Category: Talent Management

Executive Summary

Succession planning strategies have become very important in the current competitive market. There has been a shift of focus in succession planning strategies. Initially, it was a method meant to select the most appropriate chief executives. However, firms currently use it as an approach of selecting the most qualified candidates for various positions. At BP, the management has been keen on its selection of individuals to hold various posts within the firm.

The focus has been to select candidates with appropriate skills to these positions. However, the current strategy has not been effective enough in identifying and nurturing talents among its employees. This has affected its efficiency. The management must therefore, consider refocusing its strategy to be comprehensive enough to capture special talents among its workforce, and determine the approach of using the talents in its management strategies.

Introduction and Background of BP Company

Introduction

The current business world is becoming very competitive, especially due to the increasing number of firms competing for the same market. According to Rothwell (2010, p. 112), business units must find ways of managing this competition if they expect to succeed in protecting their market shares.

In such a competitive environment, marketing plays an important role in enabling firms to understand the needs of their consumers, produce goods that meet their needs, and deliver this product in a way that would yield maximum value to them. This way, a firm would be able to attract and retain a large pool of loyal customers. According to Hawkey (2002, p. 35), marketing has gained a lot of relevance in the near past.

There has been a shift of focus from the 19^th century’s emphasis on production strategy, to the 21^st century’s focus on social marketing. In those early years, competition was almost nonexistence. Firms’ main concern was to present their products to the market. Consumers lacked alternatives, and therefore, they would be forced to buy what was presented in the market.

This changed as we approached the 20^th century. In the current market, the competition is so stiff that firms have to employ marketing strategies in order to remain competitive. For this to happen, Olsen (2013, p. 89), says that a firm must have a pool of talent among its employees at managerial levels. It must have the right people who are competent enough to take it to the next level in terms of creativity and innovativeness.

Succession planning strategy has therefore, been considered very important in the current business environment as a way of identifying and nurturing talents. Succession planning in the current business environment goes beyond selection of top management officers. It also involves having the right workforce at various sensitive positions within the firm.

According to Liteman (2003, p. 78), for a firm to be able to take maximum advantage in the marketing strategies, there is a need to have a skilled and talented workforce that has the capacity to manage the changing environmental forces. Skilled labor is major assets that can enable a firm survive negative environmental forces in cases where other competitors failed. Talent is core in enhancing creativity and innovation within a firm.

Firms may find it challenging to identify some of the relevant talents that can help them move a step further towards success. It requires the management to develop strategies that would help them identify and nature talents among its workforce as a way of gaining relevance in the market.

BP is one of the leading oil companies in the world. It has gained a reputation in the market because of the competence of its successive leaders. This would make one believe that succession-planning strategies at this firm is effective. It would be important to capture some of the background information about this firm.

Background of BP

BP, also known as British Petroleum, is a large British oil company that was started in 1908. A group of geologists, led by William Knox was commissioned to conduct an exploration of oil in Iran, and their exploration proved successful. When the geologists confirmed that there were rich oil reserves in Iran, they quickly developed Anglo-Persia Oil Company as Burmah Oil Company’s subsidiary.

When the British government realized the potential of the oil reserves in Iran, it moved with speed to take a leading shareholding in this new company in order to control its operations. At this time, tension had started developing in Europe, and countries were preparing themselves for war. The firm experienced massive expansion during the First World War. During this time, oil had become an important commodity in the industrial sector.

The firm received another major boost in the Second Word War as it played a major role in providing fuel both to the industrial sector and to the military during the war.

It expanded vary rapidly through mergers and takeovers. It has also formed strategic alliances with some of the leading oil and gas companies such as the Royal Dutch Shell and the Russian TNK to improve its global market coverage. The early success of this firm was attributed to its effective leadership. Top management of this firm remained focus on the market forces, and this helped it grow rapidly.

According to Randhawa (2007, p. 82), BP currently operates in over 80 countries across the world, with over 20,800 service station. It has taken a vertical operational approach, which means that it is involved in oil exploration, production, refining, marketing, and distribution of petroleum products. It is also involved in power generation, petrochemicals, renewable energy, wind power, and biofuels.

This diversity is a clear sign that this firm has had the right workforce at the management and other levels within the firm. Based on its revenues in 2012, the firm was ranked the world’s fifth largest company. Although BP has been very successful in the market, it has met some challenges that have affected its operations in the market. The world is increasingly getting concerned with issues of environmental protection.

However, BP has scored poorly in its environmental protection strategies. The firm has been subject to a series of litigations due to failure to manage its plants or other petroleum facilities. In 2005, its Texas Refinery Plant exploded, causing death of its 15 workers. It was fined millions of dollars because of this accident. In 2006, Prudhoe Bay oil spillage that spread to North Slope in Alaska earned it $ 25 million for lack of its ability to protect the environment.

The Deep-water Horizon remains the largest oil spillage in the history of this industry. This has not only earned this company serious loss in terms of billions of dollars in fines, but has also tainted its image in the market. In a business environment that has become increasingly sensitive on environmental protection, BP has lost its glorious image to some of its competitors, especially in United States.

