UNIT-1

Talent Management
Talent management is an integral part of human resource management. Talent management can be
defined as a deliberate approach implemented to recruit or hire, develop and retain people with
required aptitude or skills to meet the present and future goals or needs of the organization. It is the
creation and maintenance of a supportive and pro-people organizational culture. Talent management
is, therefore, the commitment of an organization to recruit, develop, retain the most talented and
qualitative employees available in the job market. Talent management has become almost an
inevitable management process in modern days. Due to tough competition in every sphere of business
world today, organizations are vying for the best people from the job market. However, attracting the
best talent from the job market is not everyone’s cup of tea. It requires a lot of competence, expertise
and experience on the part of the organization to recruit the best in the industry. Major part of the
Human Resource Department is devoted to talent management, which is mostly dedicated to the
purpose of recognizing, sourcing and poaching best talent.

Talent Management starts with identification of the appropriate skilled people required for the
organization and then there is proper selection of people with requisite potentials and skills in desired
job. After identification and selection of the right kind of people, Talent Management implements
competitive compensation that may include attractive pay-package, periodical increment, health
insurance, paid leaves, etc. for the employees. The selected workforce is provided with training and
regular refreshment programs so as to match the emerging requirements of the organization.

Talent Management Process / Stages

The various stages of Talent Management are as follows:
Significance of Talent Management
The basic purpose of talent management is to recruit, develop, and retain best talent in the
organization. The HR Department always endeavors to ensure that employees with the right skills and
qualities stay with the organization for a long time.

Talent Management - Methodology

Every organization has a different methodology for talent management. The following diagram shows
the complete cycle of talent management which involves Planning, Acquiring, Developing, and
Retaining of able and skilled personnel for the organization.

The steps are as follows −

1. Planning − It involves identifying, defining, and setting criteria for required
capabilities as well as examining the current talent levels.
2. Acquiring − It utilizes a varied range of strategies to attract talent.
3. Developing − It involves providing opportunities for career development and
training, managing employee performance, coaching and mentoring.
4. Retaining − It involves providing long-term incentive, a flexible and positive work
environment, and opportunities for advancement of good remuneration.
Let us now discuss each of the steps in detail.

1. Planning Talent
In this methodology, the organization establishes defined competencies and sets criteria to
measure the talent skills.
 Focus on Talent − Once you know what your organization needs, you can start
thinking about what type of talent potential to focus on.
 Define Competence − Competencies are lasting individual attributes that cause high
levels of performance. In this stage, the organization clearly defines the specific and
usable skills and talents its employees need, so as to realize organizational goals and
objectives.
  Measure Criteria − There should be a set of criteria to evaluate, measure, and
develop specific competency. You need objective criteria to measure competencies
effectively.
 Talent Audit − An audit may include different types of activities designed to
evaluate the level of competence. Methods include psychometric tests and
questionnaires, in-depth interviews, case studies, and analysis of the most recent
performance reviews.

2. Acquiring Talent

In this stage of methodology, the organization promotes its values to attract talented people
to apply and join the organization. It includes interviewing, selecting, and onboarding
employees.
 Attracting − Organizations promote their culture and values to attract talented and
skilled people from the industries to work with.
 Recruiting − A recruiting brand reflects the core values of the organization and
communicates the advantages of working for the organization.
  Selecting − This process involves multiple steps such as interviews, tests, and
background checks.
 Employing − It is the final stage of hiring the skilled and talented people in the
organization.

3. Developing Talent

It includes talent management readiness, career development and training, performance

management, and coaching and mentoring. These are the core objectives of this phase.
 Talent Readiness Training − These competencies help the organization attract,
identify and develop talent.
 Career Development & Training − Training program is useful for upgrading talent
and skills of the employees and prepare them for future challenges.

 Performance Management − Performance management incorporates setting goals,

giving performance reviews, and providing feedback.
 Coaching & Mentoring − Coaching and mentoring develops talent by encouraging
people to excel at their work and to learn on the job. These techniques engage people
on a more emotional level.

4. Retaining Talent

The longer you retain talented people in your organization, the greater the return on your
investment. Retaining, the fourth phase of methodology, is to define several strategies that
can help retain talent.
 Long-term Incentives − Long-term incentives such as stock options or paid vacation
or other benefits increasing over time can encourage employees to couple their
careers and personal goals with a long-term commitment or association with the
organization.
 Career Planning − This involves providing genuine opportunity for advancement to
the employees to retain talent in the organization.
  Flexible Working Arrangements − When working arrangements are inflexible and
fixed, the options available to employees are limited – forcing them to choose
between staying with or leaving an organization.
 Talent Culture − Positive work environment is a key factor to retain talent.
Management needs to monitor these levels of satisfaction so they can forestall
problems before people leave an organization.

