Student: RICHEN S.

MAKIG-ANGAY

Subject: ED 234 – 2:00 TO 5:00 P.M

Instructor: Dr. BEN HOPE J. RUELO, EdD

Collateral Reading on

“Talent Management and Succession Planning”

(Understanding the Filipino Worker and Organization)

By: Ma. Regina M. Hechanova

What is talent management?

Talent management is the full scope of HR processes to attract,

develop, motivate, and retain high-performing employees.

This definition has three components:

1. The full scope of HR processes: Talent management is about a

set of HR processes that integrate with each other. This

means that talent management activities are larger than the

sum of the individual parts. This also means that a talent

management strategy is required to capitalize on its full

potential.

2. Attract, develop, motivate, and retain: This is not a

comprehensive list. Talent management touches on all key HR

areas, from hiring to employee onboarding and

from performance management to retention.

 3. High-performing employees: The purpose of talent management

is to increase performance. It aims to motivate, engage, and

retain employees to make them perform better. Therefore, the

importance of talent management is so significant. When it

is done right, companies can build a sustainable competitive

advantage and outperform their competition through an

integrated system of talent management practices that are

hard to copy and/or imitate.

In other words, talent management is a process aimed at driving

performance through integrated people management practices. As

such, it’s one of the key functions of Human Resources.

Talent management strategy

As it mentioned already, when done right, the whole will be

greater than the sum of the parts. To achieve this, a talent

management strategy is key.

In order to define your talent management objectives and create a

strategy, you need to answer the following five questions:

1. What are the aspirations of the organization and what are

the goals that enable us to measure progress?

When we talk about specific and measurable goals, we

mean talent management metrics. These metrics enable us to

 keep track of what we’re doing and how well we’re doing it.

Unwanted turnover is a good example of this. If we can’t

retain our star employees, we will most likely not achieve

our aspiration.

2. What do we want to focus on?

There are multiple areas in talent management that you can

focus on. You can become a desirable employer. Being a top

employer or being nominated as a Great place to Work

requires substantial investment. This can be effective

especially when you want to attract people from all kinds of

backgrounds. However, if you have a very specific employee

profile, for example, engineers, your time is better spent

on developing a comprehensive tech sourcing strategy.

The HR talent management model is very helpful in this case

as it enables you to map the specific activities that you

want to focus on. This will also help in the next step.

Below you’ll find a list of talent management practices that

you can improve.

3. How will we beat the competition?

Unfortunately, you’re not the only one who’s looking for top

talent. Your competition is as well. How can you outperform

your competitors and become a more attractive employer? This

 can be achieved through better employer branding, better

retention, better selection, et cetera.

4. What capabilities do we need to build or continue to win?

Talent management requires specific skills that are not

always common within HR. Think about marketing to become a

more attractive employer and hiring a dedicated talent

manager. Another example is HR data analytics expertise to

make sure you get the most out of your existing population.

Depending on your focus points, you need to develop

different capabilities.

5. How do we track progress and improve?

The final step is about tracking progress and ensuring the

further improvement of talent management processes. A good

way to do this is by using a talent management dashboard.

Such a dashboard can provide an overview of the Key

Performance Indicators and can display changes over time.

These questions are based on a 2010 article on building a

strategy by Roger L. Martin.

Which talent management practices should you focus on?

So, I hear you ask, how does this work in practice? What are the

common talent management best practices to apply? Here’s a brief

overview.
1. Employer branding: Having a strong brand attracts even the

best candidates.

2. Employer reputation: Reputation is related to employee

branding. However, reputation is more affected by external

media the company has less control over. An example of

reputation gone wrong is the banking sector in recent years,

especially after the 2008 financial crisis.

3. Candidate experience: The experience of the candidate

influences the employer brand.

4. Selection: Spotting and selecting the best is a critical

part of talent management.

5. Referrals: Talent knows talent. Referral programs are

effective as they help to pick up candidates that onboard

quicker and perform better. We listed 7 employee referral

programs examples you can take a look at to get inspired.

6. Onboarding: Getting people up to speed as quickly as

possible helps to make them more productive and increases

employee retention.

7. Inboarding: Yes, you read it right. When people are

promoted internally, they also need support to achieve

maximum productivity. This is called inboarding.

8. Engagement: Engaged employees are motivated, perform well,

and are more likely to stay.

 9. Retention: Retention strategies help to keep the best

people on board. An example is succession planning.

10. Succession planning: You want to be able to fill

crucial top positions whenever they become vacant. Having a

talent pipeline that ensures succession planning is a key

element in this.

11. Learning and development: This is not only a common talent

management practice, it’s also a Human Resource best

practice. Educating employees helps increase performance and

retention. After all, once you’ve recruited the best people,

you want to make sure they remain the frontrunners in the

field, right?

12. Performance management: An essential part of managing

talent is tracking and improving their performance.

13. HR analytics: As we’ve said before, by leveraging data

you can ensure that you’re hitting the right KPIs that have

an impact on business outcomes.

Of course, this is not a comprehensive list. There are many more

activities that help to build and maintain an effective

workforce.

Examples of digital talent management

So what does talent management look like in this digital age? It

encompasses all of the above but is supported by a range of HR

tech tools. Think of them as your digital toolbox. We’ll

highlight a few of them.

Candidate (Pre)Selection

The selection of candidates is, of course, a crucial part of your

talent management process. A data-driven preselection tool can

support you with this, especially if you have high volumes of

applicants.

In a nutshell, this is how it works. While the applicants go

through an online assessment, playing games and answering

questions, The tool collects data about their actions and

answers.

With the help of machine learning techniques, customized

algorithms can then make predictions about a candidate’s

likelihood of success in the role they apply for. Companies

like Harver, HireVue, and Pymetrics provide this kind of HR

matching technology.

