A paper on Talent Management to be presented in National Seminar On Competency Building in Business Education 23rd and 24th of September 2011

Organized by Department of Commerce KLE Societys S NIJALINGAPPA COLLEGE

Rajajinagar, Bangalore-10 Karnataka

TALENT ACQUISITION AND RETENTION IN THE TURBULENT TIMES

Mr. Sitaram Sujir
BHM, MBA, PGDHRM, M.Sc-TQM, PGDIPR, (Ph.D)

Counselor and Trainer (Bangalore Center) Directorate of Quality Management Maidan Garhi Road, South of Saket, New Delhi -110068. India. 9900571372 sitaramsujir@gmail.com

Contents:
1. Introduction to Talent Management 2. Six Dimensions of Talent Management 3. Talent Management in Shared Service Center..............................................
4. Recent trends in talent management .. 5. Summary. 6. References...

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1. Introduction to Talent Management Modern organizations are operating in an unprecedented, highly competitive and turbulent business environment which is characterized by the globalization of business. Further, today's global workforce is more mobile than ever before. With a dynamically changing and volatile demand-supply equation, especially against erratic attrition trend and cutthroat competition no longer restricted to local or regional boundaries, a need for strategizing & putting in place a robust mechanism for attracting and retaining top talent becomes vital for the company's very survival and growth.

The new age economy, with its attendant paradigm shifts in relation to the human capital, in terms of its acquisition, utilization, development and retention, has placed a heavy demand on today's HR profession. Today HR is expected to comprehend, conceptualize, innovate, implement and sustain relevant strategies and contribute effectively towards giving the company its winning edge. These efforts on the part of the company have resulted in recognizing talent as priority of the company to maintain competitive edge and talent becoming a strategic priority.

What is Talent Management?

Mckinsey and company consultants Michaels, Handfield Jones and Axelrod define "talent" as the "the sum of a person's abilities- his or her intrinsic gifts, skills, knowledge, experience, intelligence judgement, attitude, character and drive. It also includes his or her ability to learn and grow.

"Talent Management implies recognizing person's inherent skills, traits, personality and offering him a matching job."

While there are no magic formulae to manage talent, the trick is to locate it and encourage all Talent management is beneficial to both the organization and the employees. Essentials of Talent Management:

Talent management is the activity of identifying, realizing, and guiding untapped potential in people. 3

It means nurturing and developing those people identified of having ability and potential and it should form part of any organizations recruitment and retention strategy.

It involves individual and organization development in response to a changing and complex operating environment. Includes the creation and maintenance of supportive people oriented organizational culture.

Talent management is a deliberate approach undertaken to attract, develop and retain people with the aptitude and abilities to meet current and future organizational needs.

Talent management brings together a number of important human resources and management initiatives. Organizations that, formally decide to manage their talent undertake a strategic analysis of their current HR process. Talent management approach is adopted and focused on coordinating and integrating the following: Recruitment: ensuring right people are attracted to the organization. Retention: developing and implementing practices that reward and support employees. Employee development: ensuring continuous formal and informal learning and development.

Methodology This review focuses on literature that takes a more holistic approach to examining talent management, considering each aspect of talent management in relation to the others (as opposed to considering only one particular practice, such as compensation or professional development). The review includes both academic and professional literature.

2. Six Dimensions of Talent Management In a report on integrated talent management across various sectors, Ringo et al. (2008) identified the following broad dimensions of talent management based on surveys of more than 1000 private and public sector organizations: 1. Develop Strategy: Implement the best long term approach for recruiting and retaining workers 2. Attract and Retain: Recruit and retain those that possess the particular skills and knowledge needed by the organization 3. Motivate and Develop: Develop workers skill and knowledge to meet the companys needs and provide the motivational factors to ensure job satisfaction. 4. Deploy and Manage: Create scheduling and resource deployment practices that align well with the needs of the organization. 5. Connect and enable: Encourage collaboration and the sharing of expertise as well as the information technology capabilities to help individuals across the organization identify and connect with others who can share their relevant talents. 6. Transform and Sustain: Maintain continuity of procedures while achieving clear measurable change in advance in the talent in the organization.