Talent Management Process Model

1. Planning: Planning is the initial step in the process of Talent Management. It

involves the following:
o Identifying the human capital requirement.
o Developing the job description and key roles.
o Proposing a workforce plan for recruitment.
2. Attracting: Deciding whether the source of recruitment should be internal or
external and seeking for the suitable individuals to fill in the vacant positions
through:
o Job Portals such as Naukri.com, Timesjob.com, etc.
o Social Network such as LinkedIn and Twitter.
o Referrals.
3. Selecting: Recruiting and selecting the personnel. It involves the following steps:
o Scheduling written test and interviews.
o Scrutinizing the most suitable candidate for the profile.
4. Developing: In this stage, the employee is prepared according to and for the
organisation and the profile. Following are the steps involved in the process:
o Carrying out an onboarding programme or an orientation programme.
o Enhancing the skills, aptitude and proficiency of the personnel to match the profile.
o Counselling, guiding, coaching, educating, mentoring employees and job rotation.
5. Retaining: Employee retention is essential for any organisational existence and
survival. Following are the ways of employee retention:
o Promotions and increments.
o Providing opportunities for growth by handing over special projects.
o Participative decision making.
o Teaching new job skills.
o Identifying the individual’s contribution and efforts.
6. Transitioning: Talent management aims at the overall transformation of the
employees to achieve the organisational vision. It can be done through:
o Retirement benefits to employees.
o Conducting Exit interviews.
o Succession Planning or Internal Promotions.
Talent Management Initiatives adopted by organizations to gain
competitive advantage:
The managers and the higher authorities need to take the initiative to pave the way
for the personal development and long-term association with the organisation.
Some of the ways in which a manager can motivate and retain employees are as
follows:
 Recognition: Recognising employees’ contribution and their work on individual
grounds, boost up self-confidence in them.
 Remuneration and Reward: Increasing pay and remuneration of the employees
as a reward for their better performance.
 Providing Opportunities: Giving the charge of challenging projects to the
employees along with the authority and responsibility of the same, makes them
more confident.
 Role Design: The role of employees in the organisation must be designed to keep
them occupied and committed, it must be flexible enough to inculcate and adapt to
the employee’s talent and knowledge.
 Job Rotation: Employees lack enthusiasm if they perform the same kind of work
daily. Thus, job rotation or temporary shifting of employees from one job to
another within the organisation is essential to keep them engaged and motivated.
 Training and Development: On the job training, e-learning programmes, work-
related tutorials, educational courses, internship, etc. are essential to enhance the
competencies, skills and knowledge of the employees.
 Succession Planning: Internal promotions helps identify and develop an individual
who can be the successor to senior positions in the organisation.
 Flexibility: Providing a flexible work environment to the employees makes them
more adaptable to the organisation and brings out their creativity.
 Relationship Management: Maintaining a positive workplace where employees
are free to express their ideas, take part in the decision-making process, encourage
employees to achieve goals and are rewarded for better performance leads to
employee retention.
 Self-motivation: Nothing can be effective if the employee is not self-determined
and motivated to work.
Talent Management is an intricate as well as a crucial process and is, therefore, very difficult to
handle. Every organization needs to address the talent gap that affects its growth prospects. It is the
responsibility of HR managers to identify the talent gap and forecast the pitfalls based on the changes
taking place in the organization. They need to focus their plans and initiatives to help improve the
availability of the needed talent pool. While devising a plan for talent management, they have to keep
in mind certain factors due to which employees change their job abruptly and frequently. Some such
factors are:

 Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG) restructuring the job market.

 Unforeseen rapid changes in the world economy.

 Strong and incessant economic growth.

 Most competitive job market.

 Rapid progress in science and technology diversifying the skill requirements of the employees.

 Rise in outsourcing and off-shoring.

 Abrupt economic slowdown and recession.

 Cascading effect of the above on employment potential resulting in wage cuts, layoffs, pink slips,
etc.

Benefits of Talent Management

 Benefits of talent management for the organisation

 Strategic talent management results in the accomplishment of organisational

vision.
 Filtration of talented employees and retaining of the finest ones is possible.
 Talent management strengthens the organisational structure by building strong
human capital.
 It helps the organisation to succeed over its competitors and establish a strong
presence in the market.
 It builds up a good reputation of the company among the job seekers.
 It leads to improved participative decision making by the management.
 It directs continuous improvement in organisational performance making it more
efficient and effective.
Benefits of talent management for employees

 Talent management initiates a positive environment in the organisation where

employees experience job satisfaction.
 Employees get a chance of learning and improving themselves which motivates
them to perform better.
 The training and development programmes help the employees to learn something
new, enhancing their personal skills and knowledge.
 The organisation focuses on an individual’s growth and betterment hence
employees develop a feeling of being cared for and belongingness for the
organisation.
 The employees remain associated with the organisation for a long-term period.
 Recognition and rewards lift up the employee’s confidence level.
 The rigorous learning, adds on to the experience of the employees.
In today’s global scenario, the human resource has been a very effective tool for
the company’s growth and success. Thus to make the best possible utilisation of
the employee’s talent and skills, talent management is essential.