Onboarding

Onboarding is a part of the recruitment process that has long

played – and often still does – second fiddle. A terrible shame,

because a disappointing or non-existing onboarding experience is

one of the most important reasons new hires leave prematurely.

We’ve said it before, the onboarding period is like the honeymoon

for new employees. They’re still on a high from getting that

amazing job they wanted so badly and can’t wait to dive right in.

As an employer, you want to seize that moment.

There’s some great HR onboarding software out there that takes

care of the entire process. From the moment the candidate accepts

the offer to the creation of a personalized induction program

that you send straight to your new employee’s phone.

Companies like Eli, HR|Onboard, and Talmundo are active in this

space.

Employee Engagement/Experience/Retention

Feedback is the word. Employees want feedback – and especially

the Millennials. Constantly. And although feedback generally is a

good thing, we don’t want to end up like in a certain episode of

Black Mirror in which every single interaction we have with

everyone is being evaluated.

Doom scenarios aside, companies like 6Q, Honestly,

and TINYpulse (you gotta love the name) collect honest feedback

from your employees and give you actionable insights based on the

data they collect.

As a result, you know better what’s going on in your employees’

mind which means you can react if necessary. This, in turn, can

have a positive impact on the happiness of your people and their

overall employee experience. It can also increase their

engagement and eventually reduce turnover. Technology really is a

beautiful thing, isn’t it?

FAQ

What is talent management?

Talent management is the full scope of HR processes to attract,

onboard, develop, motivate, and retain high-performing employees.

Talent management is aimed at improving business performance

through practices that make employees more productive.

What is the first step of the talent management process?

The first step of the talent management process is attracting and

selecting A-players. When a company is able to both attract and

select (future) top performers, all its other talent management

practices will be much more effective.

What are the key components of talent management?

The key components of talent management are attracting,

developing, and retaining high-performing employees. The process

starts with selecting the right people, giving them all the tools

they need to be successful, and retaining them for the long term.

Winning the war on talent

In order to win the war on talent, you need a focused talent

management strategy, apply best practices and leverage (a

selection of) digital tools. Creating a talent strategy isn’t

easy – but when done right, it can be very rewarding, resulting

in a high-performing, engaged workforce.

If you want to learn more about the 11 key elements of a talent

management process, check out the article by clicking the

link. Subscribe and stay up-to-date.

(https://www.digitalhrtech.com/what-is-talent-management/#strategy)

What Is Succession Planning? Your Steps to Success

No matter what your size, you can’t run a business without

talented people ready to move into key positions when the current

occupants leave. Even the most successful companies can run off a

cliff if they don’t have a solid succession plan in place.

What is succession planning?

Succession planning is a strategy for identifying and developing

future leaders at your company — not just at the top but for

major roles at all levels. It helps your business prepare for all

contingencies by preparing high-potential workers for

advancement.

Here are seven tips for kick-starting the succession planning

process at your company.

1. Be proactive with a plan -

Sometimes, you’ll know well in advance if a hard-to-replace

team member is going to leave the company — a planned

retirement is a good example. But other times, you’ll be

caught off-guard by a sudden and potentially disorienting

staff departure. That’s why you need a plan — now.

First, consider all the key roles on your team and answer

these two questions:

 What’s the day-to-day impact of X position on our company

or department?

 If the person currently in X position left, how would that

affect our operations?

2. Pinpoint succession candidates -

 Once you have a handle on the ripple effect that the

departure of certain employees might cause, choose team

members who could potentially step into those positions.

Ask yourself:

If we were to hire for X position internally, which employees

would be the strongest candidates for stepping into this role?

Would those candidates need training? And, if so, what type?

While the obvious successor to a role may be the person who is

immediately next in line in the organizational chart, don’t

discount other promising employees. Look for people who display

the skills necessary to thrive in higher positions, regardless of

their current title.

But don’t just assume you know how people on your team view their

career goals. You may have certain team members in mind for

senior management roles, but who’s to say they’ll even be

interested in the idea once it’s presented to them? If you

haven’t already, talk to these employees about how they view

their professional future before making your succession choices.

3. Let them know -

In private meetings, explain to each protege that they’re

being singled out for positions of increasing importance.

Establish an understanding that there are no guarantees, and

 the situation can change due to circumstances encountered by

either the company or the succession candidates themselves.

4. Step up professional development efforts –

Ideally, you have already been investing in the professional

development of those you select as your succession choices.

Now that preparation needs to be ramped up. Job rotation is

a good way to help your candidates gain additional knowledge

and experience. And connecting them with mentors can boost

their abilities in the critical area of soft skills: The

best leaders have strong communication skills, as well as

polished interpersonal abilities, such as empathy and

diplomacy.

5. Do a trial run of your succession plan –

Don’t wait until there’s a staffing crisis to test whether

an employee has the right stuff to assume a more advanced

role. Have a potential successor assume some

responsibilities of a manager who’s taking a vacation. The

employee will gain valuable experience and appreciate the

opportunity to shine. And you can assess where that person

might need some additional training and development.

6. Integrate your succession plan into your hiring strategy

-Once you’ve identified employees as successors for critical

 roles in your organization, take note of any talent gaps

they would leave behind if tapped. That can help you

identify where to focus your future recruiting efforts.

7. Think about your own successor –

If you decide to take advantage of a new opportunity or

retire from the workforce, even your role could someday

require backfilling. When making a succession plan for your

organization, be sure to include your own position. Which

employee could you see stepping into your shoes one day? And

what can you do, starting now, to help that person prepare

for the transition?

Your staff members aren’t fixed assets — and changes in your

team’s lineup are inevitable. You may not always be able to

predict a valued employee’s departure from the firm. But through

effective succession planning, you can pave the way for the

continuity so critical to your business’s future.