Things you need to know about Talent Management

As a non-Talent Management person, and more so as a non-HR, you would have probably wondered what does Talent Management specialist of your organization do? This person seems to have a lot of information about you or your team member and is always present when HR head or your functional head is discussing promotions for your team. So, who exactly is this person and what does he do? Fret no more, here’s our simplified mini tour of things you need to know about Talent Management.

Simply put, the role of a Talent Management specialist (TMT) is to manage the talent of an organization. Manage means all of the things mentioned below and much more (the function is evolving every day with newer concepts and methods).

Talent Identification: It is humanly not possible for a TMT to manage and for an organization to invest in career & development aspirations of all employees and hence identifying who is talent is the first crucial step for a TMT. Typically, both the performance and potential of an employee is considered to determine whether this employee is a great talent. Organizations in their nascent stages of talent development journey still use only performance appraisal and manager or functional head recommendation to identify talent. Some organizations use competency assessment along with performance assessment for identifying talent. A few evolved organizations use potential assessment tests, which are based on soft skill assessment to determine if the individual has the potential in him/her to be a future senior leader.

So, with all this data available about you, a TMT sits with all functional leaders and determines the list of top 10% or 15% of employees who are considered as high potential or top talent and hence should be closely guarded and invested in.

Talent Segmentation: While we said that organizations can’t do talent management for all employees, but a HR can’t leave its other employees, can it? So what a TMT does is talent segmentation. Basically, with the inputs of performance and competency assessment, employees are plotted into something like the grid below (high-medium-low of both performance and potential. A Top talent is someone with both high performance and high potential). This 9 box grid is used by most TMT, however organizations do customize it as per their internal rating scales and hence this could also be a 16-box grid.

Now, if you haven’t been segmented into the top bracket, then the kind of interventions or internal impetus given to your career would be basis your box placement. The problem is you won’t know which box you belong to. There’s a justified reason to that which we will cover in our subsequent posts, but for the time being just understand that unless you are a top talent, you won’t be told which segment of talent do you belong to. In some organizations, even the top talent is not told that he is a top talent. Yeah, but didn’t we say we are evolving?

Talent Profiling: Ok, so the employees have been segmented and the top talent has been identified. Now what? The TMT creates something called talent profiles. Talent profile is a document for each identified top talent in which the following details would be available:

Name > Date of Birth > Department > Reporting Manager> Number of team members> Total years of experience > Date of Joining> Hometown > Educational Qualifications > Previous assessment ratings > Strengths > Development Needs > Key achievements of the year > Awards won > Retention risk (whether the employee can resign soon) > Readiness level for promotion > Readiness level for a lateral move> his short term and long term career aspirations

Such detailed documents are prepared by the reporting manager and TMT (or the HR Business Partner). At this stage, the reporting manager will discuss with you these things. And hence if you haven’t yet been told directly, you should know that you are one of the talent of the organization.

Talent Councils/Talent Review: People work in teams, teams work in functions, functions collaborate with other functions, ultimately it is about the achievement of company goals. In order to ensure that the reporting manager doesn’t have a limited view/judgement while identifying talent and while planning career moves for his team member, talent councils are formed. Talent council usually comprises of the top leadership team of all functions, along with HR. The talent council plays an important role in identifying the top 10% of the organization, since they look at business goals and how this talent is helping and can help in achievement of the same. Subsequently, once the talent has been identified, the council reviews each talent profile and finalizes on the possible career movement and development interventions for each.  The talent council meets quarterly/half yearly to discuss on the progress of the plans made.

Career Planning: A TMT may also prepare career paths. A career path is a document that mentions the possible role/geography/complexity exposure a person should have had to reach a particular level in the organization. These career paths are also used by talent councils before finalizing next career roles of individuals. With the identified talent, and the agreed career movements, the TMT keeps an eye on possible internal opportunities. In the event of a position getting open, instead of going the recruitment team, the TMT is consulted first, to check whether there is an internal talent ready for that position. The thumb rule is A person for A job. So your most talented guy should be working on your most critical position.

Succession Planning: There are various scientific methods available in a TMT’s kitty to determine which positions are most critical for the organization. This largely depends on the business plan for the year and on the impact of a particular position on the achievement of those goals. It is a TMT’s responsibility to ensure that at no given point is a critical position vacant. Internal successor pipeline for such positions should be built with identified top talent, or if no successor is available, then the TMT works closely with the recruitment team to ensure the external market is tapped in advance in case of an attrition.

Developmental Planning: While the learning & development interventions happen for all employees, it is closely monitored for a top talent. An organization may want to invest in higher end courses with global institutes for their identified talent or give them coaching and mentoring or give them stretch assignment or cross functional strategic projects to manage. The idea is to remove the talent gap as much as possible. If the individual is being groomed for this particular position, then what are the skill gaps (both technical and behavioural) that needs to be addressed. A TMT works closely with its Learning & Development team to determine just the right interventions for each of the identified talent.

Paying Talent: Its obviously fair if the people who are driving your business to its goals are being paid more than the others. A top talent gets more annual increments than others. Some organizations could also differentiate benefits and make an exclusive club for top talent benefits. A TMT, hence also works closely with its Total Rewards team to determine attractive pay and benefits package for the talent.

Hope you got an overview of what your Talent Management guy does and why is he always keeping his laptop guarded!

If you are a TMT yourself, share this with your non-Talent Management HR friends so that they appreciate the exhausting work you do! Or else, educate all your non-HR friends about our critical processes.

Stay tuned to more such simplified HR posts.