Talent Management: Australian Taxation Office - Case Study Example

TALENT MANAGEMENT: AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE Student’s name Code & Course Professor’s name University City Date Introduction The ability to manage talent is presently being rated as a strategic priority in most organizations with the goal of maximizing on the performance and the productivity of the organization (Sonnenberg and van Zijderveld, 2015). The management of talent involves the identification of individuals in the company with immense potential then giving these respective personnel activities that develop them for the purpose of organizational performance (Duplessis and Sukumaran, 2015). There have been various approaches among different firms to retain talent thus the practice of firms seeking for the best talent and retaining the most prospective employees. Management of talent in addition helps to deal with various challenges that affect the workforce such as diversity and imbalance in the workplace. The discussion on this paper is centered on the Australian Taxation Office and its human resource practices. The Australian Taxation Office is the primary collector of revenue in Australia for the Australian government (Berg and Davidson, 2016). In ATO, the greatest assets are its workforce. The capabilities of the staff in ATO are imperative given the nature of the work environment which is high performing, intensive and agile. Among the challenges faced by the company are the continuous legislative shifts and global technological changes that directly affect the running of the organization. In order to develop its workforce and maximize on productivity, the Australian Taxation Office requires identifying its most potential employees and working around them through development and training in order to achieve maximum organizational performance. This retro respect paper thus seeks to discuss talent management, workforce challenges and relate them to the Australian Taxation Office for an explicit comprehension of the concept under study. Organizational Background The Australian Taxation Office is a body of the Australian government which controls the collection of revenue in the country (APS, 2013). The agency additionally controls the taxation structure of Australia and the legislation under taxes. The vision of the ATO is to see Australians place worth on their taxes and the superannuation structure as resources where voluntary participation is considered as patriotic. The organization aims to ensure confidence among the people of Australia through meeting its obligations and providing prompt assistance to Australians. The organization is continuously working towards bettering their capabilities in order to support the tax payers and serve them in a better way. The workforce under ATO is expected to uphold its corporate values as specified in the Australian Public Service values. The organization seeks to ensure this through compulsory training that ingrains the values into its employees. ATO has approximately 20,660 employees working under is in all regions of Australia (APS, 2013). The main functions of ATO include provision of corporate tax services and law, supporting tax payers to achieve compliance and collecting and processing debts. The corporate strategies involve accountability, transparency and risk management. These approaches are planned and monitored by specific committees who oversee their functions. Despite their approaches, ATO still faces workforce management challenges related to changes in technology and the organizational behavior of its employees. The following section addresses the challenges faced by the human resource management and their effect. Workforce Management Challenges facing ATO Despite its impressive capacity to deliver to the tax payers through the capability of its workforce, ATO faces a challenge from the transformations taking place to make the globe a digital village. The organization is therefore needed to change its structural capacity and processes in order to comply with the new systems. As with any other establishment the effects of change could impact either way to the employee force and this greatly affects performance in the organization (Ehrenberg and Smith, 2016). Technological transformations are meant to make work easier in organizations (Loebbecke and Picot, 2015). Nevertheless, this does not readily imply that the employees are willing to go along with it thus creating a challenge in the organization. The employees further require training on the new systems and processes that are to be introduced to the organization (Doos et al, 2015). Some systems are already being used in the organization such as electronic tax service (Alghamdi and Rahim, 2016). Globalization has additionally encouraged diverse practices with the agency having employees from different backgrounds which has caused some cultural associated conflict in the organization. The Human Resources Management of ATO thus faces the challenge of conforming to current technology to make processes easier and developing its employees to work productively together to ensure continuous performance. Integration of Key Management Practices in ATO ATO has a workforce plan that outlines the capabilities of the workforce and the culture that is required in the department (APS, 2013). The leadership and management within the department are additionally systematic as it merges the functions of learning and development, employee relationships and the management of talent under a singular policy of improving the performance of the workforce. Integration of the functions of the human resource helps to streamline the operations in the department thus enhancing productivity. Various standards have been put in place to monitor the performance of the department and ensure that it adheres to the workforce plan. These include the measurement of potential and the requirement that the employees work up to the potential defined for them. The following is part of the Strategy Alignment Practice Integration Model which shows the integration of the human resource management practices to ensure effective productivity from the department. Human Resource Functions Requirements for Performance Needs for Human Resource The aim of the workforce is to meet the obligations of the tax payer The human resources department requires a workforce that is skilled and has potential to fit in to the future strategies of the organization Learning and development to impact the new knowledge required on use of systems and equipment Management of talent through identifying potential and using it to maximize on performance Aligning the potential of employees and the systems in place to effect maximum performance The organization