Lecture 1 - Introduction
Article: The War for Talent
“Better talent is worth fighting for”
“Most companies are ill prepared, and even the best are vulnerable”
→ Employes need to think about the talent that they need, how to attract talented employees,
how to motivate them, and how to retain them.
The article was situated in a specific context in a specific situation:
1. Economic upturn → The economy was booming and this meant that more personnel
was needed, and better employees were needed.
2. Declining supply of talent in western economies → There were less younger people and
more older people in the market, and so younger people needed to be attracted.
3. Increasing market/business complexity → The more complex a business, the better the
employees need to be
4. Competition of small and medium sized companies → Smaller companies could provide
larger responsibilities, more dynamic environments, faster growth, and faster business
decisions without layers of bureaucracy that slowed down the larger businesses.
5. Increasing job mobility → Before people used to work in one place for their entire life, but
this shifted and employees began hopping between jobs and companies.
Certain solutions that organizations thought of to win talent
1. Build a talent mindset → In particular in the top management team.
2. Create a superior employee value proposition → try to attract employees by ensuring
they can offer something to employees that other organizations cannot. E.g. Hilton
created staff areas as nice as the guest areas.
3. Great talent sourcing strategy → How can you attract the best graduates? Many
organizations team up with universities and offer internships. E.g. Adobe
4. Talent development → Young employees look for opportunities to grow, E.g. Unilever
and their graduate trainee programme.
Recent research
CEOs are worried about the availability of key skills. They worry that they cannot find the right
people to fill certain important positions. Businesses are getting so much more complex due to
robotisation and automation, and what remains are the complex tasks which need to be done by
highly skilled people.
Traditional employment relationships → Lifelong employment in exchange for lifelong loyalty
(this is outdated!!!)
New employment relationship → A challenging job, good compensation, and opportunities to
learn in exchange for job performance for a short period of time.
,Lecture 2 - What is Talent?
Etymology
Etymology → The origin of words
Talent is an ancient term, which was actually used before as a measurement, e.g. a talent of
potatoes. Then talent became a form of currency. Then talent was used to describe a person’s
natural inclinations. Then talent was used to say something about the mental capacity of a
person (how smart). Now we see if a person is talented or not.
Talent is defined as
1. A special, often athletic, creative, or artistic aptitude
2. General intelligence or mental power
The term “talent” in the world of work
It appears that talent can mean whatever a business leader, writer, manager, etc. wants it to
mean. Everyone has their own idea of what the term “talent” does and does not encompass.
+ In addition, definitions of talent are concept specific!!! E.g schools, fashion industry,
hospitals, software programming…
Tensions when it comes to defining talent
It has been attempted to categorize definitions of talent into 5 tensions
1. Object vs subject
a. Some people think talent is an object aka a characteristic of a person (“she has
so many talents”)
i. Object approach → Talent can be considered as a complex of amalga, of
employees’ skills, knowledge, cognitive abilities, and potential.
Employees’ values and work preferences are also of major importance.
b. Some people think talent is a subject aka a person as a whole (“she is such a
talent/star/high potential”)
i. Subject approach → Those individuals who can make a difference to
organizational performance, either through their immediate contribution or
in the longer-term by demonstrating the highest level of potential.
c.
2. Inclusive vs Exclusive
a. Exclusive definitions include a small percentage of employees as talented
, i. Exclusive → “Talent designates the outstanding mastery of systematically
developed abilities (or skills) and knowledge in at least one field of human
activity to a degree that places an individual at least among the top 10
percent of age peers who are or have been active in that field or fields.”
ii. Pareto principle → for many outcomes roughly 80% of consequences
come from 20% of the causes...so 20% of employees contribute to 80%
of the total value
b. Inclusive definitions say all employees are talented
i. Inclusive → A person's recurring patterns of thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors that can be productively applied. OR ways of behaving, thinking
or feeling that an individual has a natural capacity for, enjoys doing, and
which allow the individual to achieve optimal functioning while they pursue
valued outcomes.
ii. It basically includes character strength (something you do well and
something you do for pleasure). Examples:
1. Creativity
2. Leadership
3. Kindness
4. Honesty
5. Fairness
6. Humility
7. Hope
8. Bravery
c. Core difference of exclusive and inclusive approaches
i. If we want to assess exclusive talent we tend to look at interpersonal
excellence → take different people and compare them on a certain task.
ii. If we want to assess inclusive talent we intrapersonal excellence → we
take one person and look at different tasks and their performance on
them and establish at which tasks the person excels.
3. Innate vs Acquired
a. Talent can be a mix of both.
, b.
i. Arguments for is talent acquired or innate
c. The development of talent is super complex
i.
