Who Are Companies Doing Business in Dubai Deal with Talent - Case Study Example

TALENT DEVELOPMENT IN COMPANIES OPERATIONAL IN DUBAI 6th NOVEMBER, 2008 The current trends of the rising and emerging multinational corporations have indicated a pool of resources especially dedicated to the development of talent management systems of the organizations in order to identify and develop the coming generation leaders who have fallen out of sync with the company demands. The HR executives often have to confront with the issue of creating and retaining workforce and be able to present the importance of talent management to the top leaders. Companies which are highly confident to face any sort of disruptions in future don't just manage talent but also believe in constructing their own talent factories. The following discussion relates to the one of the top companies in Dubai who acknowledges the worth of talent promotion in order to sustain them in such a fierce competitive world. Before moving forward in the discussion about the in-depth interviews conducted in the most successful companies it’s important to know the essence of Talent management in the current market scenario. People in an organization are costly and are considered to be the most critical and crucial factor for success of any organization. By retaining and polishing the employees, the firm not only retains the capability to effectively impart services but you also prolong the intangibles such as the capacity for innovation, the channels for productivity enhancements in future and refining client and community satisfaction as well. The challenge today lies in getting the job done as employees have a different perspective in viewing the job unlike the conventional methods where promotions were linked to incentives (Knowledge Infusion, 2006) but the current market profile aims for ‘hire for attitude, train for skill’, being proactive in offering employees a better work and life balance, promotion of sense of intricate deeper causes, professional development and constant growth in all aspects, assuring right of equity to all employees, building trusts and avoiding ‘one size fits all’ approach, in order to forge ahead with the talent management recognition ( Wayne W, retrieved on 10th November, 2008). The importance of talent management can be judged from the fact that products and services can be easily duplicated, imitated or emulated but innovation, improvement, advancement, creation, execution, and knowledge can in no manner be replaced. The accumulated talent of an organization is its prime source of its ability to effectively compete and stand out in the race (Knowledge Infusion, 2006). In the new era, competition is global and comprehensive, availability of capital is no issue at all, the technological advancements have shrinked the time line or span of new product development and people are on the threshold of grabbing opportunities, under such circumstances it becomes utmost important to refocus on the strategic issues and render Talent Management the topmost priority in order to drive higher value for the organization in the long run. Talent exploration and refinement has become a mandate for organizations that seek to take on a competitive edge through their human capital assets (Knowledge Infusion, 2006) and improving the workforce performance steadily and progressively. To delve deeper into the issue, four top companies in Dubai were surveyed and interviews were conducted with the CEO’s of the respective companies to understand the current challenges faced by them while building talent in their organizations. A uniform set of questions were intervened at the time of discussion for maintaining parity in the results obtained. The organizations selected were ‘Lesiurecorp’ which is headed by, David Spencer, the Chief Executive officer of Golf Lesiurecorp. The organization is one of the most renowned companies of Dubai who values its employees the most and has made million dollar investment in the sport of Golf apart from its varied investment ventures that deals with constructing residential setups or restaurants and other areas of investment as well (Kennedy P, 2008). The second organization under the list was the Al-Futtaim Group (retrieved on 10th November, 2008), which consists of a number of core businesses that complement one another but are managed individually, enabling the operating divisions to capture their own potential opportunities yet work together on varied projects such as Al-Futtaim Retail, Al-Futtaim properties, Al-Futtaim Ventures etc with Anders Moberg as its Chief Executive Officer. The group is considered to be one of the significant employers of the region, employing almost 12,000 employees under its name. The third company interviewed was SPIMACO, Saudi Pharmaceutical Industries& Medical Appliances Corporation (retrieved on 10th November, 2008), located in Saudi Arabia with total employees of 1,000 with Dr. Abdullah A. Abdulkader as its General Manager. The fourth company selected was Galadari Brother’s (retrieved on 10th November, 2008) which is one of the largest known business conglomerate in U.A.E, deals in various sectors such as Automobiles, Real Estate, Travel and Tourism etc with Abdullah Al Shaibani acting as its chairman. All these four corporations were selected