INTRODUCTION:

Talent management refers to the anticipation of required human capital for an organization and the planning to meet those needs (Carpenter, Mason, Talya Bauer, and Berrin Erdogan). Talent management implies that companies are strategic and deliberate in how they source, attract, select, train, develop, retain, promote, and move employees through the organization. Attracting talent means marketing the corporation to people who will fulfill its talent requirements. In order to attract employees with the right skills and attitudes, companies need to find ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors (http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article)

Many companies are facing a big challenge to attract talented employees. The top level management along with Personnel manager frame strategies to retain talented work force. Organizations have to create a sense of ownership among employees regarding their roles and responsibilities. This makes employees feel motivated and committed to the organization. The reason behind the failure of talent management is the poor policy making of the organization. The organizations fail to invest on the growth and development of employees. Companies must aim at innovative strategies to retain employees and gain superior performance.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

In the present scenario many companies are putting tremendous effort to attract employees. Organizations need employees to achieve its objectives. In spite of latest technology, software, updated machinery, etc organizations will not survive without human resources. Among all the resources in the organization human resources are more valuable as they have their own values, beliefs, objectives and goals. Organizations aim at achieving maximum output from minimum inputs. Hence they follow the cost cutting strategies and focus on recruiting multi-tasking employees. Hence employees’ role is predominant in the organization. They are treated as back bone of any organization. Organizations have to co-ordinate its activities with employees to gain competitive advantage. But organizations are failing to retain the employees because of ineffective employee policies.

In response to the demographic shifts, market changes, talent attrition and changing needs and demands of employees, organizations are applying employee-friendly strategies for attaining superior performance. Today, organizations are forced to look beyond mundane human resources (HR) interventions and execute initiatives such as flexible working hours, alternative work arrangements, leave policies in lieu of family care responsibilities and employee assistance programs.

Moving talent management initiatives forward, however, requires organizational buy-in. That is, all levels of management must be on board with the importance of talent management strategies. When the board is involved, the value of talent management is apparent and has high visibility. Yet to be successful, the value must be understood throughout the organization. In high-performing companies, for example, senior management also is responsible for the success of talent management. At the same time, for talent management initiatives to be effective, organizations need formal processes, with many people involved and with strong links between leadership and talent to translate into specific organizational value-based behaviors (Morton, L., 2005).

Ownership of talent management is also reflected in dedicated resources. A formal budget for talent management initiatives, for example, is evidence of organizational commitment. As noted in SHRM’s 2006 Talent Management Survey Report, firms with talent management initiatives are more likely than organizations without such initiatives to have formal recruitment budgets (72% compared with 39%, respectively) (Fegley, S. 2006). Further, it is important that HR educate top management on the link between the talent management cycle and the cost of turnover. For example, an employee’s decision to stay or leave is related to career possibilities in the company as well as how he or she can become better prepared to move to other opportunities. To keep a valued employee, the easy answer is not merely compensation. Employee loyalty tends to be more directed to his or her professional skills rather than to the organization (Dell, D., and Hickey, J. 2002). Thus, to best attract, engage, develop and retain talent, those who have responsibility for talent management must understand what is important to employees (Nancy R. Lockwood, 2006).

Research done on the value of talent management consistently uncovers benefits in these critical economic areas: revenue, customer satisfaction, quality, productivity, cost, cycle time, and market capitalization (Douglas, 2008). The mindset of this more personal human resources approach seeks not only to hire the most qualified and valuable employees but also to put a strong emphasis on retention (Michael F. Corbett). The organizations fail to retain workforce and experience decreased productivity. When an organization offers its employees policies, practices, benefits and services to help them integrate their work and family responsibilities, they feel committed to the organization and indulge themselves in organizational citizenship behaviours’ (Rupashree Baral and S.Bhargava, 2009).

The review so far made enabled that organizations are facing difficulty in managing and retaining talent. The literature reveals that there are scanty studies on talent management and the causes of poor talent management. As a part of this the present study focuses on identifying the causes and consequences of poor talent management and proposed some remedial measures for effective talent management.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The present research article aims at understanding the causes and consequences of poor talent management. It also makes an attempt to frame some strategies required for talent management.

METHODOLOGY:

The methodology used in this paper is purely theoretical and based on certain assumptions of the scholar and the experiences gained in the survey. The researcher has developed a model depicting the causes and consequences of poor talent management. Additionally some remedial measures are also formulated to improve the talent management and increase organizational effectiveness. The causes, consequences, and remedial measures are represented with the help of a chart no. 1 (presented at the end of the paper).

DISCUSSIONS:

Causes for Talent attrition: Talent management is one of the cursing factors threatening organization. The causes of poor talent management are discussed as follows:

· Long working hours: Long working hours and the intensity of work have consistently emerged as two top most concerns of workers (Duxbury and Higgins, 2003). Employees feel tired and bored because of long working hours. The duration of work, number of working hours and timings play a significant role in retaining of an employee.

