Presented To: Dr.

Ahmed Faraz
Presented By: Komal Rani (Mphil Pide)

“THE WAR FOR THE TALENT”

Dr. Nadeem ul Haq Vice Chancellor of Pakistan Institute of Development Economics conducted a
series of webinar on different issues of Pakistan. He brings innovative ideas and want to change
people way of thinking. He wants to improve talent of the students through presenting their own
efforts. This is the summary of “The War for the Talent”, Dr.Nadeem Khan prepared blog on this
topic. Its real and Here’s why it’s happening. Organizations are struggling to hire the best talent that
will help them see potential threats and uncover new opportunities. It seems like the war for talent is
never ending. Ever since the dawn of modern business, organizations have been seeking to attract
and retain the best possible people they could.
 The War for the Talent
The war for Talent refers to an increasing competitive edge for recruiting and retaining
employees in the organization. It is strategic business challenge and critical driver of
organization performance. It’s about the timeless principles of attracting, developing, and
retaining highly talented managers applied in bold new ways. It recognizing the strategic
importance of human capital because of the enormous value that better talent creates. From
previous studies, it describes not a set of superior Human Resources Processes, but a mindset
that emphasizes the importance of Talent to the success of organization.

It is basically term competition between organizations to attract and retain the ablest employees
which reflects competition among organizations. The War for Talent is about attracting,
developing and retaining the most capable employees. Talent is an exceptional natural ability
especially in particular activity, such as music. Talent is often thought of as the kind of ability
that comes from without training-something that you’re born with. It is often contrasted with
skill, which is an ability acquired and developed through practice.
There are different ways for attracting Talents for the organization:
1. Leveraging Existing Employees Experiences. Employee advocacy is very crucial for
branding, marketing and advertising.
2. Creating a company Culture to captive Talents.
3. Building a Great Employer Brand on Social Media
4. Provide ongoing education and clear paths to advancement.
5. Offer the right benefits.
6. Be transparent and open
7. Leverage technology
8. Be prepared for turnover
Talent may give you a head start, however talent can only carry you so far. Without hard work
talent is basically useless. For example, sometimes a person may have a talent, but without
working hard and striving for success talent doesn’t matter; it is the person that works harder that
wins. Talent Management is a constant process that involves attracting and retaining high quality
employees, developing their skills, and continuously motivating them to improve their
performance. The primary purpose of Talent management is to create a motivated workforce
who will stay in the organization in long run.

The War for Talent- and How to win it.

1. The war for talent is accelerating.
2. Dedicate more efforts to employee’s engagement.
3. Give employees flexibility.
4. Focus on work-life balance and employee well-being.

How does HR attract talent? The Human Resource team should be active enough on social
media to attract the best talent. They should search for potential candidates and encourage them
to apply to their company. Build a reputation and strong connection through social media
recruiting.

You are in a difficult situation because there are more lucrative options available for talented
youngsters in the private sector and even social sector. To solve this, a typical short term solution
like   term training programs or foreign degrees will not help beyond a point.
Let me share you an example from Bollywood. Raju Hirani is one of the most successful movie
directors. Look at his last successful movie ‘PK’ and he has beautifully used the concept of
Medici Effect i.e. bringing two different ideas together to get innovative solutions. There would
have been no humor and interest in the movie if PK was not an alien with different realities than
the realities of Earth!

Today’s complex problems require multiple perspectives for solution and bureaucrats need to
find their PK i.e. someone who would bring a new perspective, I mean, add more lateral entries
of specialist in bureaucracy. Another solution can be let bureaucrats be their own PK i.e. get new
perceptive on regular basis, I mean, asking bureaucrats to go and work for a year after every 5
years or so in social or private sector or in academia to get a different perspective.

Finally, most important among all the factors that will impose upon the future shape of
Pakistan’s economy is accelerated investment in human development. In fact, this
underdevelopment of human capital is the most daunting challenge facing Pakistan. High
population growth – one of the fastest 34 in the world – has given rise to a young dependent
population and increased unemployment among the youth. From the previous studies, at the
senior level of organization, the ability to adapt, to make decisions quickly in situations of high
uncertainty and to steer through pulling change is critical.
One half of the population is illiterate making it more difficult to impart new skills to the labor
force. The average years of schooling remains quite low. Investment in higher education, science
and research has been almost insignificant and has hurt the competitiveness of Pakistani firms in
world market. Low level of female education and literacy have made one half of the population
less than adequately prepared to participate in the domestic labor markets and poor the country
of many externalities that arise from a literate female population The above survey of Pakistan’s
past, present and future should encourage the Western Community that if and when Islamization
of the economy takes place it will not pose a threat to Pakistan’s journey towards stability,
growth and poverty reduction. Along with good policies, good Talent and good luck it will create
conditions that are conducive for growth and poverty reduction Pakistan is very much and will
remain integrated into the world economy and fully utilize the opportunities thrown open by
globalization to benefit its population. Today it’s not just challenging, it’s downright hard and
complex. Facebook understands this better than most. It starts with one simple question: “if you
had the best talent in the world, what would you need to do to attract and retain them?”
organizations like Facebook aren’t just looking for people; they are looking for the best people.
This is perhaps one of the largest changes we’ve see; technology is replacing bodies, which
means that organizations are looking for something more. It is remembering for the organization
that The War for the Talent isn’t just about attracting potential employees but keeping existing
ones.
https://pide.org.pk/blog/war-for-talent-the-skills-gap/