Current Human Resource Management Issue - Case Study Example

Talent management and retention Critical Analysis on Retaining Key Talent Name ------------------- University --------------- Author note------------- Talent management and retention Critical Analysis on Retaining Key Talent The world of business has witnessed a paradigm shift in the recent years. Previously it was human resource return on investment that was important, just as there was need to establish business cases meant for use in human resource programs; but now, as companies yearn to register profitable growth, the focus has shifted to retaining key talent and talent acquisition (Baker et al, 2006, pp.5-5). In the Australian context, the retention of key talent comes with twin questions of both risk and matter of business continuity for many companies in the background of tighter labour market. According to a survey, the talent retention competition for skilled workforce is set to increase by as much as 90% in the coming five years. This is primarily because some companies cannot afford to bring in new talent, or even nurture the existing one, as fast as the challenges posed by the rapid growth in business. The Future of Talent Management survey was released in April this year by Mercer, a pioneer in global outsourcing, investment and consulting segment. The survey was done among more than 500 Asia-Pacific companies (The Australian, 2011). According to Marianne Roux, who is the team segment leader at Mercer's, the key to retaining the best talent lies in handling well the personnel involved in delivering operational excellence in a company through technical and critical pipelines, while the changing global demographics are going to further shape the act in retaining or sourcing talent. Talent management and retention Critical Analysis on Retaining Key Talent PriceWaterCoopers believes otherwise since it doesn’t opine that changing industrial relations landscape is going to plug any key talent deficit, but demographics element might be one of five identified forces that help plug it. Put whichever way, industry experts opine that it is now going to be a war for what is being dubbed as the ‘scarcest resource of all’— talent! Take, for example, BHP Billton, which despite having created history in Australia by declaring highest net profit is running short of skilled teams that can fuel its winning trail further. Western Australia is hit so acutely by this shortage that mining projects worth over a whopping $40 billion are in quandary; some of them might even have to be scrapped while almost all are going through an unbearable delay. Until the end of 2010 the mining industry had to fill a gap of around 87,000 new workers; under such a skilled workforce resource crunch, retaining the old key talent becomes all the more important. The trend runs in a similar fashion through almost all industries, and nearly 50% of employers across the country are having a tough time getting the vacant seats occupied. Engineering, trade and sales segments are the worst hit, and the shortage puts Australia at fourth number out of a survey done among 39 countries facing talent crunch. This sends alarm bells ringing among the companies and warrants foolproof strategy on part of companies in order to sustain growth (ManpowerGroup, 2011). In a terse remark, the ManpowerGroup survey says if some companies haven’t yet experienced this pain, the pressure for them is round the corner, even though it is established scarcity of skilled Talent management and retention Critical Analysis on Retaining Key Talent workforce is felt more in the resources sector on account of its boom. Since it is booming the key talent gets vulnerable of being exploited for higher pay and perks by the competing companies. This talent thus attains all the more important place and at the same time is difficult but not impossible to retain. Robust companies are generally aware of the fact that in order to foster growth through best retention policies, they will have to keep individual employee growth and care on top of the retention policy; apart from the the need is to look into five forces that are expected to shape today’s labour issue – technology, globalisation, demographics, conscience, and generational difference (PfriceWaterCoopers, 2005). Companies willing to showcase their concern for workforce are willing to walk that extra mile which makes the difference. They understand minor employee issues that sometimes snowball into major ones and address major issues so that the employees don’t start drifting away by the bait other companies are holding in their hands in the booming sectors. Experts are of the opinion that the five forces are attached with a silver line – if understood properly these can pave better way for dissecting the issue and help reach viable solutions. For example, understanding technology, chiefly internet-driven can lead to innovative ways of filling the talent deficit up and retain the current skilled force; demographics can give a deeper insight into the aging population and dropping birth rate and thus establishing ideas that can help streamline the workforce; giving attention to Talent management and retention Critical Analysis on Retaining Key Talent conscience, and issues as environmental awareness and global warming can lead to a holistic approach to the problem; and understanding generational difference can be a fertile ground for assimilating new ideas and thoughts. In this light Manpower Group survey holds another opinion. It states that the responsibility of