Talent Management Unit 1

Unit 1 Introduction to Talent Management

Structure:
1.1 Introduction
Objectives
1.2 Talent Management – Overview
1.3 Talent Management – History
1.4 The Scope of Talent Management
Need of talent management
1.5 The Talent Management Requirements
1.6 The Process of Talent Management
Talent Vs knowledge people
Source of talent management
1.7 Consequences of Failure in Managing Talent
1.8 Tools for Managing Talent
1.9 Summary
1.10 Glossary
1.11 Terminal Questions
1.12 Answers
1.13 Case Study

1.1 Introduction
In the previous semester you may have studied about various concepts
related to Human resource Management. Talent management is one of the
key areas of Human resource management and development practices.
It takes a Talent to spot Talent! Will a deaf be able to feel the music of
maestros? No, the same way as only a master jeweller would know that all
that shines is not real. And, only those who know the value of a diamond
can appreciate it, for others it's just a stone. Talent is making things easier
what others find hard to do.
The most important part of an organisation are the employees, and it is the
responsibility of that organisation to put the right employee in the right
position or else it will be a discomfort for both the employee and the
organisation. The result of inappropriate job assignment of an employee by
the organisation can be of low productivity, dissatisfaction, low morale and
other negative behaviour which will become typical till the employee is

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sacked. Otherwise there is another option which is termed as Talent

Management.
Talent management is all about appreciating a person's skills, personality,
traits and offering him an appropriate and matching job. Every individual has
a unique talent that suits a particular type of job profile and placing that
individual in any other position will create problems to both the employee as
well as the organisation. It is the responsibility of the management,
particularly the HR Department to properly analyse and assist the
candidates and place them with caution in appropriate position. A wrong
placement will result in further hiring and again spending resources on
training and other activities.
Talent Management is useful to both the organisation and the employees.
The organisation gains from increased productivity and capability with the
help of talent management. It also has a better connection between an
individual's efforts and business goals. The company gets its share of
benefits from commitment of valued employees, increased bench strength
and a better matching between people's jobs and skills. Employees benefit
from higher motivation and commitment, positive career development,
increased knowledge about the company and contribution to its goals, and
job satisfaction.
Learning Objectives
After studying this unit you should be able to:
 define Talent Management.
 describe Talent Management requirements.
 explain process of Talent Management.
 discuss Tools for Talent Management.

1.2 Talent Management – Overview

Organisations find it more appropriate to formulate their own definition of
talent instead of using the universal or prescribed definitions.
Talent is defined differently across different industries and sectors.
Talent: Talent is an ability of an individual to learn and develop in the event
of new challenges and make a difference in organisational performance,
either through their immediate contribution or in the long term by
demonstrating the highest level of potential.
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Talent management: A conscious and systematic approach taken up to

attract, identify, develop and retain people with aptitude and abilities to meet
current and future organisational needs by fulfilling the business/operation
critical roles.
In some organisations only the key performing individuals are associated
with the term talent or talent management. However, it is important to
remember that each individual has some unique talent potential and hence it
should not be restricted to the very few. But, it is also a fact that more
attention is going to be paid to employees with high potential or exceptional
skills.
Talent management offers a number of advantages such as employee
engagement, retention, adhering to strategic goals in order to identify the
future leadership of the organisation, increased productivity, culture of
excellence and much more.
In present market environment, the biggest challenge is to successfully
attract, assess, train and retain talented employees. Talent Management is
the process of recruiting, planning, developing, managing, and
compensating employees throughout the organisation. The four basic
components of talent management are recruiting, performance
management, learning management, and compensation management. As
larger Human Resource Management System (HRMS) vendors have step
back from providing rich functionality in these areas, a number of best-of-
breed technology solutions have evolved. These industries have now
started to converge thereby providing end-to-end talent management
solutions that enable organisations to do better recruitment get more out of
the employee appraisal process, learning management to develop
employees critical competencies, and fair compensation for employees.
Talent management solutions relieve the pressure of manual documentation
of the employee performance reviews by automating the task, speeding up
the process and using the correct workflow. Organisations can create and
communicate critical corporate goals, evaluate employee performance
improvement, and align all organisational levels by working towards the
same goals. Figure 1.1 illustrates the Talent Management Overview.