IBM and the Human Capital Institute surveyed 1,900 individuals from more than 1,000 public and private sector organizations on Web-based survey conducted between February and April 2008 around the world about their organizations talent management capabilities. The respondents varied by position, and included people involved with HR and non-HR functions. The surveyed companies represent a variety of industries, geographies and sizes. Although the sample included respondents from 56 different countries, 93 percent were from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, India and Canada. From the initial analysis, two important themes arise: Overall, knowledge-intensive industries (Electronics/Technology, Professional Services and Telecommunications, for example) as well as service-intensive industries such as Financial Services and Retail are more likely to apply talent management practices across the board. The study suggests that knowledge-intensive firms tend to focus on development and collaboration, while financial services companies concentrate primarily on employee attraction/ retention. Non-profit organizations (government agencies, educational and health care institutions, for example) appear to be significantly deficient in their use of talent management practices. The survey findings suggest that limited budgets, regulations and inertia are hampering this groups efforts to build a high-performance workforce. IBM believes that this situation could result in public-sector agencies having difficulty in both fulfilling their existing missions and providing for the educational, medical and social needs of the future private-sector workforce. Both of these issues threaten the prosperity of those nations that fail to overcome them. Turning talent management into a competitive advantage As world-class companies develop within emerging economies and begin to compete with more familiar global corporations, the competition for top talent intensifies. Yet, as it is seen through the survey, different industries are responding to the need to more effectively manage talent with varying degrees of intensity. To understand where the differences in talent management approaches lie, IBM designed a survey instrument to capture valuable information about how organizations around the world are addressing their talent management challenges.

Knowledge-intensive industries tend to focus on developing and connecting their employees IBM describes the group of industries shown to the far right of Figure 2 Telecom, Electronics/ Technology and Professional Services as being knowledge-intensive industries. Given the need to rapidly apply new insights to new markets, and the continuing reduction in the lifespan of both high-tech products and ideas, each of these industries is heavily reliant on the edge they can get from their people the capital that walks in and out of the building each day. As one professional services interviewee states, We are in a perfect storm for employee turnover. All of our competitors are looking for the same people were looking for [but there is a] very limited pool of qualified candidates. Of course, once an organization has those desirable candidates, it wants to get the most out of them, and use their talents and skills to carve an edge in the ever-changing global economy.

Consider the Electronics/Technology industry. Over 64 percent of our studys Electronics/ Technology respondents believe that employees have career options and pathways that encourage the development of relevant skills. This is 10 percentage points more than the overall sample. Google, for instance, provides an interesting example of how a company can create career opportunities by paving non-traditional advancement paths. Another goal for many organizations is to make the sum of all talent greater than the individual parts. For Electronics/Technology firms, collaboration among geographically distributed groups appears to be an area of specific attention. For example, these companies are more likely to state that employees collaborate and share knowledge in a way that contributes to organizational success (68 percent vs. 58 percent of the total sample) and are much more apt to provide tools, resources and metrics to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing (62 7

percent vs. 49 percent). As a case in point, Nokia is one technology firm that has focused its time and resources on supporting collaboration within its global teams.

The focused application of talent management practices might best be captured in the attitude of a professional services executive, who stated that We constantly look at better ways to engage and utilize our internal talent we utilize an internal Leadership Council to engage our high performers, give them projects to work on, and use them as sounding boards across the corporation. Or consider the words of a recruitment director of a large technology company who told IBM, For a large corporation that is as diverse as we are, we are fairly effective [at connecting individuals and collaborating across the organization]; however, we have initiatives underway to make it even better. Example of Google and Nokia on Talent Management:

