WEEK 1

I was extremely excited to start this class as I am interested in getting involved in talent management in my own organization and this will be a great foundation for me to learn all that the topic entails.

Defining Talent Management

I always thought talent management was just the associates life cycle with the organization. However through this weeks' readings and lectures I realized there is a lot more to it than that. A lot of the readings and research I found were in relation to not just managing talent but developing management as well. Its not only important to hire the right employees it's very important to develop employees within the organization so they can reach their full potential and continue to contribute to the organization in a positive way.

Talent management and development also contribute a lot to business strategy. In many of the readings they spoke about hiring the right person at the right time. By hiring qualified or even over qualified associates in the beginning. By making sure you potential candidates are adequately equipped to handle their job role you can cut down on training and education that you would need to use on someone with just the potential to be adequately equipped. Also by hiring the right person you can ensure that the organization is able to develop the associate to embody the culture of the organization and bring success to its future. 

Developing Talent in My Organization

In answering one of the discussion questions this week I had to explore my own organization's efforts to develop talent. My organization offers a leadership program involving mentors and mentees that get to learn the business from a leadership perspective in efforts to apply these skills to a future leadership position. The leadership program lasts in 6 month rotations allowing the opportunity and chance to be chosen to be a part of it open to everybody. I respect that my department in this organization has this opportunity as it sometimes is very competitive between associates to out perform the next and get promoted based on performance alone and not leadership ability. This leadership program is almost like a gateway into becoming a leader within the organization, allowing to network with other leaders and display leadership skills by having the opportunity to coach other associates.
In addition to offering a leadership type program I believe its important to also discuss talent development with associates on an individual level. Annually or biannually its important to discuss performance with associates but it's also important at these times to discuss career goals and how performance could effect these goals and what can be done to help the associate achieve these goals. Individually each person has a different career goal. Some may be ok in their current role and want to continue to develop to be even greater in that role. Other associates may want to develop into a leadership position or take on more responsibility. Other associates may want to change their career path within their organization and maybe learn another line of business. By at least discussing these plans and having managers discuss a path or way to achieve these goals associates feel valued and like they matter and directly contribute to the success of the organization.

Assignment 

In doing this week's assignment in designing a competency model it made me think a lot about what goes into hiring a good potential candidate for my own position and also what qualities I already bring to the table. I'm interested to know what goes into creating job titles and requirements when posting vacancies to attract potential candidates. What area of HR would handle this task within my organization? Also is there an area that studies each job role to see what type of person would be a great fit for a future position? I think organizing all of this data and being consistent and compliant can be pricey and tedious,  however its something I'm highly interested in and would like to learn  more about.