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Effective Talent
Management

Right
Right People Right Time Right Place
Capabilities

Figure 1.1: Talent Management Overview

Self Assessment Questions

1. In some organisations only the ______________ individuals are
associated with the term talent or talent management.
2. Talent Management is the process of recruiting, __________,
developing, managing, and compensating employees throughout the
organisation.

1.3 Talent Management – History

Talent management practices have been developed and customised
throughout the years in accordance to the changes taking place in the
organisation, from the industrial revolution and the labour unions uprising, to
globalisation, and outsourcing. The era of 1990s saw a worldwide war like
situation to fight the war for talent. As the talent war has slowed down in the
early years of the 21st century, hit by economic recession and issues
related with global security, the real war for talent is going to rise up
considerably. Talent management will be made a top priority for
organisations in the time to come.
The parable of the talents
The concept of “talent” has been there from a long time. The origin of the
word “talent” is earlier related with currency. It is approximately said that, in
Biblical times, a talent was probably about 75 pounds of gold which was a
large sum at that time.
For example, three individuals, where in each have been given different
number of talents by God with respect to each individual’s ability. The first

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two individuals used their talents immediately by making investments, and

eventually doubled their sums. The third, who was afraid of failure, never
used his talents. At the time of reporting to God, the first individual had
turned his four talents into eight. The second individual had turned his three
talents into six. But the third individual still had only one talent, the one he
never used out of fear. To teach the third individual a lesson, God ordered
the third individual to be thrown in a place of sorrow and misery where, even
though having one talent with him, he will never be able to use it.
This may seem like a simple reorganisation of investment fund managers,
but it is important to notice how this parable helps to understand the concept
of talent, and therefore, how the TALENT FORCE word itself got its present
meaning.
Traditional understanding of talent management
Traditional talent management systems included training and development,
skill inventories, performance management, hiring, and succession
planning. In talent acquisition and management most companies perform
two or three components of a talent management system properly, but the
total system seems to be isolated without executive level involvement.
Growing trend in strategic talent management
It is a growing trend of HR jobs being given to non-HR professionals
following years of senior management displeasure with HR in general.
Talent management is considered as a strategic job by senior leaders, but
the general observation is that HR professionals are not able to perform
talent strategies. Most senior managers believe that HR lacks the necessary
skills to efficiently run a talent management programme, while they have not
determined the process to create a fully integrated talent management
strategy.
From a broad view point of talent management, companies can evaluate,
plan, estimate and execute business plans related to accurate workforce
and market data. Roles and responsibilities are well defined and
performance measures are designed to reward employees that contribute to
the overall productivity of the company. Employees are trained or hired on
the basis of competencies determined by workforce analytics and gap
analysis. Training and development corresponding to succession planning
are aligned to current and future organisational demands and goals.

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Information, reporting, analysis and estimating will monitor performance and

model scenarios will support management in their decision making
processes.

Activity 1:
To have a detailed account on overview and history of talent
management, go through the articles provided in the internet. Also
analyse the process involved in Talent Management.
(Hint: http://www.americanincite.com/talent-life-cycle/)

1.4 The Scope of Talent Management

The emergence of talent management as a separate technology category
can partly be related to the success of HR departments in successfully
creating basic technology systems to simplify the processes such as payroll
and leave management.
As Talent Management has evolved, some design issues have been
identified.
Targeting jobs: The first issue is to identify the types of jobs that will be the
focus of Talent Management. In some organisations Talent Management
focuses on the CEO and other executive jobs, rather than focusing on a
broader category. Other organisations target primarily senior management
jobs, mid level managers and other key jobs. One study found that out of the
groups and individuals considered as “Talent,” 86% were senior leaders,
82% were mid managers, and 75% were key technical and other
contributors. However, these three groups only represent about one third of
the total workforces of many organisations.
Targeting high-potential individuals: Another issue associated with talent
management is its importance to individuals in organisations. The problem
with implementing effective talent management system is that managers at
all departments are not committed to the required time and effort, which
limits successful activities.
Some organisations concentrate talent management efforts primarily on
“high potential” individuals, often referred to as “high-pos.” Attracting
retaining and developing high-pos has become the main priority of senior

