Talent Hunt - Strategies to Adopt and Adapt

Dr. K. BHANU PRAKASH

Associate Professor,
VESTAL Institutions, ELURU.
E-Mail: bhanucool@yahoo.com
Mobile No. +91-9440321648
ABSTRACT

I believe in intuition and inspiration… imagination is more important than knowledge.

Knowledge is limited where as imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress,
giving birth to evolution i.e., Talent. Albert Einstein

Talent is encapsulated in individuals and as such it cannot be codified, duplicated, sold, or easily
transferred from one person to another. In other words, it is the human in ‘Human Capital’ that makes it a
unique, distinct, and irreplaceable resource.

The United States of America, a sole ‘IQ Magnet’ for the talented in the 20 th Century and the most
coveted honor in scientific research, the Nobel Prize, was awarded to 100 researchers in the United States,
almost of these Nobel Prizes were won by foreign-born researchers or first-generation immigrants. US
emerged as ‘Knowledge Based Global Economy’ with a rare pool of talent, ambition, and expertise that
are the sine- qua- non for maintaining a competitive advantage. But, at the beginning of the
21st century, the United States is no longer the sole, nor the most sophisticated player engaged in this
global race for talent. The other attractive, best and the brightest destinations for talent would be Canada
and Australia. More recently, France, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and other
European Union nations race and run for talent especially paving red carpet for highly skilled
professionals in Information Technology (IT). The race further accelerated, and the more dynamic
Asian economies such as Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea. The paper explores on strategies
adopted and adapted to tap the talent source besides a conceptual focus on Global Talent
Management.
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Key Words: CIPD, HR, IBM, ILO, IT, Talent Hunt, SEM.

Talent Hunt - A Premiere

 As the global landscape changes, emerging as well as advanced economies are faced with a
scarcity of employable talent. Increase in demand, longer lifespan affecting the age ratio at workplaces,
and unemployment among less skilled workers are key issues that are forcing organizations to think of
groundbreaking ways of acquiring and managing talent. 1 The phrase ‘Talent Hunt’ which means ‘Race
and Run for Talent’ is at the epicenter of the 21st century business equation around the world as well as in
India. In 2014, the problem the corporate face is not a shortage of people, it is a shortage of key skills. 2
The 21st century work class generation is the most diverse consisting of Baby Boomers,
Generation X, and the Millennial. Each generation brings with them varying values and
expectations. Virtualization and digitalization of global talent markets across the world pose
challenges and top of the mind issue to HR leaders as well as business doyens. To manage these
21st century digital boomers an organization needs resourceful thinking, continually sharpen
talents and understanding of national, regional, and the global talent markets.3 However, there
exists paradigm shifts in the face of talent from ‘Talent Management’ to ‘Retention of Talent’
enroute ‘Race and Run for Talent or Talent Hunt’.

Global Talent Management - A Conceptual Focus

Global Talent Management deals with all organizational activities for the purpose of
attracting, selecting, developing and retaining the best employees in the most strategic roles
(those roles are necessary to achieve organizational strategic priorities) on a global scale. Global
Talent Management takes into account the differences in both organizations’ global strategic
priorities and the differences across national contexts for how talent should be managed in the
countries where they operate.4 Scullion et al (2010) defines Global Talent Management as an
organizational activity for attracting, selecting, developing and retaining the best employees in the most
strategic roles to achieve organizational strategic business priorities internationally. This takes into
account differences across countries in how talent should be managed. Further, Farndaleet al
(2010)opine GTM involves global competition for talent, managing new forms of international mobility,
improving organizational capability to manage talents in emerging markets, elaborating new corporate
HR roles. Moreover, Tarique and Schuler (2010) viewed that GTM includes systematically utilizing
International HR activities to attract, develop and retain individuals with high levels of human capital in
consistency with the strategic directions of the multi-national enterprise in a dynamic, highly competitive
and global environment.5
Talent Hunt - Strategies To Adopt, Adapt and Advance
 The core of a business is the talent underpinning it. Lack of such talent can impact businesses and
pose grave challenges to every industry. As the global landscape changes, emerging as well as advanced
economies are faced with a scarcity of employable talent. Increase in demand, longer lifespan affecting
the age ratio at workplaces, and unemployment among less skilled workers are key issues that are forcing
organizations to think of groundbreaking ways of acquiring and managing talent. According to a recent
report by the McKinsey Global Institute, by 2020, employers could face a shortage of as many as 13% of
highly skilled workers i.e., 40 million less workers than they need. Developing economies could face a
shortfall of 15%, or nearly 45 million, medium-skill workers. 6 In this context, the strategies to be adopted
and adapted by the Corporate assumed prominence. These harness the unique talents of individual
employees and convert their talent potential into optimum organization performance (CIPD, 2010). 7

Some of the strategies inter alia include: (i) Inclusive Strategy; (ii) Executive Strategy; (iii)
Futuristic Strategy; (iv) Succession Planning Strategy and (v) Blended Strategy. An Inclusive Strategy
focuses on ‘Recruitment & Training’ policies besides Internal Head-Hunting where as Exclusive Strategy
concentrates on acquisition of talent pool to cater the needs in an efficient manner. The Futuristic Strategy
identifies staff at all levels in an organization who have potentialities to become leaders as a part of talent
management initiative. Succession Planning Strategy foresees the kind of talent that is needed in
future and plan recruitment and training strategies to attract new talent and to create talent pools
they can tap into. However, the Blended Strategy is a combination of the above two or more strategies.

