TALENT MANAGEMENT & ITS APPLICATION IN CORPORATE SECTOR

BY ARUN PRAKASH. J RVS INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES KUMARAN KOTTAM, KANNAMPALAYM, COIMBATORE. ABSTRACT: The Genesis of Talent Management Globalization, the process by which economies, societies, and cultures are fast integrating through a globe-spanning network of communication and trade, drives both collaboration and competition. And so, in an age when those who possess knowledge not land, labor, or capital goodsown the new means of production, it is no surprise that a contest for talent has been raging since the 1990s. Better talent separates high-performance organizations from the rest. They bet on people, not strategies. Talent management has become one of the most pressing topics in organizations (even if very few have strategies and operational programs in place with which to identify, recruit, develop, deploy, and retain the best). The competition for talent will define organizational milieus for a couple of decades to come. Springing from the three trends, several drivers fuel the emphasis: Workforce demographics are evolving. The context in which organizations conduct their operations is increasingly complex and dynamic. More efficient capital markets have enabled the rise of small and medium-sized organizations that offer opportunities few large organizations can match, exerting a pull across the talent spectrum. In knowledge economies, talent is a rapidly increasing source of value creation. A demonstrated correlation between talent and organizational performance exists: talented individuals drive a disproportionate share of organizational effectiveness. (Value creation extends beyond individual performance differentials.) Financial markets and boards of directors demand more. The mobility of personnel is quickening on a par with changing expectations. If talent is hard to find, it is becoming harder to keep. In 1997, McKinsey and Company studied 77 large organizations from various industries to circumscribe the magnitude of the war for talent. They talked to the top 200 executives in each company to appreciate why these executives worked where they did and how they had become the professionals they were. Organizations with winning employee value propositions had a compelling answer to the question, "Why would a talented person want to work here?' To create such a proposition, a great organization tailors its brand and productsthat is, the jobs it has to offerto appeal. It also pays the price it takes to recruit and retain talented people. The overall top 200 population cared deeply about values and culture, freedom and autonomy, challenging jobs,

Introduction
Talent management refers to the process of developing and integrating new workers, developing and retaining current workers, and attracting highly skilled workers to work for a company. Talent management in this context does not refer to the management of entertainers. The term was coined by David Watkins of Soft cape published in an article in 1998. The process of attracting and retaining profitable employees, as it is increasingly more competitive between firms and of strategic importance, has come to be known as The War for Talent."

History
Talent management a process that emerged in the 1990s and continues to be adopted, as more companies come to realize that their employees talents and skills drive their business success. Companies that have put into practice talent management have done so to solve an employee retention problem. The issue with many companies today is that their organizations put tremendous effort into attracting employees to their company, but spend little time into retaining and developing talent. A talent management system must be worked into the business strategy and implemented in daily processes throughout the company as a whole. It cannot be left solely to the human resources department to attract and retain employees, but rather must be practiced at all levels of the organization. The business strategy must include responsibilities for line managers to develop the skills of their immediate subordinates. Divisions within the company should be openly sharing information with other departments in order for employees to gain knowledge of the overall organizational objectives. Companies that focus on developing their talent integrate plans and processes to track and manage their employee talent, including the following:

Sourcing, attracting, recruiting and on boarding qualified candidates with competitive backgrounds Managing and defining competitive salaries Training and development opportunities Performance management processes Retention programs Promotion and transitioning

Talent management is also known as HCM (Human Capital Management), HRIS (HR Information Systems) or HRMS (HR Management Systems), and HR Modules. Modern techniques also use Competency-based management methodologies to capture and utilize competencies appropriate to strategically drive an organization's long term plans.