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managers and HR efforts. Some organisations classify individuals as being

among the top 10% and then set restrictions on the number of people who
can participate in intensive talent management efforts. For example, IBM
restricted participation in its leadership development programs to only those
who were likely to become executives within 18 months.
Targeting primarily high-pos may lead to many of the other employees
feeling isolated. Thus, talent management needs to include more than the
top 10%.
1.4.1 Need of talent management
Workforce cost is the major portion of resources spends for most
organisations. Automation and analysis of the recruiting and hiring
processes provides the immediate workforce needs and insights required to
significantly improve the bottom line. Performance management provides
the ongoing processes and practices to maintain a strong workforce.
Today, many organisations are facing a lot of problems of HR processes
and technologies. The future of talent management is enclosed in solutions
designed from the ground level to provide business-centric functionality on a
unified talent management platform.
Since many competitive business factors have become commoditised, talent
is the ultimate driving force behind the business success and creates value.
Top organisations rely on Talent Management solutions and services to
assess, acquire, develop, and align talent with business objectives while
significantly reducing process costs, improving quality of hire, reducing risk,
and achieving higher levels of performance.
Though it may seem spontaneous, it is worthwhile to express the
fundamental significance of successful talent management practices as
follows:
 The key enabler of any organisation is talent.
 The quality of the people is the last true competitive differentiator.
 Talent drives performance.
Talent management requires strong executive support, along with systems
and processes all directed towards having the right talent doing the right
work at the right time. That’s when talent truly drives higher business
performance.

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Talent management involves individual and organisational development with

respect to a varying and complex operating environment. It also includes the
creation and maintenance of a supportive, people oriented organisation
culture.
1.4.2 Importance of talent management
Like human capital, talent management is gaining increased attention.
Talent management (TM) brings together a number of important human
resources (HR) and management initiatives.
Organisations that officially decide to manage their own talent carry out a
strategic analysis of their current HR processes. This is to make sure that a
co-ordinated, performance oriented approach is adopted.
Many organisations are adopting a TM approach which focuses on co-
ordinating and integrating methods which are given as:
 Recruitment: To ensure the right people are attracted to the
organisation.
 Retention: To develop and implement practices that reward and support
employees.
 Employee development: To ensure 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.
 Workforce planning: To plan for business and general changes, which
include the older workforce and current/future skills shortages.
 Culture: To develop of a positive, progressive and high performance way
of operating.
Self Assessment Questions
3. The problem with implementing effective talent management system is
that __________ at all departments are not committed to the required
time and effort, which limits successful activities.
4. Some organisations concentrate talent management efforts primarily
on “high potential” individuals, often referred to as “__________.”
5. Which TM method ensures the right people are attracted to the
organisation?

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6. Organisations that officially decide to manage their own talent carry out
a strategic analysis of their current HR processes. (True/False)?
7. Talent management involves individual and organisational
development with respect to a varying and complex
_________________.

Activity 2
Assume that you the HR of a company and the company is planning for
expansions. What approaches you should follow to the appropriately
manage talent in the company?
(Hint: Workforce Planning)

1.5 The Talent Management Requirements

Let us now see the talent management requirements:

Attracting and hiring the right talent

Finding and identifying the right people and placing them in the right roles
are basic and instinctive, but it is not that simple. There are only two tactics
that can achieve on this: one, having a strategically grounded “culture
brand” for attracting and recruiting the best fits; and two, being able to carry
out high-accuracy hiring.
The foundation of a strategically grounded culture brand requires crystal
clarity about the organisation’s mission, its idealised future vision and its
fundamental cultural principles. Having all these in hand, the enterprise can
craft a compelling call to action.
High-accuracy hiring involves knowing precise screening and, knowing the
tools used to maximise the probabilities that accurately identifies a best fit
and knowing how to standardise the selection process and repeat it
throughout the organisation.
The following are the steps to be followed to achieve accuracy in hiring:
1. Analyse the major job categories and identify their crucial
competencies. There is a collection of about 40 competencies, various
subsets of which can identify the requirements for efficiency in most
work roles.

