, attract, select,
train, develop, retain, promote, and move employees through the organization.
Research done on the value of such systems implemented within companies
consistently uncovers benefits in these critical economic areas: revenue,
customer satisfaction, quality, productivity, cost, cycle time, and market
capitalization. The mindset of this more personal human resources approach
seeks not only to hire the most qualified and valuable employees but also to put
a strong emphasis on retention. Since the initial hiring process is so expensive
to a company, it is important to place the individual in a position where his skills
are being extensively utilized.

The term "talent management" means different things to different

organizations. To some it is about the management of high-worth individuals or
"the talented" whilst to others it is about how talent is managed generally - i.e.
on the assumption that all people have talent which should be identified and
liberated. From a talent management standpoint, employee evaluations concern
two major areas of measurement: performance and potential. Current employee
performance within a specific job has always been a standard evaluation
measurement tool of the profitability of an employee. However, talent
management also seeks to focus on an employee’s potential, meaning an
employee’s future performance, if given the proper development of skills and
increased responsibility.

The major aspects of talent management practiced within an organization

must consistently include:

• Performance management

• Leadership development

• Workforce planning/identifying talent gaps

• Recruiting

This term "talent management" is usually associated with competency-

based human resource management practices. Talent management decisions
are often driven by a set of organizational core competencies as well as
position-specific competencies. The competency set may include knowledge,
skills, experience, and personal traits (demonstrated through defined
behaviors). Older competency models might also contain attributes that rarely
predict success (e.g. education, tenure, and diversity factors that are illegal to
consider in relation to job performance in many countries, and unethical within
organizations).

Talent marketplace

A talent marketplace is an employee training and development strategy

that is set in place within an organization. It is found to be most beneficial for
companies where the most productive employees can pick and choose the
projects and assignments that are most ideal for the specific employee. An ideal
setting is where productivity is employee centric and tasks are described as
“judgment-based work,” for example, in a law firm. The point of activating a
talent marketplace within a department is to harness and link individuals’
particular skills (project management or extensive knowledge in a particular
field) with the task at hand. Examples of companies that implement the talent
marketplace strategy are American Express and IBM.

Current application of talent management

In current economic conditions, many companies have felt the need to cut
expenses. This should be the ideal environment to execute a talent
management system as a means of optimizing the performance of each
employee and the organization. However, within many 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 strategy and
operational programs in place today.”

To develop a clear talent management strategy and to increase

awareness of available talent and successors, 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. In
the same way that all companies have regular meetings and reports regarding
their financial status and budgetary needs, the Talent Review meeting is
designed to review the current talent status and future successor needs in the
organization.

The Talent Review meeting is an important part of the overall talent

management process; 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. "This is what talent management is all about — gathering
information about talent, analyzing their career interests and organizational
business needs, identifying top talent and successes, and developing these
individuals to reduce the risk of losing the best people and experiencing
extensive leadership gaps when turnover occurs."

**************

This new age economy, with its attendant paradigm shifts in relation to the
human capital, in terms of its acquisition, utilisation, development and retention,
has placed a heavy demand on today’s HR professionals. Today HR is expected
to identify potential talent and also comprehend, conceptualise and implement
relevant strategies to contribute effectively to achieve organisational objectives.
Hence a serious concern of every HR manager in order to survive this ‘War for
Talent’, is to fight against a limited and diminishing pool of qualified available
candidates to replace valuable employees when they leave, dramatically
underscoring the difficulty to attract, motivate and retain the best employees in
an organisation. To analyse the reasons, we first need to understand what
“TALENT” means. People have different views and definitions. According to
Leigh Branham, vice president, consulting service at Right Management
Consultants and author of the book, “Keeping People Who Keep You in
Business”, a talent is not rare and precious. Everyone has talent – too many to
possibly name all. Talent is behavior; things we do more easily than the next
person. We speak of “natural born talent” but those with a gift, knack, ability or
flair for something can refine and develop that talent through experience.
Talent, however, cannot be taught. As someone once said, “you can teach a
turkey to climb a tree, but it is easier to hire a squirrel”.

*****

Talent Management v/s Traditional HR Approach

Traditional HR systems approach people development from the

perspective of developing competencies in the organization. This can actually be
a risk-prone approach, especially for companies operating in fast evolving
industries, since competencies become redundant with time and new
competencies need to be developed. Thus, over time, the entire approach to
development of people might be rendered obsolete calling for rethinking the
entire development initiative.

Talent management on the other hand focuses on enhancing the potential

of people by developing capacities. Capacities are the basic DNAof an
organization and also of individual potential. In fact, the following appropriately
describes the role of talent management:
The focus of talent management

At the heart of talent management is developing the following intrinsic human

capacities:

1. Capacity to learn (measured as learning quotient LQ)

Enhancing an individual’s capacity to learn improves the person’s

awareness. It adds to the person’s quest to know more and delve into newer
areas. This capacity is developed by holistic education that teaches how to
learn, an enabling environment and good mentoring.

