FINAL PROJECT REPORT

STUDY THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TALENT MANAGEMENT

PRACTICES ACROSS VARIOUS ORGANISATIONS

SUBMITTED TO PUNJAB TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT

FOR THE DEGREE
OF
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Submitted By:
NAVDEEP KAUR
ROLL NO.(SPECIALIZATION: - HUMAN RESOURCE &IT)

DIPS INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT & TECHNOLOGY

JALANDHAR
AFFILIATED TO PUNJAB TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY, JALANDHAR
2014-15

DECLARATION
1

I, the undersigned hereby declare that the final project report submitted to my college i.e.
DIPS Institute of Management & Technology in partial fulfilment for the Degree of Master of
Business Administration Study the Effectiveness of Talent Management Practices Across
Various Organisations is a result of my own work under continuous guidance and kind cooperation of our college faculty member, Ms. Megha Sharma. I have not submitted this
training report to any other university for the award of degree.

NAVDEEP KAUR

CERTIFICATE OF GUIDE
This is to certify that the project entitled Study the Effectiveness of Talent Management
Practices Across Various Organisations is submitted as a final project report of the
requirement for the degree of MBA, affiliated to the Punjab Technical University,
Jalandhar is a work carried out by Navdeep kaur, Roll. No. under my supervision &
guidance.

Project Guide

(Ms. Megha Sharma)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Research is an endless ocean and one requires guidance and support by several individuals
in order to derive out a hand full of pearls from its depth. It is difficult to acknowledge so
precious a debt as that of learning, as it is the only debt that is difficult to repay except
through gratitude.
I take the privilege to pay my deepest appreciation and heartiest thanks to all my teachers
of DIPS, JALANDHAR whose constant guidance is unbounded source of inspiration for
us. I would like to express my sincere thanks to my Project guide Ms. Megha sharma
who provided me valuable insights on my topic and helped me to clearly chalk out my
area of study.
Last but not the least; I would take the opportunity to thank my parents, friends and all
those visible and invisible hands that contributed to make this project a success.

Thank you

(Navdeep Kaur)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
4

The subject of talent is much in the news today. Demographic projections point to a
coming shortage of skills in many industries, and some companies are already feeling
the pinch. Others recognize that a significant portion of their workforce, especially at
senior leader levels, prompting concerns about where they will find and develop the
next generations of managers and key contributors needed to lead their companies.
Global business environment gives new meaning and urgency to the notion of talent
management. Companies ability to compete effectively in terms of cost, quality,
service or innovation depends on having enough of the right people, with the right
skills, deployed in the appropriate locations at appropriate points in time. To do that,
companies have to understand and define their talent needs in the context of their
business goals and build practical, long-term plans to source, develop and retain that
talent when and where its needed. Earlier, more informal approaches to finding and
managing talent are not likely to work in this complex environment. The changing
nature of the workplace and workforce characterized by continual movements of
jobs and people around the world calls for a highly planned and rigorous approach to
identifying, developing, deploying and rewarding talent.
To evaluate the current state of the art in this area, I focused on talent management
practices in my research project. This report details the overarching framework for
defining and understanding talent management, evolution of talent management, focus
of talent management, process of talent management and challenges faced for
managing talent. It covers the key findings and conclusions and the main
recommendations that have been drawn from the results from the survey of over 30
managers. It also includes extracts from the case studies, articles and comments from
the extensive literature review

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter no.

Contents

Page no.

Acknowledgement
Executive summary
1

Introduction

7-36

Review of Literature

37-41

Research Methodology

42-44

Analysis and Interpretation

45-54

Recommendations

55-56

Conclusion

57-58

Bibliography

59

Annexure

60

CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION

The beginning of the journey will open up with the introduction of Talent Management
and its development.
7

1.1

TALENT MANAGEMENT

For the purpose of this research, we are defining talent management as follows:
Talent management is the additional management processes and opportunities that
are made available to people in the organisation who are considered to be talent.
Every organisation has a talent management system whether it recognises it or not.
Something happens to the talented people in an organisation, whether they are being
developed and motivated or whether they are being stifled and neglected in terms of
development opportunities.
The definition of talent can also vary between organisations, or within thesame
organisation over time. Many organisations seek to map individuals acrossthe organisation
in terms of performance and potential, and it is those who areidentified as high performers
with high potential who are most often the focus oftalent management.
With businesses going global and competition becoming intense, there is mounting
pressure on organizations to deliver more and better than before. Organizations therefore
need to be able to develop and deploy people who can articulate the passion and vision of
the organization and make teams with the energy to perform at much higher levels.
These people build and drive the knowledge assets of a corporation, the value of which
has been established to be many times more than the tangibles. The capacity of an
organization to hire, develop and retain talent is therefore the most crucial business
process and priority on the CEOs agenda.
Talent management implies recognizing a person's inherent skills, traits, personality and
offering him a matching job. Every person has a unique talent that suits a particular job
profile and any other position will cause discomfort. It is the job of the
Management,particularly the HR Department, to place candidates with prudence and
caution. A wrong fit will result in further hiring, re-training and other wasteful activities.
Talent Management is beneficial to both the organization and the employees.
Theorganization benefits from: Increased productivity and capability; a better
linkagebetween individuals' efforts and business goals; commitment of valued employees;
8

reduced turnover; increased bench strength and a better fit between people's jobs and
skills. Employees benefit from: Higher motivation and commitment; career development;
increased knowledge about and contribution to company goals; sustained motivation and
job satisfaction.
In these days of highly competitive world, where change is the only constant factor, it is
important for an organization to develop the most important resource of all the Human
Resource. In this globalized world, it is only the Human Resource that can provide an
organization the competitive edge because under the new trade agreements, technology
can be easily transferred from one country to another and there is no dearth for sources of
cheap finance. But it is the talented workforce that is very hard to find. The biggest
problem is how to retain the present workforce and stop them from quitting?

1.2

THE EVOLUTION OF TALENT MANAGEMENT

Focus

Replacement Planning

Benefit

Tactical

Leadership

HR

Development

Classroom (external)

Communication

Secretive

Timeframe

1 3 yrs

Succession Planning Challenges

Organizational change
Incumbent bias
Bureaucracy
Replacement candidates expect promotions
Secrecy
Heavy reliance on external courses
Then Came Succession Management
9

TO

Focus

Replacement

Talent Pool

Benefits

Tactical

+ Flexibility

Leadership

HR

HR + Line
On The Job

Development

Classroom

Action Learning
Mentoring

Timeframe

1 3 yrs

1 3 yrs

Succession Management Challenges

Lack of integrated people processes undercuts benefits
Lack of manager accountability for employee development

Now Talent Management

Focus

Replacement

Benefits

Tactical

Leadership

HR

Talent Pool
+ Flexibility
HR + Line
On The Job

Development

Classroom

Action Learning

Systems View
Strategic
CEO + HR
Similar more
job rotation

Mentoring
Timeframe

1 3 yrs

1 3 yrs
10

3 5 yrs

1.3

IMPORTANCE OF TALENT MANAGEMENT

First, let us look at some of the reasons for the importance of talent management.
Globalization: Now for any jobseeker the whole world is the potential place to find
employment. One can know the opportunities available in any part of the world easily and
the number of talent seekers has also increased.
Increased Competition: Increased competition in the market place has necessitated the
need for consistently good performance on the side of organizations. These have made the
companies to put in all efforts to hire and retain the best talent in the respective field of
operation.

