Talent management is the established practice of applying interconnected human resources and the established processes, to deliver a simple essential benefit for institutions. Talent and a proper management of the human and other resources, is the main driver of business success and performance realization. This can be attributed to the fact that, from a knowledgeable point of consideration, the teams with the best individual members can perform excellently (Berge & Berge 2004).
Talent management is also based on the understanding that, in an attempt to deliver excellent growth and success, even the best team players need to be engaged, rewarded and fully developed. Additionally, from the leadership strategies of leading organizations, it has been demonstrated that business success is guided by superior capacities, which are managed with consistent procedures. In the area of talent management, the approach is based on the premise that the individual team members make the difference.
This is evident from the records of businesses, ranging from the Fortune’s 100, to the small medium business class investing in talent management. From such studies, it is depicted that these enterprises know that accomplishment is power-driven, by the total talent superiority of the available workforce (Adams 1965; Armstrong 2005; Bonney 2005).
To understand the value propositions of talent management when applied in the administration and running of organizations, it is important that the organizations in question, comprehensively learn and understand talent management. From the learning and the understanding of talent management, the impacts that are likely to result will be expected by the end users (Hartmann 1998; Solomon 1993).
In a contemporary workplace, managers are stretched by the varied range of duties, as they are often required to deliver at different levels of performance, as well as meet the performance targets set for their varied working units. The benefits that the managerial staffs are likely to realize, include the automation and the access to the required critical data in a consistent manner (Matthewman & Matignon 2005).
Additionally, incorporated talent management systems deliver to managers, immediate access to the data collections that are of importance to them, during the formulations of decisions. These decisions include those in the areas of employee development, compensation, organizational performance, and succession management within these organizations.
In the case that these principal decisions are made in a systematic way, and in alignment with the objectives of the organization, the benefits thereof will be realized at an optimal level (Philpott 2006).
The key areas that talent management will address at the managerial level include goal management, the area under which employee activity alignment with regard to the goals of the business is done; career development, under which leadership and coaching development is arranged; and employee productivity, under which the maximal productivity of the employees is sought (Ulrich 1998; Reece & Rhonda 1993).
For a business leader, the opportunity for talent development is presented by the human capital modeling approach, thus a source of competitive advantage. However, in this area, attention should be given to the fact that management programs should be employed from the top levels of the system, so as to ensure a lasting success of the programs. From using this management approach, leaders will have the chance to identify the major fundamentals of any tactical human capital scheme.
From the definition of the objectives of business at high levels and effecting the changes down, through the different organizational levels, as a move towards identifying competencies and critical responsibilities, the end result will be creating an effective definition of the very nature of the talent culture, to which the leadership plays a basic role (Rayman-bacchus, 2003).
However, the business leader will need the technologies and the operational processes required, so as to transform the business vision of the organization into reality. Towards the realization of the success expected from the usage of this approach, an integrated talent management podium is one of the essential pieces of the puzzle, as it helps in the delivery of a unified view into talent data, processes, and talent statistics (Forteza & Prieto 1994; Gubman 1996).
The key talent management areas where leaders can be traced and employed include goal management, under which high-level business objectives are communicated to other levels of execution, with an understanding of the competencies of the organization; significant roles, an area that seeks to establish the roles that lead to the creation of competitive advantage; and development and learning, where organizational learning is made an efficient tool for the redirection of identified performance flawed areas (Rayman-bacchus 2003).
For the employee, talent management is a field that encompasses goal management, under which a succinct understanding of the map to the business and personal goals are redefined, with reference to the organization; development planning, under which a collaboration for working with the managerial staff towards the development of concrete plans for the future is carried out; and career preferences, under which the location preferences and specific career options are given consideration (Rayman-bacchus 2003).
The challenges to be expected when an organization is implementing a talent management system, include attracting and recruiting talent, which is a challenge, as the competitive local and international labor markets, high performers, professionals, leadership and technically potent employees, are hard to attract. This is due to the high demand for such performance, thus the numberless opportunities of getting hired.
The differences in sector characteristics is also a challenge, as better paying, stronger status and better image of the private sector, may compete the available potential staffs. Rewarding the talented recruits is also another challenge, as the highly potent candidates will require the offer of innovative development and reward packages, tailored to meet the current attitudes and value trends, which may be very expensive.
Organizing the different talents from the pools and banks is another challenge, as the identification of the proper placement towards the realization of the expected potential, is very important. In the case where such placement requirements are no met, the talent management practice may yield nothing, or even result to losses for the organization.
