This chapter explains the overview of talent management (TM); the characteristics of global talent management (GTM); TM and human capital; TM and career development; the emerging trends of TM in the modern workforce; and the significance of TM in the digital age. TM is a continuous process that involves sourcing, hiring, developing, retaining, and promoting talented employees while simultaneously meeting organization's requirements. TM involves individual and organizational development in response to a rapidly changing business environment. The best TM plans should be effectively aligned with organization's strategic goals and business needs. Business leaders who implement the best TM processes are more prepared than their competitors to compete in the global economy and quickly capitalize on new opportunities. Executives and HR managers need to support the TM-related development of their talented employees to make necessary progress in the modern workforce.
TopIntroduction
Talent management (TM) focuses on developing and retaining talented people that are important for an organization's future (Kim, Williams, Rothwell, & Penaloza, 2014). TM has become one of the most prevalent topics in the field of people development for practitioners and researchers (Collings, 2014). TM relates to the leadership studies that increasingly tries to measure the tangible contributions that individuals make to the improved organizational performance (Kirwan, 2009). As modern businesses have to be globally integrated, talent should serve as an influential source of competitive advantage (Tajuddin, Ali, & Kamaruddin, 2015). Most TM processes are driven by the need to define and identify characteristics which indicate greater ability when compared to others (Ross, 2013). Effective TM is a major contributor to the success of businesses (Joyce & Slocum, 2012).
Talent is associated with innate ability and creation, and can be effectively developed through training and development programs in the organization (Butter, Valenzuela, & Quintana, 2015). Talent includes human capital, social capital, reputational capital, and intellectual capital (Sparrow, Scullion, & Tarique, 2014). Talent is the collective knowledge, skills, abilities, experiences, values, habits, and behaviors of workforce brought to bear on achieving organizational mission (Schiemann, 2014). TM strategy tries to ensure that the existing talented, worthy, and committed people are contributing in achieving the existing and future needs of organization, and this procedure is called the talent pool. Talent pool describes an accumulation of talented employees who have been identified as talented (Tansley, 2011).
TM literature reflects a belief in systems and tools that can help executives and human resource (HR) professionals solve TM challenges in modern organizations (Thunnissen, Boselie, & Fruytier, 2013). TM raises institutional awareness and is a supportive tool for human resource management (HRM) (Karatop, Kubat, & Uygun, 2015). TM includes various processes (e.g., performance management, succession planning, career development, workforce planning, recruitment, and selection) in order to optimize talented people in the organization (Farley, 2005). The staffing of an organization’s key positions is a major element of TM (Claussen, Grohsjean, Luger, & Probst, 2014). Organizations need talented employees to maximize their organizational performance (Vural, Vardarlier, & Aykir, 2012).
This chapter aims to bridge the gap in the literature on the thorough literature consolidation of TM. The extensive literature of TM provides a contribution to practitioners and researchers by describing the theory and applications of TM in order to maximize the business impact of TM in the modern workforce.