Analysis of Talent Management - Research Paper Example

Analysis of Talent Management Contents Talent Management Process 5 Succession Planning 6 Retaining of Best Talent 8 Performance Management 9 Talent Management and Competitive Advantage 10 Challenges of Global Talent Management 11 Conclusion 12 Reference 13 Bibliography 14 How many times we heard it said 'people are our organization's greatest asset', Rothwell. W. J (2008)? Need to investigate that first and then carry on with the rest of the assignment. People Are Our Organization's Greatest Asset Managers often make a statement which says, “Our greatest asset is people”. The mangers are extremely fond of repeating the line and predicting that the one major difference between organisations in comparison to another is the performance of the people. Although most of the mangers know the fact that out of all the available resources, people are least utilised and the potential of human resources are effectively tapped and put on to work. However it is true in case of accounting treatment which shows people as cost which shapes the way management thinks about the people (Drucker, 1999, p. 255). The above stated statement is often heard in an organisation but organisation tends to spend less than 1% of projected budgets on aspect of people towards project. The percentage is not enough and with an increasing impact on people, the percentage should be increased significantly. It is the duty of the project team to spend ample amount of time as well as effort on change of human management. Organisation needs to market the membership as the same way organisation markets its products and services and perhaps even more. Organisations have to attract the people, hold them, recognise as well as reward them, motivate the people to perform the work and finally satisfy and serve the people (Jeston & Nelis, 2012, p. 37). It can be said that the saying “People are our greatest asset” is neither useful nor true. Organisation has bundle of resources as well as processes which are held together and are animated through systems. People and system go hand in hand and it is difficult to say which form and integral part for the organisation. But unfortunately, not all organisations acknowledge the worth of the people and also if they do, the organisations are unsure as to how they should replicate, quantify and also sustain talent. Companies tend to spend more on tea bags and other stuff rather than on developing the people or towards team building. The “war of talent” had revealed that greater management awareness, about the importance of retaining as well as attracting the right people is essential for organisation to survive in the competitive world. In order to establish healthy workplace the HR practitioners should pay much more attention towards hiring the right kind of employees (Rothwell, 2012). The sort of behaviour which is likely to endanger trust is the moment when management are honest with people; keep their words i.e. delivers the deal and truly practises what the organisation preaches. Organisation which espouse the core value and then ignore it will be the organisation bearing low trust among the employees and customers (Armstrong, 2000, p. 195). Talent management is all about making this phrase more than mere lip service (give approval). Indeed, some contemporary observers of the business scene predict that the HR department will be replaced by the 'Talent Management' department- to evaluate the HRM Talent Management Talent management, over the years has become the buzzword in training and corporate HR. Hr functions has evolved from personal developed regarded as the first stage, strategic HR, the second stage and finally the latest and the third stage is talent management. HR have entered a new era of Talent management, strategic HR remains to e the key focus, the HR and learning and development organisations are currently focused on new set of issues such as to make recruiting process more effective and efficient, develop better mangers as well as leaders to reinforce culture, values and creates sustainable leadership; to identify the competency gap and fill in the gaps through e learning, training and also through development programs and other issues concerning an organisation. Talent management is a process of creating value through innovation, business process, sales, customer service and other related activities. As organisation often strives to meet the goal set for it also makes sure that the organisation has a continuous as well as integrated process towards training, recruiting, supporting, managing and also compensating the people (Bersin, 2006). HR and talent management cannot be separated from each other neither it can be said that the HR department to be replaced by Talent management as HR being the primary owner of talent management, it plays many roles and out of that one of the most important role played by HR is that it act as facilitator of talent mindset. It is HR that leads the way for companies to implement the role of talent management and works closely with the senior management of the organisation to ensure that the top level management are equally committed towards talent management. In addition to integrate talent management HR also plays the role of change management agent. The HR tends to address four activities of talent management which involves recruitment, leadership development, and performance management along with organisational strategy (SHRM, 2009, p. 4). Talent Management Process Talent management is a complete process which takes into consideration from workforce planning to critical skill gap analysis a total of eight components. Figure 2 shows the complete process of talent management The first stage in talent process is workforce planning which is integrated along with business plan. The process includes plans of the workforce, hiring, and compensation budgets for the financial year. The second stage is recruiting which is done through an integrated process, assessments, hiring and evaluation of the business brings people into the organisation. Onboarding deals with training and enabling the employees to become productive and quickly integrate into the organisation. In Performance management with the help of business plan, organisation tends to establish a process in order to measure and manage the employees. Training and performance support is the most critical function as in this stage training and development programs are provided at all the level of the organisation. The sixth stage deals with succession planning enabling the mangers as well as individuals to identify right candidate for a particular position. Compensation and benefit forms an integral part of the talent management process. Organisation tries to tie together compensation plan with performance management so that benefits, incentives and compensation align well with the objectives and goal of the organisation. The last stage, critical skills gap analyses is an important process but overlooked in most of the organisation and