Assignment 83

Delp10

Ch2.pptx

Home >Nursing homework help >Assignment 83

2: Workforce Planning and Talent Management

Dr. Mirna Safi

Photodisc/Getty Images

Introduction

Do you know where you will be and what you will be doing in five years’ time?

This is an issue facing most organizations and their response will reveal a great deal about how their employees will need to be managed during that period. This is workforce planning.

There are growing demands on the HR function to plan, predict, develop and adjust their staffing needs in order to achieve organizational goals both now and for the future.

Workforce planning

Workforce planning is ensuring the right number of people with the necessary skills are employed in the right place at the right time to help deliver an organization’s short- and long-term objectives.

The HR function is attempting to see into the future to help make decisions in the present day.

Very few organizations predicted the scale of the global economic upheaval back in 2008. As a consequence many are still, today, coming to terms with how dramatic an economic recession it was.

Workforce planning

The human resource planning cycle

Stocktaking

Stocktaking is the stage of the human resource planning cycle where the organization must identify a range of factors currently impacting its operations.

Two broad categories of influencers are assessed: external factors and internal factors.

External factors can include issues relating to the economic climate, employment legislation and technological advancement.

Internal factors are those organizational forces that impact day-to-day running of the firm such as the numbers employed, the profile of the workforce, training provision history, work conditions, performance reviews, team dynamics etc.

Forecasting

Forecasting is the stage of the human resource planning cycle where the organization must predict the demand for and supply of labour in order to meet the strategic goals of the firm.

When forecasting the supply of labour, the organization examines both internal and external sources.

Forecasting the internal supply of labour is more than just counting the number of employees in the workforce. The HR unction must examine the skills, competencies, motivation and knowledge of their workforce.

When examining the external supply of labour, the organization assesses the extent to which the external labour market can provide suitably qualified personnel.

Develop action plans, implementation and assessment

Action planning is the stage in the human resource planning cycle where the organisation makes a specific plan regarding how to best use the workforce to help meet the strategic goals of the firm.

Actions plans typically involve recruitment, retraining or deployment as appropriate.

Whatever the course of action is pursued to meet the strategic needs of the organization, there will be significant consequences for the HR function, the workforce and the employment relationship in general.

When plans are set in motion, they may need to be adjusted if required.

The final stage of workforce planning is the assessment stage where the action plans are evaluated to determine the extent in which they have allowed the organization to achieve strategic goals.

From workforce planning to talent management

As necessitated by the stocktaking and forecasting stages of the Human Resource Planning Cycle, organizations are increasingly assessing the capability requirements of their current workforce using a ‘future lens’ (Collings & Mellahi, 2009).

Contemporary organizations examine their skill, knowledge and ability requirements in the present but more importantly for the future as well, considering the combined scope of the whole organization.

In a context where increasing importance is placed on employees’ knowledge as a means to organizational success, firms compete against each other to acquire rare, inimitable and valuable intellectual and technical skills.

What exactly is talent management?

The term ‘talent management’ was first coined in 1997 by a group of McKinsey consultants in their analysis of labour market trends.

It can be broadly defined as the systematic and integrated approach taken within an organization to the attraction, recruitment, engagement and retention of those employees who have been identified to be of particular value to the strategic development of the firm.

What exactly is talent management?

Organizations are ‘waking up’ to its potential for bringing about positive organizational outcomes.

For example, a study by Ernst and Young in 2010 claimed that over a 5-year period, organizations with talent management programs that are aligned with business strategy deliver a return on investment (measured by return on common equity [ROE]) on average, 20% higher than rival companies where strategies are not aligned (Collings, 2014).

What exactly is talent management?

Talent management does not occur in a vacuum and should not be considered an isolated HR process.

Rolling out any talent management system only works when it is underpinned by strong recruitment and selection, fair reward systems and a clear performance management process .

Itis dependent on functional performance appraisal and appropriate training for it to be deemed successful.

HRM and organizational performance

In certain industries ‘star’ employees expect considerable autonomy and the freedom to pursue individual work goals.

This presents a challenge to organizations when such collaboration can be difficult, especially when stars may be reluctant to relinquish control over projects and have been used to working in ‘silos’.

One example of managing such a situation is that of Dana-Farber. Collaboration became a key performance metric and competition between research centres was reduced by making knowledge-sharing a core job requirement (Gardner, 2007).

Talent identification

The starting point in the development of a talent management process.

There is debate around what actually constitutes ‘talent’. However, there is an agreement amongst researchers that inherent in any conception of talent is the idea of ‘potential’.

A talented employee is typically:

an individual who achieves a high level of performance and has the potential to make a valuable contribution to the firm over time.

an individual who may not be achieving high levels of performance at present but may have untapped potential which, in the right circumstances, can be exploited by the organization.

HRM in the global business environment

Organizations do not always agree on what actually constitutes talent.

Google describes a talented employee as ‘a challenger who thinks outside the box’.

PricewaterhouseCoopers consider talented employee as those ‘who are willing to take on challenges’ (Tansley, 2011).

These firms are MNCs and operate in multiple locations around the globe.

Importantly, research demonstrates that cultural factors shape perceptions of employee performance (Hofstede, 1993).

Recruiting talent

Having the capacity to attract and recruit talented staff is a key aspect of talent management, particularly where the internal supply of ‘talent’ is insufficient.

Recruiting talent is not a guarantee of success and can actually have a detrimental effect at all levels in the firm.

Occasionally, employees identified as star performers or HIPOS do not develop or fulfil their potential as expected.

Talent management strategy

Consider the following question: Which airline has the best pilots?

How would you measure the effectiveness of a pilot?

Beyond bringing passengers to their destination in a safe way it is difficult to think of other key performance indicators (KPIs) as perceived by a customer.

Now consider this question: Which airline has the best cabin crew?

This is perhaps an easier question to answer from the perception of a customer as passengers tend to interact with cabin crew to a greater extent than they would with pilots. So, from a strategic perspective, an increasing number of airlines are focusing on identifying and developing HIPOS amongst cabin crew personnel.

Talent management strategy

The difference between a high-performing pilot and an average-performing pilot as regards the value to the organization is minimal.

High-performing cabin crew make a much more valuable contribution than those with average performance levels.

Airlines are now recognising that in-flight customer experience is what counts for most passengers (Drescher, 2017) and the cabin crew position is considered of significant strategic consequence.

Talent management strategy

Once identified as HIPOS, cabin crew are likely to be appointed a specific development plan.

The HIPOS may also be afforded greater autonomy in their role.

Star employees might be rewarded with bonus pay, flexible work hours, working on more glamorous routes, working on luxury aircraft, ad-hoc leadership roles on shorter flights and so on.

Managing talented staff in this way facilitates succession planning in that star personnel amongst cabin crew can be promoted to more senior positions without fear of them being ill-equipped to do the job.

The HIPOS may be asked to mentor or train the next ‘batch’ of talented cabin crew which allows the star employee to share their knowledge and expertise with colleagues.

Talent management strategy

There is no agreed upon way of executing a talent management strategy in that each industry will typically have their own specific way of managing talented staff.

It is universally recognised that the process of strategic talent management is most effective when it is supported by other HR process such as performance management, reward management and so on.