This Month in I/O: Talent Management

Talent Management is the process or strategies around attracting, selecting, retaining, and developi...



Posted by Allegra Hill on March 3 2023
Allegra Hill

Talent Management is the process or strategies around attracting, selecting, retaining, and developing high-achieving employees. Talent management is investing in the main resource within an organization – the employees. A successful talent management strategy can not only lead to attracting and retaining top performers, but it can also help improve employee engagement and reduce attrition.

To attract and select high performers, it’s important to understand the knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics that are essential to the positions you are recruiting. Job analysis is a great tool for determining the requirements of a position. Once you understand what the essentials are for a successful applicant, you can create a recruiting strategy that targets the best possible candidates. Talent management involves being aware of current workforce trends and being prepared for future workforce needs. Understanding the current labor market and which positions will be more challenging for recruiting is essential when determining how you will want to attract and select a diverse and high-performing workforce.

Another critical component to talent management is retaining employees. It costs organizations a significant amount of money to attract and select an employee, so it’s important that an organization has a retention strategy. Starting with a structured onboarding program can help make an employee feel more comfortable and confident with their work, team, and organization. Creating an engaging and motivating work environment on top of offering competitive compensation and benefits packages are key to retaining employees. Organizational culture has been of increasing value to employees, so aligning the talent management strategy with the organization’s culture goals can also help when creating a strategy for attracting and retaining employees. Even with an incredibly successful retention strategy, at some point there is likely to be turnover, and it’s important that organizations take the opportunity to identify why it’s occurring. Conducting objective exit interviews with departing employees can provide thoughtful insights and leveraging this information can provide the organization with the opportunity to make improvements where necessary.

Since the main goal of talent management is to obtain and keep a high performing workforce, successful performance management is crucial. Performance management helps inform other talent decisions. An objective performance management process can help identify the high performers, where there might be opportunities to develop, and establish succession planning. Providing professional development and career progression can help with retention, while also enhancing employee skills. Knowing who the high performers are and creating a succession plan can make filling a critical positions vacancy easier. Successful talent management involves being prepared for the unexpected loss of employees and their skillsets and providing stability in time of transition.

Talent management is essential to achieving a high performing workforce. Implementing effective recruitment and selection, retention, and performance management strategies will provide organizations with the ability to achieve their goals and remain competitive within the market.

Allegra Hill
Allegra Hill
Allegra Hill is a Consultant on the Compensation Services team at Berkshire Associates Inc. With a background in Industrial Organizational Psychology, Allegra uses best practices to advise clients in the area of compensation.

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