The recent unfortunate accidents clearly demonstrates that BP need to identify better talents that would enable it achieve efficiency in its operations. It is a sign that its current succession planning strategies are not effective enough to identify the most appropriate talents for various sectors within the firm. Its diversification into renewable energy is a sign that the management has been effective enough to tap on new talents that can bring new ideas to the firm.

However, the series of accidents that have taken place in the last one-decade resulting in deaths and huge sums of money being paid as fines is a clear warning that the current strategy is not successful enough to identify the most appropriate talents for its operations. According to Goad (2004, p. 78), the Deep-waters Horizon oil spillage was because of incompetent engineers at this firm who underestimated the pressure and the reaction at the exploration site.

This resulted into massive loss to this firm and damage of its reputation in the market. Reactive strategies are no longer appropriate in the market. The firm cannot wait for such unfortunate incidences to occur in order to initiate a reaction. It must have a proactive team that has the capacity of understanding the changing technological factors and determine how the firm can operate within these factors.

The fact that this firm has been on record for polluting the environment over the last decade demonstrates that there is a gap in the current talents that are within this firm. The current workforce lack special talent that can enable them understand the instruments used in the exploration, production, transportation, and storage of petroleum products. It is a clear indication that something must be done to rescue BP from any possible accidents that may hurt its operations further.

Objectives of the research

Sobol (2007, p. 79) notes that research is a very complex and expensive process that must be conducted with a clear purpose to be met. Stating the objectives helps the researcher in identifying facts that should be collected from both the primary and secondary data sources. As stated in the introduction, energy sector is the backbone of other sectors of the economy in any given country.

Therefore, this important sector must be treated with a lot of care in order to achieve maximum benefit from it. With the current prevailing external environmental factors, firms are under great pressure to find ways of operating at their best in order to remain competitive. Efficiency, effectiveness, and innovativeness are key to achieving the desired success in the market. These factors concern the capacity of human resource. This means that the management and employees at various levels must have the right skills and talents.

Talent has been considered a core value that enables firms to be creative in their operations. BP must find a strategy of identifying and nurturing talents among its top management and other junior employees for it to be successful in the market. Its succession planning strategies must be effective enough to identify employees who have the best capacity of undertaking various activities within the firm. The following are some of the specific objectives that this research seeks to achieve.

• To understand the succession planning strategies that BP has been using to identify the most qualified individuals for its top leadership.
• To determine the current strategies that are used at BP to identify and nature talent among its employees
• To determine the level of talent that has been natured at BP using its current strategies.
• To determine how the current talents at BP has given it a unique market advantage over its competitors.
• To identify some of the gaps in the current succession planning strategies that makes it less effective in identifying and nurturing talents among its employees.
• To develop a strategy that would be most appropriate for this firm in identifying and nurturing of talents for its top leadership and junior employees.

The researcher seeks to meet the above objectives in an effort to give a report that will make BP a better and more competitive firm in the sectors where it operates.

Literature Review

According to Goad (2004, p. 56), employees are the most important assets that any organization can have. Success of a firm depends on the quality of the employees, especially at the top management. It is becoming apparent that firms’ competitiveness in the market would directly depend on the quality of workforce it has.

Successful firms in the market are creative and innovative. They develop products that are unique, giving their firms opportunities of taping into new markets that are yet to be flooded. In the energy sector, the stakes are even higher, especially due to the increasing concern for the environment.

Firms in this sector must come up with ways in which they can make their productions in the way that is very safe to the environment. This means that these firms must have appropriate leadership and workforce that will be able to bring innovation in their respective areas of operations.

Succession planning strategy has been considered very crucial for firms as a way of identifying talents and skilled workforce with the capacity of understanding the prevailing market forces. According to Sims (2007, p. 92), although many people view succession planning as a relatively new approach of selection of employees and top managers, it has been in existence for a very long time. Firms are faced with the challenge of redefining themselves beyond their current operations.

Randhawa (2007, p. 30) notes that firms are still struggling to find the best employees who can handle various duties effectively. Although a few have developed succession planning strategies that enables them to identify, develop, and retain special talents among their employees, most firms still lack such programs.

According to Jackson (2011, p. 90), firms have failed to develop strategies that can enable them identify the most appropriate workforce, retain them because of their skills, and help them develop their career even further. Randhawa (2007, p. 94) notes that although BP is one of the best employers in various countries around the world, it has experienced a relatively high employee-turnover within the past one decade. What makes this situation even more unfortunate is that some of these employees are hired at rival firms.

They transfer all their skills and experience to these rival firms, giving them a better chance of beating BP. This is attributed to lack of clear strategies that can be used by the firm to identify and retain the most qualified employees to boost its operations.

According to Goad (2004, p. 71), succession planning is taking a completely new dimension in the current competitive business world. Firms are forced to go a step higher in their operational strategies in order to achieve success. The market is experiencing changes, and firms must adopt these changes in order to remain competitive in the market. In the energy sector, there has been a strong shift of focus from the use of petroleum products, to bio-safety products.

