Talent management involves strategically managing an organization's human capital. It includes attracting, developing, and retaining valuable employees. The article discusses how talent management differs from traditional HR and headhunting by taking a more strategic, long-term approach to ensure organizations have the right people in place. It also notes that talent management can help organizations perform better and be more efficient, especially during difficult economic times.

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What is talent management?
Global Expert Systems is preparing to host the calls for decentralisation from the HR department and
First Caribbean & Latin American Conference on this is where the real debate begins. Who is best poised Attracting and retaining the most profitable and valuable
Talent Management in Barbados on September to determine the needs of the organisation? Have our HR employees on the market is extremely competitive and
25 and Trinidad on September 26 with a number departments become too distant from the everyday realities firms often try to out-bid each other to attract the
of dynamic international speakers. Starting today, and needs of our organisations? Is the best talent already brightest, best and most effective staff for available posts.
and continuing for the next few weeks we will residing within the organisation? What are the hindrances to So there are both in-house talent management strategies
publish a number of articles to build interest in the moving talent around? How do we hire the right persons, or as well as those companies who prefer to outsource their
event. Following is the first instalment. Also on this more importantly, who are these right persons? talent management to third parties.
page is a link that will allow you to download a
registration form for the event.
Is talent management the Nonetheless, whether we choose to
outsource this function or not, before the hiring
same as headhunting? process commences, it is critical that this is
preceded by a planning phase, as suggested in
the figure above. After hiring, we then need to
The answer to this question is no! Headhunting is only continually develop our talent in order to retain
a part of the talent management process. There are many it aligned to our corporate strategy.
by Global Expert Systems consulting models or frameworks within which a talent
management system can be thought of and implemented. In closing, it is clearly evident that talent management
Let’s define Talent However, most models will include some semblance of the
below figure.
is a useful strategy during times of economic recession
and hardship. Unfortunately, many companies only employ
Management these strategies during times of plenty. But as organisations
seek to become more lean
and more efficient, hiring and
Talent Management takes on different meanings retaining the right employees
according to the industry or sector of which we speak. Most will become a pivotal function
persons are familiar with the term, Talent Management, of corporate strategy.
in the field of the arts and entertainment where the word
“talent” is widely used in an obvious context. But can this Companies should
term be applied to the world of business, and if so, what therefore engage in
does it mean for the corporate sector? a talent management
It is said that the term Talent Management was coined in system that suits their
1998 in an article published by David Watkins of Softscape; organisational needs,
however the practice pre-dated the term, and as this assists greatly
was in existence since the 1970s. In a nutshell, in optimising the
talent management is really more akin to performance of each
Corporate Strategy as it relates to the human employee and in the
capital of an organisation. long run, the company in
general.
Let’s think of the talent manager
as a grandmaster of chess in the Next week we will look at
organisation looking down at the topic, Can we implement
board and deciding, strategically, what talent management in our
are the next moves or the best moves.
FOCUS
Public Sector?”
And when we speak of the corporate • Visit Global Expert
sector we draw no distinction between Systems online at http://www.
the public and public sectors since globalexpertsystems.org/index.
they are so intricately interwoven php/event/first-caribbean-latin-
within the Caribbean space. american-conference-on-talent-
management/ or email us at info@
Therefore, the management of our human Figure 1. Talent Management process globalexpertsystems.org
capital, aka, talent management, is about hiring
the right persons from the onset, placing them
in the right positions, doing what is necessary
to keep them, motivate them and retain them
so that there is a mutually beneficial relationship that
guarantees the growth of both the organisation and the
worker.
As our organisations mature and become more
sophisticated in an effort to compete globally, there are now
specialised departments, companies and consultants who
work around the clock to guarantee that the firms they
represent are staffed by the correct personnel in every area
of the organisation.
Just to have an idea, these consultants earn very decent
salaries, due to the essential and valuable nature of their
duties. Trusted human resources website indeed.com
revealed that, currently, the average salary for professionals
within the area of talent management stands at US $86,000
per annum.
Hiring the right persons
Typically, as companies engage in talent management
strategies, the responsibility of employees shifts from the
human resources department to managers throughout the
organisation. Now initially this is bound to create some
“territorial warfare” as our traditional HR departments have
grown to become the doyens of all things and matters of
managing human capital and resource.
However, a more radical talent management approach