3 Talent Management in Shared Services Talent management, the management of individuals and workforces toward achieving improved performance, is among the most critical components to the Masters success. In fact, the research respondents ranked attracting and retaining the best employees as the top factors in contributing to their shared services organizations (SSOs) success. Talent management, then, is not nice to have, but one of the vital components to help achieve higher levels of performance. The significance of talent management was not lost on any of the research participants. The Masters, however, are more adept at converting thoughts into action. They are more than 50 percent more likely than other respondents to plan initiatives that help improve employee engagement, and nearly twice as likely to have plans to introduce more formalized training for their shared services employees. Shared services Masters have begun to make a concerted move toward developing the talent management mindset. Key elements include: Focusing on talent management from the start of the implementation of shared services, and implementing specific talent management practices alongside other components of the solution (systems, processes, etc.). Continuously challenging leaders to engage and motivate all levels of the workforce and to help ensure their behaviour aligns with the desired organizational culture and values. Measuring culture regularly to make sure it positively engages employees and supports the overall strategy. Investing in developing managers people management skills, given their role in implementing talent management programs on a day-to-day basis. Targeting recruitment processes to help rapidly identify, attract and deploy people with the right balance of technical, functional and behavioural skills. Tapping into the size and scope of the shared services organization to offer meaningful and differentiated career paths. Targeting training and development toward skills that are necessary to progress the shared services strategy and using delivery channels that help balance end user access and cost. Leveraging a market-competitive reward system, including monetary and nonmonetary elements, that recognizes individual and team performance. 10

Implementing performance management at all levels and tying the process to tangible outputs in terms of rewards, development opportunities and career progression. Using advances in technology to offer user-friendly tools to enable talent management processes.

More than just a set of related activities, talent management is a mindset that allows an organization to make sound decisions about the talent it has available. The Masters understand this point, and realize that shared services longevity requires addressing talent management from the outset and sustaining and improving on it throughout operations. Leading practices in shared services Talent management The Accenture Shared Services Talent Management Model addresses the key elements needed to build an effective talent management culture within an SSO. Healthy and vibrant shared services organizations focus on leadership, management and service, enabled by a cohesive approach to career path and succession planning, rewards and recognition, and training.

The Accenture Shared Services Talent Management Model Shared services culture The culture of a shared services organization acts as the glue that ties talent management processes together and provides the foundation for long-term success. Within a highperformance SSO, continuous improvement, process excellence and customer service 11

initiatives not only improve results, but also engage employees, encourage them to take an interest in the business and improve their work experience. This process builds a feeling of ownership and creates a virtuous cycle of self-improvement that over time becomes embedded in the SSO culture. Transition The point of transition, when new staff arrives during start up or expansion, is a time of anxiety for all involved, but also an opportunity to build a talent management mindset from the outset. To achieve this, the SSO leadership team must already be in place to establish and demonstrate the desired practices and behaviours. It is an increasingly common practice to seed the leadership team in the early days with high performers from the existing organization. Leadership capability The shared services leadership team must embody strategy, vision and confidence in order to create and maintain an autonomous shared services organization within a wider corporate structure. Internally, they must set and communicate a clear, long-term vision so all employees can understand their role in contributing to the organizations performance. When communicating to customers and stakeholders, the leadership team must possess the confidence and capability to represent the SSO at the most senior levels of the wider organization. Experience can and should be supplemented by Leadership Development Programs. Leadership does not come naturally to all and many benefit from coaching and a focus on how to learn, live and teach the correct behaviours. Management capability Talent management initiatives and processes are only as effective as the people who implement them on a day-to-day basis. Therefore line managers must possess, or develop, the people management capabilities (coaching, listening, challenging, etc.) that help drive performance across an SSO. Service capability Service capability reflects the minimum skills the SSO needs to meet its obligations to its customers. While Service Level Agreements (SLAs) capture these obligations in aggregate, SLAs do not immediately translate the required skills to individual employees. Competency mapping identifies the supply of skills and resources, and highlights any gaps or surpluses that need to be addressed. This competency mapping must then inform job specifications, and training and recruitment plans. 12