Increasing Knowledge: The knowledge era has necessitated the retaining of those talents
which have the ability to assimilate new technologies and knowledge, which are growing
at a pace never seen before.
Talent management (TM) brings together a number of important human resources (HR)
and management initiatives. Organisations that formally decide to "manage their talent "
under take a strategic analysis of their cur rent HR processes. This is to ensure that a coordinated, performance oriented approach is adopted. Quite of ten, organisations adopting
a TM approach will focus on coordinating and integrating:
Recruitment - ensuring the right people are attracted to the organisation.
Retention - developing and implementing practices that reward and support employees.
Employee development - ensuring continuous informal and formal learning and
development
Leadership and "high potential employee" development specific development
programs for existing and future leaders.
Performance management - specific processes that nurture and support performance,
including feedback / measurement

11

 Workforce planning - planning for business and general changes, including the older
workforce and current / future skills shortages.
Culture - development of a positive, progressive and high performance "way of
operating" .
An important step is to identify the staff or employees (people and positions) that are
critical to the organisation. They do not necessarily have to be senior staff members. Many
organisations lost a lot of "organisational knowledge" in the downsizing exercises of a few
years ago. The impact of the loss was not immediately apparent. However, it did not take
long for many companies to realize their mistake when they did not have people with the
knowledge and skills to either anticipate or solve problems that arose.
The current discussions about skill shortages and the ageing population are also helping
organisations to focus on the talent management issue. I t may not be possible to simply go
out and recruit new people to meet operational needs. Many leading companies have
decided to develop their own people, rather than trying to hi re fully skilled workers. In
summary, every organisation should be implementing talent management principles and
approaches.

1.4 KEY BUSINESS PROCESSES

The following matrix appropriately defines key business processes for an organization:

Impact on share holder

High

Low

Leveraging
Processes

Key Business
Processes

Support Processes

Service Processes

Low

High

Impact on customers
12

Talent management is a key business process and like any business process takes inputs
and generates output.
Talent Management v/s Traditional HR Approach
Traditional HR systems approach people development from the perspective of developing
competencies in the organization. This can actually be a risk-prone approach, especially
for companies operating in fast evolving industries, since competencies become redundant
with time and new competencies need to be developed. Thus, over time, the entire
approach to development of people might be rendered obsolete calling for rethinking the
entire development initiative.
Talent management on the other hand focuses on enhancing the potential of people by
developing capacities. Capacities are the basic DNA of an organization and also of
individual potential. In fact, the following appropriately describes the role of talent
management:

Point of Departure

Translating organizational
vision into goals and
mapping the required
level of capacities and
competencies to achieve
goals

Navigation

Aligning individual
values and vision with
organizational values
and vision

13

Point of Arrival

Clear understanding of the varied

roles within the organization and
appreciation of the value-addition
from self and others leading to
building a culture of trust, sharing
and team orientation

Assessment of talent to
profile the level of
capacities and set of
competencies possessed
within the organization

Enhancing capacities to
learn, think relate and act
through development
initiatives

Individual growth to meet and

accept varied, incremental and
transformational roles in an overall
scenario of acknowledged need for
change

Gap analysis and

identification of
development path

Helping individuals
Developed individuals enabling
realize their full potential breakthrough performance
through learning and
development

Different organisations are seeking to achieve different things from their talent
management systems, while all are seeking to achieve some form of talent management.
This reflects the strategic objective of the talent management system. This shapes the way
in which the talent management system is viewed, implemented, and put into operation,
such that the same activity can result in a different action and/or outcome depending on
the perspective employed.
There is the process perspective which proposes that it includes all processes needed to
optimise people within an organisation (Farley, 2005). This perspective believes that the
future success of the company is based on having the right talent so managing and
nurturing talent is part of the every day process of organisational life.
There is the cultural perspective that believes talent management is a mindset
(Creelman, 2004), and that you must believe that talent is needed for success
(Michaels, Handfield-Jones, & Axelrod, 2001) This can be seen where every individual is
dependent on their talent for success due to the nature of the market in which they operate,
and is typical of organisations where there is a free internal labour market, with
assignments being allocated according to how well they performed on their last
assignment. Alternatively, this can be an organisation where the development of every
individuals talent is paramount and appreciated, and allowing people to explore and
develop their talent becomes part of the work routine.
There is the competitive perspective which is underpinned by the belief that talent
management is about identifying talented people, finding out what they want, and giving it
to them if not, your competitors will (Woodruffe, 2003). This tends to be the default
14

perspective if no other perspective is taken, if only as a retention strategy. It is also seen in

the professional services firms where they generally adopt the competitive approach
because their business proposition is based on the talents of their people.
There is the developmental perspective that proposes talent management is about
accelerated development paths for the highest potential employees (Wilcox, 2005),
applying the same personal development process to everyone in the organisation, but
accelerating the process for high potentials. Hence the focus is on developing high
potentials or talents more quickly than others.

There is the more general HR planning perspective which claims talent management
isabout having the right people matched to the right jobs at theright time, and doing the
right things (Mucha, 2004). This is often identified withcompanies currently experiencing
rapid growth which to some extent is driving thetalent management system, and once they
become more stable in terms of size ofoperations their perspective might change.
Succession planning tends to be moreprominent in organisations taking this approach.
Finally, there is the change management perspective which uses the talent management
process as a driver of change in the organisation, using the talent management system as
part of the wider strategic HR initiative for organisational change (Lawler, 2005). This can
either be a means of embedding the talent management system in the organisation as part
of a broader change process, or it can put additional pressure on the talent management
process if there is widespread resistance to the change process.
The various perspectives and ways in which they may impact on HR practice are outlined
in table 1 below. An organisation may shift its perspective over time in accordance with
changes in the organisation's strategy, and indeed the development and embeddings of the
talent management system itself. The cultural perspective would be exceedingly difficult
to achieve as a starting point when introducing talent management, but may be where an
organisation would intend to be in a number of years after developing a development or
HR planning perspective, for example.

15

Perspective

Core belief

Recruitment
& Selection

Retention

Succession
Planning

Development
Approach

Process

Include all
processes to
optimise people.

Competence
based,
consistent
approach.

Good on
processes such
as work-life
balance
& intrinsic
factors that
make people feel
they belong.

Routine review
process based
on performance
review cycle.

PDPs and
development
reviews as part
of performance
management.
Maybe some
individual
interventions.

Cultural

Belief that talent

is needed for
success.