industries (Bersin, 2006). Talent management is a strategic issue and wants board attention and also requires sponsorship along with continual support from the HR function. Thus it can be said that talent management is the implementation of system and strategies which tends to improve the process for developing, recruiting as well as retaining high level employees in order to meet the current and also future demands of the organisation. Rothwell assertion “people are the greatest assets” is partially true in the current context as the organisation focus more on right people, acquiring them at the right time and providing them the right kind of training and development. Organisation have moved on from saying that “people are the greatest assets” to “right people are the greatest assets” (Munro, 2005, p. 166). Succession Planning Talent management is an essential and important management function which deals with hiring of the right talent at the right place and at the right time. Talent management involves chain of succession programs which integrated into a single system. But most of the organisation do not utilise the concept of talent management adequately and fails to understand the need of talent management strategy. Organisation considers the concept of talent management as meaningless, vague and simple waste of money but in today’s competitive environment. Adopting of talent management and effective utilisation of talent management can act as a competitive advantage for the organisation. Succession planning with the help of talent management is much more transparent and open as compared to few years back, it is management driven ad not just HR driven, it has become proactive, objective oriented and importantly applies to all the levels of the management (Callaghan, 2008, p. 10). However one of the mistake organisations makes is to neglect the “B-Players”. Organisations gets involved in the so called “war of talent” since hunting for potential starts are fun and impressive towards the organisational pay roll and makes the board members look good. But it might lead to underestimation of steady performers in the organisation. As per an article of Harvard Business, the star employees focus on themselves and their own needs whereas the B players are steady and tend to survive longer and contribute towards the success of the organisation. Thus it is crucial for organisation to focus on talent management and ensure that the majority of workforce of organisation gets included in the concept of talent management and not only the top 10 to 15% of the workforce. With an effective talent management strategy both the organisation and the workforce are equally benefitted. The organisation experiences increased productivity along with better turnover while the workforce tends to experience a state of well being with job satisfaction and better career growth. Today most of the organisations have realised the worth of talent management team in order to gain a competitive advantage in the competitive market. It can be further stated that human assets are the greatest asset in any organisation and if the assets are properly utilised it can bring out the best. Talent management which was once regarded as mere task of HR now has evolved as core component of the organisational culture (CHRM, 2012). For example, PepsiCo had also implemented the process of talent management and mainly focused on three components, to identify, to develop and to move. Each of the elements focused on specific approaches and tools. PepsiCo, in order to identify talent, it used assisted assessment along with the People Planning Process. Readiness was developed through experience, coaching, on the job training and formal training. Movement was based on the developmental need which allows the individual to gather experience and provide with a pool of talent for the senior most members of the organisation. Formal training formed a powerful element for the company’s development process. The primary objective of PepsiCo talent management model is talent movement of cross divisional (Fulmer & Bleak, 2008, p.192). Retaining of Best Talent Attracting and retaining the best talent is likely to become more challenging as competition between the high potential management and high perform tends to intensifies. Retaining the top level performers is one of the core functions of talent management. Therefore the biggest challenge for the organisation is to retain the best talent in the emerging competitive environment. Top companies are always making an effort to implement the best practise to recruit the employees, train and finally retain the talent. In this process talent management has occupied the centre stage. Companies like Tata Chemicals Ltd and Snapdeal.com considers talent management as one of the key factor behind the success of the organisations. In cases where the head of the organisation retains the position for a longer period of time, ESOPs, Phantom stocks and Cash Bonuses are used as retention elements. New business challenges along with opportunities in leadership development are also used to motivate the employees resulting in retention (The Hindu, 2012). Organisational success, in the era for war of talent, effective retention and recruitment is the key factor towards the organisational success. To attract, retain and hire the compatibility between the employee and the employer is critical. Companies bearing excellent brand names and reputation are well positioned to attract the best talent. For example Yahoo! Inc. that effectively links the culture of the organisation as well as the values which it holds in its recruiting policy in order to determine the best candidate. The recruitment process in Yahoo takes ample amount of time as in 2004 Yahoo had spent about 6000 hours in interviewing the candidates to fill 500 vacant positions (SHRM, 2006, p. 5). Performance Management In addition to retention and recruitment, performance management also form an integral part of talent management. Performance management is central to the function of HRM and thus organisation should integrate the efforts of performance management into a much broader framework of talent management. Reward and recognition are the foundational concept and plays a major role in engaging the key employees. They are most common form of programs used in talent management. However with globalisation and current economic condition, the concept of reward as well as recognition has been challenged by the economy. Organisation are much more cautious in giving rewards and provide non cash rewards which are equally valued by the employees and at the same time cost less to the organisation (Ernst & Young, 2012). In order to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing talent management into organisation, an example of an organisation is highlighted so that it can be made clear that talent management is the new concept which every organisation should adopt it and make effective use of the concept along with HR polices. Talent management is a part of