Companies in the energy sector are forced to shift their focus into environmental friendly fuels. To achieve this, there is need to have a management unit and a workforce that understand the environmental dynamics.

Succession planning strategies therefore helps in identifying and nurturing special talents within the firm that can enable it manage the dynamic market environment. BP Company is one of the leading energy firms in the world. Its ability to remain competitive in the market largely relies on its human resource management strategies.

Discussion

Current human resource development strategies at BP

BP has come to appreciate the importance of having highly qualified human resource at various levels of management. The firm has developed strategies, which are geared towards helping it develop its current workforce to increase their capacity in handling various activities within the firm.

The management has developed in-service training programs for its employees, which is meant to instil knowledge on them on the current issues, especially changes brought about by the emerging technologies.

These learning programs have been developed to not only target junior employees who are at operational levels in this firm, but also leaders in the senior management positions. This has yielded positive fruits for this firm. According to Dahlke (2012, p. 95), BP has been able to adopt the emerging technologies within the past one decade at a relatively faster rate than before.

Performance management

Employees form one of the strongest pillars within an organization that will always determine the capacity of a firm to be successful in the market. The performance of employees depends on a number of factors. As Atwood (2007, p. 89) notes, one of the important factors that would determine the performance of employee is their level of competence. Different tasks within this organization require different skills that employees should have.

Having a workforce with the right skills would always determine the success levels that can be achieved within the firm. BP needs technocrats, besides the qualified management unit. In each category, there must be a way of selecting the best-qualified candidates. The status of this firm shows that the management has made an effort to recruit the most appropriate candidates for various sectors.

Performance management involves close monitoring and coordinating of employees’ performance with a view of optimizing it in order to increase its performance. At BP, the management has set structures meant to monitor activities of employees per department, and ways in which this performance can be enhanced.

The firm has been promoting teamwork, a scenario where employees form small workgroups with the aim of achieving specific objectives within a short time span. This way, it becomes possible to break down strategic objectives into short-term goals, and to determine how these goals can be realized in the best way possible in order to make the firm achieve its strategic objectives.

Talent identification

Succession planning has increasingly become important in the current market because of the increasing levels of competition. According to Rothwell (2005, p. 38), the market competition has gotten so stiff that it forces firms to develop new approaches of remaining competitive. Identification and nurturing of talents has become very important in nurturing employees to assume various leadership position.

Firms require people who have learnt skills in various fields with the capacity to make the firm achieve success in its operations. However, it is important to note that these skills are commonly found in other competing firms. For this reason, firms need more than just skills in employees. They need a workforce and a management unit that have the capacity to come up with something that is beyond the market expectation.

They need a workforce that is innovative enough to come up with new ways of running various activities. They need talent in leadership. At BP, the management has programs running to help nurture creativity and innovations among its workforce. The program creates an environment where people with creative minds are given opportunity to transfer their creativity into practical actions within the firm. However, it is important to note that the current structures at this firm leave some gap.

For instance, the programs do not focus on how the firm can identify these talents even in cases where employees are reluctant to demonstrate that they have special skills. The current system has been more focused on how to identify skills other than talents. Skills are important for efficiency, while talent is core to having innovative workforce. This firm must develop new approaches of identifying talents as proposed in the recommendations below.

Talent assessment

In succession planning strategies, Fager (2007, p. 57) says that a firm should have a clear mechanism of assessing talents whenever there is need to hire individuals at the managerial positions. Talent assessment involves identifying the level in which the identified talents are relevant to the organization. As stated above, the strategies used by BP in managing its human resource is more effective in identification of skills other than talents.

However, the system has been very effective in developing skills and talents that have been identified among its employees. The firm has large laboratory equipment in the United Kingdom and in the United States. At these facilities, the management would offer its workforce opportunity to test their newly developed skills.

This has helped the firm come up with a group of employees who understand the changing environmental factors. The management has been proactive in its talent and skills assessment strategies. The firm has been developing strategies meant to encourage creativity in its workforce.

Career development

According to Singer (2010, p. 135), having career development programs within a firm helps in nurturing employees and improving their performance which helps in improving its overall performance. At BP, there is an elaborate career development program meant to enhance the performance of the workforce and improve their workplace experience. In order to motivate employees, it is always important to create an environment where they feel that they can enhance their career paths.

BP has perfected this strategy. At this firm, employees are given perfect opportunity to develop their careers in various fields. The firm has in-service training programs, which are meant to enhance the capacity of its employees. The firm has also developed scholarship programs for its employees who are intending to further their education in different fields.

Employees are also offered promotional opportunities based on their performance record at the firm, and their loyalty demonstrated after a given period. This has seen employees make concerted effort to improve their performance and loyalty to the firm because they are well aware that such efforts will always be rewarded.

Most of the senior managers of BP are employees who have been with this firm for very long time, starting their careers as junior employees and earning promotions based on their commitment to the firm. This makes other employees feel that they have a better future with the firm in case they can remain committed to it, and enhance their performance.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Conclusion

It is clear from the discussion above that succession-planning strategies are very important in enabling a firm to be competitively unique in the market. Technological advancements have brought common ways of approaching various operational activities within the firm. Firms within the same industry would have similar tools and equipment for their operational activities based on technological inventions.