From Personnel to Strategic HR to Talent Management

To understand why Talent Management has become so important, we must first look at the evolution of corporate HR: Stage 1: Personnel Department: In the 1970s and 1980s the business function which was responsible for people was called "The Personnel Department." The role of this group was to hire people, pay them, and make sure they had the necessary benefits. The systems which grew up to support this function were batch payroll systems. In this role, the personnel department was a well understood business function. Stage 2: Strategic HR: In the 1980s and 1990s organizations realized that the HR function was in fact more important and the concepts of "Strategic HR" emerged. During this period organizations realized that the VP of HR had a much larger role: recruiting the right people, training them, helping the business design job roles and organization structures (organization design), develop "total compensation" packages which include benefits, stock options and bonuses, and serving as a central point of communication for employee health and happiness. The "Head of Personnel" became the "VP of HR" and had a much more important role in business strategy and execution. The systems which were built up to support this new role include recuiting and applicant tracking (ATS), portals, total compensation systems, and learning management systems. In this role, the HR department now became more than a business function: it is a business partner, reaching out to support lines of business. Stage 3: Talent Management: We are now entering a new era: the emergence of "Talent Management." While strategic HR continues to be a major focus, HR and L&D organizations are now focused on a new set of strategies Issues: How can we make our recruiting process more efficient and effective by using "competencybased" recruiting instead of sorting through resumes, one at a time? How can we better develop managers and leaders to reinforce culture, instill values, and create a sustainable "leadership pipeline?"

How do we quickly identify competency gaps so we can deliver training, e-learning, or development programs to fill these gaps? How can we use these gaps to hire just the right people? How do we manage people in a consistent and measurable way so that everyone is aligned, held accountable, and paid fairly? How do we identify high performers and successors to key positions throughout the organization to make sure we have a highly flexible, responsive organization? How do we provide learning that is relevant, flexible, convenient, and timely? These new, more challenging problems require new processes and systems. They require tighter integration between the different HR silos -- and direct integration into line of business management processes. Today organizations are starting to buy, build, and stitch together performance management systems, succession planning systems, and competency management systems. The HR function is becoming integrated with the business in a real-time fashion.

Human capital management

Companies that engage in talent management (Human Capital Management) are strategic and deliberate in how they source, attract, select, train, develop, retain, promote, and move employees through the organization. Research done on the value of such systems implemented within companies consistently uncovers benefits in these critical economic areas: revenue, customer satisfaction, quality, productivity, cost, cycle time, and market capitalization. The mindset of this more personal human resources approach seeks not only to hire the most qualified and valuable employees but also to put a strong emphasis on retention. Since the initial hiring process is so expensive to a company, it is important to place the individual in a position where his skills are being extensively utilized. The term "talent management" means different things to different organizations. To some it is about the management of high-worth individuals or "the talented" whilst to others it is about how talent is managed generally - i.e. on the assumption that all people have talent which should be identified and liberated. From a talent management standpoint, employee evaluations concern two major areas of measurement: performance and potential. Current employee performance within a specific job has always been a standard evaluation measurement tool of the profitability of an employee. However, talent management also seeks to focus on an employees potential, meaning an employees future performance, if given the proper development of skills and increased responsibility.

The major aspects of talent management practiced within an organization must consistently include:

performance management leadership development workforce planning/identifying talent gaps recruiting

This term "talent management" is usually associated with competency-based management or human resource management practices. Talent management decisions are often driven by a set of organizational core competencies as well as position-specific competencies. The competency set may include knowledge, skills, experience, and personal traits (demonstrated through defined behaviors). Older competency models might also contain attributes that rarely predict success (e.g. education, tenure, and diversity factors that are illegal to consider in relation to job performance in many countries, and unethical within organizations). New techniques involve creating a Competency architecture for the organization that includes a Competency dictionary to hold the competencies in order to build job descriptions.

Talent marketplace
A talent marketplace is an employee training and development strategy that is set in place within an organization. It is found to be most beneficial for companies where the most productive employees can pick and choose the projects and assignments that are most ideal for the specific employee. An ideal setting is where productivity is employee centric and tasks are described as judgment-based work, for example, in a law firm. The point of activating a talent marketplace within a department is to harness and link individuals particular skills (project management or extensive knowledge in a particular field) with the task at hand. Examples of companies that implement the talent marketplace strategy are American Express and IBM.

