Talent Management

ASSIGNMENT
MBA SEM 4
SUBJECT NAME – Talent Management And
Employee Retention
BOOK ID – B1869


QUESTION: 1
Explain the key elements of Talent Management System.

ANSWER
Talent management involves individual and organisational development in response
to a changing and complex operating environment. It includes the creation and
maintenance of a supportive, people oriented organisation culture.

Importance of talent management
Talent management process is a two-way doctrine of recruiting the best people to
perform excellent jobs and the initiatives undertaken by the company that would
make their talented recruits want to stay and grow with them.
Different companies have different approaches on how to recruit and retain their
employees, yet in relatively the same way, the job market today is a conglomeration
of diverse aspirants. It includes those who initially put their best foot forward but
cannot sustain their jobs as they walk the long mile, so to speak.

Key Elements of a Talent Management System
Recruitment and Selection: Recruitment is the process of finding and hiring the
best-qualified candidate for a job opening, in a timely and cost effective manner.
Recruitment and retention have become a big challenge for organizations 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.
Induction: Induction is the formal entry of selected candidates into the organization.
Employers should not assume that new hires can cover for themselves, and will only
need brief introductions and a chunk of corporate information to get them started. A
proper induction program helps to reduce employee discomfort, improve productivity
and save money.
Training: An effective, useful and timely training experience should be the
progressing development chances that support the individual in the role, but also the
organization in achieving its broader objectives. Such training, where possible and
practical, should be “in-time” rather than “in-case” to provide training environments
and materials that change to meet individual or small group demands precisely at the
time when new skills are needed.
Capability development: Career growth has a major impact on job satisfaction and
commitment, to an organization that relates directly to the retention of dynamic
employees. The Talent Development structure 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.
Performance: Performance management system increases the productivity and
confidence in an organisation, if planned and implemented effectively.
It should be visibly related to training/development and recognition/compensation
systems within the organisation in order to increase productivity and retention.
Organisations can also defend themselves against legal action resulting from
discrimination or unfair claims through use of a legitimate and fair performance
management system.

Retention and Succession: Retention is the measure taken to encourage the
employees to remain in the organisation for longer period of time. Succession helps
an organisation to ensure that employees are hired and trained to fill each key
position within the organisation. It is necessary to good quality, customer satisfaction
and operational efficiency.




QUESTION: 2
Explain the importance of Talent Management Process. Describe the stages of
Talent Management Process

