How Ideas Connected with Talent Management Have Changed

The roots of talent management can be traced back to at least 1997; when some of the McKinsey consultants had public discussions over the ‘war on talent’. And that was the time when talent management became a popular phenomenon among organizations.

The fact that talent management became a valuable part of the HR management literature is evident through an internet search relating to ‘talent management HR’ conducted by Lewis and Heckman. The results yielded by this search reached from 2.7 million hits in 2004 to 20.8 million hits in 2017. However, this growth is not as great as it was expected to be. So, what can be the reason for that?

It is believed that there has been an absence of consistency when it comes to the definition as well as the conceptual boundaries of talent management, as per a study made in 2009. Moreover, there is also a conjecture that the concept of talent management is intentionally muddled, according to another study conducted in 2012.

Talent management has evolved through four phases:

The four stages of Talent Management

1. The first phase involved the concept of talent management revolving around the most talented employees, also called the high potentials of the company. This kind of Human Resources management used to be a commonplace among companies such as General Electrics where twenty percent of the individuals were seen as the most talented and productive employees, the following seventy percent (called the B players) were not considered that productive but were still vital and the last ten percent were not considered good producers and could be removed from the organization.

2. In the second phase, the primary importance is given to the organizational structure in order to figure out the kind and quantity of talent to be hired. In this case, the main focus is paid to the strategy for filling the essential positions but not on the employees themselves. Also, by the year 2010, the idea of training high potentials in talent pools was properly developed.

3. In the third stage, talent management is perceived in a global sense and this became prominent when many organizations went global and started to look for individuals from global talent pools.

4. In the fourth and final phase, the conception of talent management has become quite inclusive where employees are not ear-marked as high potentials and every person’s talent is developed. Basically, the potential of each employee is realized to create equal opportunities for all.

This new type of talent management is slowly and steadily coming to the forefront as organizations have begun to look for talent management practitioners who can preach the final category of talent management and help them support a productive and satisfied staff.

The core advantage to the companies where an all-inclusive talent management is followed is that their employees feel valued and in turn exhibit better productivity.