Editorial

Citation

Nolan, S. (2010), "Editorial", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 9 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2010.37209eaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Tourism Review, Volume 9, Issue 5

The attraction, development and retention of talent remain organizational priorities, and ones that have grown in significance during tough trading conditions. Internal investment in talent management can be hard to secure in such times, yet the competition for top talent is fierce. In this issue of Strategic HR Review, our authors address the topic of talent management from a range of interesting perspectives, including two different global views – one on retention and the other development – a review of how one organization is managing to keep its top talent despite the challenges, and a look at best practice in re-attracting and re-retaining. If talented individuals do leave, re-attracting them to the organization can bring back a fresh perspective and valuable new market experience and skills.

In the first paper, “Managing talent across a global workforce”, Stuart Woollard looks at talent management from a global perspective. He identifies challenges surrounding talent management, in particular the lack of consistency in its definition and the wide range of approaches in its implementation. Add a global context to this, and more confusion and complexity prevails, despite the fact that getting talent management right can be even more important for organizations operating across different borders and cultures. One of the issues integral to global talent management is how expatriates are treated, or are perceived to be treated, with high costs associated with high attrition rates. Woollard looks at the steps that one American multinational is taking to develop a global mobility solution to reduce high turnover rates among its international assignees.

“Arkadin develops employee talent through e-learning”, by Christophe Mulin and Hilary Reen, looks at how e-learning can help develop skills across a global and dispersed operation and tie local development in to central corporate strategy. Arkadin has taken a blended learning approach, creating distance learning academies that combine e-learning with more traditional offerings, such as mentoring and face-to-face training. Each academy is designed to match specific corporate requirements – for example, there is a talent management academy to improve performance in this area – and a centralized approach means that local operations are being upskilled to create an equal skills base that will support the corporate growth strategy. The application of e-learning overcomes many of the challenges of developing staff based in different countries and cultures, but also is a success with Arkadin’s employee base, which predominantly comes from the tech-savvy Generation Y cohort and is comfortable with the just-in-time, 24/7 nature of the e-learning component.

In “Retaining a high quality workforce – keeping hold of the family silver”, Judy Curson and Tom Skidmore look at how WRT, a group of dedicated healthcare workforce planners, has retained its skilled workforce through its focus on four key areas – recruitment, employee development, office environment and management style. They describe how in each of these areas great attention is paid to detail to ensure that the right staff are brought on board and that they are then helped to flourish in the organization. Flexibility is key, as is innovative thinking, with an open mind to employee development and management. As a result, the organization has a great track record in talent retention – a factor that is contributing to healthy income growth.

“Mining the good from the goodbyes”, by Anton Franckeiss, looks at the topic of re-engaging with top talent after it has left the organization. This case study focuses on the use of the “Green Room” process, which is designed to facilitate such re-engagement and also to identify the push and pull factors that are influencing recruitment and retention in order to refine and improve the employee value proposition. At one end of the process is a facilitated questionnaire to identify push and pull factors, and at the other end are networking, coaching and thought leadership to re-engage lost talent by providing personal development opportunities. Not all will return, but the process also aims to provide an organization with the feedback it needs to stop talent leakage in the long term through improved talent management processes and enhanced employer branding and positioning.

Sara NolanE-mail: shr@emeraldinsight.com