Recruitment Recruitment into a shared services environment presents the unique challenge of balancing the demands of filling largely administrative and volume-based transactional roles with candidates who possess scarce multilingual and customer service skills. Added to this challenge is the continuing trend of clustering SSOs in locations like Eastern Europe, India and, more recently, China, the Philippines, Brazil and Argentina, where attracting talent is becoming more and more competitive. Career path and succession planning Career development opportunities are a major attraction and retention tool for any organization. However, many employees still perceive a move to an SSO as a step out of an organizations career path, where opportunities for upward mobility are limited because of typically flatter organization structures. Communicating these potential career paths using real role-model examples is an essential part of any SSOs attraction and retention strategy. However, communication is the easy part; getting the right people onto the right paths is the main challenge. This task should be based on the performance management process and, for more critical roles, succession planning. Training and development A targeted training and development plan will reflect the organizations strategy, vision and values and be differentiated by function and level of employee. If the vision is to provide exceptional customer service, then the training and development plan must focus on ensuring all employees understand what exceptional customer service is, and then train them to have the skills and tools to deliver it within their given role. Shared services implement a variety of innovative training and development practices: Providing training across a broad spectrum of skills, including industry skills, leadership skills, customer service skills, people skills, etc. Blending training across different channels, including instructor-led, computer-based and activity- and simulation-based vehicles. Establishing individual training budgets and targets that are tracked as part of the performance management process. Combining on- and off-the-job training with work shadowing, super-user networks and work buddies to generate an environment of continuous learning.

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Using collaboration tools, such as online blogs and podcasts, for multi-location organizations to share leading practices, ask questions and celebrate experiences and achievements.

Allowing employees to drive training needs through skills surveys, performance management and employee engagement surveys.

Rewards, incentives and recognition High-performance SSOs are attuned to the market and reflect this in the total rewards they offer to current and potential staff. They also have flexibility to allow remuneration to reflect an individuals performance against set objectives and to reward the SSOs highest performers in line with their top-performing industry peers. Beyond remuneration, SSO provide real-time recognition to employees who set high standards at work and demonstrate desired behaviours. Typically informal, such recognition programs may include weekly and monthly employee awards, team awards and ad hoc award schemes. It is important to note that these awards are often non-monetary in nature, yet generally have as much or more impact on employee engagement. Performance management Successful performance management is as dependent upon the rigor with which the process is applied as it is on the design of the process itself. Typical procedures involve an annual cycle of objective setting and regular reviews (formal and informal) with direct supervisors. Objective setting should include identifying appropriate training, and performance reviews should feed the rewards and recognition process. Employees identified as possessing high potential typically receive additional development opportunities, with the objective of fast-tracking their career progression and prolonging their retention within the business. Talent management technology Technology has advanced exponentially over the last five years and this trend has certainly been seen within the ranks of talent management technology providers. Convergence has been the key word as the major vendors of ERPs and other best-of breed applications have come together to improve the look, feel and ease of use of their products for the end users.

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4 Recent Trends in Talent Management with respect to attracting talent Attracting qualified talent is the critical first step in the talent management cycle. Jobs are plenty, finding the right candidate is the challenge. The need is to "sell a job". Having sold the job well, retaining good employees is the next challenge that arises. And the company's brand image makes these tasks easier. Hence the marriage of compulsion arises between HR and marketing principles-employer branding. As we know that we get good customers with a good brand. In the same way companies must develop their image in the society by implementing the best practices in each and every aspect. Employer branding therefore helps a company attract, recruit, and retain employees that if wants and is becoming increasingly important in attracting and retaining star performers in a talent-tight market. Selecting Talent An effective retention strategy begins at the earlier stages of the recruitment & selection process. This is true because most of the employee turnover happens due to poor chemistry or bed fit. The research indicates that most of the people leave organizations due to the mistakes made during the hiring phase. For this reason some smart companies are adopting the strategy of hire for attitude & train for skill." They have realized that it is easier to develop the skills & capabilities that an employee needs than to attempt to change the employee's personality or mindset. For instance, although Infosys receives about twice the number of application as its competitors it is very selective in recruiting employees.

