Talent Management in Media Xavier Ltd - Case Study Example

running head: Talent Management Talent Management Teacher’s [Pick the Contents Overview of Integrated Talent Management Function 3 Recruitment 4 Performance 5 Learning & Development 5 Career Development 6 Succession Planning 7 Compensation & Benefits 7 Measurement & Reporting 8 Benefits of Integrated Talent Management 8 References 10 Overview of Integrated Talent Management Function Human resource managers have shown an evolution from general administrators to strategic partners. This role enhances their value from mere managers to business executives that can not only assist management in reducing the general administrative HR cost but also design a business function that recruits, develops and retains potential talent which can provide a competitive edge to an organization. For this purpose, HR managers can transform into internal consultants that can align HR strategies to business priorities, develop centers of excellence and make them benchmarks for further performance, and develop HR skills that can assist managers to assess and generate solutions for problems emerging during business processes (Vosburgh, 2007). As an HR director of Media Xavier Ltd which is a leading name in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry globally, first task undertaken by me would be development of an integrated HR function. This HR function would cover main areas of talent management i.e. recruitment, performance, development and retention. Furthermore, management of workforce will be focused on development of creation of Strategic differentiating Capabilities (DiSc) that can result in attaining a competitive advantage. For this purpose, the talent acquired should be: Strategically important (Becker & Huselid, 2006) , rare, inimitable, non-substitutable, appropriable and immobile (Scott-Jackson, 2009) Furthermore, this development of an integrated HR function would be focused on partnering with the management on strategic basis, examine the current needs of organization by forming a liaison with departmental heads and design policies and procedures that can assist these departments in developing and retaining their key players along with recruiting fresh talent. Given below are the key areas of an integrated talent management function: 1) Recruitment 2) Performance 3) Learning 4) Career development 5) Succession planning 6) Compensation 7) Measure and Report (Pageup People Inc., 2008) Recruitment Media Xavier has a total headcount of 3000 permanent employees in 16 countries worldwide with 80 percent workforce employees in Asian zone call centers. Since the main work stations are away from Head Office’s reach therefore expats from local region i.e. New York would be used to train the work force according to company standards. In order to have a competitive advantage over local companies, we will focus on hiring a talent that can adhere to organization’s vision which is “Facilitating customers with optimum service and partnering with communities”. Local managers will be hired that can act as a middle man between management and the workforce. These local managers will also help Head Office staff to have necessary cultural competence so that workforce diversity can be utilized in an effective manner. Recruitment will be carried out at three different levels: 1) Call Center Agents 2) Managers-Local 3) Call Centre Heads- Expats (who will travelling between head office and Asian work stations) Recruitment can be carried out through conventional channels of online job boards, newspapers advertisement, walk-ins etc. however Media Xavier will switch to recruitment from traditional methods to on-campus drives and employee referrals. The reasons for doing so would be to have better employer branding and access to recommended quality talent. Furthermore, having strategic alliances with universities and colleges can help in recruiting fresh talent that is young, energetic and easily trainable according to organization’s policies. Employee referrals shall also be rewarded so that existing employees can recommend talent that is not available through other channels otherwise. This area would be further strengthen by online Myer-Briggs Testing, EQ and IQ tests available after submission of resume and short listing. Where assessment of skills inventory is an important area in recruitment, knowing emotional profiling of the candidates is important to evaluate if they are suitable for Media Xavier Ltd. Performance Another step of integrated talent management is performance management. After recruitment, selected employees would be given employee handbooks that would contain existing company policies along with job milestones. This handbook will be considered a mandatory step to be completed before completion of probation. After probation and performance evaluation, employees would be made permanent and they will be given interim goals in writing by their supervisors or reporting authorities. The managers and Call centre heads will report to senior managers and business directors at Head Office. During performance evaluation, performance of employees against pre-determined milestones and key performance indicators should be identified. Furthermore, personal traits like taking initiatives, creative thinking etc must be examined. In addition to that, HR department would be required to evaluate quarterly departmental workforce performance with projected statistics planned in the beginning of financial year (Ray et al., 2012). Learning & Development After recruitment, employees will be trained by the supervisors and junior HR managers regarding use of their automated dashboards. This dashboard would be their tool to perform intra-department and interdepartmental communication as Email IDs would be directly accessible from there. During probation period, employees would be provided with mandatory job training by senior trainers and HR team regarding usage of automated interface, communication skills and other trainings designed by HR team from time to time. In the later phase, employees can share special requisitions for trainings that they come across. In learning and development, managers of the business functions have special responsibility towards performing training need analysis (TNA) and identifying individual training needs of the employees. HR teams will conduct quarterly surveys that can provide a timely picture of training needs of the employees. Furthermore, these surveys will theme-based i.e. open-ended questions instead of selection based options i.e. choices given already. At the end of trainings, periodic tests will be taking to ensure that employees are well-versed with the new technology and other areas taught