In order for organizations to meet the growing demands of business sustainability and maintain a competitive advantage over the competition, businesses are encouraged to take a hard look at their talent pool (Urlaub, 2011). This process aims to retain employees and foster their continuing development of skills and competencies to achieve the organization’s immediate performance goals and long-term strategic objectives.
This often requires managers to incorporate a wide variety of perspectives in their talent appraisals. The ability for an organization to identify, select, develop, and retain highly valued skill sets can set a company apart. Talent Management Strategy is defined as an organizations commitment to recruit, retain, and develop the most talented and superior employees available in the job market through goal-setting, performance management, assessment, compensation management, learning, career planning and succession planning processes.
This paper will discuss a few topics surrounding sustainable talent management which will include; determining which performance management process can be used to measure employee talent, analyze key concepts related to the talent review process, develop appropriate talent management objectives to measure functional expertise, asses key elements of global talent management as they apply to my organization, and recommend a process that optimizes a sustainable talent management process. Here is a little background on the organization that this will be done on.
The organization is a non-profit called “Back to Work” that works with assisting unemployed and employed workers on acquiring new skills and providing them with the tools and resources to be successful. This includes classes on resume writing, interviewing tips, succession planning, dress for success, resources on colleges and trade schools. They also offer GED courses and testing, the organization even assist high school seniors on their next steps, like ACT/SAT prep, study tips, assist with completing college applications.
There are computer rooms that can used to assist in completing the applications and searching for jobs. This organization also provides back to school supplies for parents who can’t afford them. It is an organization giving back and is looking to expand their organization over the years to assist more individuals in the community and eventually will like to build a few community centers that house after school activities. There are three locations located in the Midwest; Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana. Ohio has 50 employees, Michigan has 65 and Indiana with 85, the majority of the leaders are housed in Indiana.
This is all funded with grants from the government and donations from high level organizations. There are plenty of performance management processes that can be used to measure employee talent within an organization. Performance Management focuses on setting aligned performance goals, creating individual development plans to drive achievement of those goals, and then monitoring and evaluating progress to create accountability for individual and organizational results. This process focuses on the both organizational as well as individual performance.
Each organization is free to organize their human capital activities any way they choose. Each organization should choose the measures most appropriate to achieve their goals and manage their human capital. For this organization performance reviews will be used; employee reviews evaluate performance on the job. They will be used to determine raises, promotions, and will let us know if individuals are performing like they should. In order for performance reviews to be effective, set goals, make sure expectations are clear, and provide frequent feedback will help people perform most effectively.
Managing talent movement is just as important as managing the other key factors. The talent review process drives the company’s global succession planning activities, and if done right there will already be a qualified pool of applicants for positions when they become available. The talent review process is the single most important element in managing leadership talent pools. An organizations approach to reviewing and managing talent typically evolves as the strategic issues change in the organization (Silzer and Dowell, 2010).
There are a few key concepts that should be evaluated:
- Identify Talent – this can be done by reviewing the reviews and getting feedback from current leaders to see who is ready to move up or be in the talent pipeline.
- Identifying at risk talent pools – Where are the talent concerns? What is the reason for these concerns?
- Evaluating gaps in the leadership pipeline – what holes exist between the current state and the desired future state for selected applicants.
- Share the feedback with employees – let them know what is they are doing right and wrong and what ays to improve and what are there next steps.
- Keep ongoing review – reviews are typically done one a year but as an organization, constant feedback is always good to make sure that employees are staying on the right track.
Organizations of all sizes are finding that the talent they need is scarce and they are looking internally to review and develop their internal talent pool (Silzer and Dowell, 2010). Constant review of talent will help build and maintain a talent pool for a growing organization or an organization that will be affected by retirement.
Performance management aims at developing individuals with the required commitment and competencies for working towards the shared meaningful objectives within an organizational framework. It may be said that the main objective of a performance management system is to achieve the capacity of the employees to the full potential in favor of both the employee and the organization, by defining the expectations in terms of roles, responsibilities and accountabilities, required competencies and the expected behaviors.
Some objectives of performance management are discussed below: Conduct regular employee reviews to keep employees performance on track. Align individual and organizational goals with corporate strategy and effectively track their progress. Boosting the performance of the employees by encouraging employee empowerment, motivation and implementation of an effective reward mechanism. Promoting a two way system of communication between the supervisors and the employees for clarifying expectations about the roles and accountabilities, communicating the functional and organizational goals, providing a regular and a transparent feedback for improving employee performance and continuous coaching. Have a succession plan and be efficient as possible. Promoting personal growth and advancement in the career of the employees by helping them in acquiring the desired knowledge and skills.
Sustainability initiatives and corporate social responsibility programs are first steps toward organizations’ ability to perform against this triple bottom-line standard (financial, social and environmental), but a comprehensive approach to management is also critical to fully integrating sustainable effectiveness into strategy and operations (Lawler and Worley, 2011). There are a few key principles that can drive the talent management:
- Use Competencies – The competencies and capabilities an organization strategy calls for need to drive its talent management activities.
- Create diverse employment deals – offer a variety of career progressions. It will help with competitive advantage.
- Balance of global and local needs – determine how much control should be at the local level and how much at the local level.
- Employer branding – find ways to make yourself different from your competition. You want to stand out so that the talent you are looking for comes to you and not them.
- Give HR a Strategic role – HR is just as important in the organization and provide them with a role. They are able to provide business data about the organization so that the leaders can make informed decisions.
A process that optimizes sustainable talent management could be to keep the review process ongoing. Make sure to document everything, have open communication with employees and make sure they are full aware of goals for personal growth and company goals. Have performance management linked to rewards and promotions. Having a talent management process is an almost guarantee that the organization will have some success in building and maintain the right talent.