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2. Build a set of tools that can measure the desired qualities and
capabilities for a given candidate. These include a competency model,
a behaviour based interview protocol and guide, a personality test that
can measure “softer” indicators and an evaluation matrix that can be
used by all members of the hiring team to coordinate and synchronise
the assessment process.
3. Methodically prepare hiring teams to gauge the answers to three
questions about every candidate:
 Can he/she do this job?
 Will he/she do this job?
 Will he/she fit here?
Proactive on boarding
It is logical to assume that high-accuracy hiring will protect against
misalignment between the new hire and the organisation’s culture, its
people and all their customs. The failure in considering all the possible
hazards that can threaten even the most able new executive’s tenure is a
glaring oversight that leads to shortened tenures.
The key objectives of on boarding include aligning the executive with the
corporate culture, developing the areas that are close to job success,
facilitating positive communication and ensuring positive relationships with
his or her team and other stakeholders.
The on boarding process in a nutshell can be given as follows:
 The consultant and new hire evaluate the corporate culture of the
organisation, interviewing key personnel and examining the strategic
documents and various materials that highlight the nature of the
organisation’s people practices.
 The consultant assesses the on boarding candidate. The candidate
responds to assessment questionnaires related to emotional intelligence
quotient (EQ) abilities and leadership behaviour and participates in an
in-depth interview.
 With the cultural and individual assessments, the core of the on
boarding process can begin.
 Identify blind spots, counter productive tendencies, key strengths and
potential vulnerabilities in certain situations common to the new
environment.

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 Create a roadmap for the candidate’s success.

 Monitor performance during the first year. Add new leadership
competencies to the candidate’s repertoire.
The new hire and coach together develop strategies to integrate the
executive into his or her new role, culture and company. They create an
early warning system for identifying emerging problems and initiate the
steps necessary to take the executive’s skill sets to the next level. The
process is not very different from the typical general executive coaching
engagement. It just has a more specific focus.
Identify and develop your existing talent
The mission, vision, core values and strategy execution design of an
individual will guide his/her talent identification and development system.
They translate into cultural, leadership and talent management
requirements, align all levels of management with the requirements and hold
them accountable for delivering. That delivery depends on the accurate use
of leadership competency model that captures the essence of the mission,
strategic imperatives and talent requirements.
Keep them in the pipeline
Any talent management approach must match with the organisation’s
strategy. The succession management is reverse-engineered to the
organisation’s human resources strategy, which, in turn, is reverse-
engineered to the overall business strategy. The organisational culture then
turns into a meritocracy where managers are held accountable, recognised
and promoted for being successful talent hunters and developers. Whether
the organisation seeks leaders from within or outside, it is always necessary
to build them because leaders, for the most part, are not born, they are
made.
The challenge
The core business processes are no more an edge for the successful
companies. The present competitive environment comes down to
management and leadership expertise at all points along the people value
chain.

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Self Assessment Questions

8. The failure in considering all the possible hazards that can threaten
even the most able new executive’s tenure is a glaring oversight that
leads to _________________.
9. The talent management is reverse-engineered to the organisation’s
human resources strategy, which, in turn, is reverse-engineered to the
overall business strategy. (True/False)?
10. Any talent management approach must _______ with the
organisation’s strategy.
11. The _____________ processes are no more an edge for the
successful companies.

