Why Talent Management Is an Important Business Strategy to Develop
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Find Out the Processes That Are Part of a Talent Management System
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By Susan M. Heathfield
What Is Talent Management?
Talent management is just another one of those pesky Human Resources terms, right? Wrong. Talent management is an organization's commitment to recruit, hire, retain, and develop the most talented and superior employees available in the job market.
So, talent management is a useful term when it describes an organization's commitment to hire, manage, develop, and retain talented employees. It comprises all of the work processes and systems that are related to retaining and developing a superior workforce.
Talent Management As a Business Strategy
Talent management is a business strategy that organizations hope will enable them to retain their topmost talented and skilled employees. Just like employee involvement or employee recognition, it is the stated business strategy that will ensure the attraction of top talent in competition with other employers.
When you tell a prospective employee that you are dedicated to a talent management strategy that will ensure that he or she will have the opportunity to develop professionally, you attract the best talent. This is because studies show consistently that the opportunity to continue to grow and develop their professional and personal skills is a major motivator for why employees take and stay at a job.
Differences Depending on Stated Talent Strategy
What appears to differentiate talent management focused practitioners and organizations from organizations that use terminologies such as human capital management or performance management is their focus on the manager's role, as opposed to reliance on Human Resources, for the life cycle of an employee within an organization.
Practitioners of the other two employee development and retention strategies would argue that, for example, performance management has the same set of best practices. It is just called by a different name.
Talent management does give managers a significant role and responsibility in the recruitment process and in the ongoing development of and retention of superior employees. In some organizations, only top potential employees are included in the talent management system. In other companies, every employee is included in the process.
In some companies, the talent management system is accessible via computer programs; in others, informal communication among managers and HR staff is the approach used.
What Processes Are Part of a Talent Management System?
You can include the following systems when you approach talent management as your overall business strategy to recruit and retain talented employees.
Recruitment planning meeting
Job description development
Job post writing and recruiting location placement for the posting
Application materials review
Phone or online screening interview
In-house interviews that can involve multiple meetings with many of your current employees
Credential review and background checking
Making the job offer to the selected person
Agreeing on the amount of the offer
Employee starting day and onboarding process
New employee welcome information and introductions
Goal setting and feedback
Coaching and relationship building by the manager
Formal feedback systems such as performance management or an appraisal process
Ongoing employee development
Career planning and pathing
Promotions, lateral moves, transfers
Employment termination by choice of the employee or cause by the employer
Manager's Key Role in Talent Management
As stated, the majority of these work systems are squarely in the hands of the employee's manager. HR can provide support, training, and backup, but the day-to-day interactions that ensure the new employee's success comes from the manager. Developing and coaching the employee comes from his or her active, daily interaction with the manager.
HR can take the lead in some of the activities you see on this list, especially in recruiting and selecting new employees, and in the case of employment termination. HR is also deeply involved in the performance management system, career planning, and so forth leading the development of the systems.
But, managers are the means to carry them out for the overall recognition of the employee's work and ongoing retention of the employee. Take the responsibility seriously; it's that important.
Integrate Talent Management Fully Into Your Organization
Talent management is a business strategy and you must fully integrate it within all of the employee-related processes of the organization. Attracting and retaining talented employees in a talent management system is the job of every member of the organization, but especially managers who have reporting staff (talent).
An effective strategy also involves the sharing of information about talented employees and their potential career paths across the organization. This enables various departments to identify available talent when opportunities are made or arise.
An organization that does this kind of effective succession planning makes sure that the best talent is trained and ready to assume the next position in their career path. Succession planning benefits the employees and it benefits the organization. Managers across the organization are in touch with the employees you are grooming for their next big role.
In larger organizations, talent management requires Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) that track the career paths of employees and manage available opportunities for talented employees.
More About Talent Management
Find out more about the work systems that talent management encompasses and the best practices in talent management. Your effective approach to talent management will ensure that you attract and retain the employees you need for business success.
Talent Management: Business Strategy
Stated Talent Strategy
Processes in Talent Management
Manager's Key Role in Management
Integrate Talent Management Fully
The Best Talent Management Practices
What Does a Human Resources Manager or Director Do, Anyway?
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Does Your Workplace Encourage Employee Engagement?
What Every Manager Needs to Know About Succession Planning
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