Talent Management

What is Talent Management?

Talent management is a specialized process undertaken to attract highly skilled workers, integrate new workers and develop (or retain) current employees to satisfy current and future business goals. In this context, talent management does not refer to managing an entertainer or athlete’s career. The process, when evaluated on a corporate level, requires the engagement of a talent management strategy that shifts the responsibility of searching for highly-skilled individuals from the human resources department to experienced managers within the organization.

The process of attracting (and subsequently retaining) skilled or profitable employees is an essential process latent in a company’s business model—the war for talented workers is crucial to secure suitable human capital. That being said, as a term, “talent management” will mean different things to different business entities. To some organizations, “talent management” refers to the search or retaining of high-worth individuals, while for other organizations the process concerns how such talent is managed—this definition assumes that all employees have talent which should be identified and maximized.

The Talent Management Process:

As stated above, the talent management processes, in general, incorporates two distinct philosophies and strategies—attract new talent and retain the talent that is already employed. The issue with a number of organizations is that they put a tremendous effort into finding new talent for their company, but spend little time into developing or training talent.

The talent management process must be utilized into the business strategy and implemented into the entity’s daily process. Furthermore, the talent management process cannot be solely left to a human resources department—the process of attracting and retaining talented employees must be undertaken by experienced managers as well. To effectively engage in the talent management process, the sectors or divisions within the company should be sharing information with other departments to promote transparency and the spread of information. A company that focuses on the development of their talent will integrate a talent management process to manage and track their employee base; the process, in a broad sense, will include the following:

• Attract, recruit and onboard qualified employees with competitive backgrounds and skill-sets

• Manage and define competitive salaries for employees

• Train and develop opportunities

• Perform a series of management processes to integrate talent

• Develop retention programs to ensure that the talented employees do not seek other employment opportunities

• Promote and transition new employees

A company that engages in the talent management process will strategize how they attract, train, develop, promote and retain talented employees. The primary aspects of the talent management process will most consistently include the following:

• Leadership Development

• Performance Management

• Recruiting Talent

• Identifying talent gaps within the business

From the talent management standpoint, evaluating prospective employees will concern two measurable: potential and performance. Although current employee performance is a standard assessment, the talent management process will also focus on an employee’s potential, meaning their prospective performance when given appropriate development and increased responsibility.

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