Talent Management in HRM

What is Talent Management?

While many authors have defined talent management in different ways, in essence, it refers to the 'process of integrating new workers, developing and retaining current workers, and attracting highly skilled personnel to work' for the organisation (Hongal & Kinange, 2020, p. 65).

Why is Talent Management important?

Talent Management’s importance comes mainly from its ability to retain the top talent in the organisation. An organisation's talent is an integral part of the competitive advantage it has in its industry. Thus, attrition is costly. According to Edie Goldberg, the founder of E. L. Goldberg & Associates, a talent management and development company, the average cost of new hires is close to four times the salary of that position (Hastwell, 2023). A study by Great Place To Work, a popular organisation that provides a standardised service to survey an organisation’s employees against a set of criteria to determine how the organisation compares with the rest of the industry as well as for the leaders to get an understanding of what their employees are thinking, in 2022 also found that 55% of the employees in U.S. across a number of industries were planning to quit within the next six months (Hastwell, 2023). Therefore, having a proper talent management programme to keep the best talent in the organisation engaged continuously is undoubtedly beneficial.

How to create a Talent Management programme?

Now that an understanding on what Talent Management is and why it is important is gained, how to build such a programme must be identified. Great Place To Work provides a four-step process to create a talent management programme (Hastwell, 2023). The process explained by Hastwell (2023) is described below.

Figure 1: Four-step process to create a talent management programme (Hastwell, 2023)

1. Assess employee experience

The gist of this task is to define a baseline to measure against. Thoughts of employees must be collected either via qualitative surveys, one-on-one meetings, and/or group discussions to understand the current status of the organisation.

2. Ensure EVP alignment with company values

EVP here refers to Employee Value Proposition and it refers to what an organisation is offering to its employees. The EVP must align with the organisation's values. For example, if the organisation values learning, then the EVP must include training and mentoring programmes.

3. Keep reviewing and adjusting

Most markets today can be explained under the term VUCA (Bennett & Lemoine, 2014). When markets are VUCA, the industries need to adapt to its volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous nature to survive and thrive. As with everything else, the talent management programme needs to be reviewed regularly and adjusted accordingly to match the emerging trends inside and outside the organisation to keep it effective.

Figure 2: VUCA (Bennett & Lemoine, 2014)

4. Communicate as you change

When the changes are implemented, it is important to communicate it to the organisation to keep everyone informed and onboarded from the start. When it is made clear how the changes align with the organisation’s values and long-term vision, it makes a positive impact in the organisation as the purpose becomes clear to both employees and leaders.

As seen in brief above, talent management is an important part of Human Resource Management (HRM). The four steps discussed above can be used to build a new talent management programme or to improve an existing one to get the maximum benefit out of the talent in the organisations.

References

Bennett, N. & Lemoine, G. J., 2014. A Guide to Approaching Events in the Four VUCA Categories. [Art] (HBR).

Bennett, N. & Lemoine, G. J., 2014. What VUCA Really Means for You. [Online]
Available at: https://hbr.org/2014/01/what-vuca-really-means-for-you
[Accessed 15 August 2023].

Hastwell, C., 2023. 4-step process to create a talent management program. [Art] (Great Place To Work).

Hastwell, C., 2023. What Is Talent Management? Definition, Strategy, Processes and Models. [Online]
Available at: https://www.greatplacetowork.com/resources/blog/talent-management-definition-strategy-processes-models
[Accessed 15 August 2023].

Hongal, P. & Kinange, U., 2020. A Study on Talent Management and its Impact on Organization Performance - An Empirical Review. International Journal of Engineering and Management Research, 10(1), pp. 64-71.