Types of Talent
Talent is a set of unique abilities possessed by individuals. There are two types of talent found in an
organization. They are unidimensional and multidimensional. Both types of talent have the same
objective, however, with different perspectives.

i) Unidimensional Talent: In an organization, we observe that some employees are best in a

particular skill and ability. For instance, some employee may be best in administration, some of them
best in sales, while some employees may be best in their respective functions. When individuals
possess a singular talent in any particular field, it is called unidimensional talent.

ii) Multidimensional Talent: On the other hand, in an organization we also observe that employees
are adept at multiple skills and abilities. For example, one employee is best in administration sales,
accounting and production at a stretch. Such an employee is said to possess multi-dimensional talent.

Talent Vs Knowledge
 UNIT-2
Talent Acquisition

Job Analysis
Job analysis is the process of studying a job to determine which activities and responsibilities
it includes, its relative importance to other jobs, the qualifications necessary for performance
of the job and the conditions under which the work is performed. An important concept in job
analysis is that the job, not the person doing the job, is assessed, even though human
resources (HR) may collect some job analysis data from incumbents. Examples of how an
organization may use job analysis data:

 Workforce planning.
 Performance management.
 Recruitment and selection.
 Career and succession planning.
 Training and development.
 Compensation administration.
 Health, safety and security.
 Employee/labor relations.
 Risk management.
 Job Analysis Methods

Determining which tasks employees perform is not easy. The most effective technique
when collecting information for a job analysis is to obtain information through direct
observation as well as from the most qualified incumbent(s) via questionnaires or
interviews. The following describes the most common job analysis methods.

 Open-ended questionnaire
Job incumbents and/or managers fill out questionnaires about the KSAs necessary for
the job. HR compiles the answers and publishes a composite statement of job
requirements. This method produces reasonable job requirements with input from
employees and managers and helps analyze many jobs with limited resources.
 Highly structured questionnaire
These questionnaires allow only specific responses aimed at determining the
frequency with which specific tasks are performed, their relative importance and the
skills required. The structured questionnaire is helpful to define a job objectively,
which also enables analysis with computer models.
 Interview
In a face-to-face interview, the interviewer obtains the necessary information from the
employee about the KSAs needed to perform the job. The interviewer uses
predetermined questions, with additional follow-up questions based on the employee's
response. This method works well for professional jobs.
 Observation
Employees are directly observed performing job tasks, and observations are translated
into the necessary KSAs for the job. Observation provides a realistic view of the job's
daily tasks and activities and works best for short-cycle production jobs.
 Work diary or log
A work diary or log is a record maintained by the employee and includes the
frequency and timing of tasks. The employee keeps logs over a period of days or
weeks. HR analyzes the logs, identifies patterns and translates them into duties and
responsibilities. This method provides an enormous amount of data, but much of it is
difficult to interpret, may not be job-related and is difficult to keep up-to-date.

Use of Job Analysis Data

 Job descriptions and specifications

HR uses the job analysis output to develop a job description and job specifications.
The job description summarizes and organizes the information for the organization's
job-related actions. Generally, the job description and specifications are combined but
compartmentalized to enable independent updating as needed.

 Compensation decisions
 In relation to employee pay practices, job analysis has two critical uses: It establishes
similarities and differences in job content, and it helps determine the internal equity
and relative worth of like jobs. If jobs have equal content, then the pay established for
them will likely be equal. If, on the other hand, job content is perceptibly different,
then those differences, along with the market rates, will become part of the rationale
for paying certain jobs differently.

 Selection assessments

Job analysis information can also be used as a basis for selecting or developing
employment assessments that measure the most critical tasks or KSAs. Some
assessments involve work samples that simulate job tasks and require candidates to
demonstrate that they can perform these tasks effectively. HR uses job-oriented or
task-based job analysis data as a basis for developing these types of assessments
because they focus directly on assessing how well job candidates can perform critical
work tasks. Other assessment methods focus on measuring KSAs that are required to
perform job tasks effectively, such as various mental abilities, physical abilities or
personality traits, depending on the job's requirements.

Questionnaire
A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions for the
purpose of gathering information from respondents. Questionnaires provide a
relatively cheap, quick and efficient way of obtaining large amounts of information
from a large sample of people. Questionnaires can be an effective means of measuring
the behavior, attitudes, preferences, opinions and, intentions of relatively large
numbers of subjects more cheaply and quickly than other methods.
Often a questionnaire uses both open and closed questions to collect data. This is
beneficial as it means both quantitative and qualitative data can be obtained. It is
important to conduct a questionnaire pilot study for the following reasons:
 Check that respondents understand the terminology used in the questionnaire.
 Check that emotive questions have not been used as they make people
defensive and could invalidate their answers.
 Check that leading questions have not been used as they could bias the
respondent's answer.
 Ensure the questionnaire can be completed in an appropriate time frame (i.e.,
it's not too long).

