Effective Talent Management - Essay Example

?Talent management can be loosely be defined as the process through which an organization identifies employees who show potential and the proficiencyto hold leadership positions in posterity. By focusing on talent, management can effectively attract, retain and develop essential skills which ultimately increase the organization’s productivity (Beheshtifar and Moghadam, 2012). The intense competition that characterizes today’s business world necessitates that organizations strategically place themselves to optimize project success by capitalizing on the human resources available to them and therefore reducing on wastage (Vaiman, Scullion and Collings, 2012). To this end, they needs must be cognizant of the fact that to become business leaders, high performing and motivated employees are critical. Business leaders who implement the best talent management systems will at the end of the day be more prepared than their counterparts to capitalize on new opportunities and maximize their usage of limited resources (Kehinde, 2012). In a nutshell, strategic talent management is a process through which an organization ensures it has placed the right people for the right jobs at the right place and time so as to achieve the long and short term goals and objectives. The contention of this paper will be to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the talent management approach as well try to justify its application in an organization with global latitude, and the need to actively involve employees’ opinion due to cultural variants owing to the international latitude of the firms operations. Benefits and Drawbacks As aforementioned, through proper talent management stratagem the skills and strengths of employees can be assessed and the HR managers will make recruitment, promotion and deployment decisions form a point of information. Ideally, each employee would be placed at the point where they are most productive and this is significant in reducing wastage and enhancing both individual and collective productivity. Secondly, there are always firms that are willing to poach talent and if an organization does not nurture its employees, they could end up losing their best talent to the competition (Global Novations, 2012). Therefore, when firms focus on the recruitment and retention programs that will allow them to contract and maintain their employees through the talent approach they will be have a low staff turnover which will contribute to the organization’s growth and stability (Li and Scullion, 2010). Employees feel motivated and less inclined to change jobs if they feel their growth needs are being attended to by their employers and that they can be rewarded for their skills, if they are neglected, they may end up leaving. Talent management planning is useful in aligning the firms strategic plan with the overall business needs, through goal alignment job roles for individual employees and teams can be clarified. In addition, employees working in such a system are likely to have a heighted sense of ownership for the firms decisions and products thus they will intrinsically motivated to perform. The talent management approach also comes with the benefit of increasing success and productivity while at the same time reducing the risk factors (HR Focus, 2010). A study by the talent management institute indicated that the success rate of organizations that align their operational strategy to talent management is about 72% which puts it ahead other firms which average at 58% success (Professional Management Institute, p. 2). A possible drawback of the talent management approach is that it has been found to have the potential to result in arrested in personal and moral development, Glover et al (1997) discovered that an individual’s level of experience was directly proportional to their propensity for ethical decision making. However a different study found that the more one rise in seniority the more their predisposition for unethical action increases (Ford & Richardson, 1994), by considering the results of both findings, one can surmise that the talent management approach may promote individuals who have not yet developed sufficient experience for high ethics to positions of power and it may mean the organization’s leaders will be less ethical in posterity. A rationale for using a talent management programme approach as a strategic approach to employee resourcing Among the most critical project management skills any organization needs are technical, leadership, and strategic business management skills, 66% of organizations studied by the Professional Management Institute said that the greatest difficulty was encountered in finding effective managers for these (2013). However, 90% believe these skills can be acquired, honed and nurtured through experience, this evidence justifies the need for firms to focus on management of talent for the sake of “growing” their own talent. Investment in talent management can be justified by the fact that it results in less attrition, which translates in reduced recruitment expenditure, firms with high attrition rates incur a variety of extra costs especially since they constantly have to hire and train new staff (Tajadin and Moali, 2009). Therefore, every exiting employee represents and incurred cost that will not be repaid, this problem is especially more acute when there is a vacancy in the upper echelons (Eddie, Knights and Orbea, 2006). Recruiting new employees is often expensive both in regard to time and money, these costs are incurred in advertising for the position, interviewing, short listing and eventually job training. However when a firm has in place an effective