Sikkim Manipal University-DE

Student Name: Manisha Verma

Course: MBA (HR)

Registration Number: 521112626

LC Code: 3034

Subject Name: Talent Management

Subject Code: MU0017

Q1. Explain the need for talent management?

Answer: Talent is an ability of an individual to learn and develop in the event of new
challenges and make a difference in organisational performance, either through their
immediate contribution or in the long term by demonstrating the highest level of potential.
Talent management refers to the anticipation of required human capital the organization
needs at the time then setting a plan to meet those needs. Talent management can be defined
as A conscious and systematic approach taken up to attract, identify, develop and retain
people with aptitude and abilities to meet current and future organisational needs by fulfilling
the business/operation critical roles. As Walt Disney (1901 - 1966), U.S. film producer and
animator rightly said "Of all the things I've done, the most vital is managing the talents of
those who work for us and pointing them towards a certain goal". Today, lots of organizations
are practicing Talent Management through their ways. Talent Management in organizations is
not just limited to attracting the best people from the industry but it is a continuous process
that involves sourcing, hiring, developing, retaining and promoting them while meeting the
organizations requirements simultaneously. Companies invest a tremendous amount of
money in their employees. The expenses associated with soliciting, acquiring, training,
promoting, and retaining staff members can take up a huge portion of any corporate budget.
But as the workforce continues to be viewed as an increasingly strategic asset, these costs are
all considered to be money well-spent.
Whether or not an employee or the workforce as a whole is productive and successful
depends upon many factors. Skills, work histories, formal training, and educational
backgrounds all play a major role. But so do personalities, work ethics, and other traits that
determine whether or not a staff member will fit well into a corporate culture. Talent
management solutions can make it easier for a business to understand what makes each
employee unique, including their specific strengths and weaknesses. This allows them to fully
leverage the potential of each individual worker, applying their talents and characteristics in
the most effective way towards the achievement of corporate goals. Talent Management
assumes significance also because:
The key enabler of any organisation is talent.
The quality of the people is the last true competitive differentiator.
Talent drives performance.
Talent management requires strong executive support, along with systems and processes all
directed towards having the right talent doing the right work at the right time. Thats when
talent truly drives higher business performance.
Organisations that officially decide to manage their own talent carry out a strategic analysis
of their current HR processes. This is to make sure that a co-ordinated, performance oriented
approach is adopted.
Many organisations are adopting a Talent Management approach which focuses on coordinating and integrating methods which are given as:
1. Recruitment: To ensure the right people are attracted to the organisation.
2. Retention: To develop and implement practices that reward and support employees.
3. Employee development: To ensure continuous informal and formal learning and
development.

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4. Leadership and "high potential employee" development: Specific development
programs for existing and future leaders.
5. Performance management: Specific processes that nurture and support performance,
including feedback/measurement.
6. Workforce planning: To plan for business and general changes, which include the
older workforce and current/future skills shortages.
7. Culture: To develop of a positive, progressive and high performance way of operating.
Q2. List the key elements of talent management system. Explain any two of them.
Answer: Talent management starts with the business strategy and what it signifies in terms
of the talented people required by the organization. Ultimately, its aim is to develop and
maintain a talent pool consisting of a skilled, engaged and committed workforce. Successful
companies seek to determine the actual or potentials of each employees capability for adding
value to the organisation. This allows them to maximise their contribution through
appropriate investment in training and development. Improper allocation of compensation
and training recourses can result in unwanted turnover, morale, and performance related
issues, especially among those employees it can ill afford to lose.
The building blocks of Talent Management enable the organisations to efficiently manage
recruitment and retention of the best Talent helps the organisation to analyse the qualities and
performance of the employees and to develop any lacking skills. The Key elements of Talent
Management are:
1. Selection
2. Induction and Training
3. Capability Development
4. Performance
5. Retention and succession
Selection: Selection is the process of choosing a candidate amongst a number of probable
candidates. Recruitment and Retention has become a big challenge for organisations due to
the continuing global talent shortage, the changing worldview of work by new generation
employees entering the workforce, and the ever increasing evidence that poor recruitment
decisions have a direct impact on the bottom line.
Recruitment process that is not merit-based and has poor reliability and validity are a burden
to an organisation and can even expose the company to discrimination claims. Poor hiring
choices can affect the organisation in additional recruitment costs, training and orientation
costs, loss of time, lost opportunity, lost revenue, loss of competitive advantage, tarnish
image and reputation. It is about recruiting the right people in the right place at the right time.
Organisations need to filter their attraction, recruitment and selection approaches to ensure
they have the right talent on board to enable them to remain competitive. A global view that
includes a diverse workforce is critical.
Capability development: Customised improvement opportunities for key talent are seen as
an essential component for motivation and retention of these people. In the present scenario,
developing the current employees is a more cost effective and efficient means of maintaining
internal talent pools rather than recruiting new people and wasting vital resources on their
training. Career growth also has a major impact on job satisfaction and commitment, to an
organisation that relates directly to the retention of dynamic employees. Both high potentials
and core contributors should be given enough opportunities to develop by the internal talent
management in order to maintain operational effectiveness and output. Key performers and
core contributors require different growth experiences that should be modified accordingly
for maximum profit. Committed leaders are required to emphasise the idea on both groups
given their competing business priorities.