Interview
The interview is a data collection method wherein a direct, in-depth conversation between
interviewer and respondent takes place. It is carried out with a purpose like a survey,
research, and the like, where both the two parties participate in the one to one interaction.
Under this method, oral-verbal stimuli are presented and replied by way of oral-verbal
responses.

It is considered as one of the best methods for collecting data because it allows two way
exchange of information, the interviewer gets to know about the respondent, and the
respondent learns about the interviewer. There are two types of interview:

 Personal Interview: A type of interview, wherein there is a face to face question-

answer session between the interviewer and interviewee, is conducted.
 Telephonic Interview: This method involves contacting the interviewee and asking
questions to them on the telephone itself.

BASIS FOR
QUESTIONNAIRE INTERVIEW
COMPARISON

Meaning Questionnaire implies a form Interview is a formal

consisting of a series of written or conversation between the
printed multiple choice questions, to interviewer and respondent
be marked by the informants. wherein the two participates in
the question answer session.

Form Written Oral

Nature Objective Subjective

BASIS FOR
QUESTIONNAIRE INTERVIEW
COMPARISON

Questions Closed Ended Open Ended

Information Factual Analytical

provided

Order of questions Cannot be changed, as they are written Can be changed as per need and
in an appropriate sequence. preference.

Cost Economical Expensive

Time Informant's own time Real time

Communication One to many One to one

Non-response High Low

Identity of Unknown Known

respondent

Human resource planning for Talent Management

Human resource planning is important for helping both organizations and employeesto
prepare for the future. The basic goal of human resource planning isto predict the future and
based on these predictions, implement programmesto avoid anticipated problems. Very
briefly humans resource planning isthe process of examining an organization‘s or
individual‘s future human resource needsfor instance, what types of skills will be needed for
jobs of the future compared to future human resource capabilities (such asthe types ofskilled
employees you already have) and developing human resource policies and practicesto address
potential problemsfor example, implementing training programmesto avoid skilldeficiencies.
Definition of HRP:
According to Vetter, ―HRP isthe process by which management determines how the
organization should move fromits current man power position to desired manpower position.
Through planning, management strivesto have the right time, doing things which result in
both the organization and individual receiving maximumlong run benefits‖.
According to Gordon Mc Beath, ―HRP is concerned with two things: Planning ofmanpower
requirements and Planning ofManpowersupplies‖.
HRPis a Four-Phased Process:
 The first phase involves the gathering and analysis of data through manpower inventories
and forecasts,
 The second phase consists of establishing manpower objectives and policies and gaining
top management approval of these.
 The third phase involves designing and implementing plans and promotions to enable the
organization to achieve its manpower objectives.
 The fourth phase is concerned with control and evaluation of manpower plans to facilitate
progress in order to benefit both the organization and the individual. The long run view
means that gains may be sacrificed in the short run for the future grounds. The planning
process enables the organization to identify what its manpower needs is and what potential
manpower problems required current action. This leads to more effective and efficient
performance.
Nature of Human resource planning:
It is the process of analyzing and identifying the availability and the need for human
resources so that the organization can meet its objectives. The focus of HR planning is to
ensure that the organization has the right number of human resources, with the right
capabilities, at the right times, and in the right places. In HR planning, an organization must
consider the availability and allocation of people to jobs over long periods of time, not just
for the next month or the next year. HRP is a sub system in the total organizational planning.
Actions may include shifting employees to other jobs in the organization, laying off
employees or otherwise cutting back the number of employees, developing present
employees, and/or increasing the number of employees in certain areas. Factors to consider
include the current employees‘ knowledge, skills, and abilities and the expected vacancies
resulting from retirements, promotions, transfers, and discharges. To do this, HR planning
requires efforts by HR professionals working with executives and managers.
Objectives of Human Resource Planning:
1. To ensure optimum utilization of human resources currently available in the organization.
2. To assess or forecast the future skill requirement of the Organization.
3. To provide control measures to ensure that necessary resources are available as and when
required.
4. A series of specified reasons are there that attaches importance to manpower planning and
forecasting exercises. They are elaborated below:
 To link manpower planning with the organizational planning
To determine recruitment levels.
 To anticipate redundancies.
 To determineoptimumtraining levels.
 To provide a basisfor management development programs.
 To cost the manpower.
 To assist productivity bargaining.
 To assess future accommodation requirement.
 To study the cost of overheads and value of service functions.
 To decide whether certain activity needs to be subcontracted, etc.