Training and developing the talent is another challenge, as a strong commitment is required from the developing community or department, a process that will often, call for extensive resource inputs. Unlocking the potential of the recruited team is another challenge, similar to maintaining their engagement in the areas of emotional intelligence, technical skills, and the ability to deliver beyond cultural comfort zones (Berger & Berger 2004; Matthewman & Matignon 2005).
To realize the most from talent management, organizations need to nurture their preparedness for change, through developing change management. Organizational change management can be effected through the initiation of the senior leaders, the facilitation of the middle level managers, and the employee’s help.
To develop the change methodology, an organization needs to initiate discovery, which is evaluating change preparedness; aligning and involving managers in the change; involving and aligning all the individual parties, so as to earn their devoted support; evaluation and review of the change climate, where the analysis and the measurement of the results is done (Rossiter 1996).
Other aspects which prove to be of key importance in mitigating the implementation challenges, include the organizational definition of talent and talent management; identifying where the recruited specialists fit best; and understanding the impacts of the external environment on the organization’s talent management process.
Other areas of central importance in addressing the challenges include identifying the possible threats or challenges, benchmarking with other organizations, and carrying out systematic evaluation. Systematic evaluation covers the area of calculating financial and the other benefits drawn from the talent management exercise (Matthewman & Matignon 2005).
Models of talent management are the tools used in ensuring that the productivity of employees is improved, towards meeting or even exceeding organizational objectives. Free time and remote work flexibility is one such tool, which pursues the delivery of free time to employees, as this helps them to think and innovate, in their areas of productivity. Bad manager identification is another one. Here, the managers undermining the return on investment are eliminated and replaced with effective ones (Johnston 1999; Burstiner 1988).
The other major difference between talent management and human capital management is that the strategic reporting in the area of capability, which is practiced under human capital management, is not featured in talent management. From a more critical perspective, it may be argued that human capital management identifies both the tangible and the intangible aspects of productivity, an area which is not featured in talent management.
This is mainly because, talent management does not account for the capability enhancing expenses, as compared to the value indices created (Matthewman & Matignon 2005). Further, the concept of human capital management, characteristically includes aspects of the overall worth of the human assets within an institution.
Human capital management also characteristically includes an analysis of the problem areas, and the hot spots within the existing development and the deployment of the personnel aspects, which are not reflected in the core conception of talent management (Schizas 1999; Adler 1991; Green 1999).
Talent management and strategic human resource management are two essentially similar disciplines, but which are very different in the area of conception and center of concentration.
Though these two fields may seem synonymous, there is a highly significant difference in the area of the perspective underlying the different descriptions. Talent management as a concept emphasizes on the recognition that the different members of staff have different talents and abilities, and that the great talent is what may be capitalized upon, so as to deliver great results.
Strategic human resource management on the other hand is a reflection of the earlier origin, where human resources were considered as an aspect of the company’s held assets. In this context, human resources were considered as an asset, along with the other fixed assets held by the enterprise (Berger & Berger 2004). More accurately, strategic human resource management identifies the strategic placement of human resources at different levels, so as to realize best functionality, which is not the case with talent management.
It also focuses on immediate business conditions, as opposed to talent management, which often focuses on future expectations. It also offers significant importance to the design of the HR system as an iterate unit, as opposed to the view of talent management. This perception, probably originated from the need to declare human resource management, an equally important resource in the focus of the success of an enterprise (Aron & Aron 1999; Roberts et al 1998).
Strategic staffing is the process of recognizing and addressing the staffing repercussions of business strategies. It may also be explained as the procedure of identifying and tackling the staffing implication of change within the organization. The essence of this perspective is simply that there are impacts felt by the staffing, in the event where changes on the business plan or strategies are considered, whether short-term or long-term.
This field is also called the strategic workforce planning, and the areas of focus under this approach include the definition of the number and the capabilities required from the staff at a given time in the future, if the future implementations are to be realized; and documenting the staffing resources that are available at the time of planning (Philpott 2006).
Also defined under this approach include projecting the supply of abilities, which are likely to be available to the organization, for the execution of the set implementations; pointing out the difference between the forecasted supply and the anticipated demand; and instituting staff actions, which are aimed at closing the gaps and eliminating the surpluses within the system.
As compared to strategic staffing, talent management, which is the practice of employing the interrelated human resource procedures to deliver a simple fundamental benefit, depicts that the perspective of strategic staffing is wider (Kawakami & Dovidio 2001; Hewstone & Brown 1986).
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