Talent Management: A Critical Review

Abstract

1,2 Associate Professor MBA (HR) Kolej Gemilang (Malaysia) Abstract: Talent management is about getting the right people in the right jobs doing the right things. This requires predicting how employees will act in the future and getting them to act differently from how they acted in the past. Neither of these is easy. This paper provides employee behavior and provides 10 basic truths about employee behavior. These truths can be thought of as principles for successful talent management and will significantly improve the effectiveness of any talent management initiative. I. Talent Management: The field of talent management covers a range of HR functions focusing on attracting, retaining, managing, and developing high quality workforces. It includes performance management, staffing, compensation, learning management, employee development, and succession planning. The growing interest in talent management is primarily a result of increasing recognition of the impact talent management practices have on business growth and profitability and the role talent management plays for dealing with the shortage of skilled labor in the workforce. The end goal of talent management initiatives is to help get the right people in the right jobs doing the right things to make a business succeed. This goal may sound straightforward, but it is often extremely difficult to achieve. Why? Because to be successful talent management processes must effectively predict and change the day-to-day behavior of individual employees. Predicting and influencing human behavior is difficult. Companies must constantly return to these 10 principles when designing and evaluating talent management methods or risk creating talent management systems that may work on paper, but won't work with people. The role of employee behavior in talent management The ultimate goal of talent management is to improve business results. Figure illustrates how talent management programs actually do this. The upper right corner in the figure shows what talent management programs are ultimately designed to influence: Business results, which are driven by factors within and outside of the control of the organization. Factors outside the control of the organization include things like competitor activity, economic market conditions, or government legislation. Factors within the control of the organization include things like business strategy, organizational structure, or workplace policies. One factor that companies can influence that has a major impact on business results is the behavior of their employees. Aligning employee behaviors with a company's business needs is the basic goal of talent management Talent management practices, whether focused on staffing, compensation, performance management, or career development all share the same goal of aligning employee behaviors to support the company's business strategies and objectives. But talent management practices do not impact employee behavior directly. Employee behaviors are determined primarily by enduring attributes of the employees themselves (e.g., beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, abilities, skills and motivation). These attributes are shaped by individual differences between employees related to their personality, ability, and values, as well as aspects of their work environment such as incentives, resources, and coworkers. This is where talent management comes in to play. What talent management programs do is encourage the hiring of certain kinds of employees and the creation of certain kinds of work environments. If done correctly, these programs increase the likelihood of employees displaying on-the-job behaviors that drive business results.