Understanding the Role of Learning and development In Talent Development

As a concept and quality, talent development refers to the belief that having a talent is something that one is born with. Talent as a construct typically takes the shape of people’s perceptions of a person’s abilities in a certain field, which gives him or her the capacity to be seen as more advantageous to an organization or a society. It states that you either have a particular talent or not and one does not require training or experience to acquire them (Sparrow et al., 15). Talent development as an attribute is a state where one has a natural disposition to become good at something without being trained or empowered to possess a particular skill. Examples of talents as attributes are; having a commanding voice, a winning smile, or the ability to put people at ease.

Talent as high performing

This is the perception that a talented person is one who is able to show focus in a particular area of specialization and complementary skills required in innovativeness and production of consistent outcomes. It is a characteristic of a person to pursue high performance by complying with particular operational rules, resolving conflicts, and being accountable in his or her tasks. When a person is able to achieve or surpass the set standards in the performance of a particular task, it is perceived that he or she is talented (Sireesha et al. 6). When organizations believe that a talented person is one who can contribute to a higher performance in tasks, they tend to employ employees with the ability to produce a particular goods or service in large amounts compared with those whose outputs are low.

Universal v contextual meanings

Universal meaning of talent refers to the perception that talent development involves the ability of an employee to be cooperative with other employees in the achievement of the goals and objectives of an organization. In universal meaning of talent development, it is perceived that a talented employee is one who can be proactive in resolving a range of challenges without necessarily have skills or solving a particular challenge. The contextual meaning of talent development is based on the view that an employee who is talented is one who is able to apply personal skills, initiatives, and strategies in the performance of tasks and promoting individual success in a particular task (Noe 7). An example of a contextual talent is the ability of a customer care agent to promote communication with customers in a manner that they are convinced to buy a product.

Implications of different meanings of talent development

The implication of talent development as a construct and attribute is that an organization will believe that there is no need to provide talent management services to its employees due to the perception that one either has a particular talent or not. When it is believed that talent is a construct, it cannot be possible to promote the versatility of employees because they will only be assigned in the areas where they are naturally competent. Talent as a construct and attribute is targeting high performance in an individual because it emphasize on talent management for a person in the areas where they are competent and excluding those who do not have the competence.

The implication of talent as high performing is that organizations will tend to focus on managing talents of employees to perform well rather than emphasizing on the acquisition of skills and knowledge in particular areas of specialization. Furthermore, there will be greater preference for employees who have the ability to perform better or provide a higher output in operations compared with those whose output is low. This will result into adverse impacts on other groups such as employees who are specialized in the performance of specific tasks which do not require a high output as a measure of one’s ability (Matthews 13). There will be a design of organizational activities and processes in a manner that promotes the achievement of specific outcomes such as high profitability and increased output of employees. Goal setting will be done in such a way that employees are required to achieve high goals. This measure of talent will result into the development of a culture which focuses on team collaborations and improving work processes as means of improving organizational output.

The implication of universal perception of talent is that an organization will promote the practice of managing employees’ talents to be competent in a number of areas of competence such as operations, customer service, and management. It also implies that there will be a higher preference for employees who have the ability to perform tasks which require different skills in different areas of specialization within an organization. Employees who have the ability to perform better in different tasks to which they are assigned will be perceived to be more talented and rewarded compared with those who have specialization in specific areas. The implication of talent as being contextual is that employees will be trained to be more ready to adapt to particular situations depending on the challenges encountered in an organization (Lieberman et al. 5). There will be more preference for employees who have the ability to adapt to different work demands compared with those who are not.

Purposes of talent Development

Achieving organizational objectives

Talent management is important in ensuring organizational objectives are achieved because the procedures followed in the performance of tasks are improved. When employees have the skills and competence of performing tasks, they are able to achieve objectives such as increased performance, higher productivity, reduced losses, and a high likelihood of an organization to achieve its mission, vision, and objectives. In the present business environment, each organization is attempting to achieve growth, expansion, and increased market share. This has been achieved by increasing the competitiveness of their workforces. As a result, organizations have focused on the selection of the most qualified or talented individuals to their workforce and providing them with additional talent management tasks which results into an increase in their ability to promote the achievement of its goals and objectives (Hedayati, Amir, and Jessica 264). Talent management is also effective in the achievement of organizational objectives because employees are empowered to perform tasks in which they are competent and less likely to cause low customer satisfaction in cases of a product to be provided to customers.

