Introduction to Talent and Performance Management

1. Introduction to Talent and Performance
Management
Learning Outcomes
• Introduce talent management
• Identify the importance of talent management in today’s context
• Discuss levels of talent management in organisations
• Define global talent challenges and global talent management
• Understand the role of human resource management in bridging the gap between
talent challenges and talent management
• Explain barriers to talent management
History of talent management (TM)
• The talent crisis in 1990s
• Global Talent Management (GTM)
• The War for Talent by Michaels, Handfield-Jones and Axelrod
• This publication encouraged many scholars to write on talent management
• Their work focused on corporations obtaining and managing a sufficient number of
highly talented individuals, also known as ‘‘valuable contributors’’ to deal with the
challenge of the global talent shortage
Why TM today?
1. Human resource creates sustainable competitive advantage in organisations and
talented employees make up the firm’s human capital pool
2. A study of 40 global companies found that all of them struggled with a lack of a
sufficient talent pipeline to fill their strategic positions which affected their business
growth
3. Talent management activities occupy a significant amount of organisational
resources
o For example, the majority of chief executive officers (CEOs) spend over 20% of
their time on talent issues, while some spend up to 50% of their time on talent
issues
• In addition, the global shortage for talent remains a significant challenge to
organisations
What is talent management (TM)?
• 51% of Human Resource Professionals undertook what they believed were TM
activities and only 20% of them worked with some form of TM related definition.
• A problem with TM is that there is no one definition, a properly defined scope or
overall goals for TM
• Therefore, authors and organisations tend to define and interpret TM in different
ways
• A common notion on organisational talent refers to those who are identified as
having the potential to reach high levels of achievement

2. Four strains of thought on TM
1. 1.TM is another word for human resource management
2. 2.TM includes “talent pools”
• TM is making sure that a set of processes is designed to ensure that there is an
adequate flow of people into the jobs throughout the organisation (human resource
planning in a more efficient manner)
3. TM should be considered generically without considering organisational boundaries
or specific positions Under this strain there are two views
i. Talent should be managed according to performance levels
E.g., highly competent performers are to be sought, hired, and differentially rewarded regardless
of their specific role
ii. Organisations need to manage pools of talent generally rather than doing
succession planning for one position
E.g., Divide employees into A, B, C to denote top, competent and bottom performances and
rigorously try to eliminate the C group and always hire candidates who can reach A level
4.The fourth strain describes TM as
• A set of processes that assist to identify key positions that contribute differently to
organisations
• Ensure that a pool of talent exists to fill these positions
• Develop human resource management practices and processes to fill these positions
with competent candidates
• Ensure these candidates give their full commitment to the organisation
The levels of TM
• Organisational level
• Group level
o Leadership talent
o Key talent group
o Core talent
o Peripheral talent
o In addition to the groups above, organisations may take ‘talented’ employees and
create ‘talent pools’ to be later used for diverse organisational activities
The levels of TM
• Individual level
• Individuals who are considered to be “unique” or “special”
• Organisations often consider individual talent in terms of
o High potential – ability of individuals to progress to higher levels in the
organisation (ability, aspiration, engagement)
o High performance – recurring behaviour patterns that depict success of
performing in a role
o High potential and high performance

3. Global talent challenges and global talent management
• Global talent challenges
o right amount of the right talent and motivation,
o right place,
o right price,
o during all economic and financial ups and downs,
o to meet the needs of the firm in the short term, and
o enable the firm to have the workforce needed in the long term
• Global talent management refers to the systematic use of specific HR policies and
practicestomanagetheseveralglobaltalentchallengesthatafirmconfronts
Schuler et al., 2011
TM and performance management
• Performance management
o A continuous process of identifying, measuring, and developing the performance
of individuals and workgroups and aligning performance with the strategic goals
of the organisation
• Performance management is critical for talent management
o helps employees become more competent, committed, and motivated;
o facilitates organisational change;

4. o clarifies organisational goals;
o differentiates good from bad performers; and
o helps organisations make fairer and more appropriate administrative actions
TM and performance management
• Without a good performance management system,
o organisations are unable to make fair personnel decisions (e.g., layoffs, bonuses,
pay raises, and promotions),
o effectively motivate and engage their employees,
o retain top talent,
o collect information to allocate resources appropriately, and
o address human resource disruptions
Barriers to global TM
• Senior managers spend time on ‘pressing issues’ and do not spend enough time on
TM
• Organisational structures often limit collaboration and the sharing of resources
across boundaries
• Middle and frontline managers who are not sufficiently involved in or responsible for
employees’ careers
• Managersareuncomfortabletoacknowledgeperformancedifferencesamong employees
Barriers to global TM
• Managersatalllevelsarenotsufficientlyinvolvedintheformulationofthe firm’s TM strategy
• HR departments lack the competencies needed to address the global talent
challenges effectively
• The ‘‘knowledge-doing’’ gap in organisations
References
Aguinis, H., & Burgi-Tian, J. (2021). Talent management challenges during COVID-19 and
beyond: Performance management to the rescue. BRQ Business Research Quarterly,
234094442110095. https://doi.org/10.1177/23409444211009528
Lewis, R. E., & Heckman, R. J. (2006). Talent management: A critical review. Human
Resource Management Review, 16(2), 139–154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.03.001
Schuler, R. S., Jackson, S. E., & Tarique, I. (2011). Global talent management and global
talent challenges: Strategic opportunities for IHRM. Journal of World Business, 46(4), 506–
516. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2010.10.011
Tansley, C. (2011). What do we mean by the term “talent” in talent management? Industrial
and Commercial Training, 43(5), 266–274. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197851111145853