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The Talent Development structure adopted by an organisation needs to support the talent
capabilities required for the future and needs to be able to blend with ongoing changes. Good
leadership quality in a global and increasingly diverse workplace is a highly sort after
competence, and this must be embedded into any comprehensive development program.
Other elements will be established by the business strategy.
Other key elements of talent management
Besides the four above elements of talent management, some other elements are also
available that help to characterise the relationship between talent management and
conventional recruiting. They include:
A focus on high impact positions: A talent management policy requires managers and HR
to determine an organisations success by filling top talent in the appropriate jobs.
Accountability: Talent management assigns accountability to the chief talent executive for
managing the talent pool, who is responsible for results, not effort.
Rewards and metrics: Talent management builds support and relationship between earlier
independent efforts through its common objectives, metrics and rewards.
Balanced metrics: Talent management attracts managers attention by instituting a system
of methods and rewards that ensures every executive is acknowledged and rewarded for
excellence in human resource management.
Business approach: Talent Management is created from and replicates other successful
business process models, like supply chain management, finance, and lean manufacturing.
Recognition of the business cycle: The talent management strategy involves identifying the
different types of talent required with respect to changing business situations.
Truly global: Talent management encourages attracting, retaining, and developing the best
talent no matter where it is.
Focus on service: Flawless service is the expectation of talent management. Customer
satisfaction, process speed, quality, and commitment are continually measured.
Anticipation: While conventional recruiting and retention tend to be reactive, talent
management is forward looking. It predicts and alerts managers about upcoming problems
and opportunities. It indicates managers to act before the need arises in talent management
issues.
Q3. List and explain the Talent Selection processes?
Answer: Talent selection is the process to make a hire or no hire decision about each
applicant for a job. In a fiercely competitive talent market, best practice organizations try to
assess how best they can match individual aspirations and strengths with the role
requirements and overall culture of the organization, in a manner that results in high
engagement and performance. Having the right person in the right job is the key to the
success of any business, while having the wrong person in a key position adversely affects an
organization. Every key job or position has a number of complex requirements that might be
difficult to identify. Talent Selection is an enduring procedure that requires proper planning in
order to achieve the expected results.
Talent Selection Process involves following five steps:
1.
Benchmark the Job
2.
Assess Candidates
3.
Compare Job and Talent
4.
Behavioral Interviewing
5.
Selection
Job Benchmark Benchmarking the job of the process determines key accountabilities of
the job being benchmarked, as well as personal competencies, motivation and behaviours
required by the job. All of this is accomplished in a three hour meeting of four to ten people

