What Is Talent Management?
Since the end of the 1990s the term Talent Management has been heard more and more in the field of HR, usually in reference to methods used by an organisation to acquire, develop and keep talented employees. For example, a Talent Management strategy will often encompass initiatives involving corporate identity, recruitment and selection, performance management, reward and succession planning.
However, Talent Management can go beyond describing a collection of selection and development processes. Effective Talent Management is driven by the belief that the right people in the right positions will provide the organisation with the competitive edge, with benefits for both the individual and the company.
It also ensures that the right people are available at the right time so that key business objectives can be achieved. Through initiatives that are supported by the leadership down, it can refer a whole organisational culture or mindset in which talent within the organisation is managed strategically in line with business objectives.
The War For Talent
In 1997 a team from McKinsey and Company business consultants conducted research that involved surveys of 13,000 executives from more than 120 companies. They discovered that on average, companies that were more successful in attracting, developing and retaining talented managers earned 22 percentage points higher return to shareholders. They concluded that the most important corporate resource over the next 20 years will be talent, and used the term War for Talent as the title for both their report and a subsequent book.
The War for Talent describes the challenge faced by companies today. They are engaged in an ongoing battle to attract and retain multi talented people in an environment where the economy is growing and the working population is on the decline. The war is costly and requires a commitment and belief at leadership level. If organisations find that their money and ideas outweigh their talent, they must not only devise creative solutions to attract new talent, they must also be prepared to work hard at keeping their best performers
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