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COVER PAGE

Title : Talent Management.

Subject : Strategic Human Resource Management

Level / Semester : III / Oct 2010

Programme : MBA - FULL TIME

Subject Tutor : Dr. Jaishree Desai

Name of Student : Vivekanandan M

Student’s Registration Number : GPBL-B/F10/15

Date of Submission : Dec 01, 2010

Word Count : 1930 words

Word Limit : 2000 words

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Checklist

Students Name Vivekanandan M

Registration Number GPBL-B/F10/15

Date of submission of the Assignment 01/12/2010

Is the cover page in the correct format as indicated in the “Guidelines to writing Assignments”?

Yes

Have I done a complete spell-check of the Assignment? Yes

Have I done a complete word count for the Assignment? Yes

Does the table of contents include numbers? Yes

Are the pages numbered correctly? Yes

Are the figures numbered correctly? NA

Are the tables/charts numbered correctly? Yes

Are the captions for the tables and charts proper? Yes

Are the references/bibliography listed in the Assignment? Yes

Are the references cited correctly in the text? NA

All references material has been cited from the books & the University of Wales online library. Any other internet source

quoted is with the permission of the module tutor.

NA

Are the references in the text in the proper format as indicated in the “Guidelines to Writing Assignments”

Yes

Has the soft copy of the Assignment been enclosed? Yes

Declaration:

All material written in this assignment is my own and I have not used any material, content or information of others claiming them to be mine. Wherever materials have been used, proper citation has been done in the text. I am fully aware of the rules and regulations governing plagiarism. Should at any point of time my work be suspected/investigated and established to have been plagiarized, I am aware of the consequences. I have read the Student’s Handbook in detail. ___________________ Signature of the student Date: 01/12/2010

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TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE No.

List of Figures 1

Introduction 2

Introduction to Talent Management 2

Need for Talent Management 3

Challenges in Talent Management 4

Role of HR in Talent Management 5

Talent Management practices followed by MNCs 5

Future Trends in Talent Management 8

Conclusion 9

Bibliography 10

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LIST OF FIGURES PAGE No.

Figure 1 - Talent Management Process 3

Figure 2 - Talent Management Practise at Accenture 6

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Introduction

There is a talent war across companies, geographies and industries. Attracting right talent,

developing & retaining that talent becomes the key differentiator between a successful

organization and an ordinary one. Increasingly companies view the ability to manage talent

effectively as a strategic priority. Yet research finding reveal that senior executives largely

blame themselves and their business line managers for failing to deliver an effective talent

management strategy. CEOs need a powerful understanding of the role talent plays in their

companies and the way it combines with business processes to expand or shrink shareholder

value. This paper describes the role of HR, their strategic importance of talent management in

Multinational Corporations (MNC) and how talent is seen as a bridge between the workplace

and the market place and has become central to the MNCs ability to win in global

competition.

Introduction to Talent Management

Talent Management is the process of developing and integrating new workers, developing

and retaining current workers, and attracting highly skilled workers to work for a company.

The term “Talent Management” was coined by David Watkins of Softscape published in an

article in 1998[1].

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development define “Talent Management” as “The

systematic attraction, identification, development, engagement/retention and deployment of

those individuals with high potential who are of particular value to an organisation”.

MNCs that adopt Talent Management, will focus on co-ordinating and integrating the

following HR activities,

Recruitment – attracting high skilled workers

Training and Development – providing continuous learning

Job alignment – aligning employee skills with job requirement, which again should align with the business objective

Retention – developing and implementing practices that reward and support employees

Leadership development – special development programs for high potential employees and future leaders

Culture – develop a positive, progressive and high performance working culture

Workforce planning – planning for future business needs

[1] http://www.hreonline.com/pdfs/03012008SoftscapeDocument.pdf

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Figure 1: Talent Management Process

Thus Talent management is nothing but, recognizing a person's inherent skills, traits,

personality and offering him a matching job. Every person has a unique talent that suits a

particular job profile and other positions will cause discomfort. So, it is the job of the

Management, HR to place the candidates at the right job.

Talent Management is beneficial to both the organization and the employees. The

organization benefits from - increased employee productivity, between alignment between

individuals' goal & business goals, commitment of valued employees and a better fit between

jobs and skills. Employees benefit from - higher motivation and commitment, career

development, increased knowledge, job satisfaction and contribution to company goals.

Need for Talent Management

In this highly competitive world, it is important for an organization to develop the human

resource, because they provide competitive edge to their business. Following factors has

made organizations to follow Talent Management practise,

Globalization – Talents are scattered around the world and are free to move from

country to country. This has made organizations to hire talents from across the world.