Look for raw

talent. Allow
introductions
from in-house.

Allow people
the freedom to
demonstrate
their talent,
and to succeed
and fail.

Develop
in-house if
possible, if not
look outside.

Individuals
negotiate
their own
development
paths. Coaching
& mentoring
are standard.

Competitive

Keep talent
away from the
competition.

Pay the best so

you attract the
best. Poach the
best from the
competition.

Good people
like to work
with good
people. Aim to
be employer of
choice.

Geared towards
retention
letting people
know what their
target jobs are.

Both
planned and
opportunistic
approaches
adopted.
Mentors used to
build loyalty.

Developmental

Accelerate the
development of
high potentials.

Ideally only
recruit at entry
point and then
develop.

Clear
development
paths and
schemes to
lock high
potentials into
career paths.

Identified
groups will be
developed for
each level of the
organisation.

Both
planned and
opportunistic

HR Planning

Right people in
the right jobs at
the right time.

Target areas of
shortage across
the company.
Numbers
and quotas
approach.

Turnover
expected,
monitored and
accounted for in
plans.

Detailed inhouse
mappings
for individuals.

Planned in
cycles according
to business
needs.

Change
Management

Use talent
management
to instigate

Seek out
mavericks and
change agents

Projects and
assignments
keep change

Can be a bit
opportunistic
initially until

Change agents
develop others
who align

16

change in the
organisation.

to join the
organisation.

agents, but
turnover of
mainstay staff
can occur.

change is
embedded.

with them and

become the
next generation
of talent.

Table 1: Differences in operationalisation of HRM according to talent management perspective

1.5 THE FOCUS OF TALENT MANAGEMENT

At the heart of talent management is developing the following intrinsic human capacities:
1. Capacity to learn (measured as learning quotient LQ)
Enhancing an individuals capacity to learn improves the persons awareness. It adds to
the persons quest to know more and delve into newer areas. This capacity is developed
by holistic education that teaches how to learn, an enabling environment and good
mentoring. Capacity to learn comprises of the following:
Capacity

Introspect

to

Reflect &
contemplate

Learn

Flow

Introspection is the individuals willingness to look back and learn, ability to learn
from mistakes and identifying areas of improvement.

Reflection and contemplation is the individuals ability to observe his own thoughts,
actions and emotions/feelings and using the awareness to improve further and perform
better.

Getting into the flow is the individuals ability to get into a new experience and flow
with the experience. It is the persons child-like ability to derive joy out of learning.

2. Capacity to think (measured as conceptual quotient CQ)

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An individuals quest to know more leads his mind to create images. Enhancing an
individuals capacity to think helps the person not only take learning to a higher level of
intellect but also improves creativity. Capacity to think comprises of the following:

Capacity

Analysis
Judgment

to
Creativity

Think

Analysis is about asking the right questions and breaking complex things into simpler
elements.

Creativity is about generating new thoughts and breaking the existing patterns of
thought.

Judgment requires both. This is what helps an individual take quality decisions.

3. Capacity to relate (measured as relationship quotient RQ)

It is important for an individual to be able to relate to his learning and thoughts. This leads
the person to be able to relate to other individuals and the environment around him. The
outcome is indeed a sense of belongingness and an environment of trust at the
organizational level and team spirit at the individual level. Capacity to relate comprises of
the following:

Capacity

Empathizing

to

Listening

Relate

Trust

Listening is the individuals ability to listen with warmth and respect. Active listening
is free of biases, evaluation and pre-conceived notions.

Empathizing is the ability to put self in someone elses shoes and getting out of ones
own shoes.
18

Trust requires a combination of both empathizing and listening.

It is about

authenticity, openness and genuineness.

4. Capacity to act (measured as action quotient AQ)

Action is how the above three capacities of an individual are manifested.

It is the

individuals ability to enact his intentions. Following are components of capacity to act:
Capacity

Organizing

to
Implementing

Act

Work
under
pressure

Organizing refers to the individuals ability to organize his time and resources so as to
enable him to convert intentions into reality.

Implementing means delegating, attention to detail, and focus on the right process.

Perform under pressure means the ability to work under pressure and time constraints
and handle multiple tasks without negative stress.

The individuals values help in discriminating amongst alternatives and act as the bedrock
for decisions. They act as multipliers in enhancing the individuals capacities, a sigma of
which reflects the individuals true talent.
Thus:
(LQ + CQ + RQ + AQ) X Values = Talent

19

1.4

THE PROCESS OF TALENT MANAGEMENT

Vision
Mission
Strategy

INPUT

Structure
Roles
Competencies required
(Selecting and developing)

Talent Management

Knowledge
Tapping the full potential

OUTPUT

Breakthrough Performance

20

Organizations provide individuals the opportunity and space for physically manifesting
their talent into performance for achieving individual and organizational vision. Talent
manifests into performance as follows:
Talent
+
Vision/Mission/Strategy
+
Skills & Competencies
+
Role & structure
+
Opportunity
+
Encouragement & Recognition
+
Training & Development
+
Coaching
+
Action Plan & Goals
+
Resources

Performance
Management
System
Performance

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Thus the domain of talent management focuses not only on development of individuals
intrinsic capacities, but also on culture building and change management to provide the
other elements listed above for manifestation of talent into performance.
The service and consulting areas of talent management that thus emerge are:

Talent appreciation

Potential enhancement

Acquisition of talent

Knowledge management
Talent appreciation (TAP)
TAP focuses on assessing the way individuals learn, think, relate to others, and act. Tap is
used to evaluate the capacities, competencies and values of individuals for assessment of
potential for career development and succession planning.
This is intricately linked to helping organizations map their capacity and competency
requirements and then assessing talent to draw up individual development plans. The
talent profiling thus done for organizations helps them identify critical competencies to be
developed and capacities to be enhanced in order to meet future business requirements and
achieve plans.
Potential enhancement (PEP)
The focus of PEP is to create learning experiences and solutions for individuals that will
help convert talent into competence.

It also involves designing learning events and

processes that enhance the potential of individuals.

Two intrinsic components PEP are:

Capacity building modules - which focus on enhancing the four capacities of

individuals

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Competence building modules which focus on specific areas like consulting skills,
problem solving, service quality, strategic selling, process designing, interviewing
skills, etc.

Acquisition of talent (ACT)

Approach to helping organizations acquire talent is based on the following:

Helping organizations define roles for specific leadership positions based on

'preferred futures' and strategy

Identifying the competencies required for each of these jobs

Determining the levels of fundamental capacities of learning, thinking, relating and

acting needed to acquire these competencies

Defining the values which are needed to display the desired behaviors

Identifying individuals who would fit into these positions

Enable organizations and individuals to establish mutually acceptable contracts for

employment and lay the foundation of win-win relationships

Knowledge Management
As said earlier, the domain of talent management includes culture-building and change
management. Knowledge management services are aimed at leveraging knowledge for
performance by creating an environment for sharing by building trust. The focus of
knowledge management is to connect people and technology to capture and harness the
tacit knowledge of the organization. By making trust the bandwidth of communication,
knowledge management enhances sharing and thereby creates an appropriate environment
for talent to translate into performance.