Activity 3
Assume that you are the HR manager of an organisation and your job is
to align the executives and new hires with the corporate culture. What
processes you would use to achieve this goal.
(Hint: On boarding process)

1.6 The Process of Talent Management

Organisations are made up of people who in turn create value through
proven business processes, innovation, customer service, sales, and many
other important activities.
In order to meet its business goals, an organisation must make sure that it
has a continuous and integrated process for recruiting, training, managing,
supporting, and compensating these people.
Following are the key processes:
 Workforce planning: This process establishes workforce and hiring
plans, compensation budgets, and hiring targets for the year.
 Recruiting: Through an integrated process of recruiting, assessment,
evaluation, and hiring people are inducted into the organisation.
 Onboarding: The organisation must provide proper training and enable
the employees to become more productive and integrated into the
company more quickly.

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 Performance management: It is done by using the business plan, the

organisation establishes processes to measure and manage employees.
 Training and performance support: This is a critically important function
where learning and development programs to all levels of the
organisation are provided.
 Succession planning: As the organisation evolves and changes, it also
becomes a requirement to move people into new positions. Succession
planning is a very important function which enables managers and
individuals to spot the right candidates for a position. While this process
is only reserved for managers and executives, it is generally used
across the organisation.
 Compensation and benefits: This is an integral part of people
management. Here organisations try to attach the compensation plan
directly to performance management so that compensation, incentives,
and benefits align with business goals and business execution.
 Critical skills gap analysis: This is a very important process but often
overlooked in many industries and organisations. It is often done on a
project basis but it can be business specific also. For example, today
industries like the Government, Utilities, Telecommunications, and
Energy are facing a big problem as large number of retiring employees.
It becomes necessary to identify the roles, individuals, and
competencies which are leaving and the requirements to fill these gaps.
This is known as “critical talent management” and many organisations
are going through this now.

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Figure 1.2 explains the Talent Management processes

2 4
Onboarding

Business Recruiting Performance

Plan management

Job Roles Job

Description
Competency
1 5
Models

Workforce
Planning Training and
Learning Content Performance
Support

8 6
Compensation
Critical Skill and 7 Benefits Succession
Gap Analysis Planning

Figure 1.2: Talent Management Processes

1.6.1 Talent Vs knowledge people

We live in a world of haves and no’s. The people in the organisations are
grouped into two classes: those who have knowledge and talent and, those
who do not. This division is misleading and damaging to the organisation in
the long run.
If executives are asked to identify talent within their own firm, most of them
will concentrate on the top levels of management. Often, they include "high
potentials" in this group to be groomed for leadership roles. Sometimes,
they also extend the boundaries to include "creative talent" or "knowledge
workers", leaving out the rest of the workforce.
The main focus of the executives is on the creative class, engineers,
scientists, architects, educators, researchers, coders, artists and, which are
broadly referred as knowledge workers. This has helped in understanding
the differing roles workers have and their contribution to economic growth
and the development of culture. But the creative class unintentionally
decreases the potential contributions from other parts of the workforce.
When executives focus on "knowledge workers", they lose sight of the fact
that even highly routinised jobs require improvisation and the use of
judgement in uncertain situations, especially if the goal is to drive
performance to new levels. Most of these improvisations require interactions

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with the fellow people. Consider the company receptionist. When people
walk in the door, or dial the customer care number to reach an operator, the
receptionist has to engage in a delicate and sophisticated improvisational
strategy in which professional competence has to come across through
interaction skill.
1
Daniel Pink, a writer on economy and society, in his provocative new book,
A Whole New Mind seeks to explain off-shoring and outsourcing trends over
the past several decades. Through his lens, Western companies have been
systematically stripping out routine "left brain" jobs and sending them
offshore. His message was clear; we need to focus on more creative "right
brain" jobs. While his emphasis on the growing importance of creative "right
brain" work is spot on, Pink's perspective again reinforces an artificial
distinction. The significant talent development and rapid performance
improvement taking place in call centres and manufacturing facilities across
India and China suggests that it is premature to ignore this work as mindless
and routine. When these workers are not part of organisations that consider
them as second-class workers, instead are part of firms that consider them
as core to creating growing value, they seem capable of performing better.
But, there is another kind of boundary that restricts talent development.
Executives in any organisation immediately constrict the scope of discussion
to their own employees in case of talent. According to Bill Joy, 2"There are
always more smart people outside your company than within it." In order to
develop our own talent, it is important to devise more ways to connect with
and collaborate with all the smart people outside our organisation.
Appropriate opportunities should be created for people within the
organisation to collaborate with talented people outside the organisation so
that both sides can build up their talent more rapidly and effectively.
1.6.2 Source of talent management
Talent management refers to the supplementary processes and
opportunities that an organisation offers to a pool of people who are
considered to have talent. When a talent is not recognised and managed by
the entire management team, talent is said to be a hidden or untapped
quality to be measured in the future, either in an individual or in the group.

