Talent Management

Need of Talent

The need for employees to be best at what they do has increased. Change has engulfed everything we observe,  Old ways might not be applicable to today's business this gives birth to the need for employees to learn continuously. Current economic climate has changed the way HR and people management is viewed.  This has resulted in making plans for the future, it  is important that business considers what the organization will need to look like next year.

Talent Audit

Audit is about checking the current skills set against the current, future and strategic requirement of the business. Talent management has to a key strategic priority. Yet many of the executives fail to make consideration for changing skills requirements when reducing headcount. Organizations will have to assess their future need of skills while considering recruitment and selection and most importantly while making redundancies. It is important that the business invest its effort in talent audit, to identify the risk associated in losing people and current skills set competence, it will put management in a better position which selecting or making employees redundant or deciding on reduced working hours. One has to understand that the business will certainly lose on valuable skills and competencies when their business down sizes. 

Future Preparation

One notion is clear, that in order for the business to survive the financial downturn, Strategic management will have to form a close bondage with HR, in order to retain, maintain and develop vital talent that would not only maintain the competitive advantage but will also increase market share for improve business market standing. Following are four key areas where HR and line managers need to improve their ways of working in order to retain competitive advantage

• Development of Leaders at all Levels.
• Identification, Assessment and provision of resources to High potential employee.
• Performance management Processes that not only include performance appraisals but also initiatives leading to change in employee behaviors and attitudes.
• Succession planning, that ensures that business has resources to fill the gaps.

In order to remain competitive and grow the business shall make investment in the following:

• A more strategic approach to people management.
• Continuous training.
• Active and focused management of top talent.
• A complete focus on personal development, including succession planning and talent management.

Human Resource Department will have to re-define long-term skill and resource needs and also develop an understanding of the businesses’ medium and long-term strategies. The true value of talent retention is about creating the opportunity to bring more senior leaders up through the ranks’’.

Identification of business’s future skill requirements is no easy feat. but this needs to be done, Business will have to see its direction and identify the needs today, markets needs to viewed in greater details, with different dimensions to be taken into account, market intelligence, is one way to identify the patterns of demands in the market. It is confirmed that well-managed talent is crucial for success in the highly competitive market. Assessing leadership potential, retaining talent and evaluating the cost of recruiting senior executives were all identified as key issues for today’s executives.

Adopted from

Nick Stephens, (2010) "Talent management: ensuring your people give you the competitive edge", Strategic Direction, Vol. 26 Iss: 7, pp.3 - 5.