23

1.6 STEPS TO ASSESS TALENT MANAGEMENT PROCESS

There are four steps that companies can take to quickly assess their talent management
process and begin improving their talent management competency:
Step 1 Identify Key Roles.
Analyze the key steps in each part of the talent life cycle (identification and attraction,
hiring and inculcation, motivation and development, appraisal and reward, building and
sustaining relationships) and map the key players and their roles and responsibilities to
each stage. Are there gaps in responsibilities key activities that no one is directly
accountable for? Are there overlapping responsibilities multiple people responsible for
the same activity? Are the right people in the right roles? Are line managers provided with
consistent and effective processes, guidelines and tools
Step 2 Take an Inventory of Your Talent Management Skills.
Identify the critical skills needed to play the key roles in the talent life cycle effectively.
To what extent does your company employ people who possess them? What might you do
to improve or develop them? What are you doing in-house that might be better
outsourced? What have you outsourced that you should doing in-house?
Step 3 Measure the Right Things.
Assess the measures you use to evaluate the performance of your talent management
process at each life cycle stage such as offer-to-hire ratios, average tenures of new hires,
performance ranking, skill fit to job requirements, etc. What data are you capturing and
reporting? Does it feed directly into a enterprise talent scorecard? How do these measures
align

with

your

overall

talent

management

strategy?

Step 4 Set Up a Process-Wide Feedback Loop.

Everyone managing talent needs to understand the big picture and to connect their role
and responsibilities to the overall objectives of the process. How is data captured in each
24

stage of the life cycle reported and communicated? How are knowledge and experiences
shared across the process? Where are the information gaps and missed communications?
How much feedback is formally captured and communicated versus informally discussed
among staff? What key actions might you take to improve your feedback mechanisms?
With so much of the costs and performance of a business now dependent on people, isn't it
time managing them became a core competency of your organization?

1.7 Challenges
The challenge of talent management has two facets to it. First is how to find new people
and second is how to retain the present workforce. Each of the challenges has to be tackled
in the most efficient way possible.
The First Challenge - Where to find new talent?
All the organizations are finding loads of business opportunities and consequently, their
revenues are growing at a rapid pace. The increasing business opportunities has
necessitated that these organizations go in for massive recruitment. But, the question is
where to find the best talent which is able to fit the job description and also adjust to the
organizations values and norms. If we scan the environment, we find there is a shortage of
skilled workforce that can be employed.
Some of the possible reasons that have led to the shortage are: Demographic Constraints: This is a common problem faced by many of the
developed countries, where a large chunk of its population is nearing the age of
retirement or is over 50 years. USA, Germany and Japan are facing the same problem. All
these countries will see a decline in their workforce and talent. In the coming years, they
will see a great shortage in their skilled professionals.
Existing Educational System: The graduates and the postgraduates that are being
churned out of the universities are found to be ill-equipped to handle the challenges of the
workplace. They are mostly equipped with only the theoretical aspects of the issues and
lack the application part. The educational system is faulty and does not take industry needs
25

into consideration, resulting in a mismatch between industry requirements and educational

preparation.
Cost Factor: Recruiting new employees is becoming tougher and tougher in the
developing countries, where the HR department has to sort out thousands of
applications for a handful of jobs. Finding right person for the right job becomes a very
difficult process. It also involves very high cost to conduct the recruitment and selection
process for such a large population of applicants.
Attracting the Best Talent: This is another challenge. As was the case in the past, the best
available talent is not just motivated by the name and fame of the organization. Not
anymore. They have a new set of motivators like - challenging work, conducive work
environment and freedom from bureaucratic structure.
The Second Challenge - How to retain the existing employees?
Gone are the days when a person would join an organization in his mid-20s and would
work till his retirement in the late-50s. Today the young professionals hop jobs, especially
during the first 4-5 years of their work life. Though the Indian service industry is basking
in the light of outsourced jobs from the developed countries, they also cannot ignore the
fact that the BPO industry is also facing one of the highest attrition rates, infact never
heard before in India, of around 35%.
It is a fact that its the people that add value to organizations. It is also a fact that
humans are a restless species who, unlike the immovable Banyan Tree, cannot stay rooted
in one place. People need to move on for one reason or another, and the organization
stands to lose.

1.8

HOW TO MANAGE THE COMPANY'S MOST IMPORTANT

ASSETS ?
More and more companies today are taking a holistic approach to talent management
from attracting and selecting wisely, to retaining and developing leaders, to helping
employees transition out of the company. Talent management is viewed as a strategic
26

approach to managing human capital throughout the career cycle: attracting, retaining,
developing and transitioning your most important assets.
Attracting Talent: Creating Assessment And Selection Strategies And Processes

Attracting qualified talent

Experience Matters

Customized Solutions

Developing Talent: Challenging the People With Executive Coaching And

Leadership Development Programs
Employees cite career development as one of two top job satisfiers, along with
compensation. The employees want to be challenged and developed. If theyre not, they
will become less productive or perhaps even leave.
Concentrate on areas like developing talent, ranging from career development, executive
coaching and leadership development to new job integration, team building and succession
planning. Create the measurement techniques to demonstrate to top management how
investing in its talent pays off.

Career Development / Career Management

New Job Integration / Assimilation

Leadership Development

Executive Coaching

Team Coaching and Team Building

Succession Planning

Transitioning Talent; Creating Goodwill Through Career Transition Programs

Put as much thought into how the organization transition employees out of the company
as it does by attracting talent, and the return on investment is usually a happier workforce,
separated employees who are more contented, and a community that regards you as a good
27

citizen. The benefits of offering exiting employees quality transition programs far
outweigh the costs and risks of not providing them.
Provide individualized programs that focus on helping the employees achieve smooth
career transitions whether the need is for outplacement, relocation, retirement or other
major career changes. Offer both individual and group training and consultation, tailored
to the organizations needs.

Outplacement

Senior Executive Programs

Partner/Spouse Relocation

Retirement Planning

Retaining Talent: Reducing Turnover And Aligning Talent With Organization Goals
With 75% of employees looking for new employment opportunities at any given time and
five million Baby Boomers expected to retire in the next few years, the war for talent is
back on. Companies that develop successful retention strategies can win that war.
Most companies today would acknowledge that their human assets are their most
important asset. But since companies cant own employees the way they own factories or
product, the success or failure hinges on the quality and duration of the relationships it
forms with its people: retaining talent.
Experience in the industry helps in facing the tough issues to keep its productive
employees through progressive and innovative talent management solutions tailored to the
organization and industrys unique needs.
It can be achieved by guiding it through aligning individual and organizational goals and
consult on change management issues. Or should develop in-placement and redeployment
programs and provide tools and competency assessments. Assist organizations to design
career development programs, reduce burnout, and improve compensation and benefits
keys to reducing costly turnover.

