The human capital the knowledge and skills of an organization's employees are important factors that determine the competitive advantage and the success in the achievement of business goals (Ashton and Morton, 2005; Frank and Taylor, 2004). Some organizations need people with highly specialized technical competencies, and skills and these talented people are a priority; without them, the organization will not move forward (Meyers and Van Woerkom, 2014). Therefore, organizations need to attract talented employees, improve their talents, provide opportunities for talent development, and retain talent through human capital management (Du Plooy and Roodt, 2010).
Talent management is the process of identifying, recruiting, retaining and deploying those talented people within an organization. Talent management positively impacts work involvement and employee performance (Sopiah et al., 2020). All individuals possess some talents that can be improved on the job. However, some talented people are motivated and possess the skills and abilities that enable them to outperform others in their specialized work areas. Hiring and maintaining these talented people is expensive, so existing talent must be developed through training and mentoring by developing and executing talent retention strategies (Vaamonde et al., 2018). Talent audits can identify employees with high potential and provide the basis for benchmarking talent in terms of talent acquisition, talent development, and retention (Armstrong and Taylor, 2020; Aljbour et al., 2021). In addition, the talent development skills model can support future requirements and identify skills shortages (North et al., 2021).
Many government organizations have internal and external secondment schemes that allow employees to join other organizations, including international organizations, and return with a higher silk level (Barkworth, 2004). This enables them to develop their talents, get to know new organizations, build professional networks and return. These posting periods vary in Sri Lanka between two and five years. However, one of the weaknesses in this scheme is that the seconded officers will become junior, similar to an out-of-service period when the person returns to the public service. This leads to dissatisfaction, and the gifted civil servants leave the civil service for good. Several employees in the organization where I work, initially joined as seconded officials from governments. Some of these talented employees have secured long term employment with the organization as they are highly qualified and skilled. However, some officers return and reach the helm of their organizations in the public sector as well.
A system at universities enables academics to take a sabbatical after every seven years of work (Jöns, 2015). Academics use this opportunity to join other reputed internal universities or firms for higher salaries. This opportunity is crucial to retain a highly talented workforce in the long term and offer an opportunity to develop a better professional career. However, as in the public sector, some academics who leave abroad for sabbatical remain on overseas jobs and never return, leaving a vacuum in the highly skilled workforce in the country. Therefore, some institutions have made it mandatory to sign a high value bond in the public sector to encourage employees to return to work.
Nonetheless, it is the responsibility of the organizations to develop a strategic talent management plan so that performance can be steered to ensure they are well committed, engaged, developing their talents by learning from experiences they gain through secondments and sabbatical leave programs (Armstrong and Taylor, 2020)). For this, support from top management, higher salaries, safety and health insurance, training and career development opportunities and work-life balance are essential (Piansoongnern et al., 2011).
In the current global context, workers, especially young workers, are less concerned about staying with one or a few employers as their attitudes and values differ from older generations, which can challenge talent management and create skills shortages (Eisner, 2005). For the younger generations, variety in the job and work-life balance are more important, which must be considered in global talent management planning, as different age groups have their priorities.
References:
Aljbour, A., French, E. and Ali, M. 2021. An evidence-based multilevel framework of talent management: a systematic review. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management. ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print).
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S. 2020. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice.
Ashton, C. and Morton, L. 2005. c. Strategic HR review.
Barkworth, R. 2004. Secondments: A review of current research: A background paper for IES research network members. Institute for Employment Studies.
Du Plooy, J. and Roodt, G. 2010. Work engagement, burnout and related constructs as predictors of turnover intentions. SA journal of Industrial Psychology. 36(1), pp.1-13.
Eisner, S.P. 2005. Managing generation Y. SAM advanced management journal. 70(4), p4.
Frank, F.D. and Taylor, C.R. 2004. Talent management: Trends that will shape the future. Human Resource Planning. 27(1).
Jöns, H. 2015. Talent mobility and the shifting geographies of Latourian knowledge hubs. Population, Space and Place. 21(4), pp.372-389.
Meyers, M.C. and Van Woerkom, M. 2014. The influence of underlying philosophies on talent management: Theory, implications for practice, and research agenda. Journal of World Business. 49(2), pp.192-203.
North, C., Shortt, M., Bowman, M.A. and Akinkuolie, B. 2021. How Instructional Design Is Operationalized in Various Industries for job-Seeking Learning Designers: Engaging the Talent Development Capability Model. TechTrends. 65(5), pp.713-730.
Piansoongnern, O., Anurit, P. and Kuiyawattananonta, S. 2011. Talent management in Thai cement companies: A study of strategies and factors influencing employee engagement. African Journal of Business Management. 5(5), pp.1578-1583.
Sopiah, S., Kurniawan, D.T., Nora, E. and Narmaditya, B.S. 2020. Does Talent Management Affect Employee Performance?: The Moderating Role of Work Engagement. Journal of Asian Finance Economics and Business. 7(7), pp.335-341.
Vaamonde, J.D., Omar, A. and Salessi, S. 2018. From organizational justice perceptions to turnover intentions: The mediating effects of burnout and job satisfaction. Europe's journal of psychology. 14(3), p554.