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who really understand the job. The process is supported by a 30 minute online assessment of
the JOB that each participant takes individually to create a composite model of the most
important thirteen attributes needed by the job for success. One key result of the process is
high buy-in of all participants for what the job really needs. Thus, Job benchmarking process
enables businesses to benchmark the job, assess the talent and find the best job fit.
Assess candidates: This process is used to Assess Candidates with the Personal Talent
Report. This report reflects a candidates personal competencies, motivators and skills with
very high validity and precision. Talent is a critical ingredient to achieving excellence. The
ability to strategically assess the talent you haveand the talent you needis integral to
meet and exceed the goals of your organization.
Compare job and talent: The third process is to compare the requirements of the job and the
talents inherited by the candidate. The purpose here is not to judge the character of a person,
but rather to analyse how well they fit the particular needs of a specific job. People have
unique behaviours that can be matched to jobs, but seldom are! When a person's behaviours
are in sync with a job's, the result is increased performance and employee satisfaction.
Behavioural interviewing: The fourth selection process is to enhance the assessment data
with effective behavioural interviewing. The key to effective interviewing is having the right
questions for the particular job. The premise behind behavioural interviewing is that the most
accurate predictor of future performance is past performance in similar situations. The
interviewer identifies job-related experiences, behaviours, knowledge, skills, and abilities that
the company has decided are desirable in a particular position.
Selection: The last stage of the process is making the selection. Now that all the information
is collected about the candidates qualifications, this process has a whole different
perspective. While it may not be possible find the perfect fit for a particular job, a candidates
limitations are known and importance of those particular attributes are linked to other
attributes for success in the job. Once the selection is made the applicant is given proper
training and developing to assure their success going forward.
Q4. Explain the components that help in developing an adaptive talent strategy.
Answer 4: The ability for companies to move quickly is more important than ever before.
Change is constant. Uncertainty is a reality. Complexity is on the increase, and the need for
agility is rising as a core organizational competency. Were living in a new business
environment being shaped by shifting talent patterns, shorter business maturity cycles and
lower barriers to entry, just to name a few. These are the elements shaping todays and
tomorrows business ecosystem and your organizational talent capability. An adaptive talent
strategy enables architecture to meet the evolving needs of business and develop a valueoriented talent function. Developing an adaptive talent strategy is more cost-effective than not
developing one. Adaptive talent strategies are based on alignment and clarity around the
organizations strategic business directives.
The three main components that help in developing an adaptive talent strategy include:
Knowing about the talent possessed by a person: Visibility into the companys
active workforce must be simply available for recruiting purpose. External
recruitment mainly informs about the strengths, weaknesses, and gaps. The talent
acquisition leaders can successfully develop a recruitment strategy and direct assets
when they have this information. This is done by joining with their organisational
growth peer to detect the required skills and abilities to support the organisation. An
internal talent management system helps in delivering many benefits. One of the
benefits is competency to the talent planning process. It also eases the progress of
talent throughout the organisation to meet the requirements of workforce and

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businesses. The internal gaps must always notify the external recruitment and talent
processes to help in smarter investments and decisions when pursuing new talent.
Developing a talent plan is an important phase in recruitment process. There is a
great chance that organisations may experience significant talent loss rather than
functioning as an adaptive, value-oriented talent strategy when there is no clarity with
the below-mentioned questions. Given below is the list of some important questions
that are asked in forming a talent plan to help the recruitment process and they are:
1. How the organisation thinks about talent today and in the future?
2. Which positions are suitable for a particular geographic location?
3. Which role or position is flexible to pursue the best talent despite of location?
4. Where is flexibility introduced in workforce through part-time, contingent and job
share roles?
5. When do you build and when do you acquire talent?
6. How do you broaden the reach by recognising the workplace outside the organisation?
7. How do you initiate the combined teamwork to create new ideas and concepts and
drive innovation?
8. What is the plan for knowledge transfer?
9. How is preparation done for a growing workforce with different needs?
10. How is supply and demand for the talent visualised that is required to support the
strategic business directives?
11. Which functional areas and roles have recruiting core competency?
12. Where is recruitment to a third party outsourced?
Influence of technology: Other than an internal talent management system, a CRM
(Candidate Relationship Management) tool plays a crucial role in developing
successful recruiting technology solutions. CRM helps the recruiting functions ability
to administer effective communication, builds strong bonding, and combines modern
sourcing capability. It also gives visibility into the readiness of talent pipeline, which
enables to maintain an adaptive talent strategy. It also helps in providing better
assistance to the business partners and also assists in deciding on distribution of
resources to external recruitment. The advantage to the organisation is better support
of the strategic business directives. This is achieved by improving arrangement, active
interaction early enough in the planning process, and expecting the types of talent
required.
Q5. (a) What is talent engagement?
Answer: According to David C. Forman, Chief Learning Officer of the Human Capital
Institute Talent Engagement represents the extent to which the workforce identifies with the
company, is committed to it and provides discretionary effort so that it can be successful.
Engagement is a key leading indicator for high performance workplaces, improved employee
productivity and subsequent turnover. Talent is considered to be the most essential asset of
an organisation. The level of productivity of the organisation increases if the labour force is
efficient and competent and therefore decides the efficiency of organisational systems and
processes. Any organisation, which anticipates growth and success, must consider the talent
retention as an issue and give it a top priority. If not, it results in organisational slowdown and
steady loss. A business management concept that describes the level of enthusiasm and
dedication a worker feels toward his/her job. Engaged talent cares for the work and about the
performance of the company, and feels that their efforts make a difference. An engaged talent
is in it for more than a paycheck. Talent engagement is a process wherein employees work by
putting in more efforts as their morals and interests are associated with that of the