1.9 TALENT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

28

Competing in a "flat world", a term popularized by columnist Tom Friedman, requires

(well) rounded people. Becoming a well rounded talent requires continuous learning and
development of knowledge and skills. Organizations that want to succeed in flat world
competition better be creating enriching workplace experiences if they wish to attract and
retain the high-caliber talent they need. How can you create an enriching workplace? It
isn't easy and doesn't happen overnight. But with some planning, a lot of persistence and
adept execution of seven key practices, any organization can create an enriching
workplace.
1. Job Stretch and Mobility
Feel like you're stuck in a box at work? If you do you've got plenty of company. Many
organizations define jobs narrowly and al low little or no movement across organizational
boundaries or even within them. But to grow, talented people need to be constantly
challenged and stretched. This means the ability to take risks, to try new things, and yes,
even to fail - whether by doing something differently in an existing job or tackling an
entirely new one. If experience is indeed the best teacher how much are we learning if
what we do rarely changes?

2. Mentoring Not Just Managing

Nothing speeds up the transfer of knowledge and know-how or enhances individual
development more than a quality one- to-one dialogue between an experienced person and
an up-comer .
W.L. Gore, creator of Gore-Tex fabrics, is a mentoring- intensive organization. Managers
are cal led "Sponsors" and act as advocates for their assigned staff . They commit to being
knowledgeable about their activities, well being, progress, accomplishments, personal
concerns and ambitions. Each associate has at least one sponsor and some have more than
one.
3. Freedom and Stimulation
Often the environment in which people work can make a huge difference to the speed and
quality of people development . Two ingredients essential to making a workplace
29

conducive to learning are stimulation - through frequent exposure to a wide variety people
and ideas and the freedom to explore and pursue individual ideas and passions.
Google is a nirvana for the best and brightest technical talent in the world. The company's
commitment to human capital is strong and was a core principle expressed in its now
famous IPO filing in 2004. Staff are given huge amounts of freedom to determine when,
where, how and on what they work. Each is allowed to spend 20% of their time each week
working on personally initiated projects.
4. Deep Immersion
Nothing frustrates talented people, particularly young up-and-comers, more than being
asked to wait their turn before getting the opportunity to contribute to important projects
or initiatives. This is not only demotivating to people but counter -productive to
performance as opportunities to contribute depend more on tenure and pecking order than
merit .
Trilogy, a software company based in Aust in Texas not only avoids this problem, but has
created a fast - track, merit -based process that starts with every new hire. Its induction
program is on steroids - goals are not only cultural induction, bonding and skill
development but to create the company's next generation of ideas, products and leaders.
5. Teaching and Coaching
This means having people in the organization - both managers and specialists - whose role
is to help others to grow, learn and realize their potential . Many organizations have deemphasized this key task as pressure to meet quarterly performance targets have cascaded
down to every level of the organization.
Schools provide an inspiration and model from which other organizations can learn. They
have teachers whose only job is to develop their student 's skills and learning. While few
organizations are positioned to employ full - time teachers, many should encourage and
help managers and staff to take on this role. They can do this by explicitly acknowledging
the value of teaching and coaching and including these responsibilities in the expectations
and measures of performance set for managers and staff
.
6. Diversity of Talents and Personalities
The value of diversity in business seems obvious to most observers, but few leaders really
know how to leverage the differences that people bring to the workplace. As Ricardo
Semler, head of the innovative Brazilian conglomerate Semco puts it
30

" I prefer Coq-au-Vin to Chicken McNuggets" . He is not talking about food but rather
cultures that blend diverse talents and perspectives ( like the ingredients in a slow-cooked
Coq-au-Vin) versus those that impose numbing conformity on their people (like the
industrial - style sameness of Chicken McNuggets) .
Semco backs up its words with actions. I t regularly pairs younger and older workers
together . Its "Lost in Space" program affords young staff the opportunity to move around
the company on a regular basis during their first few years. This helps them to both
develop new perspectives are well as inject their own fresh ideas throughout the business.
Their "Trading Places" initiative let's people trade jobs as a way of gaining new experience
and skills.

7. Horizontal Growth Paths

Flattening of hierarchies in recent years has severely curtailed growth paths in many
organizations. But growth shouldn't just be up the ladder or depend purely on acquiring
managerial skills. Another productive growth path is horizontal and progressive
organizations have created lateral paths that al low people to broaden their skills and
knowledge within their disciplines and jobs.
Companies like IBM, Texas Instruments and Intel have instituted technical mastery
programs to al low individual contributors and specialists to develop their knowledge and
learning and to be paid and recognized for it . This means talent can advance based on
their learning pace rather than have to change jobs or be promoted to get ahead.

1.10 EXAMPLES OF NEW AGE TALENT MANAGEMENT

PRACTICES
In an interview the following men discussed how their companies are addressing the talent
management challenges they face, how these challenges are affecting the role of HR, and
what obstacles prevent many in HR from being considered strategic business contributors.

31

1) Ed Evans, executive vice president and chief personnel officer, ALLIED WASTE
INDUSTRIES
Talent management challenges: Getting truck drivers to feel enthusiastic about their
jobs is no easy task for any HR manager, but Evans says that the company has launched a
number of efforts in the past several months to do just that.
Talent

management initiative: To retain drivers, the company created a formal

compensation program. Until recently, driver compensation was determined on a local
basis. Now the company has a centralized approach to rewards and recognition. "But that's
not a motivator; it's just a satisfier," Evans says, noting that in surveys of drivers who left
the company, compensation was not an issue that came up.
In fact, the top reason that drivers said they left was the quality of their supervisors, Allied
Waste found. To address this, the company recently introduced training for its 1,000 route
supervisors.
In the training sessions, supervisors are taught basic management techniques, like how to
conduct route audits, which are designed to make sure that the drivers are following
regulations, but also ways to make their drivers feel they are part of a team. "We talk about
small things, like bringing a bottle of cold water to the drivers during a route audit," Evans
says.
Goals:

Allied Waste's driver turnover is 28 percent, down significantly from the 40

percent mark it was at when Evans started in his position in September 2005, and much
lower than the industry average, which is in the high 30s. But that's not enough for Evans.
"My goal is under 20 percent," he says. "It's unrealistic, but that's my goal."

2) Timothy Sompolski, executive vice president, chief human resources officer,

INTERPUBLIC GROUP
Talent management challenges: For New York-based Interpublic Group, which owns
hundreds of communications and advertising agencies across the world, like New Yorkbased ad agency McCann Erickson and Boston-based Hill Holiday, the main workforce
management challenge is internal development, Sompolski says
32

Over the years, Interpublic, like many advertising agencies, moved away from a
tradition of strong internal development. As revenue grew, many agencies became too
shortsighted and focused more on just recruiting, he says.
Now that margins are tight again, Interpublic, like all agencies, has to focus on retaining
and developing its best talent. "We have a lot of people who do recruiting, but I want to get
the right balance where I retain, develop and then recruit people," he says.