Current application of talent management

In current economic conditions, many companies have felt the need to cut expenses. This should be the ideal environment to execute a talent management system as a means of optimizing the performance of each employee and the organization. However, within many companies the concept of human capital management has just begun to develop. In fact, only 5 percent of organizations say they have a clear talent management strategy and operational programs in place today. To develop a clear talent management strategy and to increase awareness of available talent and successors, all organizations should conduct regular Talent Review meetings to be prepared for a

variety of business changes, such as mergers, company growth, or a decrease in talent needs. In the same way that all companies have regular meetings and reports regarding their financial status and budgetary needs, the Talent Review meeting is designed to review the current talent status and future successor needs in the organization. The Talent Review meeting is an important part of the overall talent management process; it is designed to review the performance and career potential of employees, to discuss possible vacancy risks of current employees, to identify successors and top talent in the organization, and to create development action plans to prepare employees for future roles in the organization. "This is what talent management is all about gathering information about talent, analyzing their career interests and organizational business needs, identifying top talent and successes, and developing these individuals to reduce the risk of losing the best people and experiencing extensive leadership gaps when turnover occurs."

HOW CAN AN ORGANISATION EFFECTIVELY MANAGE TALENT?

Recognize talent: Notice what do employees do in their free time and find out their interests. Try to discover their strengths and interests. Also, encourage them to discover their own latent talents. For instance, if an employee in the operations department convincingly explains why he thinks he's right even when he's wrong, consider moving him to sales! Attracting Talent: Good companies create a strong brand identity with their customers and then deliver on that promise. Great employment brands do the same, with quantifiable and qualitative results. As a result, the right people choose to join the organization. Selecting Talent: Management should implement proven talent selection systems and tools to create profiles of the right people based on the competencies of high performers. It's not simply a matter of finding the "best and the brightest," it's about creating the right fit - both for today and tomorrow. Retaining Talent: In the current climate of change, it's critical to hold onto the key people. These are the people who will lead the organization to future success, and you can't afford to lose them. The cost of replacing a valued employee is enormous. Organizations need to promote diversity and design strategies to retain people, reward high performance and provide opportunities for development.

Managing Succession: Effective organizations anticipate the leadership and talent requirement to succeed in the future. Leaders understand that it's critical to strengthen their talent pool through succession planning, professional development, job rotation and workforce planning. They need to identify potential talent and groom it. Change Organization Culture: Ask yourself, "Why would a talented person choose to work here?" If the organization wishes to substantially strengthen its talent pool, it should be prepared to change things as fundamental as the business strategy, the organization structure, the culture and even the caliber of leaders in the organization.

A MODEL OF TALENT MANAGEMENT

Steps : Get management commitment Review company business plan Establish a systematic program Identify covered positions Develop talent needs for covered positions Profile employees Match employees to needs Identify gaps/potentials Set development goals Implement development program Measure progress and make adjustments

Step One: Get Management Commitment

What are current problems? (turnover, etc.) How do we currently address them? What do other companies do? How could we fix problems? Who will be involved? How often will we meet? What policies will we put in place?

Step Two: Review Company Business Plan

Identify company direction Tie talent needs to company direction Looks at current and future needs

Step Three: Establish A Systematic Program

Clarify roles Prepare policies and procedures Set up recordkeeping system Identify target groups Conduct legal review of program Address communications strategies

Step Four: Identify Covered Positions

What levels will your plan cover? Will there be more than one talent pool? How many backups will you need to account for: turnover poor performance poor matches

Step Five: Develop Talent Needs

Analyze jobs and tasks Review or prepare position descriptions Develop competency list Identify work values for position Look at current and future needs

Step Six: Profile Employees

Look at performance record and consider level of performance breadth of expertise learning agility skills acquisition

Step Seven: Match Employees to Needs

High-pots Steadies Iffies Nots

Step Eight: Identify Gaps/Potentials

For those ready now: what will be done? For those not ready now: Can they be developed? Should they be developed? How can they be developed? How long would it take? For those never ready: what will happen to them?

