Why is Talent Management an important, popular topic?
Before we can answer why, we need to ask what.

What is Talent Management?
Talent Management is a buzz word these days and many equate it to recruitment. This is only one aspect. Others equate it to performance management. Talent Management is how a company attracts and acquires; assesses and develops; aligns; identifies and retains its greatest asset – people. Talent management is strategically tied to the business objectives, covering the end-to-end continuum of engaging employees, while integrating all HR disciplines. Talent Management looks forward – at the processes for identifying, developing, and retaining talent.

So why integrate Talent Management?
It has been reported that: Only 23% of organizations have a formal way to actually identify the knowledge that needs to be retained and protected. (Monster survey, report based on "Building and Securing an Organizational Brain Trust in an Age of Brain Drain")
This suggests that when it comes to retention, companies are falling short. There is a lack of retention focus and planning. It is critical to understand the labor market trends, emerging technologies and workforce demographics. Equally critical is to have the framework that fosters retention of top talent. Talent Management develops the policies and programs to support the changing labor marketplace.

Talent Management efforts focus on the strategic level. It starts with examining the organizational chart, succession planning and practices, recruitment needs and skill gaps, overall recruitment strategy and process, branding, performance management practices, leadership development, retention, career planning, and training managers to manage employees most effectively.
Strategically we want to be able to provide the right opportunities at the right time for the right talent.

So when employees leave, voluntarily or involuntarily, it has a direct impact on the company’s productivity, competitiveness, culture, and morale.
Why do employees quit? Market research has informed us that poor management, lack of a career path, lack of advancement opportunities, work life balance and money are the main reasons. Most former employees will work for the competition, so retaining top performers is advantageous. The objective is to address the reasons why employees quit head on, and foster a productive, rewarding, and competitive work environment.
Talent Management can help. Talent Management is geared towards providing the means to manage employees effectively. It involves developing a methodology to identify top talent from the application stage and then throughout one’s career.

When 70% of Operating Budget is human capital, doesn’t it make sense that we ensure our people are aligned to the right roles, motivated, skilled, and retained?

Finally, talent management is a strategic toolkit which helps counteract the many market conditions, turnover, and enables superior management of key assets – top performers.
The answer to our key question is then why not talent management?


Tina Iantorno is founder of TKA Consulting, a recruitment consultancy firm, Toronto, ON. She can be reached at info@tkac.ca