Talent

management initiatives: To address this challenge, two years ago Sompolski

helped establish a formal talent review process. The CEOs of each Interpublic company
now meet with Sompolski and CEO Michael Roth to talk about the leaders within their
organizations.
Since those first sessions, Interpublic has developed the talent reviews so they go
beyond "just taking inventory," Sompolski says. For example, today's reviews involve
more in-depth discussions about the talent within all of the international regions that a
business covers. "More than half of our employees don't work in the U.S., so today we go
further with our talent review," Sompolski says.
Goals:

As a next step, Sompolski wants to change the focus of employees' talent

reviews to become discussions about talent development, he says.
"In the past, what I saw happen was that an employee would want to leave and then all
of a sudden they hear about all of the career opportunities available to them," he says.
"Now I want to make sure those discussions are happening before anyone talks about
leaving."
Challenges

facing HR: As companies continue to grow globally and competition

increases, HR must respond even faster to change, Sompolski says.
"I work for a company that is in every market, and so if I do a wonderful job in New
York, that's great, but I also have to stay on top of changes in London and Kazakhstan," he
says.

33

3) John Murabito, executive vice president of HR and services, CIGNA

Talent management challenges: Like most service-oriented companies, Cigna's major
challenge is continuing to improve the skills of its workforce as it grows, Murabito says.

The company also wants to make sure that it is hiring employees from different
backgrounds and perspectives. While the traditional kinds of diversity training and hiring
of minorities are longstanding practices at Cigna, Murabito is trying to get the company to
focus more on "diversity from a sense of a more diverse mind-set," he says.
Historically, Cigna has focused on hiring employees from within the industry, but
Murabito wants to change that. "Industry experience is not necessarily the thing that will
drive the strongest results," he says.
Talent

management initiative: Over the past several months, Cigna has begun
holding sessions in which diversity experts speak to senior leaders to raise awareness
around the need to recruit a more diverse workforce, Murabito says. And each Cigna
business head has put together a strategic plan to achieve that goal. "I'm not suggesting
that for every position we need to look at different industries," he says. "It's about having a
different approach and mind-set."
Challenges

facing HR: HR executives too often get wrapped up in their own

initiatives without understanding how their role contributes to the business, Murabito says.
"Oftentimes HR people spend too much time doing HR for HR's sake and pushing
something because it's the flavor of the month," he says. "To be taken seriously, HR
executives need to learn the business first and then worry about providing the HR skills."
In the next 10 years the HR role within an organization will become "smaller and
better," Murabito says. "Anything that is administrative or transactional is going to be
outsourced, and self-service will become bigger."

34

CHAPTER-2
Review Of Literature

35

A detailed survey of the concerned literature has been carried out based on various
journals, reviews concerned magazines, questionnaire and internet and presented below:
Any Organization needs to have a vision and a well defined strategy on hiring for the
future. We should have the right talent to attract and retain the best available talent for
which a number of measures for talent management are required.
[KARTHIKEYAN,2007]. Emphasis has been paid on initiatives that can be put in place to
help organization to retain and nurture the talent [PANDIT, 2007]. The fundamental
aspects about the definitions of human recourses have been discussed and planning of new
models has been discussed. The need to disband the conventional school of thoughts about
organizational behavior has been advocated and a new approach has been suggested for
HR [ANANDARAM, 2007.]
THE STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT OF TALENT by William J. Rothwell
"Rothwell ignites the imagination, expands the possibilities, and offers practical
strategies any organisation can use to effectively develop, retain and utilise talent for the
benefit of an organisation and enter the fluid, flexible future. Managers at all levels will
cheer the sanity Rothwell suggests."

FOUR STEPS TO MAKE TALENT MANAGEMENT A CORE COMPETENCY by

Tony Di Romualdo.
Tony recommended four steps to quickly assess their talent management process
Step 1 Identify Key Roles.
Step 2 Take an Inventory of Your Talent Management Skills.
Step 3 Measure the Right Things.
Step 4 Set Up a Process

CLOSING THE TALENT MANAGEMENT GAP- Harnessing your employees

talent to deliver optimum business performance by Jon Ingham
36

(Source-Strategic HR review Volume 5 Issue 3 March/April 2006)

Jon Ingham of HR consultants, Penna, suggests that an organizations relationship with
its talented employees needs to be fundamentally different from that of other employees if
the strategy gap is to be closed. Here, he shares Pennas experiences of working with
various leading organizations, and offers four stages to help create a strategic talent
management program.

TALENT MANAGEMENT: THREE CONTROVERSIAL PRACTICES DEBATED

by Rees W. Morrison and Marsha M. Keefe
(Source- Hildebrandt International, September 2003)
The article discusses three controversial practices:

Forced rankings

Telecommuting

Job sharing.
All three represent options for progressive departments to think about and perhaps adapt to
their circumstances. All of them move toward better management of the talent in the
department, helping to make the most of staff.

OPTIMIZING TODAYS TALENT MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES by Judy Klein

& Stephen A. Miles
(Source-Business week magazine, September 22,2003)
Talent management takes on a new dimension in todays competitive marketplace. It
requires an understanding of corporate strategic goals and of the role that talent plays in
reaching them. And it requires a nimble organization with the expertise and resources to
identify talent needs and quickly decide whether to meet them from within or draw them
from outside. Indeed, it is not an exaggeration to say that the future belongs to businesses
that can weave talent and strategy into a seamless whole, and in the process build an
organization with not only optimized performance but also with a significant competitive
advantage as well.
WAR FOR TALENT by Ed micheals, Helen-Handfield Jones, Beth Axelrod
(Source- Harvard Business School Press,2001)
37

Five imperatives that companies need to act on if they are goin to win the war for talent
and make talent a competitive advantage:1. Embrace a talent mindset
2. Craft a winning employee value proposition
3. Rebuild your recruiting strategy
4. Weave development into your organisation
5. Differentiate and affirm your people

TALENT MANAGEMENT IS A BUSINESS PROBLEM By Prof Peter Cappelli, the

George W. Taylor
(Source- Center for Human Resources, The Wharton School - University of
Pennylvania.)
Many observers assume that the management of talent is really about the internal
development of human capital, yet the majority of vacancies in corporations now are filled
from outside. They also assume that internal development practices such as executive
coaching, career pathing developmental assignments, assessment centers, high potential
programs, and succession planning, are something new.

These techniques and indeed, every employee development practice that seems novel now
forced ranking performance evaluation systems, 360 degree feedback programs,
executive coaching, etc. were all common in the 1950s. Except at a few very large firms,
they have been scaled back and, in many cases, largely abandoned. The reason was not
that these practices failed to develop talent. It was because they were too costly. And the
biggest cost was the difficulty they faced in managing the unpredictability of the demand
for talent.

