Talent Management at Stanchart - Article Example

Today talent has become the key differentiator for gaining competitive advantage. In conjunction with strategic HRM, talent management has become one of the key functions that HRM is playing strategically in organizations. Challenges for any organization today include a global marketplace, diversity of the workforce. Strategic Human Resources Management (SHRM) is about integrating decisions about people with decisions about the results an organization is trying to obtain.  SHRM has led to redefining the roles of the top management.

The top management offers transformational leadership and they share the vision for future success with other employees, contends Budhwar (2000). According to Thorhill and Saunders (1998), the middle managers must have the ability to inspire, encourage, motivate, enable and facilitate change by allowing the employees to become committed to the organization. The middle managers at StanChart play a vital role as they are the ones that interact the most with the employees and thus they are trained and developed to take care of the people.

The managers have to undergo extensive training and they also have the liberty to take independent decision to adapt to the local business environment. Their philosophy of talent management requires that they have capable managers at each of their geographical locations. Differences in culture have not been a hindrance in their talent development and what is important is to have the right manager to handle such issues. StanChart believes in developing its own people as they do recognize the shortage of talent worldwide.

They are focusing on the fast developing markets to attain talent. The talent management strategy at StanChart is quite mature as it is designed to deliver corporate and HR management strategies (Tansley, Harris, Stewart & Turner, 2006). This is evident from various initiatives taken by them. Since they are focusing on fast developing markets to attract talent, their talent management programme is backed by detailed information about the workforce that can be analyzed in detail to determine if the resources are being well utilized.

It also helps to identify where help is needed to augment the talent through training. Their formal talent management initiatives are linked horizontally to HR management and vertically to corporate strategy making process. StanChart attempts to create local, internal pipelines so that a continuous supply of talent is maintained but they found that they have been losing new recruits within 12 months so they have started a global induction programme, called Right Start, which covers every new arrival.

This induction and orientation programme is a part of the HR initiatives which is meant for the development of every new arrival. They have programmes to develop good managers and the top management support and guidance is available for any initiatives taken for the growth and development of talent in the organization. The role of line managers is important in resourcing and employee relations, rewards and recognition (Whittaker & Marchington, 2003). Line managers have to work in conjunction with HR practitioners and this is how it is practiced at StanChart.

StanChart believes that a great business needs great managers because these managers can build staff engagement.