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organization. There are many examples of talent engagement in fields like service/hospitality
where you to see the dedicated employees give excellent service out of true commitment.
Talent Engagement", is a concept which is almost similar to a level to which a talent is
emotionally related to the organisation and the employees being very obsessive about their
work. Talent engagement is an extent to which an employee is committed and involved
towards his/her work in the organisation and its values. Talent engagement is a significant
element of an individual and organisational achievement. Leadership quality and
organisational features strongly control talent engagement. The talent engagement is
considered to be a theoretical study. It is planned to verify if the possibility of engaging
talents in the work can be predicted during their initial stages of work application.
(b) What are the objectives of talent engagement?
Answer: Talent engagement is defined as a method employed to assess how mindset and
behaviours affect the business outcome. Talent engagement strategy occurs at organisational,
team, and individual levels. Employee engagement can be critical to a company's success.
Engaged employees are more likely to be productive and higher performing. Employers can
encourage employee engagement in many ways, including communicating expectations
clearly, offering rewards and advancement for excellent work, keeping employees informed
about the company's performance, and providing regular feedback.
The objectives of talent engagement include:
Creating emotional assurance and strong two-way rapport between the employees and the
organization.
Expecting clear performance and a clear return from the company, for example, working
atmosphere, growth, incentive, career opportunities, so on, which enable employees to link
between their contribution and the growth of the company.
Motivating and allowing people to achieve their goals and reward them based on their
contribution and then provide them with excellent career opportunities.
Developing a learning culture which promotes personal growth and professional quality
and supports ethics of professionalism, modernization, practicality, team spirit, and reliability,
so on.
Admiring and valuing individuals, their diversity and encouraging them to balance their
professional and personal lives.
Q6. Explain the role of HR in talent management.
Answer: Human Resources (HR) form a part of the support system of a company. It refers to
the individuals within the firm. Employees are the most valuable asset of an organisation, and
are also the most difficult to manage. This is because every human being is unique and
possesses different characteristics. It is the responsibility of every manager in an organisation
to establish a system that provides service dedicated for the people working in their
organisation. This system is known as the Human Resource Management or personnel
management. In the new economy, organizations will have to continue to be flexible and
adaptable in order to experience success and meet their objectives. The quality of a
companys people and how they are organized will be the keys to adaptability. One of the
most value creating roles an HR department can fulfil is helping an organisations leaders
build a workforce that is capable of implementing the companys strategy. Talent
management as a concept is fairly new. Talent management generally refers to activities
which attract, develop, and retain employees. The phrase sometimes is used to refer to
exceptionally talented and/or high potential employees. It is even used interchangeably with
HRM. Another concept, referred to as has developed from talent management. This is the

