In most organizations talents are highly appreciated because they are what drive such organizations to be ahead of the game. Everyone is an expert in something but some people can not identify their talents. Competition in business world is very stiff and this has led to the increase in demand for talent. In an organization setting, there are people who are blessed with unique abilities such as marketing or leadership skills. The talented individuals are ordinary employees who work under close supervision of their managers. This paper reviews some of the things that organizations have to do to source and retain their talented employees.
A talent is a unique skill that is in-born such that the individual who possesses it does not require training because the skills are natural. When a talented employee realizes that his/her talent is being wasted he/she looks for an organization that is most likely to utilize that talent. Talents are supposed to be discovered by managers because they are the ones that are with the employees more than any one else (Davis, 2007). There are managers who discourage talented employees to utilize their talents because they see them as a threat to their position or are just jealous about their abilities. Such managers sabotage the chances of their talented juniors from being brought into the limelight.
The demand for talent has forced some organizations to seek for talent in learning institutions such as universities and colleges. This is because talented individuals that were brought on board a few decades are retiring at a faster rate than the rate at which new talents are discovered.
Talented individuals require motivation and guidance on how their skills can be beneficial to both themselves and the organization. Some talents require refinement for them to be useful. This means that the talented individual has to be enrolled in a talent management class which comes with additional expenses. Organizations refine talents by offering scholarships to the individuals with high expectations that the inputs that are spent on such talents will pay back when the talents are incorporated into the organization (The Economist, 2006).
This being a risky investment, it requires a lot of patient and commitment. This implies that the organization has to pay close attention to the upcoming talent because they might be lured by other potential employers. According to Schieman (2009), hiring talented individuals enhances productivity because the talented employees are able to endure challenges. Finding talented employees and retaining them is another thing. This is because before their talents are discovered they use their current positions as a stepping stone as they await better positions.
Organizations cannot afford to loose talents hence when they realize that they have a talent in their workforce they seduce such employees by offering them fat salaries and attractive benefits. For such talents to remain useful those who own them must be upgraded regularly otherwise their talents will cease to be useful. Talents are obtained from within or from fresh recruitments.
All talents must be appreciated regardless of the level of education the employee is in, as long as they are of good sound mind. When talents are from different departments they must be organized in a manageable manner because this eases their refinement programs. Administrators should be ready to handle puzzling questions from the talented individuals because they see things differently.
Vaiman and Vance (2008) argue that some employees know their special abilities but have to be pushed around for them to cooperate and this is where talent management comes in. In organizations, there are relationships that exist between talented employees and the organization and they are based on mutual understanding. The organization benefits from the skills provided by the individuals while in return the individuals use the organization as the platform to advance their skills.
Organizations are so worried about losing their talented employees hence they pamper them with benefits such as allowances and promotions. However, there are employees who still turn down such offers and exit the company. In some instances an organization may sue such an employee because they can’t imagine loosing such skills to their competitors. Today talent search has been integrated with the internet because there are so many organizations that post their positions on the World Wide Web.
The major challenge in identifying talents is the basis in which recruitments are conducted. Merits are hardly followed and this is why appointments are carried out in a rush and thus those who are talented are left out to favor the ones who bribed their way into the organization. It is only later that such organizations realize that they hired the wrong person because they are incompetent (The Economist, 2006).
Talents have to be monitored because the individuals who own them can misuse them at the expense of the organization as it happened in Enron. This organization had the most educated personnel and yet the very same professionals led to its collapse because they were squandering money meant for the organization. This implies that organizations must establish an ethics code of conduct concerning the use of talents.
Governments are also in need of talents to enhance their performance in serving their subjects and overcoming their enemies. According to Goldsmith and Carter (2010), rich nations have been luring talented individuals from poor nations to work for them. Among the benefits that are offered include citizenship which is meant to make them remain in the wealthy country.
Developing countries have been against this move because the talented people in their countries should be utilized to help their motherland grow. On the other hand, talented individuals are moving out of their countries because they are not appreciated by their governments. For instance, France’s national team has so many Africans such that one would think that it’s based in Africa.
It’s not mandatory for talents to be from external sources because even with the current employees there are those that have special abilities but because they have never been given a chance to demonstrate their skills and ideas they continue to sit on their talent hoping that a day will come when someone will appreciate their abilities. Organizations must open their eyes because talents are not limited to any given level (Schieman, 2009).
This implies that that a talented individual could be doing odd jobs because there are few jobs compared to the number of students that graduate from colleges and universities. For a talent to be realized organizations must not focus so much on academic certificates because those are just papers that suggest that someone possesses some relevant training but does not mean they are able to apply the concepts that were taught in class in real life situations.
Some organizations send their representatives to international and local conferences in order to pick out the best talent from the people who attend such conferences. Cross (2007), argues that job security has become a major concern among most job seekers because majority of employers are offering employment on temporary basis hence employees are not certain about their jobs because the organization can terminate their contract at any time. To solve this problem, organizations are employing talented employees on permanent basis so that they can focus on long term goals.
Organizations are pumping lots of cash on amenities that are perceived to discourage employees from looking for jobs else where. This includes the inclusion of facilities such as salon, gym, and barbershops. Moreover, there are organizations that establish day care units in order to take care of their employees’ children while they are at work. Others pay the full amount of health insurance premiums for their employees. In some companies employees are allowed to come with their pets such as dogs to their work places. All these tricks are meant to confine employees into the organization because they don’t have to move an inch to get what they are looking for. In fact organizations are now competing to satisfy their employees’ needs.
In essence, organizations are looking for fresh talents in developing nations such as India because the talents that exist in advanced nations are very costly in terms of attracting and retaining them. In poor countries there are so many people who have talents in various fields but don’t have jobs. Big organizations rush to such nations because they know the talented individuals don’t care much about the amount of money they earn because they want a job for survival purposes. Organizations have been setting up training centers because they have realized that talents have to be cultivated for them to remain useful over a long period of time. Therefore, the scarcity of talent has moved the influence from the organization to the employees because they are the ones who are responsible for the success of organizations.
References
Cross, A. (2007).Talent Management Pocketbook. Alresford: Pocketbooks.
Davis, T. (2007).Talent Assessment: A New Strategy for Talent Management, Burlington, VT: Gower Publishing.
Goldsmith, M. & Carter, L. (2010).Best Practices in Talent Management: How the World’s Leading Corporations Manage, Develop and Retain Top Talent. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons.
Schiemann, A.W. (2009). Reinventing Talent management: How to Maximize Performance in the New Market Place. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
The Economist. (2006). A Survey on Talent. London: The Economist.
Vaiman, V. & Vance, C. (2008).Smart Talent Management: Building Knowledge Assets for Competitive Advantage. Eds. Massachusetts: Edward Elqar Publishing,