Talent Management – A roadmap

Talent Management implies that the recruitment, development, promotion, and retention of people is
planned and executed in line with the organization’s current and future business goals.

The objective of talent management is to build leadership strength in depth and therefore gives the
organization the flexibility to meet rapidly changing market conditions. An integrated talent management plan
will typically enable multiple outcomes in the organization.

Talent Management – Typical Organizational Outcomes

Effectively
plan talent
needs

Enable talent Attract the

mobility very best
across the talent
organization required

Retain the Drive desired

highest productivity
performers levels

Develop
targeted
capabilities
and
knowledge
Talent Management Practice Depth – Organizational Choices
Talent management does not imply that there is focus only on a “select” number of high potential
and high performing employees. It implies a more ‘inclusive’ approach encompassing the universe of talent in
the organization.
An organization can choose the depth of talent management that it wants to engage in based on
organizational requirements and business priorities. The figure below demonstrates this. ( CIPD 2006)

Talent management
strategy informs and is
informed by corporate
Talent management
strategy. Individual and
strategy designed to
pooled talent understood
deliver corporate and and taken into
HR management
consideration in the
strategies. Formal
strategic process
talent management
initiatives linked
Integrated and co- horizontally to HR
ordinated talent management and
management vertically to
activities for a corporate strategy-
Isolated/tactical/l particular segment making processes
ocal ‘pockets’ of of the organisation
No talent
talent
management
management
strategies,
activities. No
policies or
overall strategy or
formally
plans for talent
developed
management
practices. Where
talent is
managed, it is
informal/incident
al
Talent Management Process Flow

Focus on current and future business priorities

(Strategic, Cultural and Leadership priorities)

Identify the talent needed for the organization

(Competencies / Skills / Experiences / Personal
Attributes)

Appropriate Talent Deployment

Establish and evaluate Performance Metrics

Talent Assessment (Where are the strengths and

the gaps ?)

Identify Potential and ensure "hot jobs - hot

people " mix

Establish Compensation - Talent link

Development Strategy for people

Talent Audit for the organization - a continuous

process
Talent Management across key HR functions

Recruitment – The key is to identify what is the nature of talent the organisation needs (ito competencies /
skills / personal attributes). The next step is then to ensure that the recruitment process net covers the width
and the depth of the talent net. The recruitment process should also be tailored to identify the competencies
and skills required for the organization

Performance planning and evaluation - Employees who understand where they add value do a better job of
adding value. Managers, who clearly communicate what they expect from their employees, help them become
more engaged and effective. Here, HR systems can help managers adopt appropriate goal setting processes,
develop feedback loops between performance expectations and actual performance over time, evaluate the
effectiveness of performance metrics, and enable a range of review.

Talent Assessment – Assessment involves exploring the actual results achieved by employees and to examine
the level of skills or competencies deemed critical to current and future jobs and organisational success.
Various processes can be chosen to assess talent -; Talent review dialogues, Upward and downward feedback,
360 degree feedback, Assessment Centres etc.

Talent Mapping – This is typically the next step after the assessment process. Given the organisation’s
business focus and strategic direction, it helps is identifying what mix of talent and skills will help it to execute
successfully and the nature of the current talent. If the talent mix is absent, appropriate development or
recruitment strategies can be identified.

Developing talent - Individuals will need to have their potential unlocked, be fast-tracked to retain their
engagement, and developed in a number of areas, including behavioural competencies, technical skills and the
ability to perform beyond their typical comfort zones.