UPDATED - Talent Management: A Guide for Human Resources
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Talent management continues to be one of the top focuses for Human Resources departments all over the world. Why? Numerous studies show companies offering growth and development opportunities translates to high success in recruitment and retention. Talent management itself is a commitment from an organization to recruit, hire, retain, and develop employees.
In the guide below, the HR Exchange Network explores the topic in more detail. It takes a look at the current state of affairs, strategies, why HR should invest in talent management, and more. Here's a rundown of the sections one can dive into:
- What Is Talent Management?
- Talent Management Pillars
- What Do HR Professionals Have to Say?
- Why Should You Invest in Talent Management?
- The Link Between Employee Engagement and Talent Management
- Best Practices
- The Future of Talent Management
What Is Talent Management?
John Hopkins University defines talent management as, “a set of integrated organizational HR processes designed to attract, develop, motivate, and retain productive, engaged employees.” In simpler terms, it’s finding the right people for the right jobs to achieve the strategic goals set forth by leadership.
As a strategy, talent management is not wholly owned by the HR department. In fact, it requires HR professionals to work with managers and supervisors within the company’s ranks to put the strategy into action. That is a bit different when contrasted with strategies such as human capital management or a performance management strategy. Under those strategies, there is more reliance on HR than the managers.
Talent Management Pillars
A solid talent management strategy will address four critical areas. These are often referred to as the Four Pillars.
- Recruitment
- Performance Management
- Learning and Development
- Retention
Recruitment - For a talent management strategy to exist, there must first be talent. Recruitment is step one in creating the strategy. Here, companies and organizations work to attract talented people who can be converted in to employees.
Performance Management - Once hired, talent is expected to perform at a high standard. This process includes the way in which HR measures and improves performance. Common procedures include performance reviews, one-on-one meetings, and reward and recognition programs.
Learning and Development - This pillar includes everything from ongoing training to learning during the employee lifecycle. It allows for workers to fine-tune and further develop the critical skills needed to meet their performance goals and to help the company complete its strategic goals.
Retention – As defined, retention is about keeping high-performing talent with the company as long as possible. This leads to increased productivity and successful completion of strategic goals.
What Do HR Professionals Have to Say?
To understand more about talent management, here are a few quotes from leaders:
"At its essence, good leadership isn't about being indispensable. It's about helping others be prepared to possibly step into your shoes, giving them access into your own decision-making, identifying the skills they need to develop, helping them improve, and, as I've had to do, sometimes being honest with them about why they're not ready for the next step up."-Bob Iger, Disney CEO, in his book The Ride of a Lifetime
WATCH: The YouTube HR Book Club Review for Iger's Book
"The talent problems of employers, employees, and the broader society are intertwined. Employers want the skills they need when they need them, delivered in a manner they can afford. Employees want prospects for advancement and control over their careers."-Peter Cappelli, Director of the Center for Human Resources at The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania
"One of the things we are learning about trust is its connection to the feeling of security that it creates in your employees. When leaders are dependable and follow through on promises made, staff members are more likely to feel comfortable and be more focused on doing the good work that you want from your teams."-Cornelia Gamlem and Barbara Mitchell, award-winning authors of the Big Book of HR and HR Exchange Network Contributors
Click on the image below to check out their column.
Why Should You Invest in Talent Management?
To understand more about the current state of TM, consider the following data from the HR Exchange Network.
According to surveys conducted by the HR Exchange Network, talent management initiatives seem to be getting a significant amount of attention.
A recent State of HR report proves that 2023 is the Year of the Employee. Anyone who reads the report will see two word clouds with the term "employee" coming up most often. The reason is that when asked open-ended questions, more people typed in "employee" as the answer than anything else.
Click on the image below to view the complete State of HR.
The Link Between Talent Management and Employee Engagement
First, it helps attract the ideal candidates to the company. If hired, those new employees help improve business performance. It also increases employee engagement meaning employees are more likely to complete their tasks and stay with the company. By retaining these employees, the company saves on recruitment and performance management costs down the road. It also increases employee engagement. With a strong talent management strategy in place, employees see more opportunities to develop. Again, this leads to higher retention rates and business performance.
READ: 3 Poll Results on HR and Technology: AI, Spyware, and the Metaverse
Click on the image below to watch the latest HR Exchange Talks on GAI.
Best Practices
To understand more about talent management, here are some of the best practices to follow.