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Increased Competition – With increased competition in the market place, MNCs are

in constant look out for talents. This has made MNCs to hire and retain the best talent.

Increasing Knowledge – In this knowledge era, it is important for companies to

retain talent and encourage employees in learning new technologies and acquiring

new skills.

Challenges in Talent Management

Organization face following talent management challenges,

1. Not having the right talent – As the war for talent continues, the old skills and

competencies may not work. So companies are looking for highly productive, multi-

skilled, self-managed & self-motivated and creative/innovative and out of box

thinkers.

Here are some examples a): Companies are now looking for salesman who not only

can sell products, but also solutions.

b) Product managers no longer control the operations, but they are expected to be

innovative and improve productivity.

c) Quality managers are expected to study competitor product and help the

engineering team build better products and solutions.

2. Changing Business needs – Business needs are changing based on the market

requirements. To be competitive in the changing business need, HR should have

resources with the new skill to meet the ever changing business need. It also becomes

important for the HR to take care of the resources whose skills become obsolete.

3. Retaining talent – With changing technology and shortage of talent, all the

companies are in constant look out for talents. So it is important for an company to

retain the talent.

4. Shortage of talent – Due to rapid growth in developing countries, these countries

faces shortage of talents across all sectors. In developed countries, because of aged

population, there is shortage of young talent.

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5. More difficult economic environment – With changing technology, regulations,

increased customer expectations and globalization, the talents to be recruited and

retained globally becomes a challenge for the HR.

Role of HR in Talent Management

During 1970s and early 1980s, the business function that was responsible for people was

called as “personnel department”. Their main responsibilities were to hire people, payroll

management and ensure that the employees get the necessary benefits.

During mid-1980s and early 1990s, organizations realised that the function of HR was

important and thus evolved the strategic HR. The main role of HR was recruiting right

people, training the people, help business design job roles and organization structure, develop

compensation package which includes benefits, employee stock options and bonuses, and

serve as a central point of communication for employee health and happiness.

With the effect of globalization and development in technology, the function of HR is

evolving towards Talent Management. The main role of Talent Management is competence

based recruiting; creating sustainable leadership pipeline; identify competency gaps and

deliver training, e-learning and other development programs to fill the gaps; performance

based pay; identify key performers and successors to key positions. Talent management

requires new process and system that will integrate tightly all the Talent Management

practices with the business management process. Thus HR function is becoming integrated

with the business in real-time.

Talent management practices followed by MNCs

This section describes the talent management practices followed by the following 2 MNCs,

a) Accenture b) Infosys Technologies Limited

a) Accenture

Accenture is one of the leading consulting and outsourcing firm in the world.

According to Accenture, Talent Management is the capability to create and

continuously optimize the talent resources needed to execute business strategy –

attracting and developing them; guiding their performance towards optimal

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productivity in light of strategic goals; and finding new sources of value in their

performance through innovation and continuous improvement.

Figure 2: Talent Management Practise at Accenture

For organizations to truly compete on talent, Accenture calls those organizations as

“Talent Powered Organization”. Talent powered organization should not just fill the

gaps by adding people, but should be talent by combining skills, knowledge and

organizational processes thereby increasing the contribution of individuals, teams,

work groups, business unit and the entire organization. Individuals are trained to

increase adaptability, learning, flexibility, innovation and performance and thus create

extraordinary value through people.

By multiplying talent, Talent Powered Organization can create sustainable long term

competitive advantage. Aligning people with business strategy will improve employee

engagement and productivity.

Accenture perform the following process for Talent Management,

Talent Strategy – articulating strategic goals and define talent needs (multi-

polar, world impacts, workforce strategy, segmentation)

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Talent Resourcing – discovering and deploying talents (sourcing, recruiting

and workforce planning)

Learning and Collaboration – defining new ways of working and learning in

a technology savvy, geographically dispersed, ever changing world.

Performance and Rewards – measuring and managing performance; aligning

rewards with results (objectives, assessments, incentives, recognition)

Workforce Solutions – Identifying organizations critical workforces and

defining the capabilities required to increase engagement, productivity, skills

and retention.

b) Infosys Technologies Limited

Infosys Technologies Limited is one of the India’s leading IT consulting company.

Infosys believes that HR is much more than a support function job and HR needs to

be used as springboard to drive business. Fast changing business environment has

opened up window of opportunities like – global talent sourcing and de-risking

through global task distribution, achieving global operation excellence through a

proper mix of technology and talent. Solving the talent gap is not an impossible task,

but it requires an integrated and strategic approach to talent management from

planning, sourcing, training, development and retention. Integrated talent management

practices not only help organization overcome talent shortage, but also deliver

financial results that will win the approval from stake holders.