The Talent Management Handbook: Creating Organizational Excellence by

Identifying, Developing, and Promoting Your Best People by Lance A.Berger

38

"This is an outstanding reference work that succinctly explains a simple and practical
approach to the identification, assessment and management of talent in the current,
dynamic operating business environment. The book plainly gives advice on how to avoid
high staff turnover, poor morale, and poor performance."
NEWSLETTER
Sriiddar S Preetham (July 2007), Managing talent, HRD Newsletter, vol23 issue -4
Focusing on the challenge of attracting and retaining talent faced by Indian HR
mangers, the article outlines initiative that can be put in place to help organization
retain nurture and retain the talent
JOURNALS
KARTHIKEYAN J (May 2007), Talent management strategies, NHRD journal,
Hyderabad, p23-26
Organization need to have a vision and a well defined strategy on hiring for the future.Do
we have the right talent within to attract and retain the best available talent? A number of
measures for talent management are Suggested..
PANDIT Y V L (May 2007), Talent retention strategies in a competitive environment,
NHRD journal, Hyderabad, p27-29
Focusing on the challenge of attracting and retaining talent faced by Indian HR
mangers, the article outlines initiative that can be put in place to help organization
retain nurture and retain the talent

39

CHAPTER-3
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY

3.1 PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

Despite of the success of talent management in research it did not yet arrive in HR
departments of many companies. Numerous firms even have the problem to set their
strategic goals with focus on HR. Indias biggest problem is that qualified graduates are
40

becoming scarce.So do we have the right talent within to attract and retain the best
available talent?
The purpose of the study was to study the effectiveness of talent management practices
carried out in selected organisations and to eliminate the problems and recommend
solutions.

3.2 OBJECTIVES
To study the effectiveness of talent management practices.
To identify the ways to attract, develop and retain talent.
To establish upcoming trends in talent management.

3.3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

It is a systematic way of conducting a project. It is a series of steps, which are undertaken
in order to reach a final conclusion.
3.3.1 Method of Data Collection
Primary Data
Primary data was collected through questionnaire. The questionnaire was personally
administered to respondents who were randomly selected from various organisations.
By this questionnaire, I have tried to find out the effectiveness of talent management
initiative as well as the satisfaction level of the employees. Research is focused on a
comprehensive set of workplace practices that influence employee motivation,
commitment and willingness and desire to achieve at work. It identifies these practices and
a deep understanding of typical organizational programs to ensure that the questionnaire
covered the broadest spectrum of tangible and intangible aspects of the work environment.
Secondary Data
Journals and Research Paper
Newsletters
HR websites
3.3.2 Sampling Design
41

Sample Size
30 employees of different organisation
Sampling Technique
Non-probability convenience sampling
All respondents who are easily accessible & willing to share the information will be
administered. A Non-probability sampling i.e convenience sampling will be used.
3.3.3 Statistical Tools Used
Average- Average is an attempt to find one single fig to describe whole fig.
Mean (X) = fX / f
f= Frequency
X= Variable in question
Standard deviation () = fX2/n (fX/n)2
Where n = number of observations
X = Mean
Z-test
If sample size 30 then it is large sample so Z- test will be applied
Standard error = / n

42

CHAPTER 4
ANALYSIS &
INTERPRETATION

The Questionnaire has been structured on 5-point Likert scale.

Q1) How long have you been working for the company?
Option
X

Less than a
year
1
12

1-2 years

2-5 years

5-10 years

2
6

3
6

4
3

43

More than 10
years
5
3

Q 2) To what degree is talent management a strategic priority in your

Option
X

Very low
1
12

Low
2
15

Neutral
3
3

High
4
0

organisation.
Very High
5
0

z-test
(i)
(ii)

Parametric test
Sample size=30
Therefore z-test is applicable
(iii)
Standard error= standard deviation/n
(iv)
Level of significance= 5%
(v)
Two tailed test
(vi)
H0: talent management is a strategic priority
H1: talent management is not a strategic priority

F
12
15
3
0
0

x
5
4
3
2
1

Fx
60
60
9
0
0

D
2
1
0
-1
-2

Fd
24
15
0
0
0

Fd2
48
15
0
0
0

30

15
X

129

39
1.3
1.69

63
2.1
0.41

Standard deviation= 0.6403

44

Standard error =0.1169

(vii)
(viii)
(ix)

Calculation of Z=lxs xpl / S.E

= 2.56609
Table value of Z = 1.96
As 2.56609>1.96
Interpretation H1 is accepted

Finding:From data it can be seen that 50% of the employees feel that talent management
strategic priority in their organisation.

is low

Q 3) Your organization has a fully integrated talent management system.

Option
X

Strongly
disagree
1
7

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

2
11

3
6

4
6

45

Strongly
Agree
5
0

Finding:A factor that may underlie an organizations Talent Management effectiveness is the
extent to which those practices are integrated into an overall TM system. While just
20%of respondents say their practices are integrated into such a system while major
portion i.e 37% disagree to this.

Q 4) Within your organization what kinds of Talent development activities are carried
out?
Option

Class room

Coaching

Assignments

workshops
X

1
12

2
5

3
2

46

Action

External

All of

learning

development

the

programs
5
6

above

4
5

Finding:Class room workshops, development programs are mostly used by the organization to
carry out talent development activities.
Q 5) Various talent development activities carried out in your organisation to develop
talent are effective.
Option

X
Respondents

Extremely

Somewhat

Not at all

effective

effective

effective

1
8

2
18

3
4

There is a neutral response from the employees in terms of effectiveness of various

talent development activities carried out in an organisation.
Q 6) Your organisation has formal processes to identify, grow and retain talent
Option

Strongly
disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

1
4

2
5

3
15

4
6

Strongly
Agree

47

5
0

Finding:Best Plans arent Laid yet

Not only do most companies not have talent management metrics in place, but also
don't have formal plans in place to identify, grow, and retain talent.

Q 7) Do you expect your companys spending on talent management will

Option
X
Respondents

Significantly
decrease

Somewhat

1
4

2
7

No change

decrease

3
8

Somewhat

Significantly

increase

increase

4
5

5
6

Finding:The good news from this finding is that perhaps companies have learned from the last
economic downturn that short term cuts in TM result in long term pain. So in total
48

37% of the organizations feel that budget for recruiting, developing and retaining
employees is going to increase over the next three years.
Q 8) How difficult is it to find high quality talent management staff when recruiting
externally at different levels?
Option
X
Respondents

Impossible
1
4

Difficult

Average

Easy

Very easy

2
13

3
6

4
6

5
1

Finding:In this survey 43% rated their availability as Difficult while just 13% felt that its
easy to find high quality talent while recruiting.
Q 9) Attracting, developing & retaining talent is one of the top challenges for your
organisation
Option

Strongly
disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

X
Respondents

1
4

2
2

3
12

4
6

Strongly
Agree

49

5
6

Talent War Intensifying

Poll participants cited a wide range of talent management hurdles. Nearly 40% of the
employees agree and strongly agree that attracting, developing and retaining talent is
one of the major challenges for an organisation.
Q 10) Does your organisation know how to measure talent performance and
productivity in terms of business value creation

Option

No

Cant say

Yes

X
Respondents

1
4

2
21

3
5

Finding:-

50

Over 70 percent either don't or aren't sure how they measure staff performance and
productivity in terms of business value creation. These figures paint a frightening
picture of companies ill-prepared to manage a more complex talent market.

