Talent management

Talent management entails finding, keeping, and developing a company's best personnel. It is a business tactic that firms adopt in an effort to keep their most brilliant workers and recruit top personnel. In this essay, talent management is compared and contrasted with exclusive and inclusive approaches. factors that affect how an organization approaches talent management. a critical analysis of Google's talent management strategies. The organization's actions, procedures, and/or resources are used to find, select, engage, and keep talent. Conclusions and recommendations.
Compare and contrast exclusive and inclusive approach to talent management
The exclusive approach claims that an effective human resource strategy requires workforce differentiation just as effective business and marketing strategies require differentiation from products and services that create value for customers. It asserts that talent is neither title nor position related (Thorpe, 2010, p. 250).Inclusive approach alludes to the fact that allemployees can be managed up to be talented meaning that everyone in an organizations has talent, a role to play and contribution to the business to make it successful (Tamzini et al. 2017, p.56).

The talent processing is closely allied to key positions in exclusive approach the starting point being identification of strategic positions known as A positions. These positions are occupied by employees considered to be talent and who are atdisproportionate amount of financial and managerial investments. This eventually leads to failure of attending to B and C positions effectively and put them at great risk. The notion usually is that the B and C positions even if they are invested in as much as the A positions the returns will not be the same. Consequently, people in A positions are guaranteed maximum opportunities for their development and this is expected to lead to A performance (Thorpe, 2010, p.250). This is in clear contrast with the inclusive approach that pays attention to all employees from top to bottom regardless of talent and not necessarily concentrated on a certain group.

The exclusive approach assumes that investing in employees with valuable skills will generate high returns that investing in employees who lack these skills. The approach is seen to be more cost effective, efficient and having greater impact on an organizations performance as a whole. On the flipside the approach is not effective in encouraging teamwork andmorale of the majority employees who are not identified as talent. In the inclusive approach talent management is about the set human resource practices that enable identification, optimization and exploration of all employees’ generic capabilities (Machado, 2015, p.4).

Critics of the inclusive approach however suggest that the approach lacks strategic focus while the exclusive approach on the other hand is equally non-strategic since in some jobs acceptable performance is good enough and satisfactory. This is despite the fact that talent will vary in different organizations and circumstances and priorities (Tamzini et al. 2017, p.56).

Factorsthat might influence the approach adopted by an organization

In the emerging market trend context factors influencing talent management include shortage of needed competencies, evolving changes in employment relationships and necessity of talent retention in international strategic alliances (Latukha, 2016, p.8). Selection or development of talent management depends on a manager’s belief of what talent entails. The implicit person theory maintains that while some believe that people are whothey are and the possibility of changing overtime is low others believe that people are primarily determined by lessons learned through experience and that people are capable of changing even at an older age. Consequently, depending on what management believes to be strongly important for an organization will ultimately influence the approach adopted in talent management (Ariss, 2014, p.18)

Another factor is culture in that while European languages such as English ,German and French stress innate nature talent, in eastern languages like Japanese talent is seen as a product of many years of hard work and striving to attain perfection. This is what Tanlsey found in her physiological analysis of the word talent from both historical and linguistic comparative point of view (Ariss, 2014, p.18). In this regard talent will be identified according to how it is viewed in a culture that a person is in and may not necessarily have a universal identification.

Standardized versus subjective approach to talent identificationalso plays a role in talent management in an organization. This is where human resource practitionersbelieve that valid identification of talented employees requires no assessment of formalpolicies or formal definition of talent. The main reason for this is that organizational decision makers normally over estimate validity of intuitive judgment while simultaneously under estimating validity of paper pencil tests, assessment centers and structured interviews. This idea is also known as the myth of experience (Ariss, 2014, p.18). This myth may end up cutting of a person who is equally talented in different ways because an assessment that would have revealed his talent was not executed.



Critical evaluation of the approach to talent management taken by Google

To achieve benefits of a highly productive and innovative team Google uses different tools, processes and strategies to recruit and select the best talent in the world. The company’s human resource policies and work culture creates room for innovation and in this way employees are able to try new things and learn from their mistakes along the way. Thecompany has strong compensation programs that reward strong performance. It offers attractive packages to distinguish itself from other companies and this include flexible working ours, relaxed dressing code to employees, health benefits, free massage and yoga, free meals and recreation activities, paternity and maternity leave, employee referral programs, onsite child care centers and dry cleaning services on site. The company offers its employee a stock option which serves as a driving tool of in attracting employees of top level, increasing recruitment ration and retention.With the stock option a person can retire early knowing that whether or not they are in the work force they will still have a source of income (Thomas & Karodia, 2014, p.16).