1
http://blogs.hbr.org/bigshift/2010/04/are-all-employees-knowledge-wo.html
2
http://blogs.hbr.org/bigshift/2010/04/are-all-employees-knowledge-wo.html

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The primary sources of Talent Management are the people or candidates.

Talent Management deals with the recruitment, deployment and
redeployment of a company’s current and future workforce, in accordance to
the current skills possessed by the workforce and the future demand for
skills. The sources of Talent Management can be both internal and external
candidates. These candidates are then measured or evaluated according to
the organisational requirements. Profiling the present employees in an
internal skill repository in advance of any identification of a recruitment need
further allows fast internal redeployment as required. The ability to attract
and retain a team of the right talent is a primary requirement of fulfilling any
business plan.
Self Assessment Questions
12. The organisation must provide proper training and enable the
employees to become more __________ and __________ into the
company more quickly.
13. Which Talent Management process enables managers and individuals
to spot the right candidates for a position?
14. Name the two classes in which people are grouped?
15. The sources of Talent Management can be both _________ and
___________ candidates.

1.7 Consequences of Failure in Managing Talent

Organisations have to face the following problems, if they fail to manage
talent.
 Loss of key leaders: The result of failure in managing talent can lead to
loss of key employees and sometimes not finding even an approximate
replacement.
 The repeated turnover of key employees from an organisation will affect
the very Work culture within the organisation.
 Poor performance of employees can affect the targets and productivity
of an organisation.
 Financial crisis.

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1.8 Tools for Managing Talent

The organisation’s goals and objectives rely on the people in the
organisation that achieve results. Talent Management tools help the
organisation to efficiently hire, manage, retain, and develop employees to
ensure that the right people are in right place.
Following are the Tools for managing Talent:
 Performance appraisal: Performance appraisal is a method by which the
work performance, weaknesses and strength of an employee as well as
opportunities for improvement and skills development is measured.
Performance appraisal provides clearness of expectations and
responsibilities of the jobs to be performed by the employees.
 Potential forecast: A prediction of how many levels an employee can
progress within an organisation based on his/her past or current
performance appraisals, training and development needs, career
preferences, and actual and projected competency levels.
 Measurement scales for performance and potential: A study of a number
of organisations involved in talent management process showed that
majority of them used a five-point scale to measure performance and
potential.
The most common scales for performance measurement on a scale of 5
are:
 Greatly exceeds expectations (5).
 Exceeds expectations (4).
 Meets expectations (3).
 Below expectations (2).
 Greatly below expectations (1).
The most common scales for potential assessment on a scale of 5 are:
 High potential (5).
 Promotable (4).
 Lateral (3).
 Marginal (2).
 None (1).
These scales may appear to be simple but they are very effective in
achieving accurate results.