• Introspection is the individual’s willingness to look back and learn ability

to learn from mistakes and identifying areas of improvement.

• Reflection and contemplation is the individual’s ability to observe his own

thoughts, actions and emotions/feelings and using the awareness to
improve further and perform better.

• Getting into the flow is the individual’s ability to get into a new experience
and flow with the experience. It is the person’s child-like ability to derive
joy out of learning.

2. Capacity to think (measured as conceptual quotient CQ)

An individual’s quest to know more leads his mind to create images.

Enhancing an individual’s capacity to think helps the person not only take
learning to a higher level of intellect but also improves creativity. Capacity to
think comprises of the following:

• Analysis is about asking the right questions and breaking complex things
into simpler elements.

• Creativity is about generating new thoughts and breaking the existing

patterns of thought.

• Judgment requires both. This is what helps an individual take quality

decisions.

3. Capacity to relate (measured as relationship quotient RQ)

It is important for an individual to be able to relate to his learning and

thoughts. This leads the person to be able to relate to other individuals and the
environment around him. The outcome is indeed a sense of belongingness and
an environment of trust at the organizational level and team spirit at the
individual level. Capacity to relate comprises of the following:
 • Listening is the individual’s ability to listen with warmth and respect.
Active listening is free of biases, evaluation and pre-conceived
notions.

• Empathizing is the ability to put self in someone else’s shoes and

getting out of one’s own shoes.

• Trust requires a combination of both empathizing and listening. It is

about authenticity, openness and genuineness.

4. Capacity to act (measured as action quotient AQ)

Action is how the above three capacities of an individual are manifested.

It is the individual’s ability to enact his intentions. Following are components of
capacity to act:

 Organizing refers to the individual’s ability to organize his time and

resources so as to enable him to convert intentions into reality.

 Implementing means delegating, attention to detail, and focus on

the right process.

 Perform under pressure means the ability to work under pressure

and time constraints and handle multiple tasks without negative
stress.

The individual’s values help in discriminating amongst alternatives and

act as the bedrock for decisions. They act as multipliers in enhancing the
individual’s capacities, a sigma of which reflects the individual’s true talent.

Thus:

(LQ + CQ + RQ + AQ) X Values = Talent

****

Talent Management is beneficial to both the organisation and the

employees.

The organisation benefits from:

Talent Management is beneficial to both the organisation and the employees.

The organisation benefits from: Increased productivity and capability; a better
linkage between individuals' efforts and business goals; commitment of valued
employees; reduced turnover; increased bench strength and a better fit
between people's jobs and skills. Employees benefit from: Higher motivation and
commitment; career development; increased knowledge about and contribution
to company goals; sustained motivation and job satisfaction.

Increased productivity and capability;

a better linkage between individuals' efforts and business goals;

commitment of valued employees;

reduced turnover;

increased bench strength and

better fit between people's jobs and skills.

Employees benefit from:

Higher motivation and commitment;

career development;

increased knowledge and contribution to company goals;

sustained motivation and

job satisfaction.

So, how does an organisation effectively manage talent?

Recognise talent: Notice what do employees do in their free time and

find out their interests. Try to discover their strengths and interests. Also,
encourage them to discover their own latent talents. For instance, if an
employee in the operations department convincingly explains why he thinks
he's right even when he's wrong, consider moving him to sales!

Attracting Talent: Good companies create a strong brand identity with

their customers and then deliver on that promise. Great employment brands do
the same, with quantifiable and qualitative results. As a result, the right people
choose to join the organisation.

Selecting Talent: Management should implement proven talent

selection systems and tools to create profiles of the right people based on the
competencies of high performers. It's not simply a matter of finding the "best
and the brightest," it's about creating the right fit - both for today and tomorrow.
 Retaining Talent: In the current climate of change, it's critical to hold
onto the key people. These are the people who will lead the organisation to
future success, and you can't afford to lose them.

The cost of replacing a valued employee is enormous. Organisations need

to promote diversity and design strategies to retain people, reward high
performance and provide opportunities for development.

Managing Succession: Effective organisations anticipate the leadership

and talent requirement to succeed in the future. Leaders understand that it's
critical to strengthen their talent pool through succession planning, professional
development, job rotation and workforce planning. They need to identify
potential talent and groom it.

Change Organisation Culture: Ask yourself, "Why would a talented

person choose to work here?" If the organisation wishes to substantially
strengthen its talent pool, it should be prepared to change things as
fundamental as the business strategy, the organisation structure, the culture
and even the calibre of leaders in the organisation.