Talent Management: Definition, Process - Term Paper Example

Talent management Introduction Basically talent management refers to the extensive process of carefully hiring new employees, managing and retaining the current workforce, and attracting high-profile people to work for an organization. This is done in order to maximize talent in an organization. According to Shukla (2009, p. 4), “developing and maintaining an organisations’s most important resource- it’s people” is widely considered to be a considerable challenge in the present talent-hungry business world. Being thoughtful about the future talent needs should be considered important by every organization as it helps in taking advantage of a sound stream of workers when the time comes to hire people. This whole process refers to building a talent pipeline which has two basic components called recruitment and selection. Managing talent in a good way proves to be a very difficult job because even after attracting and recruiting the best workers available, motivating and directing them in the right way still happens to be highly important in order to deliver topnotch growth. According to November 2008 survey that included about 700 CIPD members, “only 51% organizations felt that managers are equipped to tackle the challenges of managing talent in a downturn” (CIPD, 2012). This essay is primarily based on contemplating the components of a talent pipeline, discussing attracting: recruiting and selection of employees, and assessing the impact this process has on employer-employee relationship. Building a talent pipeline in a business organization: Ployhart (2006) refers to the process of building a talent pipeline as attracting, selecting, and retaining the really talented individuals to achieve mutual organizational goals. It is claimed in the research report that this “is the primary way an organization influences its diversity and human capital” (Ployhart, 2006, p. 868). Talent management is rightfully considered to be the key to business success throughout UK and this is because of the capability possessed by superior talent to drive the business through all difficult times. Talent management is a strategy which “improves the performance and the potential of people–the talent–who can make a measurable difference to the organisation now and in future” (Ashton and Morton, 2005, p. 30). However, it is mentioned in CIPD Annual Survey Report 2011 that in UK “18% of organisations (32% of the public sector) have reduced their overall talent management spend as a consequence of the economic downturn” (McCartney and Waddictor, 2011, p. 5). Considering this process and acknowledging it holds extreme importance because unmotivated workforce proves to be especially alarming for the future of business. It is important to build a sound talent pipeline, understand the selected candidates in depth, and fulfill the promises made to them as these happen to be the ultimate requirements of good quality line management. It is the talented workforce and total quality work actually that really powers and ensures success in the end. It is claimed that “a company’s average return to shareholders over a three-year period stands at 22% compared with a negative 4% for companies not involved in talent management” (Berger, 2004, p. 195). So, the employers typically using the business strategy of talent management display performance on a higher scale than their competitors and the market in general. The impact of talent pipeline on the psychological contract: With the help of talent management knowledge, HR professionals inform the organizations about how they can develop an entire talent pipeline. This can be done by laying special emphasis on recruitment and selection. The employers should also know how to align individual goals to organizational goals, how to prompt the workforce towards teamwork, how to attract the best workers by developing attractive employment packages, how to develop the caliber of existent workers, and how to improve the recruiting efforts. A talent pipeline can only develop to the level of satisfaction if the employers manage to fulfill all these requirements. Talent pipeline development also requires the employees to be flawlessly aligned with the business and it is mentioned in the insightful book The War for Talent that “building a strong talent pipeline is as critical to a company’s success as building a strong product pipeline” (Michaels, Handfield-Jones, and Axelrod, 2001, p. 37). The quality of workforce forms a highly competitive differentiator with promising results. The psychological contract refers to the mutual perceptions and obligations between the employers and employees (Makin and Cooper, 1999, p. 5). It tells the employees about what they are expected to do and what they should expect from their jobs. The impact produced by talent pipeline on the psychological contract is quite significant. The negative shift in talent management systems has reportedly affected the nature of the psychological contract. It is claimed that the potential for a talent shortage which is not so far way represents a demographic shift which negatively influences the nature of the psychological contract so that “workers are more able to pick and choose between employers based on issues such as life balance, diversity policy, and the extent to which they will have a voice” (Berger, cited in Al-Awamleh, 2009, p. 9). If the potential for talent shortage actually becomes existent in UK, then the employees will stop perceiving themselves as an asset for the company. Rather, the highly