· Unsupportive management: Work place support i.e., the support received from supervisors and co-workers are the key elements in talent management. Organizations have to understand the nature and problems of the employees and create congenial work atmosphere, because support and co-ordination from top level management and co-workers helps an employee to motivate and engage himself in work.

· Lack of co-ordination and communication: Co-ordination between different levels of management is needed to set organizational objectives. Communication helps to share the creative ideas and information among employees. But due to lack of proper co-ordination and communication between employees quit the organization.

· Higher personal aspirations: In the modern world, the life style of an individual is one of the main reasons for poor talent management. Ever-increasing ambitions, changing fashions, etc., can cause envy and a feeling of discontentment (Sarma V.S. 2009). Most of the employees have higher aspirations towards their career and personal development. An environment with poor facilities for growth and development may not create an opportunity for employees to achieve personal aspirations.

· Unsatisfactory monetary and non-monetary rewards: Monetary and non-monetary benefits play an important in retaining of an employee. An employee whose monetary benefits are less than the cost of living may undergo may leave the organization and try for some other source of work. Hence organizations have to offer attractive benefits to retain employees.

Consequences of Talent Attrition: The consequences of talent attrition affect the organization effectiveness. The following are some of the consequences of talent attrition.

§ Declined productivity: These days firms focus on getting more output from less input. Productivity is very important for organizations from which they attain profits. But due to poor working hours employees fail to produce maximum output leading to decreased productivity.

§ Increased turnover: Turnover means employees leaving the organizations. Turnover of employees is a big qualitative and quantitative damage for employers. Turnover affects organizational culture and productivity. Turnover leads to windup of many entities. Work intensification has led to health problems and attrition of professional and managerial employees (Fang Lee Cooke and Xingyao Jing, 2009). Unsupportive management and co-workers lead to employee turnover.

§ Poor industrial relations: Employees who fail to co-ordinate with one another may conflict with each other. Organizational conflicts affect the reputation, productivity and industrial relations. Hence healthy industrial relations enable talent management.

§ Inability to accept change: People resist change and ignore to learn the updated things. Employees with poor monetary and non-monetary benefits may not accept the changes in the organization structure, policies, goals and objectives. Even employees may resist the projects and plans. Hence change management helps employees to concentrate on their personal career and profession.

Remedial Measures for Talent Management:

v Creating opportunities for growth: Organizations have to create an assurance for employee’s growth. Organizations gain profits from the efforts of employees, hence the organizations have to provide training and development programs for employees. These programs not only contribute to organizational success but also make individual’s successful. Hence organizations have to create opportunities for growth and development for employees.

v Relate the recruitment policy with organizational needs: Many time organizations invest more on recruitment without proper forecast on future needs. While recruiting people organizations promise many monetary and non-monetary benefits. But later on they fail to look after the basic needs of employees. Hence there should be matching between recruitment policy and organizational needs.

v Employee counselling: the organizations have to conduct periodical counselling programs by experts where people can minimise their stress. Misra says, “Transformation is all about breaking habits”. “Organizations develop holy cows which are created and perpetuated. Somebody needs to challenge that; change is incremental. We need to create ‘discomfort’ in people about the status quo”. Change management's goal is to maximize an organization's benefits and minimize the impact of change on workers. The employee friendly policies like change management, stress management, adequate training and development programs, refreshing courses, etc have to be organized by organizations to retain employees.

v Flexi work hours: Research shows that flexible work arrangements allow individuals to integrate work and family responsibilities which reduces stress among the employees. Due to the long working hours most of the employees feel stressful resulting in declined productivity. Flexible working hours enables ample time for employees through whom they can focus on their family responsibilities and career development. A recent poll by the members of Society for Human Resource Management indicated that professionals viewed flexible work place schedules acts as a key to employee retention (Burke and Collision, 2004). The socialization at work, great work environments, flexi time and facilities makes many employees to spend more time at office and enjoy the time (Sandeep K.Krishnan, 2011). Entities with flexible working hours can achieve growth increased productivity and manage talented work force.

CONCLUSION:

In adverse economic conditions, many companies follow cost cutting strategies which affect the satisfaction level of employees. The organizations have to create an ideal environment for employees’ survival and growth. Talent management is a means of optimizing the performance of each employee and the organization. In order to retain the talented employees and extract superior performance from them, the organizations have to create modern employee policies like training and development programs, refreshing courses, employee counseling, stress management, psychological counseling, change management, offering flexi-work hours, work sharing etc. the nature of management also plays a main role retaining workforce.

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Received on 10.01.2014 Modified on 20.01.2014

Asian J. Management 5(2): April-June, 2014 page 188-191