Strategic Context of Talent Management - Research Paper Example

? Talent Management Strategy Introduction With the increased competitiveness in the global economy, it has become a necessity for business organisations to adopt highly productive talent management strategies that give them a competitive edge over rival companies. For a long time, organisations have focussed on basic talent management which involved acquiring, hiring and retaining high performing employees, however, talent management in the current global economy that involve cut throat competition must ensure the management of organisations engage with their high performing employees in order to align the company goals and objectives to the talent management strategy. This paper will therefore analyse a talent management strategy that links an organization’s goals to talent management strategy in order to gain a competitive edge over rival organisations. The first step in coming up with a talent management strategy is to access the business environment and come up with the important issues that affect the performance of a business both in the long run and in the short run. Strategic context of talent management First, is the visionary aspect of the organisation where it will be concerned with trend spotting; here an organisation scans the environment it is operating in to identify the trends in social, economical and technological activity. In visionary aspect, a company will weigh its effectiveness in translating academic and technical research to business ideas that will give it a competitive edge over its rivals. The explorer aspect of the business involves identifying products for potential growth and markets that are unexploited, in addition, the organisation identifies other organisations with which it can collaborate with in order to increase the volume of its business. The third aspect that organisations can capitalise on is the builder aspect; this involves managing customers’ feedback and determining their preferences. In addition, it will entail developing the products of the organization and adopting the appropriate pricing and advertising mechanisms, the distribution mix, which ensures maximum customer satisfaction, will be evaluated. The lobbyist aspect will involve maintaining a good corporate image with the key stakeholders, presenting the organisations interests within the political environment and lobbying for favourable operating conditions with the regulating bodies. The architect aspect involves recognising technological developments that can be relevant in operations of the organisation, implementing those developments to ensure improved processes and systems. In addition, it oversees planning and implementing of major changes in the organisation structure and practise (Dejoux & The?venet, 2011). Trouble shooter aspect will involve measuring of the corporate activity to be able to identify problems, refocus of an organisations operations for them to be in line with its core aim and tackling problem with high cost operations that have low value hence increasing the productivity of the organisation. The regulator aspect will ensure development of relevant indicators that will be used to monitor and control business activity within the organization, in addition, it ensures the development of standard procedures of operation in order to improve process efficiency and standardisation, establishing financial discipline throughout the organisations activities will also be a part of the regulator aspect. The integrator aspect will ensure the continuous process of improving the employees’ capabilities, it will also be responsible for the continuation and upholding of the business values and ethics. In addition, integrator aspect is responsible for sharing of information, resources and knowledge throughout the organisation. Key components of talent management For an organisation to capitalise on the above aspects, it will require that talent within its employees or externally be identified, the process of identification of talent will be done through the process of recruiting and hiring. Employees who will deal with issues in the various aspects will require to have expertise that ensures optimal performance in that aspect. For instance in the departments that deals with the visionary and explorer aspects of the organisations individuals to work there should possess a keen eye for detail in addition to strong analytical skills. Employees in the builder and lobbyist aspect of the organisation will be required to have good interpersonal skills, as they will be interacting with customers in order to get their feedback on the products and services of the organisation. In addition, the lobbyists will require meeting with the relevant stakeholder in a bid to ensure support for the organisation or create an environment that will be favourable for the organisation’s activities. The architects who are responsible for technological improvements in the organisation will be required to be conversant with the technological environment in order for them to identify the technologies that are best placed to improve the productivity of the organization. Employees whose work relate to the troubleshooting aspect of the organisation will need to have excellent problem solving skills. This is because they will be required to identify problems before they affect the operations of an organisation and ensure that they have been solved as well as putting in place measures to ensure they do not occur again (Vaiman, 2010). Regulator aspect of the organisation will require employees who are conversant in the business environment that the organisation operates while the integrator aspect, which encompass the human resource department will require employees who are skilled in handling human capital within an organisation. In order to determine whether individuals have the required talent to perform their duties, their past employment history will be useful, as it will show how they have performed in their previous workstations and the contributions that they have made. In addition, the interviewing process will be carried out in such a way that it will try to determine the extent to which an individual is capable of performing the assigned duties, it will include mock work related situation