Recruitment
Recruitment offers both a challenge and an opportunity: finding talent that fits the company culture and can contribute to the company. Having said that, how do HR professionals accomplish the goal?
- Improve the candidate pool
- Consider internal candidates
- Strengthen the employee brand
- Involve current employees
- Offer the best pay and best benefits
- Check references
Succession Planning
The current talent environment is one most HR professionals have not seen before. There are more jobs than there are skilled people to fill those positions. And it is forecasted to get worse before it gets better. Between 2017 and 2027, a talent shortage of 8.2 million U.S. workers could exist, according to Manpower.
That makes succession planning all the more important for the HR professionals doing their best to minimize the impact on their respective companies. The problem is succession planning is not always seen as paramount strategy.
READ: Succession Planning - HR's Guide to the Evolving Workforce
So, what makes up a critical succession planning strategy?
First, HR must understand the organizational goals of the business over the next six months. They must also understand goals for one, two and five years. This is important because HR needs to be able to assess the skill set of the current workforce and then define what skills they need moving forward. This is critical when looking at and planning for talent development.
It is not just about understanding the business goals of their respective companies, HR must be able to understand and follow current and future trends of their company’s industry. Again, this is key to defining the skills needed for succession candidates.
The second component is an assessment of employee engagement. It goes without saying an engaged employee is a much more productive employee. The engaged employee also makes for a stronger succession candidate and overall critical succession planning strategy.
Finally, HR must be able to assess its current hiring strategies, specifically those related to filling an open leadership position. External hiring can be a lengthy process. It is certainly a costly one. A succession planning strategy can wipe out the lengthy process and can cut back on costs.
“Succession planning is a process every company needs to have to make sure they know where the gaps are, they know what talent they have in place and how to develop them in the upcoming years until the position is ready,” Larry Brand, then Chief Human Resources Officer for Elkay Manufacturing, has said.
Career Pathing
Career pathing is that process by which the employee and, usually, the employer chart a path toward the employee's future development goals. The destination, as well as the steps, experience, and development needed to get there are included.
The challenge for HR professionals is knowing what knowledge, skills, personal characteristics, and experience are needed to reach the intended goal. For the employee, the challenge is about examining whether or not the employee possesses the qualities deemed necessary for the job they wish to pursue.
Employees want to see and understand the opportunities available within their company. They expect to see career development opportunities while being satisfied and motivated. As a result, career pathing is an important factor in other strategies including employee engagement and employee retention. It also provides companies with the opportunity to differentiate itself from competitors.
The Future of Talent Management
The future of talent management centers on modernization. Those companies and organizations that do not modernize should expect to get left behind.
Gone are the days of 30 year careers in one organization, when employees started at the bottom of the personnel ladder and tried to work their way up. In fact, most new entries into the workforce are likely to change jobs every three to five years and hold 12+ jobs in five to six different companies. Furthermore, these individuals will change professions two to three times and, in the process, will be working for a very long time.
So, what is the reason for this development?
Simply, workers are living longer, healthier lives and choose to continue working for a variety of reasons. It has been said before that Baby Boomers are retiring, and while that’s true, it isn’t happening at the rate first thought.
WATCH: Generations at Work to learn about how things differ among younger and older workers.
One of those reasons focuses on the continuing technology disruption. Simply, technology creates this concept of the half-life skill. Essentially, the half-life of a learned skill is five years. That means much of what a worker learned 10 years ago is now obsolete and half of what the worker learned five years ago is irrelevant.
Mix that with a volatile business environment and it translates to workers’ necessity to change jobs. In doing so, they must be prepared for the evolving future of work.
Rethinking Talent Management
HR must find ways to source new talent by specifically looking at the open global talent economy. This allows HR to find talent anywhere in a variety of formats.
Next, companies should focus on the learning and development aspect.
Workers want to continue to learn, so companies must offer platforms that create an environment of continuous, ongoing learning with new opportunities to learn and grow and contribute to the organization.
Finally, companies need their talent management strategies to be more nimble.
Talent practices need to be reinvented and converted into an ecosystem that helps with rapid deployment and development of talent by using agile processes and systems that help HR to respond to talent.
Move the company forward. That is the mission of every TM strategy when it also serves as the next big business strategy. HR and managers place a premium on talent who add to the business and who support and reinforce the company. That, in turn, becomes a vital part of what a business stands for.
Photo by Alexander Suhorucov for Pexels