This means that a firm cannot rely on some of these universal tools to gain competitive advantage in the Market. BP has come to realize this fact. Some of its major competitors in the market can easily access most of the sophisticated tools it uses in its production strategies.

For this reason, the only way of achieving success in the market is through development of a unique workforce. To do this, succession planning is very important for this firm in identifying special skills and talents among its employees. The current succession planning strategies at BP have been effective in nurturing talents.

This has helped the firm to achieve success in the market. However, the discussion above shows that there is still a gap in this strategy, a fact that has denied BP an opportunity develop new ways of improving efficiency at various plants, especially in the North American regions. It would therefore, be necessary for the firm to consider the following recommendations.

Recommendations

In order to achieve maximum benefit in the market, the management of BP must realize that the current succession planning strategies are not optimally effective, and this could be the reason behind the recent series of accidents at some of its plants. This is a clear demonstration that the firm needs to identify more qualified and talented workforce, and skilled managers who understand the prevailing technological changes to help it operate efficiently. The management should consider the following.

• Succession planning strategies should not just be focused on the top management of the firm. Every individual within the firm is a candidate for promotion to a higher rank. Before they can be promoted to those higher, ranks, adequate training is important to ensure that they can manage new responsibilities.
• Succession planning is not one session event that should only be undertaken when it is confirmed that there is need for promotion. Rather, the management of BP should consider it a continuous training process meant to impart desirable skills on employees to enable them handle future responsibilities.
• Firms are currently using technology in their succession planning strategies in order to ensure that the most qualified candidates are picked for various promotional opportunities. BP should consider using this approach to enhance its performance.

List of References

Atwood, C 2007, Succession planning basics, ASTD Press, Alexandria.

Dahlke, A 2012, Business succession planning for dummies, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken.

Fager, M 2007, Succession planning for the family owned business: A blueprint for the future, Sub-Scribe Literary Services, Madison.

Goad, D 2004, Succession planning strategies for the financial planner: A complete resource guide, FPA Press, Denver.

Hawkey, J 2002, Exit strategy planning: Grooming your business for sale or succession. Gower Publishers, Aldershot.

Jackson, S 2011, Managing human resources, South-Western, Mason.

Liteman, M 2003, Planning for succession: A toolkit for board members and staff of nonprofit arts organizations, Cengage, New York.

Olsen, E 2013, Strategic planning for dummies, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken.

Randhawa, G 2007, Human resource management, Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, New Delhi.

Rothwell, D 2005, Career planning and succession management: Developing your organization’s talent ; for today and tomorrow, Praeger Publishers, Westport.

Rothwell, W 2010, Effective Succession Planning: Ensuring Leadership Continuity and Building Talent from Within, AMACOM, New York.

Sims, R 2007, Human resource management: Contemporary issues, challenges and opportunities, Information Age Publishers, Greenwich.

Singer, P 2010, Succession planning in the library: Developing leaders, managing change, American Library Association, Chicago.

Sobol, M 2007, Linkage Inc.’s Best practices for succession planning: Case studies, research, models, tools, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.

Executive Summary

This report presents a critical analysis of the document, “Talent Management Decision Making.” The article precisely discusses decision making in talent management with its main objectives including reviewing the raging debates around talent management and decision-making, establishing some possible factors influencing decision making in talent management, and recommending future research areas in relation to decision making in talent management.

The study emphasises on utilisation of data as one of the contributors to the basis on which managers are contributing to poor management by depending on unreliable information in management. The authors argue that managers underutilise talents available in employees and thus keep on basing their promotions in terms of previous experiences, close relations, and biasness. Therefore, this report concludes that the article remains incredible to a certain percentage with most of the relevant aspects ignored and the format revealing some inconsistencies.

Introduction

Talent management decision-making remains one of the most contested issues in the context of management, and specifically in International Human Resource Management. In the rapidly growing world of urbanisation and industrialisation, studies have discussed the importance of talent management as a Human Resource Management approach.

Motivation and empowerment studies have also stressed on underutilisation of human talent and abilities in the management techniques. The field of management remains a taxing and complicated one with companies witnessing failure in managers, even the most experienced ones.

Decision-making is a contemporary issue in the management and thus employees’ involvement has proven significant in several cases with companies ignoring this management idea. Despite the merits attached to talent management, it is still a new phenomenon in numerous organisations. Therefore, to stress on the above issue, this essay critically analyses the article “Talent management decision making”.

Assumptions and their influence

The authors assume that there is complexity in talent management. In the context of complexity in talent management, the authors assume that talent management in several organisations remains a biased process with numerous organisations basing their employee promotion decision-making process on close relations, tendencies, and evaluating previous experiences.

The authors relate biasness in decision making with lack of credible of pertinent information needed to guide managers in their decision-making processes. In the authors’ view, despite being an international issue, global talent management varies internationally due to demographic factors.