Q 11) To what degree is globalisation impacting how you acquire and manage talent
Option
X
Respondents

Very low
1
4

low

neutral

high

Very high

2
5

3
3

4
10

5
8

Finding:Workforces Gone Global

Big Business Feels the Effects
The rapid globalization of business and the expanding role of an international
workforce are having a significant impact on how companies acquire and manage
talent. Over 33 percent of all survey participants say that global factors are making a
high difference in their talent management and acquisition strategies. As organizations
look for new people and foster new skill sets, they need to take into account the
challenges and opportunities posed by a more global outlook.

Q 12) To what degree is recession impacting how you acquire and manage talent
Option

Very low

low

neutral
51

high

Very high

X
Respondents

1
0

2
4

3
7

4
7

5
12

Finding:Over 40 percent of all survey participants say that global factors are making a very
high difference and nearly 23% say that it is making highly adverse impact in their
talent management and acquisition strategies

CHAPTER-5
RECCOMMENDATION
52

 Talent management processes must create a comprehensive profile of their talent.

They must be able to track meaningful talent related information about all of their
people - employees, contractors, or candidates.
The organization should identify the crucial talent initiative to attract and retain the
employee. They should know which talent management elements can have the
greatest impact on the business and therefore provide a better basis for prioritization
and implementation.
To create a sophisticated talent management environment, organizations must:
(i) Define a clear vision for talent management
(ii) Develop a roadmap for technology and process integration
(iii)

Integrate and optimize processes

(iv)robust technology to enable processes

(v) Prepare the workforce for changes associated with the new environment
It is important that any talent management system is integrated across all aspects of

human resource management. There are clear inter-dependencies between talent

53

management and recruitment, development, diversity, retention and succession

planning practices.
Care needs to be taken with disseminating talent management practices as talent
management inevitably leads to segmentation and this can conflict with diversity and
inclusion initiatives.
Talent management requires a talent culture to be developed so that talent
conversations become acceptable throughout the organisation and individuals are
encouraged to expand their networks.

CHAPTER-6
CONCLUSION
54

A clear and compelling picture emerges from the research. Without a doubt, the global war
for talent is intensifying, and those companies that are effectively competing by acquiring
and developing top talent ultimately will be the winners.

As organizations continue to pursue high performance and improved results through TM

practices, they are taking a holistic approach to talent managementfrom attracting and
selecting wisely, to retaining and developing leaders, to placing employees in positions of
greatest impact. The mandate is clear: for organizations to succeed in todays rapidly
changing and increasingly competitive marketplace, intense focus must be applied to
aligning human capital with corporate strategy and objectives. It starts with recruiting and
retaining talented people and continues by sustaining the knowledge and competencies
across the entire workforce. With rapidly changing skill sets and job requirements, this
becomes an increasingly difficult challenge for organizations. Meeting this organizational
supply and demand requires the right Talent DNA and supporting technology solutions.
By implementing an effective talent management strategy, including integrated data,
processes, and analytics, organizations can help ensure that the right people are in the right
place at the right time, as well as organizational readiness for the future.

Highly demanding business environment makes it imperative for the organizations to build
competence in the form of superior intellectual capital. It is agreed by almost all CEOs of
55

big companies that it is the human resource - a talented one - that can provide them
competitiveness in the long run.So it is the duty of the HR department to nurture a brigade
of talented workforce, which can win them the war in the business field. The talent has to
be spotted, carefully nurtured and most importantly preserved.
Right person for the right job - is the new mantra.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Six Ways to Mine Teen Talent," Andrea C. Poe, Society for Human Resource
Management, March 2001
Winning the Best and Brightest: Increasing the Attraction of Public Service," Carol
Chetkovich, The PricewaterhouseCoopers Endowment for The Business of
Government, July 2001.
Attracting and Keeping The Best and the Brightest: Survey Results From Council for
Excellence in Government Principals on How to Get, Develop and Retain Excellent
People in Government Service," Council for Excellence in Government, 2002
Development, And Work Motivation," Ruth Kanfer, Phillip L. Ackerman, Academy
Of Management Review, 2004.
Staying Ahead of the Curve 2004: Employer Best Practices for Mature Workers,"
Study Conducted for AARP by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, September 2004
Talent Management: Overview: Talent Management Series Part I," Nancy R.
Lockwood, SPHR, GPHR, Society for Human Resource Management, July 2005.
Taking Action against the Quiet Crisis in Recruitment and Retention," AFT Public
Employees, AFL-CIO. 2005
WEBSITES

http://www.citehr.com/cms_articles.php
http://www.peopleatwork.com.au/rec_articles.asp
www.hr-guide.com
www.hr.com

http://humanresources.about.com
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 www.managementparadise.com

ANNEXURE

57

TALENT MANAGEMENT QUESTIONNAIRE

NAME:
ORGANISATION: .
Q 1)

How long have you been working for the company?

1. Less than a year
2. 1-2 years
3. 2-5 years
4. 5-10 years
5. More than 10 years

Q 2)

To what degree is talent management a strategic priority in your organisation.

1. Very low
2. Low
3. Neutral
4. High
5. Very high

Q 3) Your organization has a fully integrated talent management system.

1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Neutral
4. Agree
5. Strongly agree
Q.4) Within your organization what kinds of Talent development activities are carried
out?
1. Class room workshops
2. Coaching
3. Assignments
4. Action learning
5. Development programs
6. All of the above
Q 5) Various talent development activities carried out in your organisation to develop talent
are effective.
1. Extremely effective
2. Somewhat effective
3. Not at all effective
Q 6) Your organisation have formal plans to identify, grow and retain talent?
1. Strongly disagree
58

2. Disagree
3. Neutral
4. Agree
5. Strongly agree
Q 7) Do you expect your companys spending on talent management will
1. Significantly decrease
2. somewhat decrease
3. no change
4. somewhat increase
5. significantly increase
Q 8) How difficult is it to find high quality talent management staff when
recruiting externally at different levels?
1. Impossible
2. Difficult
3. Average
4. Easy
5. Very easy
Q 9) Attracting, developing & retaining talent is one of the top challenges for your
organisation
1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Neutral
4. Agree
5. Strongly agree
Q 10) Does your organisation know how to measure talent performance and productivity in
terms of business value creation
1.no
2.cant say
3 yes
Q 11) To what degree is globalisation impacting how you acquire and manage talent
1. very low
2 low
3. neutral
4 high
5.very high
Q 12) To what degree is recession impacting how you acquire and manage talent
1.very low
2.low
3.neutral
4.high
5.very high

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