HR and HR plays essential role in nurturing the concept of talent management. Accenture which is a multinational organisation and deals in technology, consulting and outsourcing of knowledge employs about 181000 people across the world. Accenture strategies of talent management had integrated it to enable the life cycle of talent management. Accenture focus on hiring as well as retaining the best talent possible. Accenture has also implemented a development centre where the individuals has the opportunity to understand the opportunity, strength and also analysis the skills gaps if any and this is done through mentors, counsellors and coaches hired by the organisation. The talent development framework is new to the organisation which aims to bring in the best possible talent for the organisation. The talent management and the development program are the integral part of the company and aims to develop senior leaders. With the help of “Talent Development Matrix” Accenture has developed a pipeline for the people so that they are feed into different workforce (Accenture, 2011). Talent Management and Competitive Advantage Management researcher believes that sustainable competitive advantage occurs from the internal qualities of the organisation which cannot be imitated and Human capital is the example of internal qualities of an organisation. According to Heinen and O’Neill (2004), talent management is the best way to create a competitive advantage and is true to quite an extent. Competitive advantage occurs from resources which are valuable and company specific which cannot be substituted by the competitors of the industry. However according to Hatch and Dyer (2004) competitive advantage may diaper with employees leaving the organisation. When employees are hired they need to undergo certain training in order to get along with the new environment and the time used to tailor the human capital is a cost for the organisation. Human capital although is one of the biggest source of competitive advantage, the need for system still exists and is considered essential part of the organisation. Therefore talent management needs to much more firm specific and customise according to the business and in the context of human capital (Al-Awamleh, 2009, p. 31). Challenges of Global Talent Management In the era of globalisation, it is essential for the organisation to get the best talent and increase the competitive advantage of the organisation. Globally, many organisations are experience shortage of employees and according to a study, about 40% of the organisation struggle to locate the best and qualified candidates. The need of talent across the globe in different organisation tends to create a movement in between the countries. For example, US rely mostly on foreign talent. Global talent face huge challenges but there are implication for growth and sustainability. A recent study which was conducted o global companies revealed that companies are mostly concerned about the development of capability of the future leaders so that they are able to navigate the global business environment which is getting tougher and tougher and needs to manage properly in order to survive in the competitive environment. The key findings stated that the most important and essential determinant of the talent management globally is the degree of involvement by the top leaders, the CEO and other board directors in managing talent management. On an average, the CEO of companies spends merely 16% of their allocated time with respect to global talent management. In sync with global HR policies and trend organisation are in the process of creating the process of talent management. Intel which is known for its chip, the HR utilises the talent management program and also coordinates with the management in order to access the needs of workforce. Therefore studies conducted on talent management has revealed that talent management tends to force the organisation to be aware of as well as access the talent of the workforce and concentrate on the current as well on the future needs of the respective organisation. Secondly, companies which are able to relate the business case along with organisational strategy and talent management are able to reap the benefit of better performance. And thirdly companies are seeking ways through which talent are measured and are able to determine the impact of bottom line (SHRM, 2006, p. 8). Conclusion Therefore it can be stated that talent management is a part of HRM and HR plays an important role in bringing up the concept of talent management through which most of the organization are able to retain and acquire the best talent. In the phase of globalisation, talent management forms an integral part of the business strategy of the organisations. Companies like Accenture, PepsiCo, and Siemens have effectively used talent management to retain the best talent. The saying “Our greatest asset is people” is somewhat true to certain extent and Talent management tends to lip service the phrase. According to concept of talent management, people are the greatest assets and strength for an organisation and if utilised properly will contribute in the success of the organisations. Reference Accenture, 2011. Talent management and development. [Pdf]. Available at: [Accessed 8 August 2012]. Al-Awamleh, R. A., 2009. Developing Future Leaders: The contribution of Talent Management. [Pdf]. Available at: < http://www.greenleaf.edu/pdf/raida_al-awamleh.pdf> [Accessed 8 August 2012]. Armstrong, M., 2000. Strategic Human Resource Management: A Guide to Action. Kogan Page Publishers. Bersin, J., 2006. Talent Management. [Pdf]. Available at: [Accessed 7 August 2012]. Callaghan, A. O., Talent Management Review. [Pdf]. Available at: [Accessed 7 August 2012]. CHRM, 2012. Talent Management - A Vague Concept. [Online]. Available at: [Accessed 7 August 2012]. Drucker, P. F., 1999. Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices. Taylor & Francis. Ernst& Young, 2010. Managing today’s global workforce. [Pdf]. Available at: [Accessed 8 August 2012]. Fulmer, R. M. and Bleak, J. L., 2008. The Leadership Advantage: How the Best Companies Are Developing Their Talent to Pave the Way for Future Success. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Jeston, J. and Nelis, J., 2012. Business Process Management. Routledge. Munro, A., 2005. Practical Succession Management: How To Future-proof Your Organization. Gower Publishing, Ltd. Rothwell, W., 2012. Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management, Critical and Emerging Issues in Human Resources. John Wiley & Sons. SHRM, 2006. Talent Management: Driver for Organizational Success. [Pdf]. Available at: [Accessed 8 August 2012]. The Hindu, 2012. Effective talent management helps in talent retention. [Online]. Available at: < http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-opportunities/article3680418.ece> [Accessed 7 August 2012]. Bibliography Brown, P & Hesketh, A., 2004. The Mismanagement of Talent. 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