talent management strategy, it is relatively easy to fill vacant position by following the succession profiles that have been set up so that particularly expensive vacancies on the top can be filled by internal talent and save the firm the cost of recruitment (Lewis & Heckman, 2006). Talent management is critical in ensuring that the human resource stratagem is in tandem with the organizations future needs in respect to recruitment, retaining and maintain of staff (Whelan and Carcary, 2010). Consequently, an organization that does not focus on managing its talent internally may be forced to turn to external recruitment every time it has a position that needs filling. Talent management acts as the means through which talent is guided and nurtured from within and consequently determines the achievement of organizational goals in the long run. Detractors of the talent management strategy will likely oppose it based on the fact that it limits the introduction of new talent into organizations and therefore argue that it is counterproductive to the organization’s denying it the benefit of new blood and fresh ideas. While this may overtly appear logical, from a critical perspective the argument does not hold water, for one, the talent management approach does not exclusively strive to avoid making new recruitments for the sake of recruiting. HR managers take advantage of their having access to the employees record and that they have had considerable time to observe and analyze the employees at work, therefore they know far more about these individuals than the limited space and scope of an interview would allow (Whelan & Carcary, 2011). Furthermore, the talent development strategy does not exclusively apply to organizations employees as it is also applied in hiring “fresh” ones by ensuring to both retain and develop their talent after they have been recruited. The best way to ensure there is talent at the top is by having it at the bottom, that way the employees on the lower echelons whose talent and career growth is supported by the firm will ultimately distinguish themselves (Cook and Macaulay, 2009). This strategy also helps organizations determine which of their employees has the most potential, this way they can make better decisions in regard to where their investment should be made in regard to specialized training and personal employee development (Slywotzky and Wise, 2003). Consultation and involvement of employees The role of employee attitude and commitment in furthering a company’s aims and allowing it to achieve its organizations objectives cannot be overstated since when employees are involved and consulted management gleans invaluable insight. However, the issue of how much employees should be informed and consulted in regard to learning and developmental opportunities that are availed based on their talent can be complicated. If an organization assumes all it staff are talented, they may not have a problem since they could simply tell them as much. However, in an institution where several individuals are earmarked for development and training opportunities based on perceived talent, the situation is different (Downs, 2012). This is because their colleagues may feel sidelined and disenfranchised of equal opportunity to developmental resources and this could result in discontent and apathy, ultimately encouraging some to quit feeling they are not adequately or equitably recognized and rewarded. This often puts management in a dilemma about if they should inform those who have been designated for developmental opportunities or not, while there is the option of keeping it a secret this could end up being viewed as subversive since they will be essentially making long-term about an employee’s career and life without involving them. The best way to identify talent and nurture it without raising apathy among the other staff is through objective open ended and transparent testing and evaluation (Jensen, 2009). The firm should base their selection of talent on the productivity of employees and all the members should be given a chance to compete for the development opportunities, that way, when some attain them, the rest will know they won these chances in fair contest and they too stand a chance to develop their talent and earn promotions and developmental opportunities. Owing to the geographical spread of the company management needs must take to account the cultural differences in the various branches. Furthermore, employees need to be informed of the process of talent management the legal procedure for promoting or carrying out other factors that make a part of talent management tend to vary and these calls for transparency and vertical communication. For example in Germany the business setup is extremely formal and for successful cultural management to be achieved the organizations need to prepare for a host of regulations unique to the countries business environment (Bjorkman and Lervik, 2007). There exist deep seated rules and regulations and relationships between seniors and their subordinates are clearly predefined and the latter are expected to obey the former expressly without debate. Consequently, some of the workers in Germany may find it hard to express themselves in management spheres freely or even seek leadership for themselves. In such an environment, the HR managers, most that are form the UK where the business environment is slightly more flexible, will require to communicate to the staff about their plans and potential so that they may adopt an ambitious mind set. Recommendations For the sake of improving decision making after implementing the talent management approach the organization should develop a comprehensive frameworks to