Giving an example of the U.S compared to other countries, talent management in decision-making has significantly improved and is more frequently utilised. Organisation culture has been influential in talent management. This aspect has influenced authors’ research on the discussion and addressing of issues relating to talent management significantly focusing on factors influencing talent management globally.

Credibility of the authors’ arguments

Concerning the credibility of the article, the authors have not emphasised on the credibility and reliability of the data expressed in the article. Critically analysing this article, the information pertaining to the relationship between talent management and management decision is ambiguous if not ambivalent.

The writers of the article in most cases have expressed lack of adequate knowledge pertaining to the two aspects. Instead of concentrating on the relationship between the two aspects, the authors have put more efforts on the importance of managers utilising the available data of the human resource and decision-making. Talent management is missing the basics required to compare the aspects of talent with management decisions. The authors lack a definite systematic way of expressing the aspect of talent management.

Quality of background literature

The literature found in the background information is slightly credible. It introduces the learner into the subject matter, but its presentation is ambiguous. The authors begin with a good presentation of the aspect of talent management, with the background revealing the current situation globally.

The authors ensured that the introduction to the topic links with research studies conducted by fellow researchers pertaining to talent management knowledge and general management. Compared to other related studies, the article features the aspect of, “war for talent” as demonstrated by Beechler and Woodward and related studies by Guthridge, Komm, and Lawson, which portray the background of talent management.

Most sources used in the introduction of the article have touched on the key words that underline the key elements of the entire study. There is proper utilisation of words relating to talent management including strategic management, managers, decision-making, and human resource management.

Authors’ coverage on the issue in IHRM

Talent management as basic management knowledge commonly relates with International Human Resource Management (IHRM). Human resource management specifically deals with issues of employees and in specific management of abilities found in workers. Based on this article, the authors touch on HR, but clarity in demonstrating the issue of IHRM misses and thus the relationship between talent management and decision-making shallowly demonstrates the expected reliability of the information in the article.

According to the authors’ view on IHRM, the Human resource managers have been unable to utilise talent management comprehensively and thus regarded as incompetent. Managers need to understand HR knowledge and increase their competence by translating business needs to talent strategies.

The authors highlight several challenges facing global IHRM, with managers blamed for not having reliable data to help in making informed decisions on the aspect of talent management and human resource management. However, this article does not examine the basic principles of HR in relation to talent management knowledge.

Article’s importance on HRM policy and practice

Discussions demonstrated in the article, though shallowly discussed, have great significance to human resource policies and practices. The authors elaborate the critical issues affecting human resource management globally. In the article, lack of talents has significantly proven to be among the major challenges affecting proper decision making in management in relation to talent management.

Through this article, managers acquire information relating to talent management with inadequacy of talents affecting best practices in HR. Managers acknowledge the inadequacy of empirical evidence on talent management and the existing public confusion compared to the reality in the HR practise.

The article influences HR policy and practice by demonstrating the influence of demographics and societal trends on human resource management. Peck concurs with these factors and asserts that the demographics around the world nations have proven significant in the management of talents. The revolving demographic aspects have affected management for there is an increase in declining birth rates, and with an increase in number of workers retiring, talents and abilities are reducing in number.

Strengths and weaknesses

The article demonstrates several strengths by utilising and elaborating issues regarding to human resource data. Data on management issues comes out as the subject of the article, evaluating how the managers have constantly underutilised appropriate data in the management decision process.

Teal asserts, “Strategic decisions occur relatively infrequently and involve ambiguous data and possible disagreement about which data is relevant.” This area is an important subject and relevant information regarding management aspects. Utilisation of knowledge, data, and information is an important management aspect and thus managers who utilize available data can set proper management policies. Smith elaborates that management life begins with utilization and management of data.

In fact, transforming data into information, knowledge, and wisdom enhances effective management. By so doing, managers utilising knowledge can acquire context, relevance, and definite purpose incorporated in the available data.

The article elaborates several factors that affect decision making globally, thus enabling managers to acquire relevant information relating to factors affecting global talent management. Being the subject of the article, the authors intensify discussion on talent management as among the most debated issues in management.

This aspect is evident in other related articles; for instance, an article by Pulakos who asserts that organizations compete fiercely in the war for talent. The author demonstrates significant factors affecting decision-making including diversity in employees groups, global increase in mobility, growing importance of emerging markets, demographics and social trends, corporate social responsibility, and talent shortages.

All these are potential factors contributing to talent management and related issues. Other authors have also demonstrated these factors; for instance, Vroom highlights some social factors relating to aspects of talent management. By demonstrating these aspects, managers can incorporate this information and covert it into HR policies and practice, making it more practical than how the theory reveals.

The article shows some weaknesses; for instance, despite the fact that the article demonstrates some relevancy in the background information, the objectives of the study remain an important issue in writing articles. The introduction part lacks proper presentation of the objectives, which appear in the middle of the article.

The authors present the aims of the research as reviewing the raging debates around talent management and decision-making, establishing some possible factors influencing decision making in talent management, and recommending future research areas in relation to decision making in talent management. This aspect indicates that the presentation of the research is inconsistent given that the discussion of the second research aim appears first before presentation of the aim itself.

