According to CIPD (2020) “Talent management seeks to attract, identify, develop, engage, retain and deploy individuals who are considered particularly valuable to an organisation. It should align with business goals and strategic objectives. By managing talent strategically, organisations can build a high-performance workplace, encourage a ‘learning’ organisation, add value to their employer brand, and improve diversity management. For these reasons, HR professionals consider talent management to be among their key priorities”
What is talent management?
‘Talent’ does not have a universally agreed definition, but it could be helpful to start with a broad definition for both ‘talent’ and ‘talent management’ stated by CIPD (2020):
· ‘Talent’ consists of those people who are capable of improving the organisational performance through their direct contribution or, in the longer-term, by working at their full potential
· ‘Talent management’ is the systematic attraction, identification, retention, engagement and development of individuals with specific value to an organisation, either in view of their ‘high potential’ for the future or because they are fulfilling business/operation-critical roles.
Talent is used in many different ways, so here is quick search of jobs titles you may consider
• Head of Talent, learning and culture
• Director of Diversity and talent
• Director of international talent management
• Global Talent Acquisition partner
• Global HR Talent Partner
• Talent and development partner
• Talent Management Implementation Consultant (Recruitment/HR Systems)
• Early career talent manager
• HR and talent manager
• Talent management analyst
• People and talent manager
• Talent acquisition and on-boarding
Features of talent management strategy
You have to begin with workforce planning to be able to create talent management strategy. This workforce planning determines appropriate talent management activities through looking at the demand, supply, predicted shortages or surpluses of skills, demographics and trends at workplace
Let’s get into the key steps in the process of managing talent effectively:
There are six main areas of the talent management process: attraction, identification, development, engagement, retention and deployment.
1. Attracting talent
Based on the plan, the natural next step is to decide whether the talent requirements should be filled in from within the organisation or from external sources. Either way, this depends on how the organisation is viewed by the potential applicants, the industry or sector in which it operates and the values of the organisation. The most important factor in recruiting external talent is creating an attractive employee value and employer brand proposition. However, the talent pools that need to be tapped into must be identified in advance to keep the process as smooth and efficient as possible.
2. Identifying talent
There are various ways to do this, but it’s often based on past performance and future potential with a view to developing ‘talent pools’ to step into business-critical roles when they present themselves. This involves finding the right person for the job (person-organisation fit) through the use of tests and checks. These tests and checks could be in the form of interviews, written tests, group discussions and psychometric testing with an in-depth analysis. Today, some recruiters use software and AI-enabled solutions to skim through CVs and focus on the most suitable applicants to find the ideal fit.
3. Developing talent
Developing employees to help them grow with the organisation and training them for the expertise needed to contribute to business success also builds loyalty and improves employee engagement. This begins with an effective onboarding program to help the employee settle into the new role, followed by providing ample opportunities for enhancing the skills, and also enable growth through counselling, coaching, mentoring and job-rotation schemes.
4. Engaging talent
Employees who have good quality jobs and are provided with autonomy at work are likely to be happy and motivated as they can see the link between their role and the overall organisational objectives. This usually results in an improved productivity, better performance, and increased innovation. These mutual gains view of motivation and people management lies at the heart of employee engagement.
5. Retaining talent
Talent need to be retained effectively to enable any organisation to be truly successful. Thus, organisations tend to invest in developing activities to reduce employee turnover and enhance talent retention. Organisations also try to retain their best talent through rewards and recognition. The reward strategy should ensure a good mix of rewards is available to appeal to motivational priorities. This might include promotions and increments, encouraging involvement in special projects and decision making, offering opportunities for growth, training for higher roles, and rewarding contribution to success through recognition programs.
6. Deploying talent
Deployment is usually effective when used as part of workforce planning, organisation’s long-term investment in the development of employees, and with a supportive mobility policy. Organisations must identify their skills gaps so that effective job rotation could occur. Also, training is required to enhance employees’ skills and qualifications so that they can perform at their optimum level.
Evaluating talent management
Evaluating talent management is not easy, but It is really important to ensure that the investment is in line with the organisational needs. Talent management could be evaluated using valid, reliable and robust qualitative and quantitative data. Eventually, the most effective way of evaluating talent management is the organisational success. Therefore, the useful indicators of the success of talent management within an organisation would be the organisation’s profitability and economic growth.
Remote working attracts talent
Remote work is a working style that allows professionals to work outside of a traditional office environment. It is based on the concept that work does not need to be done in a specific place to be executed successfully. Remote working allows employees to work from the comfort of their own homes. This means that they don’t have to commute into work, but they can still be very productive and complete projects and tasks without entering the office. This has become a popular method as it enhances employee flexibility.
Remote working helps organisations compete in the battle for talent, as it allows them to dip into untapped pools of workers. This could include parents, people taking care of aging relatives, Baby Boomers and a lot more.
Bolden-Barrett (2017)- 75% of employees surveyed in a Softchoice study said they would quit their job for one that offered remote work.
Moreover, remote working could motivate the employees to increase their productivity level, as they feel that they are being treated well and being provided with a great opportunity. As motioned before, these mutual gains view of motivation and people management lies at the heart of employee engagement.
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Written by Aya Abdelmeguid
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