Talent management
Management Services Spring 2012
37 uilding high performance
retain. Colleagues might feel threatened by them or alienated by their special treatment. They may appear prima donnas, obsessed with building their CVs and personal careers. Some may become bored and discontented when given tasks they feel are beneath them.
Clever people need to be appropriately managed if their full potential is to be realised (Thorne and Pellant, 2007; Goffee and Jones, 2009; Groysberg et al, 2010). Yet just focusing upon them can result in other possibilities being missed. Certain people, who may not stand out, might excel at particular activities and tasks and maybe performance support could enable them to ‘push the envelope’ and help others to emulate what they do differently (Coulson-Thomas, 2007 and 2012).
While some of the qualities and talents that people have might be transferable, an exceptional talent in one area may be found to be average in another. What often count in competitive situations are the skills employed in a particular job, especially a job that has a disproportionate impact on the bottom line.
Benefi tting from human capital In short, fortunes can be spent on expensive people who are not engaged, effectively used or appropriately supported. Sometimes, even when effective use is fi nally made of a talented person, the individual gets headhunted by a competitor and another organisation reaps the benefi ts
of a selection, recruitment and development process. Staff turnover remains an issue for many organisations and various retention strategies are employed (Allen et al, 2010). The emphasis sometimes given by various players to recruiting talent can increase churn within a particular marketplace. In contrast, helping and developing existing workgroups can aid retention and increase the extent to which an individual fi rm benefi ts rather than organisations in general (Gathmann and Schonberg, 2010) by providing particular task support, sharing good practice and aiding retention (Coulson-Thomas, 2012). Its greater cost-effectiveness can also reduce the size of organisation that can benefi t from investment in human capital (Antonelli et al, 2010).
Horses for courses Companies use various means of assessing and managing ‘talent’ (Smilansky, 2006; Davis, 2007). While guidance on identifying an organisation’s ‘best people’ may be available (Stuart-Kotze and Dunn, 2008), an individual who shines in one context may struggle in another. Even superstars can have areas of defi ciency. Focusing on particular jobs and tasks makes it easier to identify high performers. Support provided can incorporate critical success factors and the winning ways of peers with similar responsibilities.
Investigations of critical success factors for key corporate often fi nd highly talented people with outstanding
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