Talent Management and Human Resource Development UFHRD, University College Cork, June 4th 2015 David Collings Ph.D. @collingsdg Objectives Ø Introduce talent mangement Ø Progress in research Ø Prospects for area Ø Gaps in understanding and future research Context of Talent Management Ø The War on Talent- McKinsey 1997 Ø 51% of managers undertake TM activities (CIPD, 2006) Ø Majority of CEO spend >20% of time on TM issues (EIU, 2006) Ø Too important to be left to HR alone (EIU) Ø 1 of 5 critical challenges facing HR in Europe (BCG, 2013) 1
Source BCG 2013 TM in Ireland Ø CEOs perceive availability of talent & skills as key threat to growth prospects Ø Talent retention top priority (40% of HR leaders) Ø Ability to manage talent top skills gap for HR function (34%) Ø Just 31% of org had formal and developed TM programme in place PWC, HR Director Pulse Survey, 2013 Definition Ø Key weakness Ø Only 20% of managers had formal definition (CIPD) Ø Disturbing lack of clarity regarding definition, scope & overall goals of TM (Lewis and Heckman, 2006) Ø isn t a single consistent of concise definition (Aston & Morton, 2005) Ø At least five key streams of thought 2
TM & HRD Ø Focus of HRD on developing and unleashing expertise for the purposes of improving individual, team work process & organisation system performance (Swanson & Holton, 2009) Ø L&D avenue for individual growth Ø Organizations improved with human expertise Ø Commitment to people & human potential Ø Desire for healthy people & organistaions Collings & Mellahi framework Strategic TM: Activates & processes that involve the systematic identification of key positions which differentially contribute to the organisation s sustainable competitive advantage, the development of a talent pool of high potential & high performing incumbents to fill these roles, & the development of a differentiated HR architecture to facilitate filling these positions with competent incumbents & to ensure their continued commitment to the organisation Collings & Mellahi framework 3
Pivotal Talent Positions Ø A performers or A positions? Ø When employees are able to contribute to a firm s strategic objectives they have (strategic) value however not all strategic processes will be highly dependent on human capital (Becker and Huselid) Pivotal Talent Positions Ø disproportionate importance to a company s ability to execute parts of its strategy & the wide variability in the quality of work deployed by ees in these positions (Huselid et al) Ø Fundamental shift Ø Jobs traditionally differentiated in terms of inputs Ø New focus on potential outputs Value to Org (Customer experience) ROIP for a Pilot (Boudreau & Jeuthasan 2011) Legally required Elements of job Airline s minimum Performance expectations Discretionary services or behaviour 4
Value to Org (Customer experience) ROIP for a Flight Attendant (Boudreau & Jeuthasan 2011) Legally required Elements of job Airline s minimum Performance expectations Discretionary services or behaviour Developing a talent pool Ø High potential and high performing incumbents which the org can draw upon to fill pivotal talent positions Ø Proactive identification of talent Ø Manage the risks associated with pivotal positions (Cappelli, 2008) Ø Potential mismatch between ees and skills Qualitative- skills required Quantitative- too many- redundancies, too few inability to execute strategy Developing a talent pool Ø Combine internal development & external recruitment Ø Systematically identify future business needsknowledge, skills and capabilities-that may be required but are currently unavailable Ø Develop talent in organisational context rather than for specific roles? Ø Prevents developing employees to fit narrow specialised roles 5
Workforce differentiation Ø Tradition of research tracing link between HRM & firm performance Ø Best practice V best fit Ø More recent recognition of differential contributions of specific groups of ees to firm performance (Lepak and Snell) Ø For talent pools commitment-orientated HR Ø Shift from transactional to relational psychological contract Where are we now? Ø Google Scholar 774,000 hits Ø Annual EIASM workshop Ø Regular SIs- JWB, IJHRM, HRMR, EJTD Ø Sessions at major international conferences AOM, SMS, AIB, UFHRD. Ø Tracks Dutch HR Conference and others Research base Ø Approximately 140 research papers (2014) Ø 85% since 2010 Ø Diverse outlets-key JWB, IJHRM, HRMR Ø Almost 40% of papers conceptual Ø Empirical research largely qualitative Ø US leading, UK, IRE and NDL 6
Research trends Ø Significant increase in literature Ø Phonomenon-based (Dries, 2013) Ø Managerialist and performative agenda Ø Indivdual perspective largely neglected Dominant theories Ø RBV Ø People as competitive advantage Ø C&M definition used in 1/3 published papers Ø International HRM Ø Global key theme Ø Both comparative & international Ø Employee assessment Ø How talent is identified Ø Employee reactions to talent identification Ø Secondary focus in RB and global frameworks Ø Institutionalism Ø How national, organisational culture, power relations, & labour markets drive TM Ø More critical perspective 7
A neglected literature base Ø There is however much work not classified as TM by authors Ø More recent work on star performers Ø Aguinis, O Brien, Ployhart etc Ø Human capital research Ø Bidwell, Ployhart, Groysberg etc Predicting star performance Ø Aguinis & O Boyle- power law distribution of performance in contemporary organisations Ø Matthew BidwellØ premium for external hires Ø More likely to promote to pivotal roles Ø Boris Groysberg Ø when a company hires a star Ø The star s performance plummets Ø Sharp decline in group functioning Ø Company s market value falls Ø Star stock analysts (n=1052) Ø 46% did poorly in the year after the changed firms Ø Performance plummeting by an average of 20% Ø Took up to 5 years to return to original level Ø Ague that just 30% of performance is determined by individual Ø 70% from resources & qualities specific to the firm that developed them Ø Reputation, IT, leadership, training, team chemistry (Groysberg et al, 2004) 8
Ø Former GE execs- hired as CEOs 89-01 Ø Positive impact on share price when hired Ø 11 matched new companies 14.1% + returns Ø 9 mismatched new companies 39.8% - returns Ø Also positive effect when 3 or more alumni joined CEO s new team, (- when one or less) Ø Key explanatory factors- how similar the systems & culture of new company were to GEs Ø Generic v firm specific human capital (Groysberg et al, 2006) Implications Ø Make over buy for citical roles Ø When hiring stars- consider hiring members of their team or network also Ø Context matters- transfer will work best when environment is similar to old one Explaining the lack of translation Ø Contrast to phonomenon-based tradition in Europe Ø Theory driven agenda in top journals Ø TM not key word, discourse not used, implications for practice afterthought Ø Failure to replicate in practitioner press (c.f. Groysberg, Aguinis) 9
Towards a research agenda Ø Novel DVs beyond performance- sustainability, values alignment Ø Employees experience, perceptions and views (Nishii et al, 2008) Ø Boundary conditions of performance, transfer etc. Ø More ambitions research strategies Ø Move beyond consideration of individual TM practices in isolation- a systems approach Ø Contrast to narrowed focus on particular parts of the organization, while neglecting organizational-level phenomena (Greenwood & Millar, 2010) Ø Implications for HRD- traditionally focused on isolating effect of HRD Conclusions Ø Talent management brings people management to the C-suite to a far greater degree than the past Ø We are at an exiting time in the evolution of talent management research Ø Opportunity for novel and impactful research Ø HRD has a key role to play 10