Talent ManagementPresented by: Samuel Dunham

Valdosta State University

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y89Hu9nlpcU

Talent Management?

Talent Management: A critical review

Robert E. Lewis & Robert J. Heckman (2006)

Talent management seems to be popular and growing

• Talent management has not been clearly defined

The Problem

Too many definitions and terms Three levels of thought of TM

1. “a collection of typical human resource department practices, functions, activities or specialist areas such as recruiting, selection, development, and career and succession management”

2. “a set of processes designed to ensure an adequate flow of employees into jobs throughout the organization”

3. Talent is seen generically

What is Talent Management?

• None of the three definitions advance our understanding of strategic and effective talent management1. The first use of TM is fairly excessive and may

not help us actually understand talent management

2. The second use repeats much of the work done in succession and workforce planning

3. The third one has been described as the most problematic because it does not offer any practical tips to implement

◦ TM is nothing more than the application of sound HR practices

Problems with TM as currently defined

TM does not appear in peer-reviewed literature, but strategic human resource management (SHRM) has

Study designs are a problem• Studies of HR practices have not explicitly

investigated how the choice of practices is tied to strategy

Grounding TM in research

• If TM is to be as strategic as its needs to be, it must shape organizational strategy, not just respond to the implications of strategy

• Barney (1999, 2001) Concerns from Wright and Haggerty (2005)

• Boudreau and Ramstad (2005)

Making TM strategic

• Several definitions of TM analytics from practitioners

“…performance analytics — a new class of business intelligence that ties human capital management to financial performance” (Deloitte Consulting LLP, 2005)

“Analytics: Gain deep visibility into staffing processes to analyze and optimize the whole system or improve individual aspects”. (Stepstone, 2005)

“…standard metrics and dashboards for various categories of users including recruiters, business executives, hiring managers, human resources and more”. (Kenexa, 2005)

• Boudreau and Ramstad (2004) outline the conditions where “analytics” can yield valid organizational conclusions through their “LAMP” framework

A note on TM Analytics

L = A logical structure or conceptual model A = “Analytics” M = Measures P = The change management process

LAMP Framework

Considering that talent management has been defined in many different ways, how can organizations identify “talent?”

QUESTION 1

Still Fighting the ‘‘War for Talent’’? Bridging the Science Versus

Practice Gap

Anthony McDonnell (2011)

• 3 Focus Points of Article1. Ensuring the corporate and talent strategies are

intrinsically linked2. The identification of talent3. Talent needs to be effectively managed

Academia and Practice: Bridging the Talent Management Gap

• The HR and talent strategy need to align with the business strategy

• There needs to be research into how organizations can best evaluate its critical strategic business roles and how changes in talent in those roles would make a difference

• TM tends to be overly focused on leaders who are strategically important, but there is concern that they are treated separately and that other positions are not appraised in terms of their value to achieving the corporate objectives

The Business Case for Talent: Pivotal Positions

• After identifying the roles that have the greatest impact on the business strategy, organizations need to identify the right people to fill them

• There has been a shift to the use of competency profiles in identifying talent

• What practices should be used and who should be involved in the process?

• Silzer and Church (2009) – 3 dimensions

Talent Identification

Foundation dimensions refer to stable, consistent aspects relating to cognition and personality

Growth dimensions incorporate an individual’s ability to learn and their motivation

Career dimensions include leadership ability, performance rewards, and knowledge and value

Many questions will need to be answered by this model

Silzer and Church (2009) – 3 dimensions

• Should employees should be informed that they are regarded as talent?

• How long should an employee should be designated as talent and should a TM program have an end date?

• What should an organization call its talent?• Researchers should consider investigating the

ability of Information and Computer Technology (ICT) to facilitate or hinder TM

Managing Talent

• Should organizations seek to find the people who are considered “high-performers” for every position in the organization? Why?

QUESTION 2

Strategic Talent Management: A Review And Research Agenda

David G Collings and Kamel Mellahi (2009)

Strategic talent management = activities and processes that involve the systematic identification of key positions which differentially contribute to the organization’s sustainable competitive advantage, the development of a talent pool of high potential and high performing incumbents to fill these roles, and the development of a differentiated human resource architecture to facilitate filling these positions with competent incumbents and to ensure their continued commitment to the organization

• Strategic human resource management and strategic talent management are not the same thing

What is Talent Management?