needs to change its structural capacity and processes in order to comply with the new systems of technology The employees require training on the new systems and processes that are to be introduced to the organization The organization needs to identify individuals in the workforce who possess the capability to effectively handle new technology and the processes in the organization. Australian Taxation Office HRM practices Alignment to the Corporate Strategy In order to develop its workforce and meet the objectives of the agency, ATO has set out to integrate its information technology strategy with the development of the workforce. Given that the operations in the organization require responsiveness and high performance, ATO is committed towards evolving its vision and delivering tax procedures through the use of modern processes. It is argued that for the workforce development function to be strategic, it must go hand in hand with the goals and the objectives of the company. It is essential for companies to integrate their functions and strategies so as to ensure more effective output from the workforce of the organization (Keyes, 2016). The integration further requires correspondence with the stakeholders of the organization, internal and external factors that affect the organization. These include global changes, legislative practices, culture and the structure of the organization (Sparrow et al, 2015). Based on the Strategy Alignment Practice Integration Model, the three levels in which the organization interacts are the organization, the workforce and the functions of the workforce. The following illustration shows the extent of the integration between the human resources and the strategies of the organization. WORKFORCE PRACTICE ALIGNMENT TO CORPORATE STRATEGY MISSION, VISION AND GOALS OF THE ORGANIZATION The vision of the ATO is to see Australians place worth on their taxes and the superannuation structure as resources where voluntary participation is considered as patriotic. The organization aims to ensure confidence among the people of Australia through meeting its obligations and providing prompt assistance to Australians. The organization is continuously working towards bettering their capabilities in order to support the tax payers and serve them in a better way. ORGANIZATIONAL CORE COMPETENCIES The organization has a strong workforce that is agile and responsive to the function of providing corporate services to the tax payer ASSESSMENT OF NEEDS Conforming to current technology to make processes easier and developing its employees to work productively together to ensure continuous performance. INTERGRATED SOLUTIONS In order to build its workforce, ATO has endorsed the appraisal of its employees to determine their capabilities and how they can contribute to the overall goal providing efficient tax services using modern technology ORGANIZATIONAL OUTCOME Effective output from the workforce and the organization in general ATO’s Approach to Talent Management In a bid to develop its workforce, ATO puts in use the main concerns identified in their appraisals between the staff and the supervisors. The strategic plan of the organization works towards identifying the future skills that the organization needs to determine the priorities for the development of the workforce. The human resources department thus uses the framework of the employees, different strategies and tools to enforce the capability of the workforce and integrate it with the strategic direction of the organization. The company performs exercises to profile individual jobs of the employees. In these profiles the capabilities of each role per employee is recorded. The organization then maps the capabilities of individuals against the articulated profiles through individual assessment and the approval of the manager. The results are subsequently validated through surveys done by the managers, mechanisms that measure performance and against the set standards for performance. The ultimate result is the entire capability of the organization which influences decisions on further strategies to be taken in order to deliver the mission of the organization and its vision. On the completion of this exercise, the management possesses a potential platform to fully exploit and make the best for the use of the organization. The best practices observed in the Australian Taxation Office as demonstrated above include the aligning of the talent strategy with the organizational strategy which involves profiling roles that are needed for the performance of the organization and mapping individual capabilities against them. One other best practice is giving the workforce first priority before software. ATO treats its people as valuable assets and the IT strategy is simply aligned to improve on the efficiency of the staff and not to replace them. Findings and Conclusions Based on the research it was evident that despite the challenges that the Australian Taxation Office faces, the organization has employed a strategic approach to counter the challenges and improve on their performance. The challenges presented were the struggle to conform to new business ways and the restructuring of the organization to adapt to the changes. ATO has adopted the talent management strategy to address performance in the organization and counter the challenges of transformation of systems and structures to suit the current trend o organizational management. The agency has further aligned its human resource strategy with the organizational strategy and plans to invest in the same. The organization equally has best practices of setting its goals to go hand in hand with the talent and potential in the company and treating its employees as valuable assets. Recommendations Based on the conclusion, it is thus recommended that the skills and capabilities needed for the future be identified and agreed upon followed by a workforce plan to deliver the strategic and corporate plans. Learning and development needs to be intensified to promote the knowledge on new systems and procedures and additionally avoid the cost of hiring a higher number of new personnel to manage the novel structure. The current plan of the company is greatly focused towards technological capability and how to inculcate it fully into the organization. It is recommended that the management additionally focus on other capabilities such as communication and building of relationships within the organization to foster growth. The integration of practices and strategy should be made a continuous operation in the organization to maximize on efficiency and build a culture that is based on rational organizational strategy. Reference List Alghamdi, A. and Rahim, M., 2016. 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