Yes Ravi. Also talent management is to attract, identify, develop, engage, and deploy people who are considered to be extremely valuable to a company (Campbell & Wendy, 2013). It should be in line with the company's aims and strategic objectives (Hirsh,, 2015). By proactively managing people, companies may create a better workplace, support a "learning" culture, provide value to their company as a whole, and improve diversity management (Collings, et al., 2017). As a result, professionals consider talent management to be one of their top concerns.
ReplyDeleteAll employees are valuable to a company, from cleaning staff to the CEO. Talent audits can identify employees with high potential and provide the basis for benchmarking talent in terms of talent acquisition, talent development, and retention (Armstrong and Taylor, 2020; Aljbour et al., 2021). Attracting external talent is mainly driven by higher perks and a better work environment.
DeleteHi Ravi. Nicely written article. Adding more to your points, most of the companies, including multinational and local companies prefer to hire experienced people due to various reasons. Aside from the cost savings, train, and keep less experienced people, the advantages of hiring a more dependable and consistent staff are worth considering (Johannessen, et al., 2020). They feel that work experience provides better practical knowledge and a greater ability to handle situations.
ReplyDeleteIt depends on how the talent is defined. Talent and experience are two different things. Some talented people are young and without much experience. However, if the right opportunity is given, they will gain experience and grow faster contributing to the organization.
DeleteWell said Ravi. Furthermore with the talent management approach, it is critical to be aligned with the broader organizational strategy. The environment surrounding the organization is also taken in to account when assessing the organizational strategy (Mona Momtazian,2021).
ReplyDeleteThe process of talent management should blend with a resourcing strategy, attraction and retention policies and programmes, talent audit, role design, talent relationship management, performance management, learning and development, management succession planning and career management with overall objective and organizational strategy (Armstrong 2020).
DeleteHi Ravi, well written article and adding to that Cappelli (2008) suggested that the signs of a success full talent management strategy are that it is inclusive and that it can address and resolve any incongruity between the supply and demand of talent.
ReplyDeleteThere is competition between companies to attract and retain great talent. Therefore, it is important to maintain a pool of talented people in an organization to meet the demand (Hughes, J.C. and Rog, E., 2008). There are many drivers of talent retention. Additionally, retaining talented young people is one of the biggest challenges as their priorities are different and they would not stay with the same company for long periods of time.
DeleteAgreed with you Ravi , further Further employee engagement in different way and gave a distinction between two types of engagement, job engagement and organization engagement. In addition, it was also argued and further tested that both job engagement and organization engagement are different in terms of their antecedents and consequences (Saks,2006).When discuss on Talent management it’s the approaches required which is highlighting as ‘growth from within’, regarding talent development as a key element of the business strategy, being sure about the competencies and qualities that matter, maintaining well defined career paths, taking management development, coaching and mentoring seriously and demanding high performance towards organizational goals (Younger et al,2007).
ReplyDeleteEmployee engagement is linked to talent management. Examining the elements of talent management provides a good understanding of the process which includes; resourcing strategy, attraction and retention policies and programmes, talent audit, role design, talent relationship management, performance management, learning and development, management succession planning and career management (Armstrong 2020).
DeleteI agree with your points, and further, Talent management practices that demonstrate commitment to managing human resources result in more engaged employees and a lower turnover rate (Alias, Nor and Hassan,2016)
ReplyDeleteSome employees are easily replaceable; however, those who are essential to the strategic success of an organization need to be identified, developed and well paid (Collings & Mellahi, 2009). As you rightly mentioned, talent management strategies should also be linked to employee engagement strategies to improve talent retention.
DeleteWhile agreeing with your opinion,It is mentioned that high degree of engagement in domestic and global organisations encourage retention of talent,advanced customer loyalty and enhance organizational execution & stakeholder value. (Nancy R. Lockwood, 2007)
ReplyDeleteYes, talent management and development programmes should be organisation-specic (Ford,2010). For this talent development skills model can support future requirements and identify skills shortages(North et al., 2021) locally and globally.
DeleteAgreed with you, managing talent has become a top priority and a key business challenge. Having the right talent in pivotal roles at the right time is of strategic importance, making a difference to revenues, innovation and organization effectiveness With
ReplyDeletetalent emerging as a key driver for competitive advantage, it is important to
examine the factors that determine higher utilization and retention of talent,Upasana, A., Sumita, D., and Shivganesh, B. 2007).
Indeed, it is a top priority. Retaining talented people is a tremendous challenge as talented people have higher demand from other similar organizations. Over 75% of CEOs believe the absence of talented employees is one of the main threats to their companies' growth (PWC, 2017).
DeleteHi Ravi, Well said, Employee engagement or keeping employees engaged refers to the manner in which employees give their best of individual and group effort in the interest of the organization. The approach of employee engagement keeps employees committed towards organizational goals and values. It keeps them motivated to give their best contribution to the success of the organization. Van Woerkom, M. 2014
ReplyDeleteThough your point is not directly related to this post on talent management, talent management strategies should be linked to employee engagement strategies for better results.
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ReplyDeleteWell Ravi, Employee Engagement and Accountability in The Workplace Organizations have been investing resources in increasing employee engagement for years, yet despite their best efforts, most of these companies are not seeing the returns they intended for (Dalton, 1971; Kozlowski and Klein, 2000).
ReplyDelete