TALENT MANAGEMENT

It is not always easy to come up with a concise and straightforward definition of terms such as the above, more so when there are a lot of authorities who are involved in giving different constructive views of such terms.

In simple but concise terms, Talent Management (TM) is the harmonization and management of talents in a firm, company or organization. Talents here comprises employee educational qualifications, skills, strengths, trainings acquired, traits, habit, motive, knowledge, abilities, potentials etc. It is very true that all activities carried out in an organization revolve around Talent Management.

Every organization practices TM in one-way or the other. The difference between an organization and another is mostly in the area of the degree of involvement. In so far as a firm is involved in Recruitment, Selection, Placement, Training and Development, Performance Management, Reward / Compensation /Benefit handling, then Talent Management is practiced.

Essentially Talent Management involves;

· Recruiting: Does the firm have a formal recruitment processes to recruit internally or externally?

· Career Management: Is there clarity in the career path for the employees?

· Succession Planning: Are there clear-cut plans for who steps into which position at which time. This involves matching current potentials with future organizational demands.

· Performance Management: This should be able to tell us how each staff performs in his/her present responsibilities. A very good performance Management should be able to unfold the following; those who need to be rewarded, those who need to be cautioned, those who need additional responsibilities, Staff training and development needs, Promotions, Demotions etc.

· Reward Management: Talent Management will not succeed without a system that clearly defines performance results. Average, Superior and Outstanding performers in an organization should be rewarded differently otherwise outstanding performers for instance will not be motivated to work harder.

TM should not be solely the work of the HR department alone, all Middle and Line Managers have roles to play in every successful TM in an organization.