key talent retention lies as much with individuals as is with companies. It states that employees must be willing to set on a path of ‘lifelong learning’ and thus improve upon their own employability. While the former does that, it urges latter (employers) to create an ‘Individual Employability Profile’. Year by year each employee must perform better to enhance this profile, which would enable both companies and employees quickly identify the opportunities to be grabbed and gaps to be filled up without much effort, thus making recognition and retention a way of life in an organization. Indirectly, the survey implies that if retaining key talent is companies’ problem, assessing (and improving upon) the talent is an employee’s problem, since the employee can’t make him or herself scarce simply because there is a shortage around there. Given the present talent dearth and importance of retention, this survey seems to be in sync with what Berger and Berger have propounded. They state that talent strategy is a type of investment that an organisation makes in the rich pool of workforce that the organisation trusts most. This makes sure that the organisation has stocked up Talent management and retention Critical Analysis on Retaining Key Talent competitive advantage for its future. These investments in the workforce are variable depending on the type of portfolio an employee has up his or her sleeve. Then investments can broadly be categorised as per three benchmarks, which are: i) cultivating the best, ii) retaining key talent backups, and iii) and suitably allocating what can be termed as a TREAD, where ‘t’ stands for training, ‘r’ for rewards, ‘e’ for education, ‘a’ for assignments, and ‘d’ for development (Berger & Berger, 2011). This ensures a succinct and a successful talent retention process based on the correct identification of the most critical positions in the organization, which ensures that the best of the existing skilled workforce and most suitable and best performing incumbents are elevated to the jobs at higher level (Phillips & Edwards, 2009). This triggers up a very comforting chain for all the deserving people one level each below the top one. This gives the companies a winning strategy since, as according to Stringer and Rueff, it is smart people – making sharp decisions, putting ideas and actions together, and reaching conclusions – that make companies and not necessarily market positions, brand images, and product lines. It is the quality talent and lack of it that sets one company apart from another. It is about certain forces – primarily the human factor – that drives all other forces; technology, its use, birth of concepts and their implementation, judgments but proper ones that drive the businesses. It is all about key talent that is, in comparison to a business, a bigger one (Stringer & Reuff, 2006). In bigger organizations key to all Talent management and retention Critical Analysis on Retaining Key Talent this is expected to be at each leadership point since such organizations have what is termed as “multiple prepared individuals”, which means key individuals at each high level thus giving the organisation “leadership benchstrength.” Each leadership benchstrength would require a specific action for retention and would greatly vary from one point to another, as fit-for-all policy might not uniformly apply at every level. Consequently it is difficult to develop a uniform talent management process, but each process as specified for various leadership benchstrength can be based on a fourfold actions. These are i) talent assessment: a quantifiable rating of employees in a given organization, based on their present and previous job record, ii) talent review: a qualitative review of ratings incorporating several methodologies and group discussions, iii) succession planning: identification of incumbents who are fit to be elevated to the next key level, and the next best ones who can be ready to fill future positions, and iv) identification of high potentials: deserving enhanced visibility and exceptional opportunities, these would be the leaders for now (Sims & Gay, 2006). References Doris Sims & Matthew Gay, (2006), Building Tomorrow's Talent: A Practitioner's Guide to Talent Management and Succession Planning, London, UK, AuthorHouse UK Ltd, Jack J. Phillips & Lisa Edwards (2009), Managing Talent Retention: An ROI Approach, San Fransisco, CA, John Wiley & Sons Lance Berger & Dorothy Berger, 2011, The Talent Management Handbook: Creating a Sustainable Competitive Advantage by Selecting, Developing, and Promoting the Best People, NY, United States of America, McGraw-Hill Companies Inc Michael Baker, Diane Kubal, Tom O’Rourke, (2006) "How to use innovative approaches to retain key talent", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 5 Iss: 6, pp.5 – 5 PriceWaterCoopers, War for Talent, The scarcest resource of all, Human resources issues and shortages in the Australian resources market, (2005), Retrieved from http://www.pwc.com/en_GX/gx/energy-utilities-mining/pdf/pwc-australia_war-for-talent-brochure.pdf Rusty Rueff & Hank Stringer, (2006), Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human, New Saddle River, New Jersey, Prentice Hall The Australian, The race is on to sign up key talent, (2011), Retrieved from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/careers/race-is-on-to-sign-up-key-talent/story-fn717l4s-1226046726043 Talent Shortage Survey, ManpowerGroup, (2011), Retrieved from http://www.experis.us/Client-File-Pile/Site-Documents/ManufacturingTalent.pdf Read More