talented professionals will become more mobile investors of their individual capitals. They will “view themselves not as assets, but as investors in their organizations” (Gratton & Ghoshal, cited in cited in Al-Awamleh, 2009, p. 9). This pattern could seriously devastate the nature of the psychological contract and the employer-employee relations. The impact of talent management process on an organization: The impact of the talent management process is based on assessing the employees first which means thoroughly analyzing their talents, caliber, achievements, and previous work experiences. Workers recruited without going through this assessment phase first are at a high chance of damaging a company’s reputation afterwards due to their disorganized behavior. Such workers with minimum talent develop workplace negativity and a report issued by the International Conference on Technology and Business Management reveals that “the most commonly indicated negative effect was decreased job satisfaction followed by decreased motivation” (Lather, Jain, and Shukla, 2011, pp. 937-938). Maintaining a talented workforce remains highly necessary because one person’s negativity influences the entire team and it becomes hardly possible to achieve certain targets. After this identification comes the acquiring phase and this process extending from assessment or identification to hiring of new employees is called recruitment. Next comes the job of aligning the employees who are hired by the business leaders and managers in order to develop a high performance workforce. Finally, the phase of talent management remains which is very important as many organizations struggle to maintain even the most talented employees because of disconnected HR processes and managers. Developing workforce is an important element of the talent management process while identifying and hiring or recruiting and selecting form the two basic elements of the talent pipeline development process. Together recruiting, development, and management techniques shape the processes designed to attract, employ, and develop a creative workforce. Impact of talent management process on the employer-employee relationship: The impact produced by managing talent on the employer-employee relationship is significantly huge and simply unavoidable. The field of talent management is basically based on several different HR programs that cover functions related to “creating demand, attracting jobseekers, producing candidates, and filling jobs” (Schweyer, 2010, p. 16). Errors made while operating any one of these functions can seriously endanger the employer-employee relations. Also, relations between employees and management people are seriously hampered when talent is mismanaged because disorganization behavior becomes a common scene and work costs are increased. Working on managing talent in the right way is therefore very important. Research signifies that “the human resources strategy of talent management, used appropriately, can develop leadership (Romans, Frost and Ford, 2006); support learning initiatives (Bersin, 2007) and develop organisational capabilities (Kates, 2006)” (cited in Blackman and Kennedy, 2008, p. 3). A forward looking TM strategy positively impacts the employer-employee relations as a good psychological contract is based on stable and promising relations which strongly depend on forward looking employers and committed employees. In the process of achieving targets, both employers and employees should be as much involved as possible which is not possible without appreciating talent and working together to refine it all the time. Every organization has to deal with the consequences of hampered relations between employees and management at one time or another and this happens most often when either less focus is laid on the processes of recruitment and selection or the employees fail to meet the desires of their employers in terms of performance which signifies breach of the psychological contract as mutual obligations between employers and employees do not get fulfilled. Positive and negative aspects of the process of recruiting and selecting employees: Recruitment and selection of employees is something very fundamental to the functioning of an organization and both form two important phases of the employment process. While recruitment refers to encouraging more and more people to apply for the job by attracting them with handsome job packages or other features, selection “is concerned with predicting people’s future behavior on the job” (Cooper, Robertson, and Tinline, 2003, p. 2). It is claimed that a more diverse workforce has led to “growing pressure on the element of fairness in the selection process” (Beardwell, cited in Wuttke, 2009, p. 6). Moreover, a recently launched UK based recruitment and selection model suggests that in order to save recruitment from going downhill, “organizations need to monitor the effectiveness of whatever recruitment strategies they use to attract candidates” (Cooper, Robertson, and Tinline, 2003, p. 87). This model is launched in UK in order to assess and evaluate the impact produced by the recruitment activity on business companies. As the basic aim of recruitment is to gather as many applicants as possible in order to create a vast talent pool of candidates so that the best among them could be selected afterwards, it is considered to be a positive process. This is also because with the help of attractive job features it encourages many people to apply with the result that a vast amount of talent is gathered to be later assessed by the