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BMGT4321 – Talent Management Strategies and Legal and Ethical

Challenges

Module Name & Code

Student Number

Submission Date

Assignment Number
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Grading Matrix for BMGT4321

This matrix captures the assessment criteria for this part of the coursework.
Student Academic Year 2021/22 Learning
and Semester: Outcomes:
Number/Name: S1
3. Critically
Module Code: BMGT 4321 Assignment 60%
assess strategies
No/Weighting:
for developing
Module Title International Assessment Title Written Report global talent
Human pools.
Resource
Management 4. Investigate
legal and ethical
challenges faced
by global
organisations in
determining
sustainable
talent
management
strategies.
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Executive Summary

The combined process of selection, identification, recruitment, development, attraction

and retention of the potential employees at international levels to fill up the required positions,

which were systematically identified by a multinational organisation, can be defined as Global

Talent Management (GTM).

The practices of GTM include steps like the attraction of talents, development of skills,

performance appraisal and employee retention. In this paper, two of the GTM strategies, which

are the attraction of talents and retention of employees, are discussed and critically compared

considering their ethical and legal challenges and a conclusion will be drawn in the end. 
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Table of Contents
BMGT4321 – Talent Management Strategies and Legal and Ethical Challenges..........................1

Grading Matrix for BMGT4309-001...............................................................................................2

Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................4

Introduction......................................................................................................................................6

Attraction of Talents........................................................................................................................7

Retention of Employees...................................................................................................................8

Compare and Contrast...................................................................................................................10

Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12

References......................................................................................................................................13

Appendices....................................................................................................................................15
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Introduction

Global Talent Management (GTM) is one of the main focuses of multinational companies

to manage their international talent pools. The combined process of selection, identification,

recruitment, development, attraction and retention of the potential employees at international

levels to fill up the positions, which were systematically identified, can be defined as GTM.

GTM only focuses on the global positions, whereas Strategic Talent Management

primarily focuses on the local or domestic positions (Thunnissen & Gallardo-Gallardo 2017). 

In the early 1990s, there was a shortage of talented employees in multinational companies

globally. Retention and management of employees became one of the main aspects of human

resource management. Later, these aspects were labelled as GTM. There are several policies and

strategies of GTM, which come with different challenges. These strategies and practices of GTM

can be labelled as GTM initiatives.

In this paper, two of the GTM initiatives will be selected and compared considering their

ethical and legal challenges and a conclusion will be drawn in the end. 
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Attraction of Talents

There are three main aspects of talent attraction which is the process of choosing and

recruiting highly skilled professionals for the knowledgeable workforce for the organisation

(Schlechter, Hung & Bussin 2014). The three aspects of talent attraction are planning of talent,

employer branding and talent sourcing.

Talent planning is the process by which the human resource team of multinational

companies (MNCs) plans for identifying global talent needs and hiring employees. An effective

talent plan requires forecasts of Human Resource (HR) need and HR demand and a development

action program plan. The process of talent planning is as follows. Initially, a human resource

audit is done to measure the existing workforce to calculate the future HR need (Berger 2020). In

the end, a talent sourcing programme is carried out to fill the gaps in the human resource of that

organisation. 

Employer branding is done to establish the image of the organisation as a desirable

employer in the mind of potential talents and existing employees. This process influences the

employee value proposition in the applicant's impression of the employer. The MNCs should

treat this process as a marketing step to deal with their prospective employees. The MNCs

compete with each other by branding themselves as desirable employer to the employees who the

MNCs want to recruit. There are several strategies including increasing salaries, providing more

engaging jobs, offering career development programmes, being respectful towards the employees

and providing better work-life balance, which can help an MNC to brand themselves as a

desirable employer (Lievens & Slaughter 2016). 

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Talent sourcing is the practice of recruiting highly skilled professionals who will add

value for the MNCs. The main challenge the MNCs face in this process is that most of the time

the domestic firms attract professional talents more than the MNCs. The MNCs have to take

creative approaches for this process including career fairs, targeting individuals from social

networks like LinkedIn and Myspace. More often than not, MNCs take help from consultant

groups and employment agencies for hiring employees (Collings, Scullion & Caligiuri 2018).   

Retention of Employees

The MNCs prefer to retain the employees as they have already invested time and

resources in them for their development through training programmes. This is especially true if

the employee is seen to be performing well and has the potential of adding value to the

organisation. Various talent retention practices are undertaken to attract the employees to

continue their work under the same MNC (Cloutier et al. 2015). As employees are seen as

resources, it is crucial for organisations to retain their employees. The effective practices for

talent retention can be career development programmes, talent engagement and the culture of

talent management.

It has been noticed that MNCs that take care of the career of their employees through

career planning and development programmes are less likely to have a high employee turnover

rate. The MNCs make sure that their employees understand that the organisation supports and

values their employees’ careers. The organisations connect the development programmes with

career development and job descriptions of the employees in the same organisation to increase

their value to their employees.

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The job satisfaction of the employees depends on their engagement level with the

organisation. The more engaged the employees are, the more satisfaction they have in their job

roles. More engaged employees are seen to have a positive point of view towards their employer.

They are generally more loyal and perform better. The global factors, which influence job

engagement management include leadership, career development and empowerment. Leadership

roles are proven to engage the employees more in the organisation. Autonomy, higher pay,

authority and career growth opportunities associated with leadership provide the incentive to the

employees to be more engaged. Involving the employees in decision making makes them more

engaged in the overall goal of the organisation (Oseghale, Mulyata & Debrah 2018).