Requisites for Successful HRP

1. HRP must be recognized as an integral part of corporate planning
2. Support of top management is essential
3. There should be some centralization with respect to HRP responsibilities in order to have
co-ordination between different levels of management.
4. Organization records must be complete, up to date and readily available.
5. Techniques used for HR planning should be those best suited to the data available and
degree of accuracy required. 6. Data collection, analysis, techniques of planning and the plan
themselves need to be constantly revised and improved in the light of experience.

Barriers to HRP
Human Resource Planners face significant barriers while formulating an HRP. The major
barriers are elaborated below:
1) HR practitioners are perceived as experts in handling personnel matters, but are not experts
in managing business. The personnel plan conceived and formulated by the HR practitioners
when enmeshed with organizational plan, might make the overall strategic plan of the
organization ineffective.
2) HR information often is incompatible with other information used in strategy formulation.
Strategic planning efforts have long been oriented towards financial forecasting, often to the
exclusion of other types of information. Financial forecasting takes precedence over HRP.
3) Conflict may exist between short term and long term HR needs. For example, there can be
a conflict between the pressure to get the work done on time and long term needs, such as
preparing people for assuming greater responsibilities. Many managers are of the belief that
HR needs can be met immediately because skills are available on the market as long as wages
and salaries are competitive. Therefore, long times plans are not required, short planning are
only needed.
4) There is conflict between quantitative and qualitative approaches to HRP. Some people
view HRP as a number game designed to track the flow of people acrossthe department.
Others take a qualitative approach and focus on individual employee concerns such as
promotion and career development. Best result can be achieved if there is a balance between
the quantitative and qualitative approaches.
5) Non-involvement of operating managers renders HRP ineffective. HRP is not strictly an
HR department function. Successful planning needs a co-ordinated effort on the part of
operating managers and HR personnel.
 Unit-3
Recruitment & Selection Process
Sources of Recruitment

After the finalisation of recruitment plan indicating the number and type of prospective candidates,
they must be attracted to offer themselves for consideration to their employment. This necessitates
the identification of sources from which these candidates can be attracted. Some companies try to
develop new sources, while most only try to tackle the existing sources they have. These sources,
accordingly, may be termed as internal and external.

Internal Sources:

It would be desirable to utilise the internal sources before going outside to attract the candidates.
Yoder and others suggest two categories of internal sources including a review of the present
employees and nomination of candidates by employees. Effective utilisation of internal sources
necessitates an understanding of their skills and information regarding relationships of jobs. This will
provide possibilities for horizontal and vertical transfers within the enterprise eliminating
simultaneous attempts to lay off employees in one department and recruitment of employees with
similar qualification for another department in the company. Promotion and transfers within the
plant where an employee is best suitable improves the morale along with solving recruitment
problems. These measures can be taken effectively if the company has established job families
through job analysis programmes combining together similar jobs demanding similar employee
characteristics. Again, employees can be requested to suggest promising candidates. Sometimes,
employees are given prizes for recommending a candidate who has been recruited. Despite the
usefulness of this system in the form of loyalty and its wide practice, it has been pointed out that it
gives rise to cliques posing difficulty to management. Therefore, before utilising this system
attempts should be made to determine through research whether or not employees thus recruited
are effective on particular jobs. Usually, internal sources can be used effectively if the numbers of
vacancies are not very large, adequate, employee records are maintained, jobs do not demand
originality lacking in the internal sources, and employees have prepared themselves for promotions.

Merits of Internal Sources:

The following are the merits of internal sources of recruitment:

 It creates a sense of security among employees when they are assured that they would be
preferred in filling up vacancies. It improves the morale of employees, for they are assured of the
fact that they would be preferred over outsiders when vacancies occur.

 It promotes loyalty and commitment among employees due to sense of job security and
opportunities for advancement.

 The employer is in a better position to evaluate those presently employed than outside candidates.
This is because the company maintains a record of the progress, experience and service of its
employees.
 Time and costs of training will be low because employees remain familiar with the organisation
and its policies.

 Relations with trade unions remain good. Labour turnover is reduced. · As the persons in the
employment of the company are fully aware of, and well acquainted wit, its policies and know its
operating procedures, they require little training, and the chances are that they would stay longer in
the employment of the organisation than a new outsider would.

 It encourages self-development among the employees. It encourages good individuals who are
ambitious.

 It encourages stability from continuity of employment.

 It can also act as a training device for developing middle and top-level managers.

Demerits of Internal Sources:

However, this system suffers from certain defects as:

 There are possibilities that internal sources may ―dry up‖, and it may be difficult to find the
requisite personnel from within an organisation.

 It often leads to inbreeding, and discourages new blood from entering and organisation.

 As promotion is based on seniority, the danger is that really capable hands may not be chosen. The
likes and dislikes of the management may also play an important role in the selection of personnel.