reflect the complex environmental factors that are occasioned by the organization’s international context. (Collins and Hans 2010). When formulating future manpower management strategy, the organization should prepare deep bench of candidates for a manpower inventory, this way even these who are not promoted will have a chance to move up later, in addition, the firm should balance their outside hiring with internal hiring (Jensen, 2009). The organization should put in place a comprehensive plan for talent management taking to consideration their retention ability and ensuring they attune the career plans of their employees with the organization’s business plan. The organization should also strive to recoup talent investments through the promotion of programs where employees and the firm share the cost of talent investment; the firm could also meet costs such as the educational needs of their staffs children which will in the long ruin increase loyalty. The organization needs to take cognizance of the fact that that the global business world is increasingly becoming reliant on a knowledge based economy (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2007), therefore they bearing in mind their international scope, they should strive to recruit, retain and maintain high value employees for the complex role in the dynamic economic environment (Schuler, Jackson and Tarique, 2011). Conclusion Considering the nature of activities the firm is involved in, there is little doubt that the human resource is the most valuable resource the firm has since much of what it does is management and consultation. At the end of the day, considering the over 200 managers in different levels of the organization and its international scope of operations it is imperative that the immense in-house talent is nurtured and developed to facilitate efficacy in management and succession. Through the talent management approach, the firm can achieve a high level of discipline which is critical in helping them understand prevailing conditions in regard to human resource, predict, identify and if possible, seal talent gaps and ultimately increase productivity. References Beheshtifar, M., Nasab, H.Y. And Moghadam, M.N., 2012. Effective Talent Management: A Vital Strategy to Organizational Success. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2(12), pp. 227-234. Bjorkman, I. and Lervik, J.E. 2007, "Transferring HR practices within multinational corporations", Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 320-35. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. 2007, Annual survey report 2007: recruitment, retention and turnover, London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Collins C.J. & Han, J. 2004. Exploring applicant pool quantity and quality: The effects of early recruitment practice strategies, corporate advertising, and firm reputation. Personnel Psychology. Vol. 57, Iss. 3, p. 685-717 Cook, S. And Macaulay, S., 2009. Providing the basis for identifying and nurturing talent. Training Journal, , pp. 36-40. Downs, L.J., 2012. Integrated Talent Management: Building a Strategy One Black at a Time. T + D, 66(8), pp. 42-47,6. Eddie, B., Knights, A., Orbea, A. 2006. Developing Future Leaders: The contribution of Talent Management, Studying Leadership, Knowledge into Action Fifth International Annual Conference on Leadership, Cranfield, December 14 – 15. Ashridge Business School UK. Ford, R. C. & Richardson, W. D. 1994. Ethical Decision Making: A Review of the Empirical Literature. Journal of Business Ethics, 13(3): 205-221. Global Novations Posts Online Survey on Global Talent Management. 2012. Entertainment Close – Up. Glover, S. H., Bumpus, M. A., Logan, J. E., & Ciesla, J. R. 1997. Re-examining the Influence of Individual Values on Ethical Decision Making. Journal of Business Ethics, 16(12/13): 1319-1329. Jensen, R., 2009. Generation Y: The challenges of talent management. Global Focus, 3(2), pp. 44-47. Kehinde, JS. 2012. Talent Management: Effect on Organizational Performance, Journal of Management Research, 4 (2), 181. Lewis, R. E., & Heckman, R. J., 2006, Talent management: A critical review. Human Resource Management Review, 16, 139–154. Li, S. and Scullion, H. 2010. Developing the local competence of expatriate managers for emerging markets: a knowledge based approach. Journal of World Business, Vol. 45 No. 2, pp. 190-6. Schuler, R.S., Jackson, S.E. and Tarique, I. (2011), "Global talent management and global talent challenges: strategic opportunities for IHRM", Journal of World Business, Vol. 46, pp. 506-16. Slywotzky, A. And Wise, R., 2003. Three keys to groundbreaking growth: A demand innovation strategy, nurturing practices, and a chief growth officer. Strategy & Leadership, 31(5), pp. 12-19. Tajadin, M. & Moali, M., 2006, Why Talent Management? Tadbir Journal, No. 191: 62. 19. Wilcox, I., 2005, Raising Renaissance Managers, Pharmaceutical Executive, 25 (6), 41. Talent Management Must Mesh With Business Goals for Post-Recession Success. 2010. HR Focus, 87(1), pp. 8. The competitive advantage of effective talent management In Depth Study: Talent Management. 2013. Professional Management Institute. :2-6. Vaiman, V., Scullion, H. And Collings, D., 2012. Talent management decision making. Management Decision, 50(5), pp. 925-941. Whelan, E. & Carcary, M. (2011) Integrating talent and knowledge management: Where are the benefits? Journal of Knowledge Management. Vol. 15, No. 5, p. 675-687 Whelan, E. And Carcary, M., 2010. Integrating a Talent Management Approach to Knowledge Management: Are There Benefits to Be Had? Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1694455 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1694455 Read More