because they are highly successful in their respective business arena and all give top priority in retaining and mounting suitable talent for the growth of their firms. Lesiurecorp To initiate with the first company, the ‘Lesiurecorp’, it was found that talent building was taken up as a serious issue in the organization with a scale of 10 where talent infusion, grooming were found to be the most upcoming challenges of the time. Talent management for the company implies recognizing a person's inherent skills, traits, personality and offering the candidate a matching job that fits him best in accordance with his own capabilities and potential. in the interview conducted, the CEO stated that every person has a unique talent that is best for a specific job profile and any other position will cause discomfort, hence spotting the right talent itself requires ‘Talent’. The organization effectively manages talent by following a procedure of recognizing it, attracting it, and selecting it retaining it. A multi cultural workforce is employed who work on the same platform and directions with a clearly defined career goal and path. The company incorporates succession planning, professional development, job rotation and other methods to retain the workforce and create future opportunities for them. The company’s vision and mission is placed first while recruiting the employees so as to build commitment and judge competencies of employees which are further polished in the future for refinements and betterment. The CEO is happy with the organizational culture as there has been noticed a considerable fall in absenteeism and turnover rate of the company. The firm does its best from incentives financial and non financial and maintaining a proper work/life balance for the employees. Recommendation It can be suggested after the interview that though the company is doing best for talent hunt, yet it can incorporate innovative methods for higher motivation and commitment from employees such as making employees part of decision making, opening new venture and channels for exploring hidden capabilities of employees etc Al-Futtaim Group The group also rates the importance of Talent nurturing as the highest on the scale, by effectively managing talent by aligning the workforce with the business strategy and minimizing the loss of critical skills of the company. The group clearly articulates a vision for the company’s workforce and ensures that each and every employee understands the needs of the firm from the present as well as future perspective. They provide opportunities to the individuals to carry forward their personal and professional growth aspirations. They have included a special flexible reward and recognition program that compensates all the employees on the basis of their ability to achieve organizational goals and objectives which is a key factor in motivation and building competencies in the workforce. The company has incorporated a human capital strategy and workforce planning to attract the best talent of the industry. To make through the diversification, Al-Futtaim works on the global people development model. Encouraging creativity and flexibility in work helps the firm to overcome obstacles of job turnover rate and loosing talent. Recommendation Inspite of creative and innovative application of various strategies and models, there does exist some loophole in retaining and minimizing the loss of talent for which it is essential for the organization to continuously challenge its own strategies from time to time. The increasing pressure, globalization and competition require an acceleration on updating the workforce and joining hands with the other companies for training and developing the diversified workforce. SPIMACO The organizational leader holds a firm belief that talent promotion opens a new dimension for organizational growth and rates high the importance of talent retention. The company focuses on creating a rich content for the career development programs of the firm that improves the overall functioning of the organization. Learning is embedded as an integral part of each and every employee’s responsibility towards the firm. The corporation aims at polishing the talent by adopting the Japanese Kaizen theory which heads on for continuous improvement. Talent staging approach makes the firm distinct from its competitors as the firm is able to forecast the movement of workforce within and outside the organization. The organization manages talent by following a three staged process that is attrition forecasting, succession planning and implying a knowledge retention mechanism (Prasad D, 2008). The process helps in building trust and faith among the current employees, a more collaborative work environment, variety and heterogeneity of work tasks, and more of work life balance keeps the workforce motivated, rejuvenated and committed to wards the organization. Proactive Retention Among young associates is an innovative tool applied by the organization to keep track of probability of leaving matrix and finding out the causes. The talent management has certainly benefited the organization in numerous ways bridging the gap between the managers and the employees, open communication, developing skills are an added advantage. Recommendations It can be suggested after indulging in a dialogue with the chairman of the company that the forces of change in the market are transforming talent behavior, thus SPIMACO needs to adapt to this paradigm of shift or transformation.  