Building internal capability

Talent development promotes the ability of an organization to build internal capabilities which provide them with the ability to achieve higher performance in sections of the organization such as production, operation, customer service, warehouse management, marketing, and storage of the final products. When talent development is provided to employees, they acquire capabilities of solving internal difficulties without the need to seek the services of professionals or those who have specialized talent management in areas such as customer service, product design, operational management, and reduction of cost of production. Talent management ensures employees are equipped with skills of managing resources of an organization in a manner that there is little wastage and low cost is incurred in the production of a particular product or service.

Achieving personal objectives

Talent development in the forms of acquisition of particular skills can be important in promoting personal objectives such as the production of a product for personal use or for sale. When a person has talent in a particular area of professional practice, he or she can use it as a means of earning income such as through self-employment or performing a task or an activity for pay. Personal development objective can be achieved in terms of the ability to use one’s talent to contribute to a person’s domestic needs such as constructing a personal residential house due to the possession of design skills (Harrison 26). When one acquires talent, personal objectives can be achieved in terms of organizing tasks and duties in a manner that promotes the achievement of the expected outcomes while reducing losses of time and resources.

Contributing to external recognition

Most organizations perform talent development in order to promote the competitiveness of their employees in the performance of a particular task or the provision of customer services in order to develop a reputation which enables them to achieve external recognition. This results into a positive perception from customers, the general public, shareholders, and suppliers. Due to increased external recognition, there is a tendency of an organization to achieve customer loyalty which is a major objective of many business organizations.

Influence of organizational Context in Talent development

Organization size

Organizational size has an impact on the ability of the management to provide talent management services to their employees. In small organizations, the management is provided with the opportunity to organize the talent management process using few resources and effort because only few employees need to be trained to acquire a particular talent (Du Plessis, Andries, and Sukesh 19). In larger organizations, efforts have to be made to increase the number of trainers and coaches to employees which can be a limiting factor in case of incapability of an organization to meet the cost of talent development.

Mission and Purpose

If an organization has a mission of promoting competitiveness of its employees, it will tend to intensify the efforts of providing them with talent development services irrespective of the cost of the task. On the other hand, in an organization where the mission or purpose is to achieve its objectives without necessarily empowering employees, there is lesser tendency to provide talent development services to them (Garavan et al. 25). If the purpose of an organization is to specialize in the provision of a more competent product that surpasses similar products produced by its competitors, it will tend to promote talent development efforts.

Reputational and Financial strength

Reputational strength can be a factor that can motivate an organization to promote talent development practices because it will tend to equip its employees with talents with make them unique and distinguishable from their competitors. The overall goal of talent management will be to promote the reputation of the company. In companies with higher financial strengths, they will be in a position to invest in activities that promote the talents of their employees. They will also emphasize the investment in employee talent development in order to promote financial performance of the company.

Stakeholders (shareholders, employee, line managers)

Stakeholders have direct impact on the likelihood of an organization to implement talent development practices. In a situation where an organization’s stakeholders such as shareholders resolve that talent development is the only way through which an organization can achieve competitiveness, the management will formulate policies of promoting talent development and retention of those who have talents. Employees also have an impact on the likelihood of a practice of talent development in an organization through their suggestions and recommendations of the talents they would like to acquire. Similarly, employees who demonstrate talents in particular areas of specialization can motivate the management to provide them with opportunities for talent development. When employees are supportive to one another, they are likely to promote talent development by coaching and providing support to their colleagues (Campbell, Victoria, and Wendy 165). The recommendation of line managers for talent management of employees in their areas of management can lead to the implementation of talent management policies. This can be in the form of implementation of measures that improve the talents of qualified and competent staff to acquire particular skills in the management of internal operations within a particular department.

Evaluation of ways of Managing Talent

In integrated approach of managing talent, the management of an organization provides talent management for all employees at the same time. Talent management in a particular talent involves equipping employees with similar skills, resources, and trainers. The talent management team focuses on promoting the competence of employees in the areas which they are likely to contribute equally towards the achievement of its objectives. Integrated talent management, the talent management team can ensure employees are assembled in a particular location where they can be provided with specific talent management technique and evaluation is done to determine those who demonstrate skills in a particular area of practice. The effectiveness of this approach of talent management is that the management of an organization is able to use few resources and experts to provide talent management to employees irrespective of their number. It also results into equipping of a high number of employees with a particular skill which improves their overall output. In case of departure of one employee from the organization, it is possible to benefit from other employees who have similar talents (Annakis et al. 164). The weakness of this strategy of talent development among employees is that there is a high likelihood that a particular talent management process may not result into the desired employee competence due to lack of direct contact with the trainer. There is a chance that some employees may develop negative attitude towards the process due to lack of contact with the experts which can make it less effective.

