Marion Devine - Managing Talent: Recruiting, Retaining, and Getting the Most From Talented People

MANAGING TALENT

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MANAGING TALENT

Recruiting, retaining and getting the most from talented people

Marion Devine and Michel Syrett

The Economist in Association with Profile Books Ltd. and PublicAffairs

Copyright The Economist Newspaper Ltd, 2008, 2013

Text copyright Marion Devine and Michel Syrett, 2014.

First published in 2014 by Profile Books Ltd. in Great Britain.

Published in 2014 in the United States by PublicAffairs, a Member of the Perseus BooksGroup

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ISBN 9781-610393836 (HC)

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Preface

IN APPROACHING THE RESEARCH and development of this book, the authors were aware that there is already a large body of material on talent management on the market.

Yet in conducting the research to assess this material, a number of factors stood out. First, in the grand scheme of things, talent management is a relatively new concept. It has been around for only about a decade and as a study by Heidrick & Struggles, a global executive search firm, discovered, the creation of specifically focused talent development functions and managers is still in its early stage (see ).

One consequence is that there is still no consensus about what talent management involves. As Angela Baron, formerly of the UK Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, commented, it might or might not encompass a mixture of previously independent functions like graduate recruitment, performance management, career management and succession planning. Few of the new breed of talent managers are accountable directly to the chief executive or the senior executive team, and the level of integration between business and talent strategies is still patchy.

The other factor that stands out from interviewing people who are viewed as talented and/or have a track record of success in their chosen occupation is that there is a stark discontinuity between the agendas of the individual and that of the organisation. It can no longer be taken for granted by organisations that the individuals they mark out for systematic promotion and development are going to be willing pawns in the talent game created for them not least because that often involves a high degree of mobility and a long-term commitment to extended career plans.

Furthermore, narrowly defined demarcations about who is inside or outside the talent pool often exclude the very people organisations need to attract and retain at a time of volatility and uncertainty: aspiring entrepreneurs, mavericks, outsiders and specialists who do not seek or want a career ladder to a top corporate position, and who desire independence and autonomy.

All this poses considerable challenges to the senior managers who seek to recruit, retain and benefit from the skills and insights of talented people. This book seeks to highlight the dilemmas they face and, through reference to organisations with a proven track record of success, define and outline some of the emerging solutions. It also includes a chapter aimed at talented people themselves and how they can best approach the talent game at a time when the rules are significantly in flux.

Marion Devine and Michel Syrett
January 2014

The war for talent

All of us know that the calibre of talent distinguishes great from good, winners from losers and adaptation from extinction. Having the right team playing on the field is the fundamental difference between victory and defeat.

Indra Nooyi, chairman and chief executive, PepsiCo

SOME 15 YEARS AGO , McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm, produced a now famous report called The War for Talent. It made the case that international companies needed to pay as much attention to how they managed their brightest employees as they did any other corporate resource. McKinsey declared that better talent is worth fighting for and predicted a world where the supply of talent would decrease while demand would rise. Companies would be locked in a constant and costly battle for the best people for the foreseeable future.

McKinseys definition of talent went far beyond managerial or leadership skills:

[Talent is] the sum of a persons abilities his or her intrinsic gifts, skills, knowledge, experience, intelligence, judgment, attitude, character and drive. It also includes his or her ability to learn.

In response to economic boom times between 1998 and 2001, many firms expanded rapidly and the battle to recruit and keep the best people well and truly began. The talent management function, as well as a burgeoning talent management industry, sprang up to identify, retain and develop high-flying individuals into a small, exclusive top tier of managers and leaders.

Despite several cycles of economic boom and bust, as well as the worlds most severe economic crisis, the battle for talent continues. The competition for the best staff has broadened beyond senior leadership talent. Employers are struggling to recruit sufficient numbers of highly skilled people for a wide variety of managerial and specialist positions.