ANSWER
Talent management involves individual and organisational development in response
to a changing and complex operating environment. It includes the creation and
maintenance of a supportive, people oriented organisation culture.
Importance of Talent Management Process
Like human capital, talent management is gaining increased attention.
Talent management (TM) brings together a number of important human resources
(HR) and management initiatives.
Organisations that formally decide to "manage their talent" undertake a strategic
analysis of their current HR processes. This is to ensure that a co-ordinated,
performance oriented approach is adopted.
Quite often, organisations adopting a TM approach will focus on co-ordinating and
integrating:
 Recruitment - ensuring the right people are attracted to the organisation.
 Retention - developing and implementing practices that reward and support
employees.
 Employee development - ensuring continuous informal and formal learning and
development.
 Leadership and "high potential employee" development - specific development
programs for existing and future leaders.
 Performance management - specific processes that nurture and support
performance, including feedback/measurement.
 Workforce planning - planning for business and general changes, including the
older workforce and current/future skills shortages.
 Culture - development of a positive, progressive and high performance "way of
operating".
An important step is to identify the staff or employees (people and positions) that are
critical to the organisation. They do not necessarily have to be senior staff members.
Many organisations lost a lot of "organisational knowledge" in the downsizing
exercises of a few years ago. The impact of the loss was not immediately apparent.
However, it did not take long for many companies to realise their mistake when they
did not have people with the knowledge and skills to either anticipate or solve
problems that arose.
The stages of Talent Management Process
People are, undoubtedly the best resources of an organization. Sourcing the best
people from the industry has become the top most priority of the organizations today.
In such a competitive scenario, talent management has become the key strategy to
identify and filling the skill gap in a company by recruiting the high-worth individuals
from the industry. It is a never-ending process that starts from targeting people. The
process regulates the entry and exit of talented people in an organization. To sustain
and stay ahead in business, talent management cannot be ignored. In order to
understand the concept better, let us discuss the stages included in talent
management process:
 Understanding the Requirement: It is the preparatory stage and plays a
crucial role in success of the whole process. The main objective is to
determine the requirement of talent. The main activities of this stage are
developing job description and job specifications.
 Sourcing the Talent: This is the second stage of talent management process
that involves targeting the best talent of the industry. Searching for people
according to the requirement is the main activity.
 Attracting the Talent: it is important to attract the talented people to work
with you as the whole process revolves around this only. After all the main
aim of talent management process is to hire the best people from the
industry.
 Recruiting the Talent: The actual process of hiring starts from here. This is
the stage when people are invited to join the organization.
 Selecting the Talent: This involves meeting with different people having
same or different qualifications and skill sets as mentioned in job
description. Candidates who qualify this round are invited to join the
organization.
 Training and Development: After recruiting the best people, they are trained
and developed to get the desired output.
 Retention: Certainly, it is the sole purpose of talent management process.
Hiring them does not serve the purpose completely. Retention depends on
various factors such as pay package, job specification, challenges involved
in a job, designation, personal development of an employee, recognition,
culture and the fit between job and talent.
 Promotion: No one can work in an organization at the same designation with
same job responsibilities. Job enrichment plays an important role.
 Competency Mapping: Assessing employees‟ skills, development, ability
and competency is the next step. If required, also focus on behaviour,
attitude, knowledge and future possibilities of improvement. It gives you a
brief idea if the person is fir for promoting further.
 Performance Appraisal: Measuring the actual performance of an employee
is necessary to identify his or her true potential. It is to check whether the
person can be loaded with extra responsibilities or not.
 Career Planning: If the individual can handle the work pressure and extra
responsibilities well, the management needs to plan his or her career so
that he or she feels rewarded. It is good to recognize their efforts to retain
them for a longer period of time.
 Succession Planning: Succession planning is all about who will replace
whom in near future. The employee who has given his best to the
organization and has been serving it for a very long time definitely deserves
to hold the top position. Management needs to plan about when and how
succession will take place.
 Exit: The process ends when an individual gets retired or is no more a part of
the organization.
Talent Management process is very complex and is therefore, very difficult to handle.
The sole purpose of the whole process is to place the right person at the right place
at the right time. The main issue of concern is to establish a right fit between the job
and the individual.



QUESTION: 3
What are the responsibilities undertaken by an HR to ensure compliance to
regulations? Explain the steps involved in ensuring safe work environments

ANSWER
Clearly, human resources (HR) compliance is essential for any organization to be
successful in today‟s legal environment. But achieving and maintaining compliance
can be elusive goals for organizations that do not recognize the challenges and
develop an effective strategy to meet them.
HR compliance should be treated as a process of defining both individual and group
behaviors to ensure the organization‟s applicable laws and policies are
followed. The HR function must hire and retain individuals that are knowledgeable
about HR specific laws and can create policies and procedures in relation to these
laws. Just writing policies and procedures and placing them in a repository is not
enough. Once established, they must be effectively communicated throughout the
organization.
HR duties to ensure compliance to regulations

 Have the right skills and experience to support the compliance process.

 Be updated with all the laws as the laws change constantly, and communicate
the same to all the employees.

 Create manuals on HR policy, regularly update it, and get it reviewed by the
lawyer before implementing it.

 Train managers and review the policy with each manager, as they interact
regularly with the employees.

 Train employees, bring awareness among employees on the issues like sexual
harassment, and update employees about the new policies.

 Listen to all employees, when they come with an issue. This helps the HR to
know and manage the compliance risk.

 Provide feedback to ensure employees meet the expectation. HR must also
provide employees an opportunity to correct their mistakes.

 Document all the policies, key decisions, and employee evaluation. A copy of
the policy must be given to every employee. The failure to document can leave
the HR prone to non-compliance claims.

Steps Involved In Ensuring Safe Work Environments

 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: Some employees get into the habit of
taking drugs or alcohol due to the constant work pressure as well as some
personal issues. HR is responsible to ensure drug-free workplace 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 safety.

