On guarding the company's treasures, or a few words about talent management

A few posts earlier I dealt with an interesting but complicated problem - personnel management. Let's look at a special case - talent management. Usually people with certain talents in a particular field are "demanding" when it comes to communication. The statement that the strength of a company is its employee potential is obvious to everyone. In contrast, the ways in which employers understand it vary. Everyone is trying to get the best possible employees for their company. Systems are being created to reward and reward the most effective people.

Through the eyes of specialists

However, talent management is an even broader concept - it means a system of activities including both attracting and retaining, developing and rewarding good employees in accordance with the organization's goals. The concept of talent management originated in the US and the growth of interest in high-potential employees, or talent, observed there in the 1990s.

According to Renzulli's model of outstanding ability, when we talk about talent we mean several aspects. These are: above-average abilities (elevated intellectual potential and specific abilities concerning specific fields), creativity and commitment to work (after T. Listwan, Wiedzainfo.pl). These qualities clearly correspond to managerial qualities. Hence, talent management is often treated as pertaining to key individuals in a company. Meanwhile, The Conference Board proposes a broader understanding of talent as "any person who can significantly influence the current and future performance of their organizations." - therefore, talent management processes are worth including lower levels in the company's structure as well. So what processes make up a talent management system?

Before answering this question, it is worth mentioning that they should be fully open and transparent to the organization, and the criteria based on which we select talent - understandable.

A research report conducted by The Conference Board indicates that the opportunity for training, development, new challenges and interesting tasks, promotion, as well as a good atmosphere at work - these are the factors of primary importance in the approach to talented employees.

Therefore, creating a company that is an "employer of choice" is one of the basic processes in the issue at hand. People must want to hire at a given company and want to stay there. For this to happen, the company must offer a good job, a good position and a favorable work climate. The image of an "employer of choice" is defined by good performance, high quality of services or goods, good employment conditions and ethics. Such an organization offers employees ample opportunities for development and promotion, job security, attractive salaries, and because of the organization's brand, employees in a departure situation easily find their way back to the job market.

Employee selection and recruitment procedures should ensure highly qualified employees who will stay with the company long enough to grow. This involves analyzing those factors that may influence a person's decision to apply for and accept a particular position and developing an attraction strategy based on, among other things, an attractive, competitive compensation package (M. Armstrong 2007). Care should also be taken to identify and diagnose talent internally. Here, an annual employee evaluation can be a good tool

One should have a plan for talent

It is important to create opportunities for people to use and develop their skills through proper job design, role creation, and challenge. Workstations can be adapted in some part to the needs of certain people, which should result in high commitment to the work.
At the same time, we need to provide talented people with opportunities for development and promotion. Planning the development of an employee involves the preparation of development programs along with the manner of its implementation.

Another element of development is promotion. The organization's promotion policy is one of the most essential components and at the same time a tool for personnel management. In order to fulfill its functions it should meet several requirements: among others, it should be consistent with other elements of the personnel function, have clear and acceptable rules for promotion, provide a real opportunity for promotion, promotion decisions should be communicated to the staff.

Succession plan - ensuring that the organization has the right employees to fill vacancies resulting from promotions, retirements, etc.- is another element of the company's talent management policy. The creation and development of a group of talented people capable of acting in a flexible manner should be preceded by a talent audit. The purpose of such audits is, on the one hand, to look for people who are likely to succeed and create opportunities for them to gain relevant experience supported by training programs; on the other hand, such an audit can be used to assess the risk of talented employees leaving the company and to identify measures that can retain them (M. Armstrong 2007).

Mentoring needed right away!

The process of developing employees after they have already been selected is very difficult. Employees gain experience under the guidance of managers assigned to them. It depends on their way of approaching the employee, monitoring the development process of the mentees, their ability to be a mentor or coach, whether the employee will be able to take up the work in the position planned for him. It would therefore be advisable to invest in the development of such skills in managers as taking on the role of coach, giving feedback, monitoring progress.

In principle, all the processes mentioned above are related to the work of HR departments in companies-recruitment, professional development, workforce planning, retention, evaluation, organizational culture. However, the effectiveness of talent management is not only the responsibility of HR departments, but to a very large extent of high-level managers, as well as the entire management of the company. After all, it is about the proper preparation of managers to develop talent and not just individualized planning of each employee's career path and pace.

To summarize

The title of this short article was dictated by the association between talent management and caring, taking care of a treasure. This comparison takes on particular significance in an era of major market changes, requiring organizations to create new strategies, adapt, reorganize. Not surprisingly, most large employers in the Polish market either have or declare that they will implement a talent management system.