Another eminent weakness is the way the presentation of IHRM issue in relation to talent management. The authors do not demonstrate presentation of HR issues to talent management.

This element eliminates the importance of HRM in employee management and does not however present the relationship between HR and employee management. “Employee involvement in decision-making serves to create a sense of belonging among the workers as well as a congenial environment in which both the management and the workers voluntarily contribute to healthy industrial relations.”

Even though HR is the probable department directly involved in decision-making and management of employee skills and talents, the article has little information demonstrating the relationship between talent management and employee involvement in decision-making.

Conclusion

Human resource management is the only department that directly correlates with management of employee talents and abilities and their contribution to organisational decision-making, which increases accuracy. Despite the fact that decision making in groups takes time, it increases the possibility of making informed decisions.

Despite the fact that IHRM is the main subject of the article, it remains the less emphasised area in the article. According to Pulakos, “job analysis is the hub of virtually all human resource administration and management activities, and it is necessary for the successful functioning of organizations.”

However, the introduction of the article demonstrates the importance of concentrating on major components of the article including keywords that act as drivers into the main article. Nonetheless, the article consistently demonstrates inconsistence in the research format, which is eminent where the authors present the aims in the middle of the report revealing poor introduction of the research.

Bibliography

Beechler, Schon, and Ian Woodward. “The global war for talent.” Journal of International Management 15, no. 1 (2009): 273-285.

Firestone, Joseph. “Key Issues in Knowledge Management.” Journal of the KMCI 1, no.3 (2001): 8-38.

Guthridge, Mathew, Asmus Komm, and Emily Lawson. “Making talent a strategic priority.” McKinsey Quarterly, no.1 (2008):49-59.

Holley, Nick. “HR Models – lessons from best practice,” Henley School of Business. Web.

Kuye, Owolabi, and Abdul-Hameed Sulaimon. “Employee involvement in decision-making and firm’s performance in the manufacturing sector in Nigeria.” Serbian Journal of Management 6, no.1 (2011):1-15.

Peck, Jamie. “Struggling with the Creative Class.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 29, no.4 (2005): 740–770.

Pulakos, Elaine. “Selection Assessment Methods: A guide to implementing formal assessments to build a high-quality workforce.” SHRM Foundation. Web.

Smith, Elizabeth. “The role of tacit and explicit knowledge in the workplace.” Journal of Knowledge Management 5, no. 4 (2001): 311-321.

Teal, Elisabeth. “Strategic decision making under uncertainty from the Foundations of creativity, psychology, and management Research: an examination and synthesis.” Journal of Business Administration Online 10, no. 1 (2011): 1-30.

Todeva, Emanuela, and David Knoke. “Strategic Alliances & Models of Collaboration.” Management Decision 43, no. 1 (2005): 123-148.

Vaiman, Vlad, Hugh Scullion, and David Collings. “Talent management decision making.” Management Decision 50, no. 5 (2012): 925 – 941.

Vroom, Victor. “Educating managers for decision making and leadership.” Management Decision 41, no. 10 (2003): 968-978.

Introduction

HR management is essential for the sustainability of an enterprise. This paper is aimed at examining a set of initiatives that an organization plans to implement. It is vital to evaluate this policy from ethical, legal, and practical perspectives. These are the main aspects that should be examined more closely.

The policy, which is advocated by the senior manager, can be legal because there is no requirement that can prohibit a company from paying lower wages. However, the compensation that these employees can receive must not be lower than the minimum wages (Neumark, 2008, p. 9). This is one of the aspects that can be identified. Furthermore, an organization has the right to employ recent college graduates.

However, one should take into account that a company can be responsible for the actions of incompetent workers. This case does not contain specific details that can throw light on the activities of this business. It is possible that this enterprise can face a lawsuit filed by clients. This is one of the pitfalls that should be avoided by this organization because litigation can be time-consuming and expensive.

Main Body

Furthermore, this plan is not quite ethical. The thing is that by hiring unqualified employees, the management will place an extra burden on other workers who will have to train new-comers. These people may not be able to cope with their duties effectively. Secondly, this strategy can create many inconveniences for the clients who rely on this business. Finally, one should not forget that very often the lack of employee’s skill can pose a threat to the health and life of other people. Therefore, this irresponsible attitude to HR management cannot be called ethical. It seems that the management should consider the impacts of this strategy on other stakeholders such as employees, business partners, or clients. This is the main recommendation that can be made.

Finally, it is important to remember the practical aspects of this strategy. First of all, one should remember the risks of increased turnover. In many organizations, employees do not stay for a long time because of poor working conditions or low salaries (Phillips, 2008, p. 7). As a rule, such people are not committed to the goals of the organization. Thus, the performance of this enterprise can eventually decline (Phillips, 2008, p. 7).

Additionally, businesses that attempt to reduce the cost of HR management find it difficult to retain the most talented candidates (Deb, 2005, p. 10). This is another problem that should be taken into consideration. Finally, such a strategy can be successfully implemented provided that a business develops an effective orientation program (Deb, 2005, p. 10). Nevertheless, such programs also require some investment. Thus, one should not suppose that this business can easily avoid extra costs.

