Hi, I’m Neelie, and welcome to this Learning Bite on talent management. In this video,
you’ll learn what talent management is, its benefits, and how you can create a strategic
talent management plan. But before we start, let me ask you a question. When I say ‘talent’,
do you think that includes everyone in the organization? Or are we only talking about
a select group of people? I’ll tell you what I think later on in this video. So give it a like,
subscribe to our channel, hit the notification button, and let’s dive in!
*MUSIC*
What is talent management? Let’s start with a definition
of talent management. Talent management is the process of attracting, developing,
motivating, and retaining top talent. This is something all organizations
try to do – but the ones that do it well are able to build competitive
and high-performing workforce. That’s what we’ll focus on in this video.
But before I explain the talent management process, let’s look at
the benefits of talent management. Benefits of talent management
For most organizations, employees are their most valuable assets.
They are essential to providing goods and services, are the face of the organization,
are the source of innovation and without them the organization would not be able to survive.
The ability to hire top talent will improve the performance of the organization. In fact,
we know that organizations that implement talent management practices are able to
create a performance culture that leads to better organization performance. We’ll
give an example of that later on. Talent management practices also help employees
build relationships in the organization which improve communication and customer satisfaction.
Talent management also has benefits for employees. Implementing a talent
management strategy enables HR to create a great employee experience across the employee
lifecycle. Great talent management practices make people more satisfied in their jobs,
lead to a positive mood at work, and makes employees more engaged. It is also associated
to higher commitment to the organization and employees feeling empowered by their organization.
Now at the beginning of this video I asked the question ‘who is talent?’ There are two schools
of thought. Either everyone is talent, or only a select group in the organization is considered
talent. Examples of more exclusive talent management programs include leadership development
programs or high-potential tracks, which focus on a select group of employees. In this video, we
will use the more inclusive definition. That way we can build a strategic talent management process
that applies to everyone in the organization! The talent management process
So, now that you know all about the benefits of talent management, let’s look at how we can
implement a strategic talent management process. The talent management process has five stages:
Planning, Attracting, Developing, Retaining, and Transitioning.
Let’s look at each of these stages in detail.
First, we have the planning stage, which is the foundation for the entire talent
management process. This is where HR aligns with the organization's goals and ambitions. This is
input for the workforce planning process, which will result in a clear overview of
the skills needed to realize the organizational strategy, and the hiring plan that goes with that.
Let’s say you work for a traditional automotive company which is looking to grow revenue by
10 percent, while also expanding into the electric vehicle market. This means that you may have to
expand your normal workforce while also hiring for people with expertise in electrical engineering
and battery technology. These initiatives will impact the entire talent management process.
Once you have an idea of the type of talent you’ll need, you can move on to the attracting
stage. Attracting is about ensuring that you are an attractive employer for the talent you need.
You may have been hiring traditional engineers, but never electrical engineers. This may require
you to review your employee value proposition as well as your employer brand, which is the way your
company brands itself to attract candidates. If these new employees are very hard to find, you may
have to create a whole new talent acquisition process to make it easier for them to apply.
Or, perhaps your grow in capacity for traditional vehicles will be temporary,
which means that you can also hire contingent workers. A contingent workforce is easier
to scale up and down, depending on demand, providing more flexibility for the organization.
Next, we have the developing stage. Now that you have hired your new talent,
it’s time to welcome them into the team and facilitate their integration. This is
a crucial time for any employee, so you want to ensure that their onboarding process is as
smooth as possible to increase their chance of staying at your organization for a long time.
After the onboarding, give your employees a chance to develop. This happens through feedback,
performance appraisals, and participation in learning and development initiatives. This way,
new talent will have the right tools to solve the challenges they face,
which in turn will motivate them to go the extra mile.
For our example company, that may mean upskilling the traditional engineers with
knowledge of electronical vehicles. This will enable your organization to be competitive in a
different market. This will also blend into your performance management, where you will want to
reward the behaviors and competencies that are most strategic to the organization’s future. You
can, for example, add a digital competency to your organization's competency framework. This
will give more digitally-savvy professionals a chance to advance to more senior positions.
Now that you’ve hired top talent and given them all the tools to succeed,
the retention stage comes next. In this stage, you implement the policies that will enable your
people to perform to the best of their abilities while also having a great employee experience.
This may mean providing employees with office parties and ping-pong tables, but the smart
companies will take a more strategic approach. What is the culture you need in your organization
that will make people stay while also boosting their performance? What are the behaviors that you
reward? And will you reward everyone, or will you take a more selective approach and focus on your
top performers? These are some of the questions that you will need to answer in this stage.
For our car company that may mean that instead of its traditional production-oriented culture,
it may need to implement a more innovative culture, which is needed to bring electrical
vehicles to the market. This may mean that it will recognize and rewarding
different behaviors than before, and promote employees and leaders with different skillsets.
These are important decisions that, when you do them right, will help to retain your top talent,
and ensure that the entire workforce remains engaged and connected to the company.
And finally, we have the transitioning stage. Employees may transition to a new role in the
company, or leave the company, either to work somewhere else, or to retire. Managing
these transitions is another way in which HR can set itself apart from the competition.
In this stage, having a great succession planning strategy is vital,
as is an internal mobility program. Not all career moves are vertical; lateral career moves and job
rotation programs enable people to build new skills and connections in different parts of
the company. These days boomerang moves are also becoming more popular, where people temporarily
leave the organization only to come back after a few years with new experiences and insights.
Inevitably, employees will leave the organization for good. In that case,
HR should conduct an exit interview to identify points of improvement for the
organization so that it can better retain the talent that remains in the organization.
That’s the talent management process in a nutshell. Remember that while these five stages
are separate, none work in a vacuum. That makes it a strategic approach, as different initiatives and
programs build on top of one another. For example, your learning and development initiatives may be
part of your succession planning, or you use a performance-driven compensation strategy
to cultivate your employer brand, allowing you to attract competitive top performers who should then
fit in your performance culture. These are just a few examples of how all your talent management
practices tie into one another. Conclusion
And there you have it. In this video, you have learned what talent management is,
what its benefits are, and the five stages of a strategic talent management process. What
are some talent practices that you’ve seen that we haven’t mentioned in this video, or that you
think are so excellent that they deserve special recognition? Let us know in the comments below!
And before you leave, don’t forget to like this video,
subscribe to our channel, and hit the notification button. See you next time!