Some companies go to even extraordinary lengths before hiring somebody. According to a study, Hewitt, a leading Indian company, was selecting a senior marketing manager after the candidate had gone through several rounds of interviews. The company had identified the person they thought was the right one for the job and was on the verge of making an offer. The HR head took him out for dinner and, during the meal, the Prospective marketing manager was particularly rude to a waiter in front of his potential employer and peer. The company reversed its decision to recruit him. If he could be rude to the waiter in such a setting, how would his behaviour reflect the company image and culture if he were in-charge of marketing?

Retaining Talent The time is tough. There is no denial to the fact that in today's fast pace and knowledge boom, one of the most important factors for today's organization is talent. Its viewed that the 15

availability of suitable and competent talent inside any organization determines the excellence of the same. Most companies today would acknowledge that their human resources are most important asset. But since companies can't own employees the way they own factories or product your success or failure hinges on the quality and duration of the relationship you form with your people. In present scenario people choose companies which have congenial atmosphere and prefer change if they don't get desirable, as it may hinder the growth and success of the company. Hence retention is vital than recruitment.

The attrition rate of employees in organization is alarming. Take any industry, any sector, any organization and you can find more than enough examples of employees joining and leaving their workplace. All this adds to the worry of HR managers who are only left with the option of scratching their heads and singing no mercy's all-time hit-"where do you go?"

Two major trends point to the growing importance of employee retention as an important HR issue. One is the constant rise in turnover in virtually every economic sector and left Unaddressed it can have an adverse impact on organizational effectiveness. The other is the ever raising cost of turnover, especially when it involves high performers.

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5 Summary 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 environment is very volatile and attrition is increasing day-by-day. It poses a challenge before HR managers; they need to be very innovative so that new retention tools could be adopted. Today when companies recruit people they often focus attracting precisely those people who will be the most difficult to retain.

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. Though attrition cannot be completely eradicated but it can be reduced to drastic level by being innovative. Companies the" days are emphasizing not only on physical emotional benefits also.

Shared services organizations have developed considerably from the cost minimizing, centralization of back office functions that emerged during the 1990s. Getting talent management right provides a competitive advantage for shared services operations and supports an improved experience for employees, while contributing to their enterprises overall strategic objectives. Getting it right enables organizations to help navigate unstable financial environments and be better positioned for future success.

With rapidly changing skill sets and job requirements, this becomes an increasingly difficult challenge for organizations. 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. Corporate have to develop new ideas to touch the emotions of their employees make them loyal towards their organizations. Companies involved in designing strategies such as internal job posting (IJP), flexi-time are being more successful.

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6 References Berger, Dorothy R .2004. Talent Management Handbook, Tata McGrow-Hill Publication, New Delhi. GuruSwamy K., Ramani VV, "Talent Management-Concepts & Cases", Vol I, ICFAI University Press. Mathews B, Sarita B, "Talent Management - Change New face of HR", HRD Newsletter, Jan 2007, Issue 10, Vol: 22. Ringo, Tim, Allan Schweyer, Michael DeMarco, Ross Jones and Eric Lesser. Integrated talent management: Part 1 Understanding the opportunities for success. IBM Institute for Business Value in partnership with the Human Capital Institute. Hamel, Gary, with Bill Breen. The Future of Management. Harvard Business School Press. Boston. Pp. 112-116, 137 Durgin, Tom V., The Role of Strategic HR in Financial Services. The Human Capital Institute. June 6, 2006 http://www.935.ibm.com/services/us/index.wss/ibvstudy/gbs/a1029981?cntxt=a10052 63. www.accenture.com www.egyankosh.ac.in

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