Separated technique of talent management can be achieved when talent management is done to each individual employee. In this case, the professional involved in building talent can promote direct contact and coaching to each individual employee as well as provision of support in areas where the employee shows lack of motivation. The effectiveness of this approach is that there is a direct contact between the employee and the trainer which increases his or her cooperation and willingness to comply with the directions of talent management. This method also has the ability to promote monitoring of an employee to promote the achievement of the overall goal of promoting a particular talent. The weakness of this technique of managing talent is that it requires more resources in terms of time and trainers which may not be easily available in a situation where many employees need to be trained. It may also not be effective when managing talents of many employees within a limited time since each employee will require his or her time to undergo talent management (Sparrow et al. 6). However, an organization may opt to use integrated approach or a separated approach in management of talent depending on their confidence on any of the methods, the availability of trainers, and the impact of the talent management on the achievement of the goals and objectives of the organization.

Role of Contextual factors (3) to be considered when implementing different talent management techniques

If a decision is taken to implement the organization-wide approach in management of talent, the contextual factor that will need to be observed include the size of the management area such as ensuring that employees fit in the allocated the venue for coaching or any form of talent management. There will be the need to determine mode of communication which will improve the ability of employees to understand the directions provided by the trainer so that they can improve their talents. The talent manager will also need to devise an effective method of monitoring the employees so that they are monitored effectively so that those who need support get the assistance in the areas of need (Garavan et al. 20). There will be the need to invest in talent management equipment that meets the population of employees.

If an organization uses the separated approach in talent management, the contextual factors that will need to be accounted for include: the need to increased interactions with employees and understanding their strengths, capabilities and the challenges they encounter in acquisition of a particular talent, the talent management resources they would prefer to be used in training them to acquire the talents, and the duration of activities such as coaching they will need to be trained to achieve better competence (Harrison 9). There will be the need to consider the contextual factors such as the working environments in which the employees will be assigned so that talent development is performed with the focus on equipping them with skills of achieving the goals of those areas of work.

In case an organization uses focused approaches in management of talents, it will be necessary to ensure that employees are grouped into categories depending on the talent that needs to be provided such as in sales, customer relationship management (CRM), or operational strategies. This should be followed by ensuring each group or category of employees is provided with a trainer who is specialized in a particular area of activities of the organization (Hedayati 265). During the implementation of focused approaches, it will be recommended that the management of the organization must promote the practice of motivating individual employees to develop positive attitude towards the process of managing talent and seek support in any aspect of acquisition of talent.

Roles of Learning and Development (L&D) function in organizing and Managing Talent

Needs assessment

Learning and development (L&D) will be important in conducting needs assessment in terms of the objectives of the organizations, operational output, and resources required to manage the talents of employees in an effective manner. L&D will involve the identification of the specific and relevant skills that employees need to be provided so that they can acquire the competence of providing a particular product or service to the satisfaction of customers (Matthews 19). L&D will also contribute to an effective assessment of employee tasks and activities that need to be performed while talent development is ongoing so that they can acquire new skills while the target output of the company is achieved. Furthermore, L&D will contribute to the assessment of the training needs such as the qualifications of experts in particular area of training to provide talent management to the employees.

Internal talent development programs

L&D will be effective in establishing the internal talent development programs that promote the ability of employees to improve their competences in providing services to customers, communication with suppliers, and improving the reputation of the business through public relations which results into an increase in its competitiveness. It will involve ensuring employees are able to perform tasks such as providing services to customers and managing internal operations of the business while undergoing training. During the process, L&D techniques will be used to determine the weaknesses in talents of employees so that they can be empowered to acquire higher competence (Noe 12). L&D will also promote the assessment of communication systems and processes used in the organization among employees or between employees and customers so that they can be provided with a program that focuses on improving communication talents.

Coaching and mentoring

L&D will provide the opportunity for employees to perform their tasks and undergo mentoring and coaching while performing them. For instance, the talent development experts will be provided with the opportunities to provide additional guidance on methods of performing tasks while undertaking them. This will promote correction of errors that are likely to be made by employees when not provided with coaching (Hedayati, Amir, and Jessica 270). L&D will promote mentoring employees in the forms of motivating them about their abilities to produce a particular output in the tasks they perform based on the assessment of the experts.

Aligning organizations of talent development with organizational objectives

L&D will promote the alignment of talent development activities with the objectives of the organization because the talent development experts will observe the tasks in which employees are involved so that they can develop their talents in those tasks (Du Plessis 14). The processes of talent development will incorporate improving their speed of performance of tasks, increasing the quality of output, and improving the productivity of an organization. These are major objectives of most organizations which participate in activities that focus on providing quality products and services to their customers.

Works Cited

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