4. Input vs Output
a. Input → motivation, effort, ambition, passion, engagement, commitment
b. Output → Performance, achievement, results
c. Organizations tend to be focused on performance and not so much on what you
did to get there, but many organizations try to consider both
Article: The War for Talent
“Better talent is worth fighting for”
“Most companies are ill prepared, and even the best are vulnerable”
→ Employes need to think about the talent that they need, how to attract talented employees,
how to motivate them, and how to retain them.
The article was situated in a specific context in a specific situation:
1. Economic upturn → The economy was booming and this meant that more personnel
was needed, and better employees were needed.
2. Declining supply of talent in western economies → There were less younger people and
more older people in the market, and so younger people needed to be attracted.
3. Increasing market/business complexity → The more complex a business, the better the
employees need to be
4. Competition of small and medium sized companies → Smaller companies could provide
larger responsibilities, more dynamic environments, faster growth, and faster business
decisions without layers of bureaucracy that slowed down the larger businesses.
5. Increasing job mobility → Before people used to work in one place for their entire life, but
this shifted and employees began hopping between jobs and companies.
Certain solutions that organizations thought of to win talent
1. Build a talent mindset → In particular in the top management team.
2. Create a superior employee value proposition → try to attract employees by ensuring
they can offer something to employees that other organizations cannot. E.g. Hilton
created staff areas as nice as the guest areas.
3. Great talent sourcing strategy → How can you attract the best graduates? Many
organizations team up with universities and offer internships. E.g. Adobe
4. Talent development → Young employees look for opportunities to grow, E.g. Unilever
and their graduate trainee programme.
Recent research
CEOs are worried about the availability of key skills. They worry that they cannot find the right
people to fill certain important positions. Businesses are getting so much more complex due to
robotisation and automation, and what remains are the complex tasks which need to be done by
highly skilled people.
Traditional employment relationships → Lifelong employment in exchange for lifelong loyalty
(this is outdated!!!)
New employment relationship → A challenging job, good compensation, and opportunities to
learn in exchange for job performance for a short period of time.
,Lecture 2 - What is Talent?
Etymology
Etymology → The origin of words
Talent is an ancient term, which was actually used before as a measurement, e.g. a talent of
potatoes. Then talent became a form of currency. Then talent was used to describe a person’s
natural inclinations. Then talent was used to say something about the mental capacity of a
person (how smart). Now we see if a person is talented or not.
Talent is defined as
1. A special, often athletic, creative, or artistic aptitude
2. General intelligence or mental power
The term “talent” in the world of work
It appears that talent can mean whatever a business leader, writer, manager, etc. wants it to
mean. Everyone has their own idea of what the term “talent” does and does not encompass.
+ In addition, definitions of talent are concept specific!!! E.g schools, fashion industry,
hospitals, software programming…
Tensions when it comes to defining talent
It has been attempted to categorize definitions of talent into 5 tensions
1. Object vs subject
a. Some people think talent is an object aka a characteristic of a person (“she has
so many talents”)
i. Object approach → Talent can be considered as a complex of amalga, of
employees’ skills, knowledge, cognitive abilities, and potential.
Employees’ values and work preferences are also of major importance.
b. Some people think talent is a subject aka a person as a whole (“she is such a
talent/star/high potential”)
i. Subject approach → Those individuals who can make a difference to
organizational performance, either through their immediate contribution or
in the longer-term by demonstrating the highest level of potential.
c.
2. Inclusive vs Exclusive
a. Exclusive definitions include a small percentage of employees as talented
, i. Exclusive → “Talent designates the outstanding mastery of systematically
developed abilities (or skills) and knowledge in at least one field of human
activity to a degree that places an individual at least among the top 10
percent of age peers who are or have been active in that field or fields.”
ii. Pareto principle → for many outcomes roughly 80% of consequences
come from 20% of the causes...so 20% of employees contribute to 80%
of the total value
b. Inclusive definitions say all employees are talented
i. Inclusive → A person's recurring patterns of thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors that can be productively applied. OR ways of behaving, thinking
or feeling that an individual has a natural capacity for, enjoys doing, and
which allow the individual to achieve optimal functioning while they pursue
valued outcomes.
ii. It basically includes character strength (something you do well and
something you do for pleasure). Examples:
1. Creativity
2. Leadership
3. Kindness
4. Honesty
5. Fairness
6. Humility
7. Hope
8. Bravery
c. Core difference of exclusive and inclusive approaches
i. If we want to assess exclusive talent we tend to look at interpersonal
excellence → take different people and compare them on a certain task.
ii. If we want to assess inclusive talent we intrapersonal excellence → we
take one person and look at different tasks and their performance on
them and establish at which tasks the person excels.
3. Innate vs Acquired
a. Talent can be a mix of both.
, b.
i. Arguments for is talent acquired or innate
c. The development of talent is super complex
i.
4. Input vs Output
a. Input → motivation, effort, ambition, passion, engagement, commitment
b. Output → Performance, achievement, results
c. Organizations tend to be focused on performance and not so much on what you
did to get there, but many organizations try to consider both