 Since the learner does not know more than the lecturer, no innovations worth the name can be
made. Therefore, on jobs which require original thinking (such as advertising, style, designing and
basic research), this practice is not followed. This source is used by many organisations; but a
surprisingly large number ignore this source, especially for middle management jobs.

External Sources :

 Employment agencies.

 Educational and technical institutes. and

 Casual labour or ―applicants at the gate and nail applicants.

Public and private employment agencies play a vital role in making available suitable employees for
different positions in the organisations. Besides public agencies, private agencies have developed
markedly in large cities in the form of consultancy services. Usually, these agencies facilitate
recruitment of technical and professional personnel. Because of their specialisation, they effectively
assess the needs of their clients and aptitudes and skills of the specialised personnel. They do not
merely bring an employer and an employee together but computerise lists of available talents,
utilising testing to classify and assess applicants and use advanced techniques of vocational guidance
for effective placement purposes.

Advantages of External Recruitment:

External sources of recruitment are suitable for the following reasons:

 It will help in bringing new ideas, better techniques and improved methods to the organisation.

 The cost of employees will be minimised because candidates selected in this method will be placed
in the minimum pay scale.

 The existing employees will also broaden their personality.

 The entry of qualitative persons from outside will be in the interest of the organisation in the long
run.

 The suitable candidates with skill, talent, knowledge are available from external sources.

 The entry of new persons with varied expansion and talent will help in human resource mix.

Disadvantages of External Sources:

 Orientation and training are required as the employees remain unfamiliar with the organisation.

 It is more expensive and time-consuming. Detailed screening is necessary as very little is known
about the candidate.

 If new entrant fails to adjust himself to the working in the enterprise, it means yet more
expenditure on looking for his replacement.

 Motivation, morale and loyalty of existing staff are affected, if higher level jobs are filled from
external sources. It becomes a source of heart-burning and demoralisation among existing
employees.

Selection Procedure

The selection procedure is concerned withsecuring relevant informationabout

anapplicant.Thisinformation issecured in a number ofsteps orstages. The objective ofselection
processisto determine whether an applicant meets the qualification for a specific job and to choose
the applicant who is most likely to perform wellin that job. Selection is a long process, commencing
from the preliminary interview ofthe applicants and ending with the contract of
employment(sometimes).

Selection Tests

Many organisations hold different kinds of selection tests to know more about the candidates or to
reject the candidates who cannot be called for interview etc. Selection tests normally supplement
the information provided in the application forms. Such forms may contain factual information
about candidates. Selection tests may give information about their aptitude, interest, personality,
which cannot be known by application forms. Types of tests and rules of good of testing have been
discussed in brief below:

A. Aptitude Tests: These measure whether an individual has the capacity or talent ability to learn a
given job if given adequate training. These are more useful for clerical and trade positions.
B. Personality Tests: At times, personality affects job performance. These determine personality
traits of the candidate such as cooperativeness, emotional balance etc. These seek to assess an
individual‘s motivation, adjustment to the stresses of everyday life, capacity for interpersonal
relations and self-image.

C. Interest Tests: These determine the applicant‘s interests. The applicant is asked whether he likes,
dislikes, or is indifferent to many examples of school subjects, occupations, amusements,
peculiarities of people, and particular activities.

D. Performance Tests: In this test the applicant is asked to demonstrate his ability to do the job. For
example, prospective typists are asked to type several pages with speed and accuracy.

E. Intelligence Tests: This aim at testing the mental capacity of a person with respect to reasoning,
word fluency, numbers, memory, comprehension, picture arrangement, etc. It measures the ability
to grasp, understand and to make judgement.

F. Knowledge Tests: These are devised to measure the depth of the knowledge and proficiency in
certain skills already achieved by the applicants such as engineering, accounting etc.

G. Achievement Tests: Whereas aptitude is a capacity to learn in the future, achievement is

concerned with what one has accomplished. When applicants claim to know something, an
achievement test is given to measure how well they know it.

H. Projective Tests: In these tests the applicant projects his personality into free responses about
pictures shown to him which are ambiguous.

Rules of Good Testing

 Norms should be developed for each test. Their validity and reliability for a given purpose should
be established before they are used.

 Adequate time and resources must be provided to design, validate, and check tests.

 Tests should be designed and administered only by trained and competent persons.

 The user of tests must be extremely sensitive to the feelings of people about tests.  Tests are to
be uses as a screening device.

 Reliance should not be placed solely upon tests in reaching decisions.

 Tests should minimize the probabilities of getting distorted results. They must be race-free‘.

 Tests scores are not precise measures. They must be assigned a proper weightage.