to them. Managers will also incorporate new trainings and added skills into their areas of examination during performance appraisals. This step is mandatory to evaluate return on training costs incurred. Possible methods of learning and development can be: On-job trainings Workshops and seminars In-house trainings Outsources trainers Career Development Career development plays a concrete role in utilizing the current workforce with maximum efficiency and effectiveness. Secondly, it is an important tool for attraction and retention of key talent. Career management programs of Media Xavier will be oriented towards providing key talent and main performance contributors (effective members with average outputs) sufficient opportunities for career growth. In this regard, departmental managers will share an ideal regime of career path for each junior position. Furthermore, HR teams will also conduct market survey to identify possible career paths for junior positions and can alter them accordingly to Media Xavier’s needs. Where training provided is expected to engage the employee, career progression plans are expected to provide them with motivation and satisfaction to stay with Media Xavier in the long-run. Every next stage of career progression will be subjected to performance appraisals and peer evaluations. On approval, it will result in increase of grades and pre-approved benefits that will be part of company’s standard compensation. Succession Planning Succession planning is an important area of talent management that is mainly dependent on employee development through training and mentoring. Managers of Media Xavier along with HR teams are required to perform a bi-yearly departmental planning in which succession planning will take place. Finding potential internal candidates for positions that will and are likely to appear in future will be the gist of this activity. In bi-annual planning, replacement planning will also be discussed. In case of any employee’s resignations, referrals for the vacant positions from within the department will be shared with HR managers through official correspondence. While filling up new positions, these recommendations are required to be taken in consideration. During bi-annual planning, confirmed department structure should be discussed along with a fixed headcount. Where number of positions increase, managers must first attempt to manage these positions through succession or should submit requisition for new employee to Head office. Compensation & Benefits For compensation and benefits planning, HR department will conduct an annual employee satisfaction survey in order to evaluate current satisfaction of employees due to compensation. Furthermore, services of professional bodies like Gallup and Mercer will be taken to identify the possible best practices and prevailing market rates on positions similar to those present in market. These measures are necessary to ensure that package offered by Media Xavier is competitive. Furthermore, at the time of performance appraisals, the raise given must reflect pre-decided company standards that have been designed by HR department respectively. Bonuses and other incentives are periodic payments that are subjected to performance evaluated in bi-annual basis. Before issuing any bonus, there will be a comprehensive meeting between HR managers, department heads and supervisors that ensure thorough performance evaluation and compensating remuneration. While designing compensation plans, HR department is required to introduce innovative non-monetary benefits such as daycare, transportation facility, student’s loans and home-based work to ensure participation from different demographic segments. Measurement & Reporting An important element of integrated talent management function is thorough examination of current HR processes and their effects on organizational performance. At the time of annual planning at department levels i.e. finance, administration, call centers (regional and central) and marketing and sales, HR representatives mainly managers and assistant managers will conduct meetings with department heads, gain an insight of their departmental planning and devise HR processes that can support these departments in meeting their manpower needs and development of existing talent. HR department is further required to design KPIs against every job profile that will provide clarity to the employees regarding their roles. During annual planning, HR department needs to have projections about contribution of HR department in strategic management i.e. employee turnover/ retention and its relation to training and development, compensation increase, succession and career development (Ray et al., 2012). At the year end, these projections will be examined and compared with exiting performance level in addition to frequent quarterly examination. Benefits of Integrated Talent Management Strategic human resource management is more effective when HR department functions in a holistic manner. An integrated talent management regime ensures that all the areas of HRM are interlinked and providing support to each other i.e. new talent is recruited only when existing talent has been trained well to move onto a next level and is likely to stay longer due to effective career management and compensation structure. Hence, this approach ensures that workforce is managed from different dimensions with focus on increasing organizational profitability by keeping employees motivated and retained. References Becker, B.E. & Huselid, M.A. (2006). ‘Strategic Human Resources Management: Where Do We Go From Here?’, Journal of Management, 32(6), pp. 898-925. Pageup People Inc. (2008). ‘Integrated Talent Management Function: Optimizing Employee Life Cycle’, Retrieved from http://dcb9maxnxelio.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Integrated-Talent-Management.pdf Ray, R.L., Mitchell, C., Abel, A.L. & Phillips, P. (2012). ‘The State of Human Capital-False Summit’, Retrieved from http://www.google.com.pk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CC0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mckinsey.com%2F~%2Fmedia%2FMcKinsey%2Fdotcom%2Fclient_service%2FOrganization%2FPDFs%2FState_of_human_capital_2012.ashx&ei=sPQgUY2pF9GSswbkvYHgCQ&usg=AFQjCNFNRfbGK1M63Ko01uHewPNXF7R2zg&sig2=M35ufQK2Zt5qHPAcnXOPiA&bvm=bv.42553238,d.Yms Scott-Jackson, W.B. (2009). ‘HR is Business: Achieving competitive advantage through strategic talent management’ , Retrieved from http://www.cahrr.org/human-resources-research/material/Strategic%20Capabilities%20ASHRM%20ref.pdf Vosburgh, R.M. (2007). The Evolution of HR: Developing HR as an Internal Consulting Organization, Human Resource Planning, 30(3), pp. 11-23. Read More