 Dealing with HIV/AIDS: This is to encourage people to support individuals
suffering from HIV/AIDS. It also involves fighting and preventing against
HIV/AIDS.

 Preventing violence: The HR is responsible to prevent violence at workplace
such as threatening or employees killing their colleagues by implementing
policies and procedures.

 Supporting spirituality: Realizing 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.



QUESTION: 4
Explain the key Compensation principles. What do you mean by Total rewards?
Describe the elements of Total rewards
ANSWER
Total Rewards
Total rewards include everything the employees perceive to be of value resulting
from the employment relationship. The general elements of total rewards include
salary, bonuses, stock options or participation in the equity of the organization. All
these elements involve financial investments. Rewards which do not result in
monetary benefit can also be used.
Elements of Total Rewards
1. Compensation: Providing monetary value in return for the work performed is
known as compensation. Job performance and job satisfaction can be improved
by providing compensation. The business needs, goals and available resources
are factors that govern compensation plans.

2. Benefits: Benefits provided by the organisation can be either due to law or
other benefits which the company is willing to provide to employees though not
mandated by law. Benefits such as Hazard Pay, Health Care, Maternity,
Paternity, and Adoption Leave, Paid Holidays, Pay Raise, Severance Pay, Sick
Leave, Termination, Vacation Leave, Work Breaks and Meal Breaks are
benefits provided by employers to employees in order to retain them within the
organisation.

3. Work-life: Attracting, recruiting, motivating, and methods employed to retain the
workforce determine the success of an organisation. Organisations need to be
really flexible in order to retain and develop the workforce and so as to enjoy
their commitment and loyalty towards the organisation. Organisations need to
constantly work on improving the quality of work life of the employees.

4. Performance and recognition: It is an integral and important component of
the total rewards portfolio and provides a high return on investment. Workers
value recognition for achievement more than any financial reward. Awards
directly associated with performance further motivate individuals to perform
better. These recognition programs are highly cost effective and valued by
employees and are able to reinforce desired behavior among employees. It is
a proven fact that there is a strong link between non cash incentives and
improved job performance. The alignment of organizational, team and
individual efforts toward the achievement of business goals and organizational
success. It includes establishing expectations, skill demonstration,
assessment, feedback and continuous improvement. Recognition:
Acknowledges or gives special attention to employee actions, efforts,
behavior or performance. It meets an intrinsic psychological need for
appreciation of one‟s efforts and can support business strategy by reinforcing
certain behaviors (e.g., extraordinary accomplishments) that contribute to
organizational success. Whether formal or informal, recognition programs
acknowledge employee contributions immediately after the fact, usually
without predetermined goals or performance levels that the employee is
expected to achieve. Awards can be cash or non-cash (e.g., verbal
recognition, trophies, certificates, plaques, dinners, tickets, etc.)

5. Development and career opportunities: It can be defined as „Providing
employees an opportunity to grow‟, especially to those employees who deliver
performance. Development is a promotion, increase in pay, acquiring higher
skills and opportunity to avail certain exclusive perks. Career development
cannot be viewed as a managerial responsibility but it is a composite process.
Factors that need to be considered are the people involved, their ambitions,
generating roles in accordance with their potential, and creating job positions to
satisfy the growth and development of employees


QUESTION: 5
Explain the concept of Talent Acquisition. Explain the talent acquisition strategies