Employee Engagement

Keeping employees engaged is one of the biggest challenges faced by organizations nowadays. It is
also a huge opportunity to gain long-term commitment and mandatory effort from a team. This
effort will ultimately lead to higher sales and fewer mistakes in an organization. From the day an
employee joins an organization, his or her positive engagement or fruitful involvement in
organizational work becomes a tough responsibility of the management. Before allotting duties and
responsibilities to newly appointed employees, the organization clarifies itself about its goals and
places the employee at the right place to materialize the goals. It decides and understands what and
how of the goals. Hence, it is an important HR function to define and plan an employee engagement
strategy that aligns with the organization’s goals.
Reliability and validity of selection tests
What is Employee Engagement?

Employee engagement or keeping employees engaged refers to the manner in which employees
give their best of individual and group effort in the interest of the organization. The approach of
employee engagement keeps employees committed towards organizational goals and values. It
keeps them motivated to give their best contribution to the success of the organization. The integral
parts of a business are organization, employees, leadership, and customers. A healthy and
progressive cohesion and interaction among these parts is a necessary precondition for achieving
organizational goals. It is based upon the notion of ‘One for All’ and ‘All for One’. There is interaction
and interdependence among these parts. Organization comprises of employees; employees provide
effective leadership which leads to increased productivity and efficiency, as well as effective
customer satisfaction. This, in turn, leads to growth and development of the organization.

Categories of Employee Engagement

Every business or organization inextricably wants to have higher retention rate, productivity, and
reduced absenteeism. Hence, it seeks continuous employee engagement. Employee engagement
can be broadly divided into four categories:

 Actively Engaged: Employees belonging to this category are highly motivated and work with great
passion, and feel a profound connection to their organization. They are used to work towards the
vision of the organization, and contribute their ideas towards innovation and creativity for the
success of the organization. They are passionate, innovative, and constructive in their work to the
organization. They perform consistently at high level.

 Actively Disengaged: Employees belonging to this category aren’t just unhappy at work; they are
also busy exhibiting their unhappiness. They disperse negative energy into the organization, causing
severe damage to the organization. However, they are likely to serve the organization for a longer
time but will always try to undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish.

 Not Engaged: A considerable percentage of employees in an organization belong to this category.

They lack passion and drive and are seldom concerned for the betterment of the organization. They
are used to focus on the task rather than goal or vision of the company. They do the work what is
told or according to the instruction. They won’t contribute ideas, creativity, or innovation. They
might be positive or negative. They are not proactive.

Ways to Secure Desirable Employee Engagement

To combat employee disengagement, an organization needs to have certain principles or ways.

 A supportive organizational culture: An organization leaves no stone unturned in keeping

continuous employee engagement. It needs to create a culture that fosters engaged employees. A
supportive organizational culture works as a major attraction for the employees to join.

 A vision to reckon with: An organization should have a well-defined, wellcommunicated and strong
vision which attracts and encourages employees to work for it. The vision needs to be shared with
the employees in the organization by the leaders or management across the organization. The vision
when communicated keeps the employees emotionally attached to it. As a result, the employees
remain committed and loyal to the organization.

Effective communication: Organization is a place where an employee spends a good portion of their
life. Good and effective communication channels are thus helpful in fostering employee engagement
within an organization. Employees are interested to know how the organization is doing on financial,
social, and goal achievement fronts. The immediate boss or the team manager should be easily
accessible to the employees.

 Employee development: Every employee in the organization wants to grow in terms of salary,
perks, and position. They always seek opportunity to grow within the organization. Line managers or
team leaders have some responsibility to groom or develop the team members through appropriate
training and knowledge upgrade frequently.

 Reward and recognition: Reward, recognition and appreciation are the things used to increase the
motivation level of employees. Employees get a feeling of their effort being validated and
acknowledged by the superiors. They feel to be a valuable part of the organization.

 Employee satisfaction: Employees feel satisfied when they are considered as part of the process,
their opinion gets valued, and they are on the forefront to achieve the desired goals. Organizations
should solicit the employee’s feedback, ideas, and thought process as employee satisfaction leads to
increased production and profitability.

 Competitive pay and benefits: Offering viable compensation, benefits, good incentive plans, proper
working condition, and flexibility are the necessary preconditions for strong employee engagement.

TALENT DEVELOPMENT: Need Analysis

Types of Need Analysis

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Competency Development
Developing Leadership Talent
It is essential that organisations do what they can to create a context supportive of developing
leadership talent. The somewhat callous practice of simply throwing talented people into the
fire to see who survives fails to capitalise on what has been learned about experience. Taking
leadership development seriously means using experience wisely to help those with sufficient
dedication and desire to learn the craft.
Given that learning from experience is, in the end, up to the person having it, and that an
organisation cannot force anyone to develop, a premium is placed on finding the leverage
points that increase the probability that talented people will develop into more effective
leaders.

