Talent Management: A Complete Guide [2022]

Besides loyal customers, an increased market share, and lasting brand relevance, there’s one more thing companies strive to secure: the best employees. Highly skilled and engaged human resources are the drivers of business success, after all.

This is why it’s important for HR teams to tighten and bolster their talent management strategies. Without them, organizations risk losing or missing out on the best people for the job.

If you would like to revisit your own human resource management practices, this article will provide a refresher on the talent management process along with the strategies behind it. We’ll also take a look at how you can use Venngage’s design tools for HR to both enrich and standardize your employee communication programs.

What is talent management?

Talent management is the cycle of recruiting and training employees with the goal of keeping them in an organization. It is a never-ending process as it is concerned with the development of a high-quality workforce.

Integrated talent management

Done properly, talent management can improve a company’s performance through acquiring and retaining the best talent across teams. More importantly, it can future-proof corporations by continuously developing employees’ skills so they can remain competitive and innovative.

To achieve all this, companies must adopt an integrated talent management program, which unites all of HR’s functions into one cohesive system that’s aligned to and supportive of a company’s business strategy and organizational objectives.

Simply put, integrated talent management makes sure that whatever happens, an organization can keep thriving with a high-performance workforce, even as team members come and go.

The difference between talent management and talent acquisition

Talent management is often confused with talent acquisition. But while these two HR processes are related, they cover varying aspects of human capital management. And as HR professionals know, understanding that difference is key to effective implementation.

Talent management is concerned with the whole process of securing high-potential candidates, mentoring, and motivating them throughout their stay with a company. It keeps top talent within an organization through employee engagement and employee retention programs. However, it also involves succession planning and sets guidelines for employee departures to ensure seamless and low-impact transitions.

The sample mind map below shows the range and variety of functions that fall under talent management.

Talent acquisition, on the other hand, is focused on the recruitment process. It involves workforce planning and hiring talented employees to fill manpower requirements.

This infographic describes in detail what the talent acquisition process can include:

As you will see in the next section of this article, acquisition is a key component of the talent management system, but it is only the beginning of it.

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The talent management process

There’s no standard talent management model that applies to all. The system’s design varies from one company to another, though an integrated talent management strategy typically entails the following.

Step 1: Planning

The talent management process begins with identifying the human capital requirements of an organization. This can be done by answering these questions:

What roles need to be filled?
What type of talent are you looking for?
What are the skills required for these positions?

Your answers to these questions, among others, will help you develop job descriptions as well as a clear course of action to guide you in your search for the best candidates.

Step 2: Attracting

Once you’ve written the job descriptions and had your recruiting plans in place, it’s time to begin the search. At this point, HR managers take to the job market to announce their vacancies.

It’s usually best for job ads to include as many details as possible, like in the example below, to get job seekers to pay attention.

Recruitment, however, isn’t as simple as publishing your openings. You need to focus on attracting the best talents from the get-go.

According to Harvard Business Review, a strong employer brand helps to influence candidates to consider working for an organization. So find opportunities to build your reputation and increase your visibility as an employer.

The key is to present your company as a great place to work. As such, your strategy could include sharing inspirational content, like in the sample below, across your social networks. This shows that you, as an employer, are invested in employee welfare and development.

A high-quality employer brand will attract high-quality candidates—and with the right promotional tactics, your inboxes will be teeming with resumes, and your schedule with interviews, sooner than later.

Step 3: Selecting

Once interviews are done and dusted, it’s time to begin the selection process. As talent management practices go, this can be the most grueling with the pressures that come with choosing the single best person from a bevy of top talent.

You can ease the task with a simple yet precise interview form, like the one below, which has criteria-based grading sections and note boxes for each interview question. Fill out one form for each applicant you interview so you’ll have comprehensible references to guide and inform your shortlisting process later on.

Internally, you can also create HR infographics to remind recruitment managers of your methodologies, tips, and best practices. This can ensure that they follow the correct steps to get all the details relevant to your recruitment and selection process.

The information contained in these infographics should ideally be standard company policies, such as those in the templates below, so they can be used any time a hiring requirement pops up.

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Step 4: Developing

This phase of the talent management system deals with training and mentoring the selected applicant from the moment he or she signs on. This usually begins with an onboarding program, where new employees can learn the company’s ways of working, their teams, roles, and job expectations.

A checklist like the one below can facilitate the onboarding process, making sure all bases are covered so new team members receive all the help they need to get accustomed to their new work environment.

You can also equip new hires with an employee handbook or onboarding manual, such as the one below, to aid them through the adjustment period.

Step 5: Retaining

Talent management is all about taking measures to keep top talent in a company for the long term. As such, it involves a lot of employee retention strategies.

In order to retain employees, organizations must constantly motivate, challenge, and contribute to their professional growth. Continuous learning and development programs can expand skill sets and equip them with the facilities they need to stay competitive.

Beyond that, employees need to feel that they are effective and appreciated for what they bring to the table. This can be achieved through rewards, incentives, promotion opportunities, and periodic evaluations that recognize their contributions and set new goals for them to work towards.

It’s important to communicate these developments to your employees clearly through regular performance reviews. Conduct these at significant junctures in their journey as members of your team to keep them engaged.

Templates like the ones below provide a framework for clear and effective performance analyses and assessments.

You can also help team leaders conduct reviews effectively by providing visual aids for performance management procedures and techniques, such as the mind map below.

Step 6: Transitioning

The last phase of the talent management process deals with transitions.

Change is inevitable, even in human resources. So while you aim to retain talented employees, time will come when they choose to pursue alternate career paths and either resign or leave their current role for a new one elsewhere in the company.

HR needs to prepare for this eventuality by setting processes and guidelines for a smooth transition that will have little to no impact on an organization’s strategies and targets. This can include archiving files in a communal database as well as conducting exit interviews to determine an employee’s reasons for leaving. The latter allows companies to identify areas for improvement so they can refine their approach to managing talent.

Related:

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FAQs on talent management

What are the key components of talent management?

An effective talent management strategy entails identifying manpower requirements and planning for recruitment, attracting and selecting top talent, retaining employees through continuous motivation and development, and facilitating transitions to ease their impact on a company’s performance.

What falls under talent management?

Talent management encompasses all of HR’s key functions including recruitment, training, and managing compensation and benefits.

What is a talent management framework?

A talent management framework systematizes an organization’s employee recruitment and retention strategies. It also guides their workforce development initiatives.

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Supplement your integrated talent management strategy with Venngage’s visual templates!

An integrated talent management strategy is a remarkable way to build and foster a high-performance and imperturbable workforce. Maximize its potential with visual aids that standardize your practices, methods, and techniques for every phase of the process.

You can easily make your own human resource infographics, talent development mind maps, and employee evaluation forms, among others, with Venngage’s highly customizable templates and drag-and-drop editor.