A company's ability to respond to threats, disasters, and other challenges depends on an efficient workforce.

Merely getting job applicants in the door is no longer sufficient in either the public or private sector. Companies have to “recruit, hire, retain, and develop the most talented and superior employees available in the job market,” according to consultant Susan Heathfield’s article, “Why Talent Management Is an Important Business Strategy to Develop,” on TheBalanceCareers.com.

The strategy to find, hire, and develop these excellent employees is known as talent management, and its importance is growing in proportion to a workforce that now has the ability to be more selective about its employment choices. Talent managers strive to give workers a reason to stay rather than bounce from company to company to achieve their career goals.

To effectively and efficiently manage talent at the corporate level, earning an online MBA degree can help professionals interested in tapping into this expanding career field.

What Is Talent Management and What Does It Encompass?

Formalizing a process of talent management has advantages over the human resources procedures of the past, which included both more centralized and more generalized hiring and training practices.

In “What Is Talent Management and How Is It Different From HR?” on Capterra.com, talent management authority Halden Ingwersen describes HR as having to balance the management of talent with the responsibilities of payroll, benefits, and complaints, whereas talent management departments concentrate solely on hiring, developing, and retaining the best employees.

These potential employees are making it easier than ever for talent managers to find them. With the rise of social media and online networking, job searchers are learning how to promote themselves and make their personal brand more attractive to prospective employers. Talent managers can capitalize on those efforts, creating a mutually beneficial relationship.

Talent management is also about keeping these employees once they have been identified and hired. According to Trepoint CEO Bill Carmody, talent managers can meet the challenge of retaining the best employees rather than seeing them poached by competitors. In his Forbes article, “Personal Branding Is Just as Vital to Your Company as It Is to You,” Carmody explains that talent managers should make employees feel valued where they are. Employees’ personal brands, he says, are as important to the company as they are to the individuals.

To achieve these goals, businesses that use the talent management model prefer to move recruitment and employee retention responsibilities away from the HR department and assign dedicated managers to help employees develop professionally within the company.

The BalanceCareers.com article details the processes that can be folded into talent management, including:

• Recruitment
• Job description development
• Job-post writing and placement
• Application materials review
• Phone or online screening interview
• In-house interviews
• Credential review and background check
• Making job offers
• Agreeing on offers
• Employee start/onboarding process
• New employee welcome information and introductions
• On-the-job training
• Goal setting and feedback
• Coaching/relationship building by manager
• Formal feedback system, performance management, appraisals
• Ongoing employee development
• Career planning and pathing
• Promotions, lateral moves, transfers
• Employee termination processes

Additionally, talent management departments can develop subcategories such as employer-paid post-graduate education programs. Talent managers also stay connected with employees after they are hired to assist them in building their personal brand and advancing professionally. Talent management, done correctly, benefits all parties involved.

Specific Benefits of Talent Management

In practice, talent management can make a company more agile by encouraging employees to grow professionally and cooperate with coworkers to accomplish goals that benefit both the individuals and the organization. In fact, some talent managers even incorporate a system of peer review that bolsters teamwork and rewards performance on group projects, according to human capital experts Peter Cappelli and Anna Travis in their Harvard Business Review article, “The Performance Management Revolution.”

These benefits inherent in talent management stem from its divergence from the larger human resources department. Existing as their own entity lets talent management departments focus all of their attention on the employee experience and how it can be leveraged to increase company productivity and competitiveness.

Using accessible business management terminology, HumanResourcesOnline.net describes the primary reasons why talent management benefits an organization in “The Importance of Talent Management and Why Companies Should Invest in It.” These reasons include:

• Attracting top talent: Talent managers devote a great deal of time and energy to developing recruitment strategies that go beyond traditional methods. And better strategies result in better candidates.
• Motivating employees: Having a talent management system in place helps employees stay motivated because they understand that the company is investing in their professional growth.
• Continuous coverage of critical roles: Critical roles will rarely go unfilled because talent managers are always seeking to place employees into valuable positions within the company.
• Increasing employee performance: Talent management departments can maintain healthy competition between employees. Even in positions where competition is less apparent, employees work harder knowing that their manager is actively keeping track of their progress.
• Engaging employees: When a fair procedure is in place for employee development and promotion, retention levels increase and employees remain fully engaged in their responsibilities.
• Retaining top talent: Well-structured talent management systems, from onboarding procedures to advancement policies, give skilled, valuable employees more concrete ways of measuring their progress within the company.
• Improving business performance: Skilled, motivated, and fully engaged employees tend to outperform workers who have no vested interest in their performance levels or professional development. And when employees are performing well, the company also performs well.
• Increasing client satisfaction: Customers and clients appreciate seeing well-oiled systems producing motivated employees. From the outside looking in, a company with a solid talent management strategy can’t help but look good.

In a world of networked social media, constant connectivity, and personal brands, talent management can take the burden of employee hiring, training, and development off of an already busy HR department. A dedicated talent management team can devote the time and resources necessary to maximize both the employee experience and the benefits companies can expect to see from happier, more efficient, more productive workers.

About WSU’s Online Master of Business Administration Program

Advanced education can help you and your company succeed in the talent management field. Washington State University’s Carson College of Business offers one of the top-ranked MBA programs in the nation, one with a curriculum designed to equip students with the tactics, knowledge, skills, and strategies utilized by today’s high-profile business leaders.

WSU’s Online MBA degree program offers several MBA concentrations—marketing, finance, hospitality business management, international business, and a general MBA. For more information, visit WSU’s Online MBA website.

Recommended Reading:

3 Multigenerational Workforce Traits Future Managers Should Know

5 Ways Managers Can Build Relationships That Matter with Their Team Members

The Four Benefits of Employee Training

Sources:

The Government Talent Management Problem – The Hill

Why Talent Management Is an Important Business Strategy to Develop – TheBalanceCareers.com

How is Talent Management Different from HR? – Capterra.com

Personal Branding Vital to You and Your Company – Forbes

Why Talent Management Is an Important Business Strategy – TheBalanceCareers.com

Performance Management Revolution: Harvard Business Review

The Importance of Talent Management – HumanResourcesOnline.net