Conclusion

On the whole, this discussion indicates that the strategy advocated by senior management is not effective. Much attention should be paid to the practical aspects of this strategy. The decision can increase the direct and indirect costs of the state. Nevertheless, one should not overlook the ethical aspects and legal aspects of this strategy. These are the main issues that can be singled out. It is possible to say that HR management is critical for the performance of a business, and the management should not disregard the role of recruitment and retention.

Reference List

Deb, T. (2005). A Conceptual Approach to Strategic Talent Management. Delhi: Indus Publishing.

Neumark, D. (2008). Minimum Wages. Boston, MA: MIT Press.

Phillips, J. (2008). Managing Talent Retention: An ROI Approach. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Talent is a prerequisite for success in any organization. A talented workforce does not only assist the company satisfy its clients but also ensures that they remain on top of competition. The challenge, however, is managing this talent. Talent management is thus a key area of concern by any organization in the realms of business.

It requires deliberation during strategizing process laid down by the human resource directors in the organization. Without proper management, talent can be a rare resource in an organization. Consequently, there will be less chances of success. This paper will analyze the different aspects of talent management and how an organization can benefit from it.

Talent management is a mindful, purposeful approach undertaken to draw, develop and maintain people with the propensity and abilities to achieve existing and prospect organizational requirements. A view echoed in the work of Sparrow (2009a).

Due to the constantly changing business environment, it is up to the human resource department to ensure that individuals and the organization at large are focused and have the relevant talent that will give the required results (Hodgkinson, Sadler-Smith, Burke, Claxton & Sparrow 2009).

What is the importance of having talent management in an organization? That might be a question to many. First and foremost, it ensures that the right people are hired for the job. Also, it ensures retention of employees.

Thirdly, it develops culture in the organization that is positive, progressive and one that is of high performance. Talent management is also a tool for work force planning between the old and the new. Last but not least, talent management is used to ensure continuous non official and official learning and development (Aldred & Sparrow 2009).

In order to understand the more, one has to look at the processes involved in talent management strategy. To begin with there has to be evaluations. This area involves looking at an employee’s performance and the potentiality they possess. The current employee’s performance is looked into as a tool to profitability of the organization.

The company then needs to analyze projected performance before imparting given skills on an employee. Basing on this, you are able to make a conclusion on what needs to be done to ensure achievement of intended results (Farmer, Tierney & Kung-McIntyre 2003).

Competency management is also needed to align the workforce with your business strategy. You need to identify areas that need competency and avail necessary skills needed in achieving (Sparrow 2007).Recruitment process is one of the key elements in talent management.

Since talent management is all about getting the right work force and retaining them, the recruitment should be done from a qualified group of internal and external applicants. Fleetwood & Hesketh (2009) say that proper tracking is required but putting in mind to cut costs on recruiting and sourcing but improving employee’s retention.

Furthermore there needs to be employee’s performance management. By ensuring this, the goals of the whole organization will consequently match with individuals’ and groups’. Moreover there should be the standardization of employees’ appraisal and in conclusion link reimbursement to performance (Sparrow 2009b).

There must be talent assessment and review. This is achieved by having a constant review meeting with the management team and helping in identifying the talents in the organization. By having effective reviews, highest talents are recognized and steps should be taken to prepare them to step into key roles and positions in the organization (Becerra-Fernandez, Gonzalez & Sabherwal, 2003).

Charan, Drotter & Noel (2002) in their research note that Human Resources together with the management board should ensure there is employee development. Short and long term measures are essential tools to show what training and skills are to be facilitated to achieve the company’s goals.

This is followed by providing the training in acquiring those skills and nurturing the relevant talent. With the existing managing team retiring and going home, a company needs to develop quickly the existing employees. This is made possible by giving them the training earlier mentioned to cultivate and shape them for the task ahead (Fleetwood & Hesketh 2009).

Succession management must be put in place. This simply means grooming the people who are to take up roles in respective capacities after the departure of others. This should be done by tracking the high qualified people and develop them for them to assume leadership roles without any hitch. Identifying key positions and also potential personnel to take up position is necessary (Amabile & Khaire 2008).

When we work it is obvious that we are in search of payment at the end of the month. It is to this reason that compensation management is part of talent management. The management team should provide necessary compensation plans both from within and also look at the external packages in the market. This is aimed at offering the best package that will attract and retain the employees.

Finally there should be talent analyzing that will ensure you have the required skills and qualification. It also measures the effectiveness of the recruitment process, and looks at whether the learning program is effective or not. Further more; it looks at appropriateness of aligning employees goals to that of the organization not forgetting looking at cost effectiveness of the compensation programs.

It is important to note that for effective talent management, it has to start form the chief executive officers and the board of directors to the human resource department. This should incorporate the line managers who are always in direct contact with members of their departments (Brewster, Sparrow & Vernon 2007).

The scramble for talent as it is now will be effective in a company basing on effective recruitment and retention. The Human resource (HR) should ensure that there is a proper organizational channel to affect stability, stress on employer brand and status, have proper talent strategies, sustain multilevel responsibility, and get drawn in talent supervision initiatives and offer opportunities for career and individual development.

