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5 - A supply-chain approach to talent management

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2014

By
J. R. Keller  and
Peter Cappelli
Edited by
Paul Sparrow ,
Hugh Scullion  and
Ibraiz Tarique
J. R. Keller
Affiliation:
Wharton’s Center for Human Resources
Peter Cappelli
Affiliation:
Wharton School University
Paul Sparrow
Affiliation:
Lancaster University
Hugh Scullion
Affiliation:
National University of Ireland, Galway
Ibraiz Tarique
Affiliation:
Pace University, New York
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Summary

Introduction

Talent management is the process through which employers anticipate and meet their needs for human capital. It is about getting the right people with the right skills into the right jobs at the right time. It is a lot to get right, and few organizations do. The difficulty in getting it right is a problem for firms insofar as talent-management decisions shape firm competencies and success. It is a problem for workers, because these decisions impact their careers. And it is ultimately a problem for society, because these decisions, in aggregate, ultimately affect economic growth and social stability.

If there is an upside to this problem, it is that we can easily identify its cause. The central new aspects of business are uncertainty and change, yet traditional workforce-planning models were based on predictability and stability, which allowed organizations to forecast demand with a relatively high degree of accuracy. The supply of talent was assumed to be under the organization’s control, given the prevalence of internal labor markets and single-firm careers. As the external environment became more difficult to forecast and traditional internal labor markets began to disintegrate, the inability of these strategic workforce planning systems to account for uncertainty in demand and disruptions in supply led many organizations to abandon them altogether.

Type
Chapter
Information
Strategic Talent Management
Contemporary Issues in International Context
 , pp. 117 - 150
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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