New Year Resolutions of a Manager - National HRD Network

Talent Management
"To put it simply and starkly, if you don't
get the people process right you will never
fulfill the potential of your business."
- Larry Bossidy.
In the competitive scenario to attain
competitive advantage in every aspect what
we need is how different we are from our
competitors and what are our core
competencies. In our knowledge based
economy value is the product of knowledge
and information. In the new day context
companies cannot generate profits without
ideas, skills and talent of knowledge workers
and companies have to bet on people but
not on technologies certainly not on capital.
To survive in the knowledge based economy
over the long run, organizations must
become focused and be capable of
managing employees as their most critical
resources hence workers now require more
education and skills than ever before, as
positions have become more knowledge
based and information intensive. And with the
business going global and of cutthroat
competition there is a need to develop and
deploy people who can articulate the passion
and vision of the organization and make
teams with the energy to perform at much
higher levels. Hence talent plays a vital role.
Definition of Talent Management
"The capacity to learn + capacity to think +
capacity to relate + capacity to act
accordingly * values of the organization is
called as talent"
"Talent management implies recognizing
person's inherent skills, traits, personality
and offering him a matching job".
While there are no Magic formulae to
manage talent, the trick is to locate it and
encourage it. Talent management is
beneficial to both the organization and the
employees.
Features of talent management
l Talent management is of identifying,
realizing and guiding untapped potential
in people.
l It means nurturing and developing those
people identified of having ability and
potential and it should form part of any
organizations recruitment and retention
strategy.
l It involves individual and organizational
development in response to a changing
and complex operating environment. It
includes the creation and maintenance
of supportive people oriented
organizational culture.
l Talent Management is a conscious
deliberate approach undertaken to
attract, develop and retain people with
the aptitude and abilities to meet current
and future organizational needs.
Every person has a unique talent that suits
a particular job profile any other position will
cause him discomfort. A wrong fit will result
in further hiring, retraining and other wasteful
activities. In order to bring harmony in such
situation the key ingredient is "putting the
right people in the right jobs."
Talent management brings together a
number of important human resources and
management initiatives. Organizations that
formally decide to manage their talent
undertake a strategic analysis of their
current HR process. Talent management
approach adopted and focused on cocoordinating
and integrating the following.
l Recruitment: ensuring right people are
attracted to the organization.
l Retention: developing and
implementing practices that reward and
supports employees.
l Employee development: ensuring
continuous formal and informal learning
and development.
An important step to be identified in the
organization is the staff or employees that
are critical to the organization. Many
organizations lost a lot of "organizations
knowledge" in the downsizing exercises a
few years ago. The impact of the loss was
not immediately apparent. However it did not
take long for many companies to realize their
mistake. What more important is to think of
whether people still seen as an
organizations most valuable assets.
Business leaders are quick to say that, but
when it comes to the real situation they are
not realizing the same consequently they
are worried about retaining them.
For those companies who have the foresight
to take more innovative and imaginative
approaches they will have the opportunity
B. Mathews and B. Saritha
to gain competitive advantage by creating
niche for human resources. For those who
don't, their future competitiveness will
remain even more uncertain.
Now let us discuss in detail some of the
important aspects which are needed for
talent management.
Attracting talent:
Attracting qualified talent is the critical first step
in the talent management cycle. The improving
economy, baby boomers, retirement and other
factors are creating keen competition for talent
these days. Hence this step has become more
critical than ever before.
Companies have to attract good talent by
establishing their brand identity. As we know
that we get good customers with a good brand.
In the same way companies must develop their
image in the society by implementing the best
practices in each and every aspect.
Selecting talent:
Once qualitative people are attracted then
it is very important to choose right candidate
for the right job. What companies have to
do is to match the job analysis with human
analysis which gives the real picture of role
fitment. This process must be adopted by
every company in order to have high
performance teams which give competitive
advantage.
"Any strategy, no matter how smart is dead
on arrival unless a company bring it to life with
people-THE RIGHT PEOPLE"---- Jack Welch.
Retaining talent:
Most companies today would acknowledge
that their human assets are their most
important asset. But since companies can't
own employees the way they own factories
or product your success or failure hinges
on the quality and duration of the relationship
you form with your people.
In present scenario people choose
companies which have congenial
atmosphere and prefer change if they don't
get desirable, as it may hinder the growth and
success of the company. Hence retention is
vital than recruitment. Rewards for high
performance employee welfare opportunity
for individual development, employing
personal and professional counseling
B.Mathews, Asst. Prof in management, St. Mary's college of Engineering and Technology, Hyd. Can be reached at: mailmathews@gmail.com
B.Saritha, IT recruiter, IT Global Services, Hyderabad. Can be reached at: saritha_bis@hotmail.com
| HRD News Letter | January 2007, Vol.22, Issue:10 12|