• Identifying pivotal talent positions• Developing a talent pool

A Theoretical Model Of Strategic Talent Management

• Lepak and Snell (1999) developed the contingent configurational view in the context of SHRM and demonstrated that specific HR systems are unlikely to be appropriate in all situations but rather depend on the uniqueness of the human capital

Creating a Differentiated HR Architecture

Strategic talent management systems are deployed to produce desired role behaviors among the organization’s talent pool and assist in realizing the organizations’ strategic objectives

• Ability should to a degree be predetermined• Higher levels of individual performance should be evident It is generally in the organization’s best interest to retain

members of the talent pool• Organizational commitment is a powerful bridge between

talent management and organizational performance• Matching pivotal positions with pivotal talent would lead

to high organizational commitment (Kristof, 1996) which subsequently lead to extra-role performance

Outcomes

• How important is it to have a diverse talent pool? • Are there situations where the “best” talent pool

and a diverse talent pool are not the same thing?

QUESTIONS 3 & 4

Person-organization Fit and The War for Talent: Does Diversity

Management Make a Difference?

Eddy S.W. Ng and Ronald J. Burke

Lack of women and minorities in higher level positions

• Policy-makers in Canada and the US have responded with employment equity (EE) or affirmative action (AA) legislation

Intro

More popular than AA or EE◦ Can help organizations capitalize on the benefits

of a diverse workforce◦ diversity management is a voluntary corporate

approach to dealing with increasing demographic diversity in the workplace

Diversity management

Suggestion that perceptions of organizational attractiveness are related to employment practices

• Person – Organizational Fit and employment messages are important

Conceptual background and theory

• Hypothesis 1: Minority job applicants (i.e. women and ethnic minorities) are more likely to rate employers with diversity management practices as more attractive

Hypothesis 2: Minority job applicants will consider diversity management to be an important factor in their job-choice decisions

Hypothesis 3: Job applicants who are high achievers are more likely to rate employers with diversity management practices as more attractive

Hypotheses

• 113 MBA students from a mid-sized university located in Southwestern Ontario

• Avg. Age – 28.3 years of age• Avg. Work Experience – 4.9 years• 41% of participants were women 43% of participants self-reported themselves as

ethnic-minorities◦ Majority were Asians (27%) and ethnic Whites – i.e.

Eastern Europeans (9.5%)

Methods

• The participants assumed they were participating in a university recruitment campaign

Two actual “offer of employment” letters obtained from two Canadian banks were used

The offers were made for a management position, and contained the same job titles and starting salaries

• The two offers were distributed to all students at random by an experimenter during the course’s class time

Procedures

The students were asked to review the two offers of employment, and judge the attractiveness of the two companies as potential employers, based on their offer letters

A single manipulation was used in the study◦ “First Canadian Bank is proud of its commitment to

being an employer of choice for people of all backgrounds. We offer development opportunities, alternate work arrangements, and opportunities for career progression in a working environment that supports human rights and a workplace free of discrimination and harassment.”

Procedures (Cont.)

• H1: support for organization attractiveness with diversity management did not reach conventional levels of significance

• H2: women and minorities considered organizational diversity practices to be important when accepting employment

• H3: high achievers (those with first-class grades and GMAT scores over 700) rated organizations with diversity practices more attractive as employers

Findings

• Establishes a link between diversity management practices and the attraction of high achievers

• More representative of the diverse population found in most industrialized countries such as the UK and Australia, which provides greater generalizability

• Investigated women and minority attraction at managerial levels instead of at entry-level positions

Differences from Other Related Studies

Collings, D.G. & Mellahi, K. (2009). Strategic talent management: A review and research agenda. Human Resource Management Review, 19 (4), 304– 313.

Lewis, R.E. & Heckman, R.J. (2006). Talent management: A critical review. Human Resource Management Review, 16 (1), 139-154.

McDonnell, A. (2011). Still fighting the ‘‘War for Talent’’? Bridging the science versus practice gap. Journal of Business and Psychology, 26 (1), 169- 173. doi: 7/s10869-011-9220-y

Ng, N.S.W. & Burke, R.J. (2005). Person-organization fit and the war for talent: Does diversity management make a difference? International Journal of Human Management, 16 (7), 1195-1210.

References