According to Oliver Serrat, Talent Management refers to the additional processes and opportunities that an organization makes available strategically to a pool of people who are deemed to have talent. It is a systematic identifying, assessing, and developing talent for future critical roles to ensure continuity and effective organizational performance. Managing talent in the organizations has become challenging with the fast integration of economies as well as societies through globalization driving both collaboration and competition in businesses.

Talent is the new age means of production. It is very important for every organization to nurture and protect internal talent for their continued existence. The competition for talent started in 1990. The contest for talent is fueled by several drivers in the business environment, change in workforce demographics and lifestyles, operations becoming increasingly complex and dynamic, evolution of knowledge economies, etc. Employees are more consciously loyal to their professions than to the organizations. They are more bothered about work-life balance than organizational structures and establishments.

Talents have also become scarce because of skill gaps due to rapid development of technologies on one side and retirement of older generation people on the other. It is right people, besides right strategies, that matter for organizations. Research by McKinsey reveals that 75% of the people surveyed in 77 large organizations in 1998 felt that their companies are chronically short of leadership talent. Another research done by Development Dimensions International (DDI) says that failure rates are high when executive talent is hired from outside. Companies have recognized that better talent within differentiates high performance organizations from the rest. According to McKinsey & Company, talent management can be achieved through five distinct steps: (1) Instill a talent mindset culture at all levels of the organization, (2) Treating people as partners and facilitating them with exciting work, a feeling of delightfulness while working for an organization, prosperity and reward, and growth and development, (3) Recruitment is done by more of marketing and selling the organization brand to the promising talent than mere a passive selection from a pool of candidates, (4) Institutionalizing development as a key for performance and retention. Development can be realized through a series of challenging job experiences than mere training and spending a specific time on a job, (5) Rewards and recognition for top performers and coaching and mentoring for the mid-performers.

There are many benefits accruing to the organization through a comprehensive talent management plan. Right from predictability of performance, higher customer satisfaction, lower employee turnover, increased profits and employee engagement to a stable management team not only for the present jobs but also for the future.

- Sivaram Tekuru