My experiences about Cranfield MBA ..... and beyond

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Talent Management - only good in books??

Of late, I hear and see almost every organisation rechristening their erstwhile HR department with this new buzzword - Talent management. I bet lots of HR guru's would even find fabulously crafted language to explain how Talent management is different and / or better that the traditional nomenclature.

But one question lurking in mind for many months now is, "Where does Talent Management end?" or is it supposed to end at all?

Here's the context - based on my recent personal experience, I am beginning to question, "If organisation's are bringing in talent, why does that talent not stay?" While I do not have any statistics to share, I get the feeling that the average career longevity of a professional at an organisation is coming down. More and more people are changing jobs more frequently. Of course, this is a generalisation - as many would say.

One of my personal views is this - Talent is deciding not to stay in organisations because they are not being allowed to work in their own way. While it is not an explicit case of "do this! don't do that!", lots of smart Alec's (read senior management) expect their own incarnations in the wider organisation. If the talent is not their clone, s/he aren't liked. A desire to build diversity in thoughts and action is all lip service - the senior management is all looking for themselves.

Talent acquisition is happening, but Talent execution was never born!