where the interviewee will be required to apply his talents and knowledge. For the new graduates joining the organisation, they will undergo a probation period where they will be trained and then accessed depending on how fast they are able to learn and their genuine interest in the area of their specialisation. At the end of the probation period, the individuals who will have met the minimum threshold set by the organisation will be hired in the respective departments depending on their specialisation. In developing talent of the employees, individual and collective effort within the organisation is required. Individual efforts by the employees to develop their talents will be through looking for better and more efficient ways to perform their responsibilities. In order to encourage employees to be creative, the organisation should offer competitive salary packages for the employees in addition to bonuses for those employees who perform exemplary well in their responsibilities; this will encourage all employees to develop their talents in order to get the bonuses (Shukla, 2009). The organisation will be responsible for holding educational and technical training for its employees to impart them with knowledge and expertise on the best practises within their respective fields and in addition train them on how to increase their productivity. Information sharing within the organisation will also be used to develop talents of employees since the goals, aims, and organisations values and ethics will be communicated easily and effectively therefore employees will be able to improve and direct their talents towards the attainment of the organization’s objective (Burke & Cooper, 2009). Promotions to leadership positions within the organisation should be based on the performance of individuals in their respective departments as this will encourage other employees to improve their performance in search of a promotion, which in essence will require developing their talent to outdo their colleagues. Talent management as a strategy for competitive advantage The talent management process ensures that employees within an organisation are performing optimally since they operate in departments where they are talented in. The process of managing talent makes sure that the individuals who are hired in an organisation are high performers who will add value to the organisation, these individuals are then induced in to the corporate culture of the organisation in order to align their talents with the objectives of the company. This process of hiring new talent within an organisation ensures that only the best performing individuals are hired therefore the organisation is better placed to increase its productivity than other organisations that do not aim at tapping talent during the hiring process (Sharma, 2011). This trend is continued in the assessing phase where an organisation only aims at retaining the best employees whose talents are relevant to its objectives. In the talent management process, an organisation carries out an evaluation of the various aspect of its structure to determine its weak points and its strengths and therefore determine the talents that will be required in improving the weak points and capitalising on the strengths. This process ensures that the organisation is aware of its environment both internally and externally therefore it is able to adjust its operations in order to match the external business environment to capitalise on any new business opportunities and mitigate any negative effects that the external environment may have on the business. This gives an organisation a comparative business advantage to other organisations that do not conduct the talent management process, as they are usually not aware of the areas they are strong at or their weak points. Change in talent management due to doubling in size of the organisation Due to the dynamic nature of the business environment, the organisation has targeted to double its size in the next five years, this will also mean that the process of talent management will change. Due to the organisation doubling its size the number of employees will increase, this will mean that the process of talent management will become more complicated and will require more resources and expertise. Secondly, doubling in size means that the organisation will increase its output or diversify its products, therefore the talent management process will involve identifying, assessing and developing talents that are more diverse. In addition, the methods of encouraging individual and collective development of employees’ talents will need to be revised since the methods that were used earlier may not be feasible with the increase in population as they may require huge financial resources such as giving bonuses to employees. Promotions based on the performance because of development in talent may also work against the organisation due to the number of employees as it may encourage unhealthy competition where employees will work to prevent others improving their productivity instead of working towards increasing their productivity. Conclusion Talent management process in organisations is based on the specific talent requirements within an organisation, which are dictated by the current position of the organization and the goals, and objectives that it aims to achieve in future. The process of talent management which ranges from identifying, assessing and developing talents is useful to organisations as the process involves identifying the areas where talent is needed therefore the organisation is able to identify its weaknesses and strengths and therefore adjust appropriately. Organizations that adopt talent management process in their operations have a competitive advantage over their rivals. References Burke, R. J., & Cooper, C. L. (2009). The peak performing organization. London: Routledge. Dejoux, C., & The?venet, M. (2011). Talent management. Paris: Dunod. Sharma, D. (2011). Talent management. New Delhi: A P H Pub. Corp. Shukla, R. (2009). Talent management: Process of developing and integrating skilled workers. New Delhi: Global India Publications. Vaiman, V. (2010). Talent management of knowledge workers: Embracing the non-traditional workforce. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Read More