Talent Management in Dynamic Times - From 'War for Talent' to 'Wealth of Talent'

RESEARCH NOTE

Talent Management in Dynamic Times From ‘War for Talent’ to ‘Wealth of Talent’ Phillip Brown, Cardiff University Sahara Sadik, Institute for Adult Learning Hugh Lauder, University of Bath Johnny Sung, Institute for Adult Learning Simon Freebody, Institute for Adult Learning Centre for Skills, Performance & Productivity

Talent & dynamic change

Key findings

When we talk to companies about the pace and direction of change, we find that they perceive themselves to be in a ‘disruptive’ phase driven largely by new technologies. Fundamental questions are being asked from within and without, including how companies define their ‘value proposition’ in a fastchanging marketplace. Accompanying the anxiety in corporate boardrooms is a sense that it has become more difficult to define their talent requirements. Couched in vague terms such as ‘a special breed of talent’ or ‘those who can look into the crystal ball’, companies are investing in making more ‘scientific’ predictions to select and develop this pool of ‘high-potential talent’. Virtually all the companies we talked to remain locked into a ‘War for Talent’ model, where talent is seen to be in short supply, requiring companies to intensify their efforts to hire or retain the perceived limited pool of talent at all costs, to drive corporate change for growth. Despite the rapid increase in the numbers of welleducated entering the job market, leading corporations continue to fish in the same talent pools as industries converge, further intensifying the ‘War for Talent’. Yet this ‘War for Talent’ is not inevitable, and in fact undesirable in the current context of dynamic business change. We make this finding based on interviews with 82 senior corporate executives and 64 high-potential talent in 30 organisations across Singapore, China and

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‘War for Talent’ is a weak model for capability development in times of rapid change, given that it sets itself up on the principle of a scarcity with the assumption that companies can make predictions on a small group of talent to respond successfully to the disruptions they encounter.

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Even on its own terms, ‘War for Talent’ does not enable self-actualisation even for those identified as high-potential as the model rewards conformance, rather than performance.

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In contrast, a ‘Wealth of Talent’ model takes a generous view of the abilities of the whole workforce in a high-trust, high-discretion workplace with ample space for workers to be responsive and to shape the changing business environment. It gives greater focus to functional performance, requiring a wider proportion of the workface to exercise professional judgement and discretion that are consistent with high levels of employee skills and performance. The ‘Wealth of Talent’ model thus enables corporations to harness the best and most of their human capital to capitalise on opportunities brought about by new technologies and prepare for left-field competition.

SEPTEMBER 2018