Guarding the company's treasures, or a few words on talent management

A few entries earlier I was dealing with an interesting, but sufficient problem, personnel management. Let's look at a special forfeiture, talent management. Usually, people with particular talents in a given field tend to be "demanding" when it comes to communication.

The statement that the strength of the company is its employee potential is obvious to everyone. However, the ways employers understand it are diverse. Everyone is trying to get the best employees for their company. Reward and bonus systems for the most effective people are created.  However, talent management is an even broader concept - it means a system of activities that includes both attracting and retaining, developing and rewarding good employees in line with the organization's goals. The concept of talent management originates from the USA and the increase in interest in employees with high potential or talents observed in the 1990s.  According to Renzulli's outstanding ability model, we mean several aspects when talking about talent. These are: above average abilities (increased intellectual potential and specific abilities in specific fields), creativity and commitment to work (after T. Listwan, Wiedzainfo.pl). These traits clearly correspond to managerial traits. Therefore, talent management is often treated as referring to key people in the company. Meanwhile, The Conference Board proposes a broader understanding of talent as "any person who can significantly affect the current and future achievements of their organizations" - that's why talent management processes should be embraced and lower levels in the company structure. So what processes make up the 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 talents - understandable.

A report from research conducted by The Conference Board indicates that the possibility of training, development, new challenges and interesting tasks, promotion, as well as a good working atmosphere - these are the factors that are of major importance in the approach to talented employees.  Therefore, creating a company that is "the employer of choice" is one of the basic processes in this matter. People must want to be employed in the company and want to stay in it. For this to happen, the company must offer a good job, a good position and a favorable working climate. The image of the "employer of choice" is determined by: good results, high quality of services or goods, good employment conditions and business ethics. Such an organization offers employees great development and promotion opportunities, job security, attractive salary, and due to the organization's brand, employees in the situation of leaving easily find themselves on the labor market.  Employee selection and recruitment procedures should ensure highly qualified employees who will remain in the company for a sufficiently long time and will develop. This involves analyzing those factors that can affect a person's decision to apply for and accept a job in a specific position, and to develop a strategy of attraction based, among others, on an attractive, competitive remuneration package (M. Armstrong 2007). You should also take care of identifying and diagnosing talented people inside the company. An annual employee evaluation can be a good tool here.

It is important to create opportunities for people to use and develop their skills through appropriate job design, role creation, and challenging. Workplaces can be to some extent adapted to the needs of specific people, which in consequence should result in high commitment to the work performed.  At the same time, we must provide talented people with opportunities for development and promotion. Planning employee development involves preparation of development programs along with the manner of its implementation. Promotion is another element of development. The organization's promotion policy is one of the most important components and tools of human resources management. In order for it to fulfill its functions, it should meet several requirements: be consistent with other elements of the personnel function, have clear and acceptable promotion rules, give a real opportunity for promotion, promotion decisions should be communicated to the crew.  The succession plan - ensuring that the organization has the right employees who could fill the vacancies resulting from promotions, retire and so on - are another element of the company's talent management policy. The creation and development of a group of talented people who know how to act in a flexible way should be preceded by a talent audit.  The purpose of such audits is on the one hand to find people who have a chance 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 leaving talented employees from the company and indicate activities that can stop (M. Armstrong 2007).

The process of employee development after selection is very difficult. Employees gain experience under the supervision of the managers assigned to them. It depends on their approach to the employee, monitoring of the mentee's development process, ability to be a mentor or coaching whether the employee will be able to take up work in the intended position. Therefore, one should invest in the development of such skills in managers as: taking the role of a 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, employment planning, retention of employees, evaluation, organizational culture. However, not only HR departments are responsible for the effectiveness of talent management, but to a large extent high-level managers, as well as the entire management of the company. It is after all about the proper preparation of managers who are to develop talents and not just individualized planning the path and career pace of each employee.

The title of this short article was dictated by the association between talent management and caring for and treasure. This comparison becomes particularly important in the era of large market changes, requiring organizations to create new strategies, adapt and reorganize. It is no wonder then that most large employers on the Polish market either have or declare that they will implement a talent management system.