Talent Management at the TNNB Company - Case Study Example

Case Study: TNNB Introduction TNNB is a family-owned engineering firm manufacturing electrohydraulic systems for different customers, especially for export. TNNB has been recognised as an industry leader, thus won two Queens Awards for Export. TNNB produces systems with order where the initial details then the details are communicated to a design engineer, who in turn builds a collection of images presented to the customer. A contract is established with the customers upon approval, which can last as long as six months, and then delivered to project managers, who work on the project until delivery. However, TNNB seems to have a problem in its workforce and urgently needs talent development strategies if it is to ensure sustainable business with a promising future. This report explores how talent management strategy would help TNNB. It also assesses the most appropriate talent management strategy and proposes suitable short-term and long-term talent management policies and practices for the company. How A Talent Management (TM) Strategy Would Help TNNB TNNB clearly has a big problem with talent management. The company’s project managers emerge as incompetent for their roles as asserted by the company’s systems engineer. There is tension between systems engineers and mechanical and service engineers, which is likely to affect the overall performance of the company. Most of the engineers at the company have been working for the company for many years with some of them nearing their retirement. The managers of the company feel that engineers are hard to find, which clearly indicate that the company lacks strategic recruitment, hiring and retention programme. Therefore, TNNB’s future lies on its ability to adopt a suitable talent strategy to curb the on-going talent deficit in the company. Talent management is a management buzzword associated with continuous inflow of employees with desired qualities into an organisation. Talent management can be defined as a process that ensures that an organisation has a regular supply of individual with high potentials for vacant positions and acquires the right persons for the right jobs whenever there is need. Davis (2007) argues that “talent management is the recruitment, development, and retention of individuals who consistently deliver superior performance” (Davis 2007 p.1). However, Hatum (2010) notes that no universal definition of talent management exists. Strategic talent management as a process ensures that an organisation hires the right people for the right jobs and in a timely manner so that the objectives of the firm can be met as expected (Deb 2005). Strategic talent management enables companies to assess and understand their present state, project talent gaps and take the initiatives to fill these talent gaps. The human resource of every organisation is charged with the responsibility of developing effective talent management strategy (Vaiman & Vance 2008). The success of an organisation depends on the effectiveness of the human resource department in recruiting high-performing staff developing and retaining them (Oakes & Galagan 2011; Silser & Dowell 2010). Generally, a talent management strategy would help TNNB to: Identify talent gaps within the organisation and take early precautions Align human capital needs with the strategy of the business Focus its training, development and recruitment efforts Ensure that the company achieves a balanced blend of generations in the workplace Ensure that knowledge is effectively transferred across various generations that make up the workforce Keep low the possibilities of disruptions in the production process as a result of impulsive departures of employees. To plan and organise its workforce and Maximise the contribution of each employee. Effective implementation of talent management strategy will result into significant reduction in cost associated with recruiting incompetent personnel, risk minimisation and attaining higher level of organisational performance (Caplan 2011). Consequently, talent management will yield a sustainable competitive advantage (Baron & Armstrong 2007) for TNNB. The Perspective or Approach to Talent That Would Be Appropriate For TNNB Process perspective approach to talent management is the most appropriate for TNNB. Process perspective focuses on having the right talent as the source of future success of the company (Kehinde2012). The most appropriate talent management strategy for TNNB is recruiting and selecting the right people for the right jobs. The company is evidently facing a crisis with its project managers who seem unqualified for their jobs. TNNB produces its electrohydraulic systems through project-based working, which rely heavily on project managers who become responsible for the projects right from the time the contract is sealed with the customer to the time of delivery. However, the company’s two project managers seem not to be up to their tasks. A successful project management demands that a project manager must be able to assess the current position of the project in order to determine how far the project is from where it should be and also to determine if the project is on course. Strategic management focuses on bringing the desired future into the present status (Rothwell & Kasanas 2003). It remains clear that the company’s recruitment and selection strategy is doing the company no good because important positions are filled with incompetent staff. In order to overcome this deficit of competent personnel, TNNB needs to place higher priority on its employee recruitment and selection process. The company could emphasise on employee development, but it must be noted that it is impossible or difficult to develop everything. Training employees to improve their learning dexterity, sense of judgment or adaptability, which are core for successful profiles, can be a daunting and often an impossible task. Deficiency in motivation for any particular role usually yields poor performance outcome. Similarly, when there is poor fit between organisational values and the values of employees, poor performance becomes inevitable (Davis 2007; Storey 2007). The two project managers defend their failures by asserting that the company’s production approach was not well thought despite it success. Are their values aligned with organisational values? What changes did they push for to make the process better? A well-designed hiring and selection process could help to solve these inadequacies, which would otherwise prove futile to develop through classroom training (Kehinde2012). Besides, hiring the right people for vacant positions is more efficient and cost effective than hiring incompetent personnel then focusing on developing them (Davis 2007). Robust and well-designed hiring and selection process would help TNNB to assess critical skills needed for open positions before engaging any of the job applicants. Besides, it is through a well-designed hiring and selection strategy that would ensure that the company has constant inflow of competent and diverse workforce, which would solve the problem of its aging engineers. The strength of an organisation reflects in the kind of people that it hires (Halan 2005). Policies and Practices for Talent Development That Are Needed Now TNNB can implement the following policies and practices for talent management in the short-run to ensure that it gets the most out of its employees: i. Formulation of Clear Objective Metrics In order to maximise from the potential of its employees, TNNB needs to establish clear performance metrics. No organisation can ever achieve maximum output from its employees without clearly definition role as well as goals. There is need to address issues concerning motivation of employees in terms of compensation and career progression. Clear objective metrics will enable employees of the company to know what is expected of them and in turn focus their efforts on achieving high performances aimed at meeting organisational objectives (Van Tiem, Moseley & Dessinger 2012). One of the defensive tactics of the failing project managers at TNNB was that they were not properly prepared by the management for their roles. Consequently, the management failed to clearly substantiate the roles of the project manager of the company, which might have resulted into gambles leading to crisis meetings to execute tasks that were time barred. Setting clear objectives would clearly enable the company to undergo such confusions as witnessed in the two project managers. ii. Strategic Alignment In most cases, talent is often ignored despite its importance in determining the level of performance of any organisation (Nilsson & Ellstrom 2012). It is crucial for the company to align its strategic plan with talent management strategies because it is the people (employees) who execute the overall strategic plan. Therefore, integrating the views of the human resource department by incorporating talent into the company’s strategic planning will be crucial for optimisation of the performance of employees and the overall performance of the organisation. iii. Focused Training and Development Close alignment of talent and the overall business strategy gives organisations a better opportunity to identify talent gaps and management their talent challenges effectively (Davis 2007). Through implementation of training and development, TNNB will be able to properly and adequately orient its new employees on their roles and the overall expectation of the company. Training and development will ensure that employees get netter grips of their potential roles in the company (Schiemann & Meisinger 2009). Policies and Practices for Talent Development That Are Needed In The Future In order to develop a sustainable competitive advantage that would ensure future success, there is need for TNNB to focus not only on short-term talent management polices and practices, but also long-term ones. Developing a pool of essential talent for the organisation relies on its ability to establish sound long-term talent management policies and practices. Some of the talent management policies and practices that would be ideal for TNNB include: i. Formation of Partnerships with Educational Providers and Recruitment Agencies According to the managers of TNNB, replacing engineers is a daunting task because they are hard to find. This problem could be solved through forming strategic alliance with educational institutions offering relevant courses. This would ensure constant supply of talented individuals who could fill up talent gaps in the company (Jackson, Schuler & Werner 2011). Moreover, TNNB would find it easier for the company to recruit and select from the best pool offered through company-university or college alliances. Partnership with educational institutions will offer a long-term solution to talent shortage at the company. TNNB can also form alliance with recruitment agencies in order to ensure that it has a constant stream of individuals with desired qualities. Recruitment agencies can help the company to find the best talents in the industry and thus helps it fill the talent gap that currently exists in the organisation. However, this approach might prove expensive. TNNB can as well create employee referral programme where employees can endorse some of the best talents they feel should work for the organisation. This approach has worked for many organisations, especially owing to the fact that an employee would not bring in someone who would damage his or her reputation and thus will always endorse the best for the company (Jackson, Schuler & Werner 2011). ii. Enforcing Workforce Diversity Policy Workforce diversity presents one of the sources of sustainable competitive advantage for successful organisations (Business and Legal Reports 2006). Dealing with workforce diversity issues requires an overhaul in the culture of the organisation (Jackson, Schuler & Werner 2011). TNNB comprises of many employees who are nearing their retirement age and replacing them seems to be the most difficult thing to do for the management. Diversity demands that the workplace becomes heterogeneous and includes all generations. A diverse workforce with individuals from different backgrounds and variety of experiences improves the ability of the workforce to solve sophisticated problems and hence creating a unique competitive advantage for the company (Jackson, Schuler & Werner 2011). Workforce diversity includes the aspects of gender, age, ethnicity and race. When all these elements of diversity are put into consideration, the problem of irreplaceable aging staff will no longer be a problem to TNNB. iii. Establishing a Mentoring Programme TNNB has an aging workforce that it feels impossible to let go because they are well conversant with the business. This seems interesting. Who will take their places when they finally retire? The answer to this question within recruitment of diverse workforce and developing mentorship programme to nurture the young talents. Under the mentoring programme, TNNB can pair new and young staff with senior and experienced employee. This would help to create a lasting relationship between new and young employees with senior ones (Business and Legal Reports 2006). This will help in developing high-potential workforce that would ensure that TNNB’s success is sustained into the future. Conclusion Many organisations face numerous performance challenges simply because they often treat talent management as an afterthought. However, contemporary organisations have realised the importance of talent management in optimizing the output of human capital and are in rush to fill existing talent gaps. As an organisation rushes to fill talent voids, it must develop effective talent management strategy that closely links with the overall strategies of the business. Talent management must be ingrained in the culture and practices of an organisation in order to ensure a sustainable pool of talented workforce. Proper and careful planning is required for developing a sound talent management strategy. Bibliography Baron, A & Armstrong, M 2007, ‘Human capital management: achieving added value through people’, Kogan Page Ltd., Philadelphia. Business and Legal Reports 2006, ‘Best practices in recruitment and retention’. Viewed on November 20, 2013 Caplan, J 2011, ‘The value of talent: promoting talent management across the organisation’, Kogan Page, Philadelphia. Davis, T 2007, ‘Talent assessment: a new strategy for talent management’, Gower, cop., Burlington, VT. Deb, T 2005, ‘A conceptual approach to strategic talent management’, Indus Pub., New Delhi. Halan, YC 2005, ‘Managing People’, Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi. Hatum, A 2010, ‘Next generation talent management: talent management to survive turmoil, Palgrave Macmillan’, New York. 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