Predictive and pre-emptive systems can be further advanced in order to capture talent aspirations and expectations in order to plan the succession slates and knowledge retention internally within the organization (Ronn K, 2007). Galadari Brother’s The last of the organizations interviewed, Galadari brothers also supported the fact that Talent is imperative for a proper functioning and sustaining of the organization in a battle between various competitors. Talent management is regarded as a strategic task of the firm whereby a comprehensive talent management programme of the firm is drafted to analyze, plan, forecast and execute business plans and procedures in regard to the availability of efficient workforce. Roles and responsibilities for all the employees are well defined and performance measures are especially designed to reward employees that add to the overall performance of the company. Talent promotion is adhered by training or hiring for competencies determined by workforce analytics and gap analysis. Further Training and development along with the succession planning are aligned to meet the current and future goals and demand of Galadari Brother’s. the integrated talent management has helped the firm to predict future performance, higher customer satisfactory rates are observed, right people at right time has helped the firm to save a huge chunk of additional costs, above all increased employee engagement, commitment helps in assuring a stable management team for the organization heading for uniform organizational goals . Recommendation The firm has a smart strategy in place , what it can do to further accelerate is to keep its talented people more challenged by providing cross functional exposure thereby increasing the overall intrinsic worth of an employee ( Accenture, retrieved on 10th November, 2008). A significant based component must be adopted by the organization for the compensation package as adopted by Accenture which is also one of the most recognized organizations in the industry. In the end of the entire exercise it can be concluded that development of talent is the only factor in the realm of Talent Management and employee attrition. Managing these two variables can definitely render the positive returns to build a better organization (NASSCOM, 2007). The best of talent has to operate, ultimately, within the restriction of an organizational internally in order to achieve the organizational objectives, and talent, no matter how highly regarded, and cannot become dysfunctional. What we need to imbibe in the organization seeing the current trends is maintaining a ‘right balance’. Questionnaire 1. How do rate the importance of ‘Talent Management’ on a scale of 1 to 10? 2. How the organization does effectively manages talent? 3. How do they promote diversity and design strategy to retain talent? 4. How do they build commitment in employees? 5. How do they create competent employees? 6. Are they contented with the organization culture? 7. Has the Talent Management benefited the organization to a large extent? 8. How the organization does motivate the employee to be a part of the firm for a long period of time? 9. How the talent is spotted, any special techniques? 10. How the company does attract the best talent? REFERENCES Al-Futtaim Group, Home page, retrieved on 10th November, 2008, http://www.futtaim.com/content/mainfull.asp?sessionID=92AB6ACA-D75F-40D1-8CE1-20942D6910E9 Accenture, Tackling Talent Management: The people factor in achieving high performance for the industrial products industry, retrieved on 10th November, 2008, http://www.accenture.com/Global/Research_and_Insights/By_Industry/Industrial_Equipment/TacklingTalentIndustry.htm Galadari Brothers, Home page, retrieved on 10th November, 2008, http://www.galadarigroup.com/galadari_brothers_careers.php Kennedy P, 4th Feb, 2008, Fairways Paradise, http://www.arabianbusiness.com/properties/article/509880-paradise-on-the-fairways/page/2/2?template=properties&tmpl=index Knowledge Infusion, 2006, Trends in Human Capital Management The Emerging Talent Management Imperative, retrieved on 10th November, 2008, http://www.sap.com/industries/insurance/pdf/BWP_Trends_in_Human_Capital_Management.pdf Wayne W, Keeping Good Employees, Retention Strategies That Build Commitment and Innovation, retrieved on 10th November, 2008, http://www.dren.org/hr/documents/ArticleNine-Retention.pdf Prasad D, 8th October, 2008, Talent Staging - A Talent Management Framework to de-risk attrition woes!, retrieved on 10th November, 2008, http://blogs.siliconindia.com/Dheeraj Ronn K, 7th August, 2007, A Private Equity Stance on Talent, Companies can improve their chances for success by applying private equity takeover strategies to their talent needs, http://www.businessweek.com/careers/content/aug2007/ca2007087_963560.htm NASSCOM, 24th July, 2007, Talent Management is a Business Problem, retrieved on 10th November, 2008, http://www.nasscom.in/Nasscom/templates/NormalPage.aspx?id=51772 SPIMACO, Home page, retrieved on 10th November, 2008, http://www.gulfbase.com/site/interface/CompanyProfileSummary.aspx?c=84 Read More