Managing Talent by Improving Leadership Development - Term Paper Example

Introduction Today’s organizations thrive on the basis of knowledge they possess and utilize in order to achieve their strategic advantage. Innovation and creativity often drives the organization ahead and help it to achieve strategic objectives. What is also important to understand however that organization also needs to manage the talent? Though the term was coined in 1990s by McKinsey & Co however, field is still considered to be evolving and organizations are looking for new ways to manage their employees within their organizations. Talent management as a term emerged in 1990s as a planned activity by the organizations to actually focus on human resources management in order to align HRM with the overall strategic objectives of the firm. Talent management therefore focused upon managing employees by critically emphasizing on the sourcing of the employees in a more strategic manner. Organizations engaged into talent management also focus on the development of leadership within their employees in order to prepare them for future challenges. Talent management is believed to be encompassing all human resource activities and utilizing them in most strategic manner. Talent management however can be improved by better managing and developing leadership within the organizations. Firms focused on developing the leadership capabilities of their employees tend to better manage their talent and help them to assume leadership positions. Bringing current level of leadership to an entirely new level of leadership therefore is considered as important in order to manage the talent within the organizations. This paper will discuss as to how firms can manage talent by improving the leadership development. Talent Management Earlier organizations with fixed hierarchies and organizational structures tend to produce employees who knew what is expected of them. Such organizations knew what their employees can deliver and how the existing hierarchy within such organizations can be managed. Employees also used to respect and follow the organizational hierarchies and therefore expected as to what they need to deliver within such fixed set up. (Berger, 2004) However, as organizations become fluid in nature with no fixed organizational structure and hierarchy, expectations from employees have changed. Various external factors have actually compelled the organizations to look for hiring and managing their human resource in strategic manner. Talent management technically looks for anticipation of human resource requirements of the organization and making plans to actually ensure that organizational needs are taken care in terms of hiring and managing new employees. Companies deliberately chose how to select, place, train, promote and move employees from one place to another. This systematic approach therefore requires that organizations must continue to evolve their best practices and continue to develop and train their employees. This often leads to the optimization of the employees for the organization. (Ellehuus, 2012) Leadership can also be one of the effective ways which can contribute towards the management and development of talent within the organization. Such development can take place through a combination of on job and class room training which actually help organization to shape the leadership in a way which is most suitable to them. Generation Y and X Generation Y is considered as entrepreneurial in nature with no ego and is also called post emotional generation. This is the generation which is currently forming the major bulk of the youth in the existing workforce and therefore can be considered as a dominating factor in talent management. As compared to Gen. Y, Gen X has moved to the senior leadership positions and considering the technology oriented nature of millennial, older generation can easily help them to develop their leadership potential. (Weyland, 2011) Though there is no fixed starting and ending point for the generation Y however, it is believed that year started in 1982 and ended in 2004. People born during this era are considered as those who have tendency to interact with media and communication easily and also tend to have preferences which are similar to their parents. These tendencies suggest that gen Y can serve as a real source for the talent. Organizations therefore need to make sure that they develop programs, policies and strategies which can leverage the strengths of Gen X with the talent and adaptability of Gen-Y. Age is on the side of Gen-Y and Experience is on the side of Gen-X therefore organizations can really develop the leadership potential in the younger generation by actually leveraging the strengths of older generation. It is however, important to note that organizations need to be proactive in terms of identifying the relevant talent and put them through leadership development programs in order to improve their capability. Gen. Y is also believed to be demanding faster promotions, higher level of responsibilities and flexible work schedules. Organizations generally look for them due to their racial and social diversity, their knowledge of technology as well as the level of talent they possess. In order to manage their talent and to help them achieve faster promotions and broader level of responsibility, it is critical for the organizations to actually put them through effective leadership development. Gen. Y is also considered as flexible in nature therefore their flexibility as well as social connectivity makes them relatively a better candidate to be the people person. Organizations looking for new leaders can find millennial as best candidates because of their ability to socialize easily and understand people. Organizations can nurture this talent by offering them gradual and consistent leadership development programs through which they can actually further hone their skills to manage people easily. Organizations, in order to better manage their talent, also need to understand as to what actually motivate Gen.Y. In order to retain them as employees and train them as future leaders, it is important that organization should know both the extrinsic as well as intrinsic sources of motivation for them. Understanding their needs does not required great radical shift into strategic HR thinking of the organization however, there is relatively small effort required and organizations can actually unlock their potential to achieve higher level of productivity from them which can lead to future corporate success. (KWOH, 2012) Technology Over the period of time, the technology for talent management has improved a lot. Initially, the technology was limited to application tracking, learning management, succession and performance management. However, the overall human resource information systems have changed a lot over the period of time and leadership development and talent management requires executive-technology interaction. Implementation of technologies such as executive decision management systems can actually help organizations to improve the decision making abilities of their employees. Further, the surge in the analytics capabilities provided by the technology is also another important area where organizations can actually understand their customers better. (Schweyer, 2010) Investment into social media activities, use of core hardware and software to manage different aspects of talent management is now considered as necessary. Education Talent thrives on having more knowledge and creativity and organizations need to make sure that they have access to the employees who are open to new learning and development. Talent can be managed by improving the education and knowledge of the employees to make them more aware of how they can develop a better vision about their organization. Organizations can develop the leadership potential of the organizations by better educating their employees and put them on path of continuous learning and education. A drive to continue to acquire new knowledge can help organizations to actually improve the overall performance of their employees, train and develop them into new areas and improve their capabilities to the point where their talent can be utilize in different areas of the business. In order to achieve this objective, firms however, need to invest in both internal as well as external education. Mentoring employees on job rotations, executive development programs as well as leadership potential development programs need to be specifically tailored according to the organizational requirements. Conclusion Talent management is a relatively new phenomenon with more and more organizations are now focusing on the talent management as a strategic tool. By clearly identifying the human resource requirements of the future, modern organizations are making strategies and plans to help them find and manage talent. Current workforce is also acquiring Gen Y as new employees and therefore combination of Gen Y and X is considered important to develop the leadership potential of new employees. Since new employees require faster promotions and are tech-savvy and therefore improving their leadership potential by leveraging the strengths of Gen. X. The experience and talent of both the generations can offer better leadership development potential for organizations. Similarly, technology can also serve as one of the key resource for the firms to manage talent and improve the leadership potential of employees. Technology related with talent management has actually transformed during the recent era and organizations are now focusing on analytics as well as decision making systems to help their employees to develop their insight and become better decision makers. Education can also be a better tool for organizations to manage their talent, train employees to improve their leadership potential and continue to acquire new knowledge. Bibliography Berger. (2004). The Talent Management Handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill Education. Ellehuus, C. (2012). Transforming business leaders into talent champions. Strategic HR Review, 11(2), 84-89. KWOH, L. (2012, August 22). More Firms Bow to Generation Ys Demands. Retrieved from The Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443713704577603302382190374.html Newhall, S. (2012). A global approach to talent management: High-quality leaders are the key to competitive advantage. Human Resource Management International Digest, 20(6), 31-34. Schweyer, A. (2010). Talent Management Systems: Best Practices in Technology Solutions for Recruitment, Retention and Workforce Planning. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Weyland, A. (2011). Engagement and talent management of Gen Y. Industrial and Commercial Training, 43(7), 439 - 445. Read More