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process of attracting, developing, and retaining profitable employees, who can give the
company a financial and strategic edge over its competitors. The importance laid on talent
management has increased the pressure on HR department in an organisation. The HR acts as
a backbone for Talent Management. The HR is responsible for the training and development
activities of an employee in an organisation. When it comes to talent management the HRs
role is concerned with enhancing the development, attraction, and retention of their
employees. The HR is responsible to establish talent management initiatives. In an
organisation, apart from transactions and administrations, the HR is burdened to take more
responsibility to become a talent expert.
The important areas of talent management that forms a part of HR planning are:
Providing value for individuals by creating and maintaining an organisational culture.
Identify the needs of an organisation.
Training and developing employees to meet the organisational needs.
Recruiting talented people, who are capable of providing further job needs,
Conducting and managing HR activities to support talent the development of talent in an
organisation.
Getting the best employee: The HR is responsible for implementing the planned workforce
in an organisation. Workforce planning is getting "the right number of people with the right
skills, experiences, and competencies in the right jobs at the right time."The crucial role of an
HR is to attract talented personnel. These days the improvement in the economy and
retirement of Baby Boomer creates competition for newer talented personnel.
Retaining Top Employees: As majority of the employees in an organisation look out for new
and better employment opportunities, the HR is responsible for retaining the employees. This
can be done by following successful employee retention strategies. The HR conducts surveys
to know the reason why employees leave the job. They also conduct exit interviews to get a
feedback from the relieving employees on the areas of improvement. The HR improves
retention by improving the communication between the management and the employees.
They also conduct training and provide development opportunities to retain the employees.
The HR must make sure the candidate hired fits the job and the work culture. The HR must
recognise and understand the important retention drivers, but often many HR fail to realise
these factors more than they understand them. The HR must make sure the employee values
the work they do, which is important for retention.
Training employees: The HR are responsible for providing opportunities for employees who
prefer to develop their skills and talent and accept challenging work along with
compensation. Training programs help the employees to develop a greater sense of selfworth, dignity, and well-being. Through training they become more valuable to the firm and
to the society. As training increases the productivity of the employee, they can obtain pay
benefits, appraisals and obtain better share of material gains. The employees prefer to grow in
their career. This can be done by the HR by organising programs for professional and entryto mid-level managers.
Paying employees and providing benefits: The HR is responsible for administrating the pay
and benefits of the employees. The employees pay and the benefits provided to them play an
important role in motivating them. The HR calculates and summarises the salary structure to
the employee, explaining the employee the pay offered apart from the bonuses, commissions,
and other performance related pay. The HR keeps track of each employees earnings and
benefits.
Ensuring compliance to regulations
HR compliance is important for any business in the present days legal environment.
Effective HR compliance programs need to be integrated into any business strategies. It is a
process of telling the proper behaviours of an individual or a group in an organisation. The

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process also assures that the employees properly understand and follow all the laws and
processes set by the organisation. The HR must know all the laws and the appropriate policies
developed by the organisation. The policies developed by an organization depend on the
nature and needs of the organization. Policies on work schedule like working hours per day,
lunch breaks, holidays, sick leaves, personal leaves, loss of pay (LOP) leaves and so on.
Compensation policies like overtime compensation, increase in salary due to promotional,
reduction in salary increase due to poor performance, and so on. An organisation adopts laws
to govern matters like employee job security, pay, health and safety, opportunities, benefits,
and so on.
Ensuring safe work environments: Every employee in an organisation that is, from
supervisor to workers has a right for safe and healthy workplace. The HR managers must
develop safety programs, policies, and a clear workable plan for having a safe workplace. The
safety programs like seasonal vaccinations and training the employee in handling emergency
situations must be carried out. The management must be train employees on safety issues
with the help of safety programs. This helps in bringing in accountability and compliance.
Ensuring safety at workplace also involves:
Diversity management: this involves managing diversity issues like gender, nationality,
racism, physical appearance, and so on. The HR is responsible to develop and implement
diversity plan as the employees approach the HR directly if they face any such issues.
Dealing with drugs in the workplace: It is the responsibility of the HR to ensure drug-free
work place by implementing drug free policy or conducting drug tests for employees.
Ergonomics for employee safety: the employees can be trained to use ergonomics in order to
overcome work pressure and work safely.
Dealing with HIV/AIDS in the workplace: This is to encourage people to support
individuals suffering from HIV/AIDS. It also involves fighting and prevention against
HIV/AIDS.
Preventing violence in the workplace: The HR is responsible to prevent violence at work
place such as threatening or employees killing their colleagues by implementing policies and
procedures.
Supporting spirituality in the workplace: Realising that every employee has his/her own
belief, respecting their beliefs, and allowing them to hold on to their beliefs is the
responsibility of the HR. this helps in creating a friendly environment.
HR function, therefore is not only about hiring, training and retaining talent it is also about
tackling changes in the workplace and industry dynamics like mergers, acquisitions and new
technologies, whose impact percolates right down to the individual employee.