Step Nine: Set Development Goals

Establish likely activities Set timeframe Determine resource needs Set measurements Agree on action

Step Ten: Implement Development Program

Clarify managers role Establish mentoring program Assign a Career Coach Considerations in agreeing on of actions to takeBonus Measure Progress and Adjust Set schedule for feedback Periodically review progress Mental agility Adjust activities as needed - add or take away based on progress

THE TALENT MANAGEMENT IN INDIA

India's pharmaceutical industry is poised for change. With the Union Commerce Ministry against bringing 663 additional formulations under the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO), the sector is expected to grow by11 per cent and become a US$13 billion industry by 2007-08. Exports to the U.S. and Europe in generic drugs are likely to increase, according to a recent study done by Associated Chambers of Commerce (Assocham) India. Expiry of patents of branded products would substantially contribute to the growth of the domestic pharmaceutical industry, thereby pushing its exports, particularly of generic drugs. Several branded products are slated to lose patent protection in developed markets in the coming years. For instance, in the U.S., drugs worth US$40 billion and in Europe worth US$25 billion would go off patent by 2007-08, providing adequate opportunities for Indian drug manufacturers in the generic drug market to capture market share. Enactment in early 2005 of patent protections that comply with the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) has brought India to the forefront of potential outsourcing venues for the world's pharmaceutical multinational corporations (MNCs). The question now is: will India's pharmaceutical firms soon rival the country's information technology businesses as outsourcing powerhouses? Will they grow to compete with Big Pharma in developing new medicines? The

potential certainly exists, but Indian pharmaceutical companies will need to think strategically about their resources - human and financial - in order to take advantage of the opportunities. Specifically, there are numerous talent management issues that Indian companies should consider as they seek to grow and thrive in this new environment.

The stage is set for the Indian pharmaceutical industry to reach a new level in the global marketplace. The industry's ability to maximize opportunities, however, depends on strategic business planning, hiring and managing. Assessing talent needs, identifying required skill sets and studying the compensation environment are important. But more critical will be a reorientation of leadership and management styles to accommodate the coming multi-cultural workplace and the rapid pace of global business. Indian pharmaceutical companies will be rewarded with growth and success, and will be creating the framework in which the next generation of innovators can thrive.

Five Talent Strategies for Indian Pharmaceutical Companies

Help Employees Stay: Retaining employees is crucial to long-term success, so make it easy for your best people to stay. Adopt best-in-class human resources practices. Define career paths. Make clear to employees what the company's competency needs will be in the future and help them acquire those skills. Zydus Cadila has a high employee retention rate that management attributes to a corporate commitment to rewarding and re-training employees. Focus on Fit: Every organization has a unique personality. Define yours. Are you entrepreneurial? Or is your culture management driven, similar to that of a multinational? When selecting candidates, consider how their personal ties will align with your corporate culture. For example, Stephen Kaplan, vice president, human resources of Ranbaxy USA, said the firm's entrepreneurial spirit is what attracted him to join the firm from Pharmacia. Ease Transitions: Entering a new environment is always difficult, especially if relocation is involved. Create mentoring programs for all new hires so they will acclimatize quickly. Consider assimilation coaching for individuals who are crossing cultures. Not only will it make them more comfortable, but it will also make them productive sooner. Make the Position Attractive: High-level professionals, either from India or abroad, want to know there will be a robust career path for them in your company. Let them know what opportunities you provide. They will also want to know that they can work on cutting-edge projects, such as the development of new molecules, and that they will have the authority to manage those projects.

Manage the "Folklore Factor": People talk. It's a fact of life. In the talent marketplace, your company has a reputation. For example, the talent pool "folklore" may be that you are a creative organization where scientists are encouraged to take risks. Or perhaps your firm is known for "Founder's Syndrome, a situation in which the founder's heavy involvement leads to frequent direction changes or similar work routine disruptions. Just as you must protect your product brand reputation, so must you manage your employer image, taking action as needed to ensure that people know what you want them to know about your organization.

Conclusion
As the next-generation workforce emerges, threats to employee engagement are mounting. A workforce thats scarce in number and skills, globally and virtually dispersed, demographically and lifestyle diverse, and empowered in the job market is one for which the opportunity for organizational conflict and job-related stress is high. Organizations that want to motivate and retain next-generation workers will need to build unifying and compassionate cultures to combat the disengaging impacts that new sources of organizational conflict and job-related.

References
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