Five leverage points to support learning from experience

1. Identify developmental experiences

The easiest place to start is to gather people who know the organisation well and have
them identify developmental projects, start-ups, turnarounds, bosses, etc. It is also
straightforward in many cases to figure out how, in individual situations, jobs can be
developmentally enriched without requiring the incumbent to change jobs.

While this buffet of potent experiences is demonstrably loaded with potential

learning, not all of the lessons available are equally valuable to the organisation. For
this reason, it is important to prioritise developmental needs in light of the
organisation's strategy or business model and values.
 This leads to questions about where those experiences can be found, and, if they don't
exist, what alternatives can be found or fabricated to prepare leaders for that future. It
also raises at least two other crucial issues:

1. How do we know who has the potential to learn from the experiences and
become, over time, the leaders we need; and
2. How do we insure that those people, once identified, actually get the
experiences that we think they need?
2. Identify potential

Assuming that all effective leaders or executives or managers are alike, whether in
personality or style, or that all share the same set of attributes, is an appealing
simplicity - but denies everyday experience.

A more useful approach, and one with more promise for improving leadership
development, assumes that different people have different sets of attributes that they
bring to situations, and that there are different ways to handle the same situation
effectively.

Over time, one would expect that the "potential" of individuals could be assessed,
however crudely, by evidence of the ability to learn from the experiences they have
already had, and progress in the ability to meet the increasingly difficult demands of
leadership jobs.

Organisations could then gain leverage over development by managing the

identification of leadership potential such that those with the most potential at a given
point in time have access to the experiences they need.
3. The right experience at the right time

Assuming a reasonable pool of high potential talent, and a rich selection of

strategically relevant developmental opportunities, it would seem we've found pig
heaven. All that's left is matching those with developmental needs with the
appropriate experiences.

But organisations need results and giving rookies - even talented ones - experiences
for which they are not fully qualified does not optimise short-term results.

To the extent, then, that using experience for development depends on who gets what
experience, there are significant forces working against developmental moves. It is
much easier to send someone to a program than to offer up a talented person for an
assignment in a different part of the organisation, or to risk sacrificing results by
taking on a developmental candidate.

Organisations can gain leverage over development by taking actions to better match
developmental needs to developmental experiences. This can be achieved by a variety
of means, including:
 1. Making sure that hiring managers understand the development process and
expectations around it
2. Building a culture for using experience for development
3. Modeling appropriate behaviour through the actions of senior managers with
their people as well as themselves
4. Increasing accountability by measuring and sanctioning developmental
activities
5. Creating processes to enhance movement across experiences, such as
candidate slates
6. Succession planning with a developmental twist
4. Increase the odds that learning will occur

Everyday life has taught us that people may learn nothing, learn the wrong thing, or
forget what was learned, and that they do such things on a regular basis. If we are
intent on throwing people into fires - even the right people, into the right fires, at the
right time - then it behooves us to do what we can to insure that they learn what we
threw them in there to learn!

At first that seems a simple task, especially since so many tools have been developed
specifically to help managers learn. The arsenal is packed with 360-degree feedback
instruments, internal and external coaches, educational programs of every shape and
size, books loaded with development advice, motivational speakers, elaborate
performance management systems with at least annual feedback, HR staffs with a
mission, action learning models, and more.

There is no doubt that each of these can be extremely powerful. But with all of these
resources available, it's nothing short of miraculous that so many managers manage to
maintain mediocrity!

Research shows however, other than the incumbent, the immediate boss has the most
impact - for good or bad - on development. Not only does the boss control access to
potentially valuable experiences, they set the objectives, evaluate performance (and
often potential), control many resources, and essentially determine the nature of the
work.

In the final analysis, though, it all boils down to the person who is developing. All too
often, however, organisations use that fact to abrogate their responsibility for creating
the opportunities for growth and for providing the soil that supports it. At a minimum,
a person who wants to develop needs the information, tools, and opportunities to do
so.
5. Focus on transitions and have a career-long perspective

Time and resources are always limited, and development of talent, as important as it
is, is not the first priority of most organisations. In developing talent, as with any
other strategic choice, resources must be concentrated in the places with the greatest
potential impact. The leverage points described above represent such places, but the
 recommendations are largely systemic, while the phenomenon is highly individual.

Leverage point five is all about following careers and being present at key transitions
- connecting what we know about effectively using experience for development, with
the individuals who need it, when they need it. Organisations likely differ in how
many and what kinds of transitions constitute the path to leadership mastery, but
identifying them is possible.

Organisations certainly differ in the size of the workforce, making a focus on

individuals challenging as the number of employees (and proportionately the number
with leadership potential) grows larger, but it is less of an information technology
problem than one of attention and knowing what needs to be recorded.
Even if some leaders are "born" there clearly aren't enough such gifted people to go around. It
is time to move past the naïve notion that mastery of leadership can be achieved in the
classroom or through piecemeal application of human resource programs and tools and
embrace the opportunity of experience.