As a knowledge driven organization, Infosys recognises the key role of its human

asserts in sustaining and increasing its competitiveness. To ensure that the talent is

optimally harnessed to stay ahead of the curve, innovation is a continuous process at

Infosys. One initiative is Infosys Leadership Institute (ILI), with its vision to make

leadership and managerial development process as integral process to business. The

objectives for ILI is to enhance managerial capabilities for increase customer

satisfaction, to develop leaders to take the organization vision forward and partner

with customers to build high performing multicultural teams. HR functions at Infosys

include creating a cool and fun place to work; sustain and leverage culture;

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successfully enhance performance and utilize talent; improve employee health and

wellness; ensure scalability of HR processes and technology; enhance effectiveness of

HR programs.

With changing employee demographics in the flat world, the entire recruitment and

development process has changed at Infosys. It is essential to source talent where it is

most cost effective and deploy in a place where it maximises the value. To achieve

this, Infosys has developed an innovative workforce management strategy – Global

Talent Program. This is the largest sustained effort by any company to recruit from

campuses outside India and deploy the skills of global workforce through training

assignments in India. Post training, these resources are deployed in their home

country.

Infosys Technologies perform the following process for Talent Management,

Leverage Talent as the strategic differentiator – align people strategy with business strategy to drive business results; measure HR contribution to

business growth by collecting right metrics.

Acquire and deploy talent globally – Establish right value proposition

required to attract global talent by becoming an “Employer of Choice”.

Scale up to serve increased demands of talent – continuously augment workforce competency by imparting new skills and revitalising existing skills.

Achieve global operation excellence – align HR strategy to people and

business strategy and leverage it for optimal business results.

Future Trends in Talent Management

The future of Talent Management will be Integrated Talent Management, in which HR shall

perform these functions – influencing in shaping the global workforce through performance

based culture centred on metrics based business outcome; creating on-demand model for

customers and suppliers; creating service and support excellence for internal and external

customers; creating knowledge management practises; developing mentoring intense

organization; managing job stretch and mobility; developing horizontal growth paths as the

organizations are becoming flat.

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Conclusion

The management should be innovative and proactive to win the war of talent. Using

Information Technology Systems, next generation talent management can be transferred from

reactive function to a proactive function, capable of forecasting the future talent demand.

Talents are investors in the business, who will help the organization to win in global

competition.

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Bibliography

1. http://www.nasscom.in/Nasscom/templates/NormalPage.aspx?id=51772 (Nov 30, 2010)

2. http://www.thetalentpool.co.uk/the-talent-pool/talent-development (Nov 30, 2010) 3. http://derekstockley.com.au/newsletters-05/020-talent-management.html (Nov 30,

2010)

4. http://www.hreonline.com/pdfs/03012008SoftscapeDocument.pdf (Nov 30, 2010) 5. http://www.nasscom.in/Nasscom/templates/NormalPage.aspx?id=51772 (Nov 30,

2010) 6. http://www.indianmba.com/Faculty_Column/FC1046/fc1046.html (Nov 30, 2010) 7. http://www.articlesbase.com/human-resources-articles/emerging-trends-of-talent-

management-and-challenges-of-hrm-957837.html (Nov 30, 2010) 8. http://www.empxtrack.com/blog/10/post-recession-challenges-of-talent-management/

(Nov 30, 2010) 9. http://knol.google.com/k/the-financial-value-of-talent-management (Nov 30, 2010) 10. http://www.sap.com/industries/insurance/pdf/BWP_Trends_in_Human_Capital_Mana

gement.pdf (Nov 30, 2010) 11. http://www.talentalign.com/talent_management_processes_in_organization.htm (Nov

30, 2010) 12. http://www.hr-scorecard-metrics.com/talent-management-balance-scorecard.htm

(Nov 30, 2010)

13. http://www.accenture.com/NR/rdonlyres/5BA521E4-E631-4633-BC26-08D2F78190EC/0/out.html (Nov 30, 2010)

14. http://nstore.accenture.com/acn_com/PDF/Accenture_Nonprofit_Adapting_Leading_Talent_Management_Practices.pdf (Nov 30, 2010)

15. http://www.infosys.com/HCM/white-papers/Documents/managing-talent-flat-

world.pdf (Nov 30, 2010) 16. http://www.infosys.com/Oracle/news-events/Documents/openworld-2008/improving-

workforce-effectiveness.pdf (Nov 30, 201)