Business Task Management - Essay Example

09 October, Business performance management: Introduction: Performance is an outcome of talent people are naturally blessed with. However, managers assume a responsibility to mould the talent of workers so that it complies wit the requirements of various business tasks. Talent management has become an important managerial trait in the modern world. Definition of organizational talent: Talent is fundamentally an organizational resource that needs to be managed like other monetary and time resources so that maximum benefit for the organization can be ensured. In fact, talent management is the first and foremost pre-requisite for achieving effective management for all other resources. Not many organizations are blessed with an adequate provision of talent. Owners of organizations incur huge losses because of the talent gaps on various spots in the managerial heirarachy of the organization. From the top to bottom, technical positions are often occupied by non-technical staff that is not capable to handle the technicalities of everyday organizational matters, and the ultimate loss is incurred by the owners. Talent is indeed, one of the extremely scarce resources. Hence, owners should realize a need to manage the talent they have to retrieve the maximum effect in favor of the organization. Conventional approaches for talent management: Tough selection criteria: “If you have only one dollar to spend on either improving the way you develop people or improving your selection and hiring process, pick the latter.” (Bray cited in Wellins, Smith, and Erker, n.d., p. 8). Criteria for selection of employees for specific duties must be clearly defined by the employers so that they do not have to regret later. This is very important because it is not possible to develop any kind of skills in an individual, no matter how hard it is tried. “Success Profiles” require specific traits in an employee that are more often than not, impossible to inculcate. It is essential to ensure that the employees’ aptitude synchronizes with the job he/she is being hired for. Else, it should be understood that classroom lectures can not eradicate the mismatch between the two. Also, assessment of the employee for the right kind of skills at the time of appointment costs much lesser than inculcating those skills in the same individual at a later stage. Performance measurement: There is no doubt in the fact that what can not be measured, can also not be managed. One of the most commonly employed approaches to manage talent is through measuring the performance of the employees against the pre-defined milestones. This approach follows the initial step of tough selection. Managers define goals for the individual staff members and assign the durations of time to particular activities that integrate to develop the goal. Schedule defined in the start is not altered, though it is constantly updated to assess the employees’ output against the intended benchmarks. Employees are made aware of the incentives or disincentives they will be subjected to while assigning them their particular tasks. Incentives approach: This approach towards effective talent management follows the third step in the flow of the process. It comes after the measurement of the employees’ performance. Incentives are rewards that the employees are entertained with upon successful completion of their duties. Factor upon which the performance is assessed to be good is the extent to which it conforms to the benchmark laid by the manager in the start. In a vast majority of cases, incentives offered to the employees as a reward include but are not limited to monetary benefits in form of bonuses, paid leave in addition to the official yearly leave period and promotion of the employee to a higher level in his field. This is an optimistic approach towards effective talent management and it tends to develop a culture of peace, harmony, respect and affection between the employees and their manager. Also, the employees tend to work harder when they see that they are rewarded for their hard work. Punishment approach: Like the incentives approach, this is the second option that is chosen when the performance of an employee is not found in compliance with the expectations of the managers. Disincentives for the employees may include but are not limited to fines, warning letters, reduction in salary or in extreme cases, termination. Employees are human beings and therefore, can display poor performance occasionally despite being equipped with immense talent in their field that can be utilized for the betterment of the organization. However, a culture of punishment upon the display of poor performance makes the employees cautious about their acts and they tend to work harder as a result. Fear of termination: Downsizing has been globally employed as the most important means to combat the scarcity of funds in the present economic recession. This has been chosen as the most suitable strategy because it pushes the employees to deliver their best in the hardest possible manner. The employees working in the organization face a threat of unannounced and unwarned termination, and hence are obliged to express their talent in their work. Although the technique was not initially chosen for this purpose, yet it has proved itself as an effective talent management technique for many employers all over the world. Employee training programs: In addition to this, various employee development programs are offered by many organizations in an attempt to further refine the talent of the employees to make that comply with the changing demands of the projects. This develops an environment of trust between the employers and the employees. Employees deliver their best as they realize that their employers own them and can spend money, to develop them in their field. Although, such an approach might seem unfavorable to some employers, yet a careful analysis of the past cases will let them know that this is indeed, a very suitable approach to help develop the employees’ talent as required. Such programs may either be offered consistently after regular time intervals or as dictated by the changing requirements of the projects at hand in the organization. Challenges: Sometimes, managers tend to develop extremely difficult criteria for the selection of employees in an attempt to hire only the individuals that are truly equipped with the required talent. This makes them susceptible to loosing some of the most talented individuals that might not have performed as expected in the shear selection time. The incentives and disincentives approach is undoubtedly an important step in the total talent management process, yet it may occasionally develop negative trends among the employees with the passage of time. Employees may start to work only for money and feel insulted upon allocation of fines as a result of occasional poor performances. Also, some employees tend to develop professional jealousy against their co-workers who have been rewarded by the managers upon display of good performance. It is an established fact that presently, the whole world is suffering from economic recession. There has been a scarcity of funds for the last few years. In order to adapt to the changing needs of the business, many employers have downsized their companies. This strategy has been fundamentally used to cut down the organizational expenses. Although this has come as a warning for all staff that has indirectly caused them to take their performance to the maximum, yet there has been a tendency to fire some extremely talented employees along with the bulk of staff terminated to maximize the monetary benefits. This has and will cause considerable long term loss to such organizations in terms of scarcity of talent once the economic scenario is revitalized. Works cited: Wellins, Richard, S., Smith, Audrey, B., and Erker, Scott, “Nine Best Practices for Effective Talent Management.” Development Dimensions International, Inc., MMVI. n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2010. . Read More