Activities, processes and toolsGoogle usesto attract, select, engage and retain its talent. Employee referrals of colleges and other professions. This is made possible by the firm’s strong brand and enthusiastic work force. There is usually a referral bonus of $2000 to current employees which gives motivation, increase potential candidates data that intern increases thetalent pool for the company (Thomas & Karodia, 2014, p.17).

Direct relationships with universities that enable them to have college recruitments hiring students who enjoy exploring areas that have not been ventured into before. This also increases the company’s chances of acquiring the best talent there is. Professional networking is also critically important for the company in acquiring talent and this involves social media sites together with live events in discovering and recruiting top performance (Thomas & Karodia, 2014, p.17).

Another recruitment strategy employed by the company is the use of contests and brain teasers in order to attract the best potential candidates who are also the brightest. In such places the company comes across a wide variety of talent that it can utilize. The company normally requires extensive recruiter training for their newly acquired recruiters before starting work. This therefor makes the company’s recruitment training necessary and important tool in the process of acquiring the talent required and best fits it (Thomas & Karodia, 2014, p.18).

Conclusion

In conclusion, from the discussions above talent management is quite imperative to achieve success in an organization in that it aids in employee relation and engagement. Employee engagement in particular has positive effects as it displays deep and positive connections emotionally to their work. This will in return make employees more productive. Comparing the exclusive and inclusive management of talent, each of the systems has its pros and cons and it is upon an organization to determine the system that works best for it.

Even with such seemingly great success in talent management it is not exist without challenges such as key positions may lack talent, all levels of an organization may experience a shortage of talent, and loss of top talent to competing organizations (Right Management, 2014, 3)





Recommendations

Effective talent management investment will aid in achieving development organizations and bring about improvements in the company’s financial figures.it will identify employees whose performance greatly exceed expectation at the same time encouraging other employees. It is important to have continuous development in maintaining a backup for key positions for instance, .insurance policies that guarantee the continuous existence of the organization.

When it comes to retention, one size retention cannot work for all employees if the company intends to retain their best employees. Retention strategies have to be tailor made to suit individuals who work in different departments in the organization so as to cover a large number of employees the company intends to retain.These include coaching and retention benefits that in most cases is normally reserved for senior level employees. Preparing career advancements that are sufficient signals employees that their talents, contribution and efforts are valued at the company. In growing their managerial and leadership skills are ways to ensure retention.

Putting all eggs in one basket is a recipe for disaster in any organization and replicating an idea that worked for another company is also one. When it comes to talent management in an organization exclusive approach works best for larger companies as there is always talent to pick from due to the number of employees. On the other hand inclusive approach is best for smaller companies as they have a small number of employees and majority of them can be accommodated if not all.

Strategies that have worked for one company may not necessarily work for another even if the structure and business are the same. So in such a case companies should tailor their approaches to what works for them or even incorporate the two approaches to their advantage in necessary areas that can bring success to the company.

































References

Ariss, A, 2014, Global Talent Management: Challenges, Strategies, and Opportunities, New York: springer international publishing.

Latukha, M, 2016, Talent Management in Emerging Market Firms: Global Strategy and Local Challenges, London: springer publishers.

Machado, C, 2015, International Human Resources Management: Challenges and Changes,New York: Springer international publishing.

Right Management, 2014, Talent Management: Accelerating Business Performance, Global trends, challenges and priorities, http://www.right.com/wps/wcm/connect/5d228cd7-296f-439d-9fa0-a443564f29b5/rm_wp_lo-res_6-27-14.pdf?MOD=AJPERES. Accessed on 25th May 2017.

Tamzini, Khaled, Ayed, Lazhar, T, Boulanouar, Wood,A, Boulanouar, Zakaria, 2017, Driving Multinational Enterprises through Effective Global Talent Management,Hershy PA:IGI global.

Thomas, S and Mahomed, K.A, 2014, Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review(Nigerian Chapter) Vol. 2, No. 3, Human Resources Practices at Google in Terms of Some Management Perspectives: Exploring The Entrepreneurial Spirit. Accessed on 25th May 2017 from https://www.arabianjbmr.com/pdfs/NG_VOL_2_3/3.pdf.

Thorpe, R, 2010, Gower Handbook of Leadership and Management Development, New York: CRC Press.