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 Core/Institutional competencies: Behavioural skill expectations are

crucial to the success of both the employee and the entire organisation.
There are almost 30 core institutional competences and most
organisations use between 9 and 11 competencies in their Talent
process. Some of these competences are given in table 1.1 given below:
Table 1.1: Representative Core Competencies

Core Competency Attributes

Action Orientation Targets and achieves results, overcomes
obstacles, accepts accountability, sets
standards and goals, creates a results-
oriented environment, and follows through on
actions.
Communications Has a good communication skill both verbal
and written. Effectively conveys and shares
information and ideas with others. Listens
carefully and understands various viewpoints.
Creativity/Innovation Creates innovative ideas and develops or
improves existing and new systems that
challenge the status, takes risks, and
encourages innovation
Critical Judgement Has the skill to define issues and focus on
achieving feasible solutions. Constantly
maintains good performance with reliability.
Customer Orientation Good listener, builds customer confidence,
increases customer satisfaction, meets all
customer commitments, sets appropriate
customer expectations, and responds to
customer needs.
Interpersonal Skill Has efficient and productive relationship with
others and establishes trust, reliability, and
confidence with others.

 Mapping and weighting competencies: Mapping of competencies is the

process of further differentiation of competency definitions into
glossaries of behaviours associated with each level of an organisation.
They provide simplicity, amplification and greater specificity to
competency definitions. A greater level of specificity can be achieved by
assigning numerical weights to each job's competency level in the
glossary of behaviours. The latter approach can be joined to replace or
start a job evaluation system.

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Self Assessment Questions

16. Which Talent Management tool provides clearness of expectations and
responsibilities of the jobs to be performed by the employees?
________________________________________________
17. Mapping of competencies is the process of further differentiation of
competency definitions into glossaries of ___________ associated with
each level of an organisation.

1.9 Summary
In this unit, we have discussed the concept of Talent Management. Talent is
the main driving force behind any organisation and it becomes a necessity
for an organisation to find the right person and put them in the right position.
The result of putting an individual in a wrong position can be low
productivity, dissatisfaction, low morale or negative behaviour. Talent
Management can be defined as recognising a person’s inherent skills, traits,
personality and offering him/her a matching job profile. Talent Management
is beneficial for companies as it increases the productivity and capability,
provides a better link between an individual’s efforts and business goals. It
also reduces turnover and increases bench strength. Talent Management
also benefits employees by providing higher motivation and commitment,
career development, increased knowledge and contribution to company
goals.
Talent Management provides various benefits such as employee
engagement, retention and binding to the strategic goals. This helps to
determine the future leadership of the organisation, increased productivity,
culture of excellence and so on. It is the process of managing the supply
and demand of talent to achieve optimal business performance in alignment
with organisational goals.
Organisation can meet its business goals by indulging in continuous and
integrated process for recruiting, training, managing and supporting its
employee. Talent management demands that organisations move from
replacement and succession planning to cater to the entire talent pool with
other processes and opportunities. Organisations have to face lot of
problems if they fail to manage talent properly.

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We also learnt about various talent assessment tools used to manage talent
in an organisation. The tools for managing talent include Performance
appraisal, Potential forecast, and Measurement scales for performance and
potential, Core/Institutional competencies and Mapping and weighting
competencies.

1.10 Glossary
Term Description
Antithetical Sharply contrasted in character or purpose.
Assessment The classification of someone or something with respect to its
worth.
Competency The quality of being adequately or well qualified physically and
intellectually.
Onboarding It is the process of handling new employees to obtain the best
results from them.
Repertoire The entire range of skills or aptitudes or devices used in a
particular field or occupation.
Workforce It is the business process for ensuring that an organisation
Planning has suitable access to talent to ensure future business
success.

1.11 Terminal Questions

1. Define Talent and Talent Management?
2. Briefly describe the history of Talent Management?
3. Explain why Talent Management is needed?
4. Describe the Talent Management requirements?
5. Explain the processes of Talent Management?
6. What do you mean by Talent Vs Knowledge people? Explain
7. Explain the tools for managing Talent?

