Talent management is a way to impact employee retention.

What is talent management?

Talent management strategies are designed to attract, develop, retain, and use employees with the necessary skills and aptitude to meet a business current and future needs. (SHRM.org)

The definition of talent management has evolved from administrative to what the Society of Human Resource Management calls a continuous organizational practice that includes succession planning, leadership development, retention, and career planning.

 By engaging your current team in career planning and creating meaningful conversations between supervisors and employees, organizations can more quickly fill internal positions and is less likely to lose employees. If employees have an opportunity to communicate about career planning with the organization, this will help with succession planning, internal transition, and employee engagement.  

What are some talent management steps?

Working with employees to create a development plan as part of career planning. 
This should be more than just what types of courses or seminars they would like to take.  It is not just about identifying strengths and weaknesses; it is about getting at what employees want to achieve as part of their career. Exploring goals and values that have been consistent throughout an employee’s life can help them realize what they seek in their work life.  This type of conversation helps determine and shape what an individual wants to learn, experience, and develop to achieve new roles or more satisfaction in their existing role.  Development opportunities can include overseeing a task force or committee, learning how to efficiently run a meeting or how to address work issues directly.  These types of experiences can help develop team members through examples.

Checking in to evaluate progress in development.
Plans work better when they are regularly reviewed and discussed.  These types of check-ins help a team member determine if they have developed a new skill or to identify ways to continue to develop these skills.   Getting team members involved in their own development helps them to own their career path and plan.  Determining team members competencies and having clear competency-based job descriptions is needed in this process.  Pairing an employee with a mentor will help encourage knowledge sharing and skill building. Rotating departments helps to broaden perspectives and build leadership and strategic thinking.

Succession planning is also an important aspect of talent management. 
This effort should be an organizational leadership effort, not just an HR effort.  Succession planning is not just for large complex organizations, but smaller organizations can also benefit from this process.  Planning for who would replace a key person whose departure could disrupt the organization is cost effective and positive for the work environment.  If employees have been developed and mentored to move to the next level, this process can help fill vacancies faster and be a positive message for other team members.

Hire Outcomes HR’s focus is to identify quality professionals, to achieve higher outcomes for patients or residents and key stakeholders. Hire Outcomes HR can keep recruiting costs down by complimenting your internal team and resources. With our focus on quality, we can help you increase your retention by finding the right candidate for your environment. It is cost effective for us to help you build a pipeline to help you hire the right candidates and keep them engaged.

Source: Engaging in Succession Planning (shrm.org) 5 Talent Management Trends and the HR Skills They Require (shrm.org)