ANSWER
Concept of talent acquisition
Talent acquisition is a cyclical process in which all the sub-processes including
recognising, attracting, and recruiting highly talented candidates are carried out. This
includes elements of employment branding, outreach, networking, and relationship
building with potential candidate communities to continually build and enhance the
talent pool for an organization. In addition, defining it as a cycle introduces the
concept that the processes are connected and interrelated, rather than isolated
events. Talent acquisition is a method in which all the sub-processes including
recognising, attracting, and recruiting highly talented candidates are carried out.
Traditional recruitment process is considered to be a broader „talent acquisition‟
concept which plays a crucial role in talent management. Primarily, talent acquisition
is an element of broader.
Talent acquisition strategies
These are the key, seven steps we followed and you can use as a template:
1. Look at the key skills required. Regular views of key skills will ensure business
objectives are being met. As the pharma industry evolves, so do the skills required.
Companies work in a variety of therapy areas which often change, therefore the
required specific therapy expertise can also vary. You don‟t want to be hiring „key‟
people only to see their expertise become redundant within a matter of months.
2. Do a skills gap analysis. This will show where you are exposed - as the business
portfolio evolves, there is often a need to bring new skills, techniques or areas of
expertise into the organisation. Identifying those gaps early is vital. It helps HR
professionals map the market to determine where that talent currently sits, how big a
potential candidate pool there is, and where the potential obstacles might arise, e.g.,
location.
3. Develop an internal mobility and succession plan. This will help ensure good
people are being utilised optimally. Having a succession plan in place is a crucial
component to any company‟s workforce plan. It not only acts as a great motivator
with existing key people but also acts as a retention tool.
4. Plan for attrition. Again, this is a very important element in workforce analytics
for presenting to business leaders. By forecasting future leavers it helps leaders plan
accordingly for any skills gaps and back-fill appropriately, and in good time.
5. Analyse company demographics to ensure diversity objectives are met.
Diversity is no longer optional. It has become absolutely essential within any
business as, in our opinion, it drives creativity and innovation. From gender to
ethnicity, it is important to get the balance right. One of the biggest problems in
almost all industries is that women in senior leadership roles remain rare. At Pfizer,
although we always chose the best person for the job, we made a concerted effort to
ensure diverse candidate short lists were always provided to hiring teams.
6. Determine gaps and external recruitment needs. Once the internal skills have
been identified and succession planning has been implemented, any clear gaps can
be determined; what‟s going to be critical in the near future and what‟s needed for
the longer term.
7. Define and develop an external sourcing strategy. After more than a decade
each in corporate recruiting we know that strategies and tactics used to recruit active
jobseekers are quite different to those used for „passive candidates‟.
These are people who are currently quite happy where they are working but might be
open to the idea of a move - if it‟s the right one, proposed and presented well. In the
past, when companies were operating in a comparatively „steady state‟, a big
corporate brand was often enough to produce a good candidate roster.




QUESTION: 6
Write short notes on:
a) Workforce Analysis
b) Talent Review

ANSWER

Workforce Analysis
It is a systematic process in which an organization identifies the critical jobs and
competencies, needed for the current and future employees, and develops strategies
to overcome any gaps. Its main priority is using information to obtain an overview of
the workforce and targeting talent management initiatives which include:
a) Identifying critical job roles for analysis and planning.
b) Reviewing knowledge/skills/attributes needed.
c) Determining employee population for review.
d) Gathering demographic information.

After recognizing organizational priorities, the next step focuses on the roles and
skills needed for the department to be successful.

 Identification of critical roles: The management team determines key job
functions and roles that will be the primary focus of the talent review
discussions.

a) All staff in a particular function or organisation unit.
b) A specific group or job category of the employee population.
c) A specific level of leaders, managers, or supervisors.

 Inventory of skills and knowledge: Here, the leaders discuss on skills,
knowledge, and performance that adds to success for the identified job roles.
This information serves as a basis for evaluating the performance and potential
of a particular employee group. This process also includes an overall
strength/gap analysis of the department that encapsulates existing workforce
capabilities and identifies gaps that is required to be met by external hiring or
internal development initiatives.

Talent Review

A Talent Review is a process to involve more senior business executives in sharing
and analyzing talent information, mostly part of an overall succession management
process. Compared to talent alignment sessions, talent reviews present a chance to
discuss talent at a higher level of depth and focus. It provides an overview of how
to encourage a discussion of key talent in the given ways to:

a) Identify readiness and potential for future assignments or positions.
b) Review possible succession plans.
c) Determine strengths and development needs of employees.

Having set the organizational context, management teams can proceed with a
review of “talent” in the organization. The type and emphasis of a talent review can
vary depending on the department‟s need.
For example: Talent Inventory which in turn involves current performance and future
capability of selected employee group. The objective is to get combined perspective
of strengths, requirements and development opportunities for specific employees,
and to identify the organization‟s “talent pool.” Readiness for major assignments or
future jobs is considered.

Submitted By:
SANA MEHBOOB
Roll no: 1208001980