On recruitment and retention, the HR should ensure that there is a culture in place for employees to want to stay in the organization, channels for career development must be a priority, have a pool for successors at each stage, and identify any gaps in the company that will need special skills and is not yet filled up. It’s therefore the managements work to ensure that the appropriate talent is recognized and retained in line with the organizations goals and strategies.

Rob and Ben (2008) say that, for successful talent management the following aspects will be influential. One, there is need to have a supple talent sourcing. There is need to also have modified rewards. This not withstanding well spread out and significant leadership should be put in place. Lastly, we need a culture in the workplace that is in agreement with each other.

Incase of departure of a talented employee, it turns out that there is a problem which must be addressed. The HR must look at what the cause is and seal the loopholes. Loosing a talented employee who has been trained and groomed to take up position in the organization is like making a loss. It’s for this reason that the HR should be monitoring the behavioral changes of the talented employees and look for signs that might be suggesting a walk out from the company, and make sure that it doesn’t happen (Jeanne & Willyerd 2010;Schein 1977).

Many at times, a company will find itself in a crisis where there is a shortage of employees and there are those who opt to go for greener pasture. The problem is usually the lack of constant review of the talent. There is also the lack of response to the needs of having more talent. Another notable problem is not supporting the employee especially the first month of his work (Kee, 1997). Lastly, the company might not be having good knowledge about the employee. With these, it is obvious that the organization ends up loosing on its talent.

Therefore to ensure that an organization doesn’t loose on its talent, proper database should be in place to know what exactly is taking place. A sentiment supported by William (2008). Where there is need for appraisals it should be effected with the needs of the company. The database will also lay out exactly what kind of skill is needed and in what area. This will enable the management know on when to make recruitments internally and externally hence wont have a shortage of employees.

A well coordinating group from the chief executive officer (C.E.O) to the subordinates also helps in retaining of the necessary talent (Sparrow 2010; Hesketh 2006).

There will be knowledge of what is taking place in the company and so smooth running of the company. It’s the work of the HR to provide the c.e.o with the relevant information regarding the recruitment and retention process. Constant review together will provide with the avenue of seeing what is needed in order to be in competition with the global market that are not in sleep.

In winding up, to continue having excellent business results in the so much competitive business world, organizations need to go back to the drawing board and come up with appropriate ways in handling talent management. For it to work there must be a strong leadership, a culture of recruiting and retention, employee participation in inventions and suggestions and lastly to have a measurable mechanism to know how the progress and success is. This will make a company stay in the competition and win.

Reference List

Aldred, G. and Sparrow, P.R., 2009. International Mobility: Impact of the Current Economic Climate. Global Relocation Trends Report. London: Brookfield Global Relocation Services.

Amabile, T. M. and M. Khaire. 2008. Creativity and the role of the leader. Harvard Business Review, October, pp. 100-109.

Becerra-Fernandez, I., A. Gonzalez and R. Sabherwal., 2003. Knowledge Management. Boston: Prentice Hall.

Brewster, C, Sparrow, P.R. & Vernon, G., 2007. International human resource management. 2^nd Edition. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Charan, R. Drotter, S. & Noel, J., 2002. The leadership pipeline: How to build the leadership powered company. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Farmer, S. M., P. Tierney and K. Kung-McIntyre. 2003. Employee creativity in Taiwan: An application of role identity theory. The Academy of Management Journal, 46(5), pp. 618-630.

Fleetwood, S. & Hesketh, A. 2009 Understanding the performance of human resources, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hesketh, A.J., 2006. Outsourcing the HR Function: Possibilities and Pitfalls, London: Accenture/CRF

Hodgkinson, G., Sadler-Smith, E., Burke, L., Claxton, G. & Sparrow, P.R., 2009.

Intuiton in organisations: Implications for strategic management. Long Range Planning. 42 (3): 277-297.

Jeanne C. M. and Willyerd, K., 2010. The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop and Keep Tomorrow’s Employees Today. New York: Harper Business.

Kee, P. J., 1996. Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Rob, S and Ben E. D., 2008. Strategy-driven talent management: A leadership imperative. Broomall, PA: Chelsea publishers.

Schein, E., 1977. Increasing Organizational Effectiveness through Better Human Resources Planning and Development. Sloan Management Review, 19 (1), p. 1.

Sparrow, P.R., 2007. Globalisation of HR at function level: Four case studies of the international recruitment, selection and assessment process, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18 (5), pp.144 -166.

Sparrow, P.R., 2009a. Handbook of international human resource management: integrating people, process and context. Chichester: Wiley.

Sparrow, P.R., 2009b. International reward management. In G. White & J.Drucker (Eds.), Reward management – a critical text. London: Routledge. pp. 233-257.

Sparrow, P.R., 2010. The Innovation Imperative: Charting the Territory for HR. Centre for Performance-led HR White Paper 10/01. Lancaster University Management School.

William. J. R., 2008. Effective succession planning. Ensuring leadership continuity and building talent. West port, CT: Airtime publishing Inc.