employers. Such amassed talent proves to be remarkably helpful and effective for an organization and the management. On the other hand, selection is considered to be a negative process because it includes many applicants to face the consequences related to rejection or refusal as a very small number of applicants is chosen compared to the number that applies in the first place after getting attracted to the vacancies. Though many reasons are given for processing recruitment, still many organizations fail to successfully monitor this process which is why it is claimed that though “recruiting may be the most obvious tactic, but it is not necessarily the most appropriate” (Torrington and Hall, cited in DAnnunzio-Green, 2004, p. 36). Therefore, it is argued by Rudman (1999) that for safety purposes, “both recruitment and selection procedures should be consistently monitored” (cited in DAnnunzio-Green, 2004, p. 36). Another proposal by Roberts (1999) suggests that “in order to recruit and select effectively, the organization must have a sensible human resource plan” (cited in DAnnunzio-Green, 2004, p. 36). It is claimed by Pilbeam and Corbridge (2006) that in order to make the recruitment and selection decisions fair, an employer should adhere to myriad ethical principles like “not abusing the power position, not seeking to entrap candidates, and assessing suitability on the basis of ability” (cited in Wilton, 2010, p. 173). While the positive aspect of recruitment is building up of a talent pool which the management can later use to its benefit and maximize efficiency, the negative aspect of selection is that a great many number of people are put off by the fact that they got rejected due to not being as talented as those who got selected. However, it is argued by Ballantyne (cited in Rees and French, 2010, p. 169) that selection actually “aims to put in place workers who can perform at a high level and demonstrate commitment”, therefore it should be considered a positive process. The state of the new psychological contract in UK is more transactional in nature in which the employers promise employment for a set time period and the employees vow to perform certain duties until “their career aspirations are better met by an alternative employer” (Taylor, p. 259). When employees’ expectations are not met or negative changes are made by managers after selection, the psychological contract is broken and demotivation results. Therefore in order to make both recruitment and selection safe procedures, the promises made to the attracted candidates must be reflective of the organisation’s true state. Conclusion: Concluding, this much becomes clear from the above discussion that the organizations with the best workers can survive even during tough times when future prospects appear to be really bleak because talented workers know how to work like a team while abandoning any stress-related issues that might come along. The most important and principal asset of any company is its people actually and talent management insights require the employers to capitalize on this asset. “Even highly talented people will grow discouraged when they feel that their efforts are not rewarded or appreciated” (Rothwell, 2009, p. 11). Talent management serves as the bedrock of healthy employee relations since if talent is not assessed, developed, and appreciated in an organization, then no significant milestones could be achieved in context of performance and stability no matter how much talent is attracted and acquired. The antagonistic relationship between employers and employees shifts to one which reflects harmony and understanding when efforts are directed at developing talent instead of curbing it by less appreciation and minimal reward. Organizational performance is increased when talent is managed in such a way that individual goals are turned into organizational goals and efforts are directed at achieving those goals. References: Al-Awamleh, RA 2009, Developing Future Leaders: The contribution of Talent Management, HRfocus, pp. 1-169. Ashton, C, and Morton, L 2005, Managing talent for competitive advantage, Strategic HR Review, vol. 4, issue. 5, pp. 28-31. Berger 2004, The Talent Management Handbook, India: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Blackman, D, and Kennedy, M 2008, Talent Management: developing or preventing knowledge and capability?, IRSPM, pp. 1-10. CIPD 2012, The war on talent? Talent management under threat in uncertain times, viewed, 09 August, 2012, Cooper, D, Robertson, IT, and Tinline, G 2003, Recruitment and Selection: A Framework for Success, UK: Cengage Learning EMEA. DAnnunzio-Green, N 2004, Human Resource Management: International Perspectives in Hospitality and Tourism, UK: Cengage Learning EMEA. Lather, AS, Jain, S, and Shukla, AD 2011, Determining Negativity Triggers at the Workplace: A Study of Working Professionals in Capital Region of India, International Conference on Technology and Business Management, pp. 936-947. Makin, P., and Cooper, C 1999, Organizations And The Psychological Contract: Managing People At Work, India: University Press. McCartney, C, and Waddictor, J 2011, Annual Survey Report CIPD, Resourcing and Talent Planning, pp. 1-40. Michaels, E, Handfield-Jones, H, and Axelrod, I 2001, The War for Talent, USA: Harvard Business Press. Ployhart, RE 2006, Staffing in the 21st Century: New Challenges and Strategic Opportunities, Journal of Management, vol. 32, pp. 868-897. Rees, G, and French, R 2010, Leading, Managing and Developing People, CIPD. 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