The talent management strategies of the MNCs are adapted according to their talent

needs in the shrinking global talent market for talent retaining. MNCs that effectively manage

the talents of their employees make them more engaged. A talent management culture that

assures the employees of an organisation of its support and values, generally keep their

employees more engaged in them. 

Challenges

There are several challenges the MNCs face in both of these strategies. These are

discussed below.

As the MNCs attract talents and select them across domestic boundaries, they have to

adhere to the domestic laws regarding these practices in the different countries. They must

ensure that while advertising and hiring employees overseas, they comply with the national and

local laws. Legal issues concerning user privacy protections and required disclosures also need to

be considered. The laws concerning talent hiring and management differ from country to country
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(Ozen 2021). For example, the employers need to provide a notice period of 30-90 days to the

employees, which is a barrier for recruitment and other talent management activities. 

International talent retention is one of the most difficult challenges the MNCs face. This

challenge involves more ethical and cultural issues than legal problems. Research studies suggest

that by next year a large proportion of employees intend to leave their job positions all over the

world, which provides a new challenge to the employers (Festing & Schäfer 2014).

Employee retention challenges vary from country to country according to cultures and

ethics. For example, there is a younger worker deficit in Europe due to low birth rates and

immigration rates. The one-child policy of China has resulted in an employee deficit due to a

lack of a younger workforce.

Compare and Contrast  

Comparing and contrasting both these strategies, it can be said that, whereas the first

strategy focuses on the attainment of new global talents, the second strategy takes care of

retaining them. The process of employee attraction is vital in the sense that it helps the company

to attract potential employees by planning their employee requirements, branding and advertising

themselves to the talent pools and sourcing potential talents from the global talent pools that best

suit their requirements. Employee retention is the process by which an organisation retains their

talent pool in their organisation. This process is of extreme importance to the organisation as it

involves the processes to hold on to their human capital in which they have invested significant

amounts of time and resources. Employee retention strategies can involve processes of career

development for the employees, engaging them more in their work and effectively managing the

talent pools (Veloso et al. 2014)  

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Both these strategies face legal and ethical challenges. The process of employee

attraction faces more legal issues whereas employee retention faces more of a cultural issue.

Cross country management of employee attraction involves dealing with different local and

national laws of advertisement, recruitment and other activities. These changes in the laws make

the process more difficult for MNCs. 

Conclusion

Global talent management is the process of selecting, identifying, attracting, recruiting,

developing and retaining potential employees at international levels to fill up the positions,

which were systematically identified. There are several strategies of Global talent management,

two of which are employee attraction and employee retention. These strategies are crucial to

build a human resource that is fortified with international talents to tend to the organisational

requirements of MNCs. Critically comparing both these strategies, it can be concluded that they

hold different importance in the process of global talent management. While both of them face

several legal and ethical issues while working across borders, they need to be culturally aware of

all the steps of the process. 

  
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References

Berger, L.A., 2020. Talent Management: Handbook. MGH, p.183.

Cloutier, O., Felusiak, L., Hill, C. and Pemberton-Jones, E.J., 2015. The importance of

developing strategies for employee retention. Journal of Leadership, Accountability & Ethics,

12(2).

Collings, D.G., Scullion, H. and Caligiuri, P.M., 2018. Global Talent Management: An

Introduction. In Global talent management (pp. 3-15). Routledge.

Festing, M. and Schäfer, L., 2014. Generational challenges to talent management: A framework

for talent retention based on the psychological-contract perspective. Journal of World Business,

49(2), pp.262-271.

Lievens, F. and Slaughter, J.E., 2016. Employer image and employer branding: What we know

and what we need to know. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational

Behavior, 3, pp.407-440.

Mercer, 2019. Global Talent Trends 2019. [ebook] Mercer, p.1. Available at:

<https://www.marshmclennan.com/content/dam/mmc-web/insights/publications/2019/jan/gl-

2019-global-talent-trends-study.pdf> [Accessed 2 January 2022].

Oseghale, O.R., Mulyata, J. and Debrah, Y.A., 2018. Global talent management. In

Organizational behaviour and human resource management (pp. 139-155). Springer, Cham.

Ozen, B., 2021. Successful Global Recruitment/Talent Attraction: What are the Factors,

Challenges, and Suggestions?, p.7.

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Schlechter, A., Hung, A. and Bussin, M., 2014. Understanding talent attraction: The influence of

financial rewards elements on perceived job attractiveness. SA Journal of Human Resource

Management, 12(1), p.13.

Thunnissen, M. and Gallardo-Gallardo, E., 2017. Talent management in practice: An integrated

and dynamic approach. Emerald Group Publishing.

Veloso, E.F.R., da Silva, R.C., Dutra, J.S., Fischer, A.L. and Trevisan, L.N., 2014. Talent

retention strategies in different organizational contexts and intention of talents to remain in the

company. Journal on Innovation and Sustainability RISUS, 5(1), pp.49-61.

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Appendices

Increased Global Human Capital Risk

Slow decision making 30%

Low productivity 31%

Ineffective hiring decisions 35%

Less Leadership 38%

Low Diversity 40%

Declined Employee Engagement 43%

Increased time span for filling open positions 52%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Figure 1. Increased Global Human Capital Risks (Mercer, 2019)