Talent Management in Private Schools

Today is called as the age of increasing competition among the organizations against the limited resources (Payambarpour & Hooi, 2015). These days, organizations reached higher perception that talented human resources are valuable resources and if they can be managed well (Saadat & Eskandari, 2016). It is clear that getting benefits from talented human resources requires proper management and this is one of the major challenges for organizations (Sayyad , et al., 2011). 

Therefore, Talent Management as a system of identification, recruitment, training, promotion, and retention of talented people has been proposed with the aim of optimizing the organization and to achieve business results (Saadat & Eskandari, 2016). Today, Organizations fully recognized that it is required the best talent human resources and perceive the business environment. Parallel understating the talents are the critical resources that need management for getting the best results (Saadat & Eskandari, 2016).

‘Talent management contains strategies and protocols for the systematic attraction, identification, development, retention and deployment of individuals with high potential who are of particular value to an organization’ (Tansley & Tietze, 2013). As in this view, individuals with high potential and it is usual achieved organizations goals.

According to (Lewis & Heckman, 2006), talent management is defined in three ways: 1) as a combination of standard human resource management practices such as recruitment, selection and career development; 2) as the creation of a large talent pool, ensuring the quantitative and qualitative flow of employees through the organization ; 3) as a good based on demographic necessity to manage talent.  

Not only that but also talent management is a new idea or simply a bundle of existing practices has been questioned (Iles & Preece, 2010). Talent management is an idea that has been around a long time. It’s been relabeled (Warren , 2006). Talent was defined by (Michaels, et al., 2001) as the sum of a person’s abilities his or her intrinsic gifts, skills, knowledge, experience, intelligence, judgment, attitude, character and drive. It also includes his or her ability to learn and grow. Talent is what people must have in order to perform well in their roles and make a difference to organizational performance through their immediate efforts (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

There are different types of who should be involved with organization talent. According to (Iles & Preece, 2010) identified following three perspectives.

1.      Exclusive people – key people with high performance and/or potential irrespective of position.

2.      Exclusive position – the right people in the strategically critical jobs.

3.      Inclusive people – everyone in the organization is seen as actually or potentially talented, given opportunity and direction.

As first two perspectives are most common (Iles & Preece, 2010). For example, the organization in which I work, a leading international school, practices formal qualification based technique to allocate teachers to different sections such as diploma holders for preschool section, higher national diploma holders and graduates for primary section and upper school consists with only graduates. Sectional heads are appointed based on their experience and performance by the principal. Deputy Principal and principals are appointed by the board of directors headed by the chairman. End of each academic year the salary increments are decided via principals’ recommendation and performance appraisals by the school management.

I suggest that strategic planning has to be introduced with attracting, recruiting, developing and deploying. The school management should invest significantly in developing and training high potential teachers. The selection criteria should concern cultural fit as formal qualifications are not always the best predictor of performance and retention.

According to (Clarke & Winkler, 2006), the inclusive people approach is comparatively rare in practice, although there have been strong advocates of it such as (Buckingham & Vosburgh, 2001), who wrote that talent is inherent in each person: HR’s most basic challenge is to help one particular person increase his or her performance; to be successful in the future we must restore our focus on the unique talents of each individual employee, and on the right way to transfer those talents into lasting performance.

The process of Talent Management & Talent Pipeline

According to (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014) explained that the process of talent management and talent pipeline parameters mainly affected to the organizations. The following illustrated (Figure 1 & Figure 2) expounded that, to develop and maintain a pool of talented people through the talent pipeline, which consists of the processes of resourcing, career planning and talent development that maintain the flow of talent needed by the organization.

Figure 1 The Talent Management Pipeline

Sources: (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014)

 

Figure 2 The Talent Management Process

Sources: (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014)

·         Talent planning - The process of establishing how many and what sort of talented people are needed now and in the future.

·         Resourcing − the outcomes of talent planning are programmes for obtaining people from within and outside the organization (internal and external resourcing).

·         Talent identification – the use of talent audits to establish who is eligible to become part of the talent pool and to benefit from learning and development and career management programmes.

·         Talent relationship management – building effective relationships with people in their roles.

·         Talent development – learning and development policies and programmes are key components of talent management.

·         Talent retention – the implementation of policies designed to ensure that talented people remain as engaged and committed members of the organization.

·         Career management –this is concerned with the provision of opportunities for people to develop their abilities and their careers so that the organization has the flow of talent it needs and they can satisfy their own aspirations.

·         Management succession planning – as far as possible, the objective is to see that the organization has the managers it requires to meet future business needs.

·         The talent pipeline – the processes of resourcing, talent development and career planning that maintain the flow of talent needed to create the talent pool required by the organization.

·         The talent pool – the resources of talent available to an organization.

According to (Cappelli, 2008) suggested that the signs of a successful talent management strategy are that it is inclusive and that it can address and resolve any incongruity between the supply and demand of talent. He identified that too many firms have more employees than they need for available positions, or a talent shortfall, and always at the wrong times.

Not only that but also talent management is key to engage with employee (Mcdonnell, et al., 2017) . Talent management can lead to elevated levels of employee engagement. This relationship between talent management and employee engagement is mediated by psychological empowerment, since talent management practices increase employees’ perception of empowerment, which may increase their levels of engagement in the organization (Kluijtmans , 2019). The fulfillment of the psychological contract also moderates the relationship between talent management and employee engagement, as employees can adjust their input based on a reciprocal relationship between them and the organization (Tarique & Schuler, 2010).

Talent management practices should foster and increase perceived psychological empowerment for employees to experience this empowering workplace in which they are showing increasing amounts of engagement to the organization (Kuvaas, 2008). Talent management as a whole is a tool that emphasizes organizational activities and processes that involve identification of key positions, development of a talent pool of high potential and performing individuals and the development of HR practices to facilitate the fulfilment and continuance of these positions (Collings, et al., 2009).

Conclusion

The typical focus on talent management is on differentiated performance .This differentiation related to individual employee performance. The Most of the organizations grant most of the rewards, incentives and attention on their top talent ‘Best’; give less recognition, financial awards, and development attention to the majority of other employees ‘Average’; and work blindly to weed out employees who do not meet with expected performance and are classified to have poor potential ‘Poor’. Since isolation of employees can be counterproductive organizations should develop and train high potential   individuals. It is really appreciated if the organizations can think of more inclusive approach and attempt to address the needs of employees at all levels of the organization. Core values and business principles can be integrated into the talent management process such as recruitment and selection methods, leadership development activities and benefit programs. Through differentiation step in talent management organization manage to establish branding which help them to stand apart from other competitors.

References

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Cappelli, P., 2008. Talent on Demand – Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty. Boston : Harvard Business School Press .

Clarke , R. & Winkler, V., 2006. Reflections on Talent Management. London: CIPD .

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