Talent Hunt - Strategies To Adopt

HR Function as a ‘Supportive Function’ somewhere in 1990 emerged as ‘True Business Partner’

today transitioning as it was from ‘Personnel Control’ to ‘People Developer’ and ‘Talent Multiplier’.
Finding, nurturing, developing and retaining talent is the key to being competitive on a global scale.
More than ever before, Corporate is adopting a Blend of Language Learning Solutions as a part of an
active hunt for talent discovery and development. Sending out emails to candidates for internal job
postings is passé. Some organizations are adopting innovative ways of filling job postings through
Internal Head-Hunting of premium talent. The diversified $25-billion Essar Group has developed
Next Moves, which is an internal head-hunting initiative that helps high-potential employees to get what
they deserve. 8 Some of the adoptive strategies inter alia include:
 (i) Redefine the phrase ‘Talent Retention’ as Talent Hunt i.e., the need of the hour;

(ii) To rise to the occasion and redesign their recruitment policies at par with industry
requirements keeping in view present and future also in order to meet the future expectations.
(iii) Redevise the policies, procedures and practices of ‘Talent Hunt’;
(iv) Rebuild and infuse confidence among human force ;
(v) Retraining and re-tooling rather than replacing the work force;
(vi) Culture, Demographics, Education at work, Long-term Aspriational Career Paths and Work-
Life Flexibility are some of the strategies adopted by the corporate to race and run for talent.

Talent Hunt - Strategies To Adapt and Advance

Talent wants to be challenged, not coddled and Great talent is no substitute for right talent. 9

The following are some of the strategies to adapt and advance the run and race for talent .

i. Built up a ready supply chain and widen our talent pool for business continuity;

ii. Create ‘Innovative Solutions’ as well as ‘Multiple Career Paths’ across industries,
domains and functions;

iii. Discover new magnets to retain human capital i.e., providing equity, high levels of
remuneration and appreciation etc.,

iv. Evolve continuously, retrain and retool;

v. Life-long learning and Leverage-technology to span the gap;

vi. Reaching out every segment of the society by way of an ‘Effective Skills Development
systems’ which connect education to technical training, technical training to labor market
entry and labor market entry to lifelong learning that can help countries, sustain
productivity growth and translate that growth into more and better jobs’10

vii. Unearth hidden resources by way of tapping unused and underutilized talent;

viii. Social Media, Cloud Computing, Educational Fairs are some of the sources to tap talent.

HR Analytics-The Perfect Solution

A methodology and integrated process of predictive modeling which identifies the drivers of
individual and organization level outcomes through generating the right metrics, benchmarking and
analyzing them through establishment of causal relationships by means of frequency distributions or
Structural Equations Modeling (SEM).
The Way Forward
In the era of globalization, ‘Human Talent’ is undoubtedly the most important asset today and
organizations are becoming increasingly competitive, dynamic, innovative and productive.
An organization goes on to hunt the talent, its aim is to advance or enhance its average level of talent.
Search for talent starts and ends with the search for managers who have a proactive purpose in life,
a target, an objective, add value to the corporate energy pool. 6 In this context, there is a need of innovative
HR practices for identification, nurturing and developing the potentials to meet the challenges of a
knowledge-based economy and to respond to the dynamics of the work environment with technological
skill and a high level of thinking.

The corporate such as IBM, Nike, General Electric, McDonald’s, Intel and many others have to
adopt and adapt innovative strategies to hunt the talent. Talent Hunt is a very critical process for every
organization and talent base of an organization is vital for the growth of the organization, in making
strategic decisions besides combat crisis at times of situation. ‘Resource Marketing’ is emerged as a New
HR Trend in corporate pitching for winning new projects from clients who prefer organizations based on
their talent resources.
References

1. Tiger Tyagarajan (2013)., President and CEO, Genpact, . Who’s Got Talent? The Great Global
Talent Hunt, Jan, p. 2.
2. John Bersin (2014)., Building A Strong Talent Pipeline for The Global Economic Recovery -
Time for Innovative and Integrated Talent and HR Strategies, Deloitte Report, USA.
3. David G. Allen (2014)., Retaining Talent, A Guide to Analysing and Managing Employee
Turnover, SHRM Foundation's Effective Practice Guidelines Series, p.12.
4. Scullion, H., Collings, D.G., and Caliguiri, P. (2010)., Global Talent Management, Journal of
World Business, Vol. 45, No.2, p.p. 105-108.
5. Akram Al Ariss (2014)., Global Talent Management: Challenges, Strategies, and Opportunities,
Springer Publications, France, p.4.

6. The World at Work; Jobs, Pay and Skills for 3.5 Billion People’, McKinsey Report, June, 2012.
7. Learning and Talent Development (CIPD) Report, 2010, London.
8. N Peri Sastry (2003), Prepare Employees - HR Today, What Tomorrow?, 28 th July, Economic
Times, p.1.
9. George Anders (2009)., The Rare Find: How Great Talent Stands Out, Penguin, UK.
10. Skills for Improved Productivity, Employment Growth and Development, ILO Report,
2008.
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