1.12 Answers
Answers to Self Assessment Questions
1. Key Performing
2. Planning
3. Managers
4. High-pos
5. Recruitment

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6. True
7. Operational environment
8. Shortened tenures
9. False
10. Match
11. Core business
12. Productive, integrated
13. Succession planning
14. Knowledge, Talent
15. Internal and external
16. Performance Appraisal
17. Behaviours
Answers to Terminal Questions
1. Refer section 1.2 Talent Management Overview.
2. Refer section 1.3 Talent Management History.
3. Refer section 1.4.1 Why Talent Management
4. Refer section 1.5 The Talent Management Requirements.
5. Refer section 1.6 The Process of Talent Management.
6. Refer section 1.6.1 Talent Vs Knowledge people.
7. Refer section 1.8 Tools for Managing Talent

1.13 Case Study

Zena’s Performance Management
Company Background
Zena Group Management Company is a private real estate investment
and property management firm that controls a portfolio of worldwide
assets valued in excess of two billion dollars. The company’s real estate
holdings include over eight million square feet of commercial space and
more than 14,000 apartment units.
Challenge
Zena Group wanted to foster a performance-oriented culture; one in
which employees focus on the organisation’s overall strategic goals. To
do this, Zena Group knew it would have to get managers to better
recognise employee results based on specific actions, and
compliment/reward them appropriately. The overall goal was to develop
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individuals to adopt high performance attitudes, emotions and

behaviours.
Zena Group decided to overhaul its appraisal process, and focus on a
model that was objective rather than subjective, and that was based on
behaviours rather than traits. In order to manage employees’ long-term
growth potential, their appraisals had to be specific to job function and
demonstrate to them that they could control the outcome.
Solution
When sourcing an automated employee performance and talent
management system, Zena Group wanted a solution that supported all
types of performance appraisals (semi-annual, probationary, project
performance, etc.), and included extensive form configuration options
and complex scoring and weighting. It also had to include multirater/peer
review functionality, provide real-time status on every step in the process
and enable managers to drill down into their organisations.
The tool should provide employees with candid feedback and potential
improvement opportunities. Zena Group needed capacity to handle lots
of detailed information, because they were making coaching a part of
each employee’s development discussion and creating mentoring
relationships to build motivation and engagement.
Zena Group also needed to integrate a compensation management
system that would suggest pay adjustments based on appraisal scores
and a performance matrix. It had to allow for complex bonus calculations
based on multiple profiles, and verify recommendations against budget
guidelines.
Malagent’s eAppraisal with eCompensation were chosen because it most
closely fits with the reward-for-performance culture.
Benefits
With the implementation of Malagent’s eAppraisal™ and
eCompensation™, Zena Group has seen increased employee
engagement and improved accountability. Employees now perceive that
the appraisal process provides fair compensation adjustments and
rewards. The new communication process is leading to higher trust in the
company and understanding of our goals. It is seen that the managers

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make honest and objective assessments, and everyone has a better

understanding of the company’s talent development needs.
Zena Group’s compensation culture changes have also improved
employee retention and ensured that the compensation budget is
adhered to. Malagent has helped the managers to better recognise top
performers through performance management.
Questions
1. What was the overall goal of Zena group?
(Hint: Performance oriented culture)
2. What tools were used to implement these goals?
(Hint: Malagent’s tools)
References
 Lance A. Berger & Dorothy R. Berger. (2004), The Talent Management
Handbook.

E references
 http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/recruitmen/general/talent-
management.htm
 http://www.scribd.com/doc/16689636/Talent-Force-by-Rusty-Rueff
 http://www.talentmanagement101.com/
 http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:J99VgpoLr8gJ:www.gov.n
s.ca/psc/v2/pdf/hrCentre/resources/talentManagement/TM%2520Proces
s%2520Guide.pdf+talent+management+process&hl=en&gl=in&pid=bl&s
rcid=ADGEESg53LDHBbevWhxzz1i6YK809Z4hEs8-
rlnj_T72a4yz6Iwn9bjusMA_6Gd4vC7Ciae4WCDq-xGqA09ChQQ-
Ifehay03WXXDjLvgzsl4kc6BGBuDpq1fn0A-
xUUwKpMV2xcvupxY&sig=AHIEtbRjQxGXc3ButeMrJ0rlCOi0GNKeQA
 http://managementhelp.org/hr_mgmnt/hr_mgmnt.htm

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