Definitions of talent in employees

Talent is generally defined as ability, an action or duty which occurs naturally in an individual. Talent can also be defined as the person in an organization which can bring positive change in organization with its performance or contribution, by displaying the greatest level of potential. Talent has direct relation with high performance and potential of an employee, an employee that moves up to the managerial positions or senior leadership by displaying his talent, skills or things he is good at. For some people talent is a collective term which implies on everyone who is an employee and is part of an organization. Talent is an exclusive approach which is dependent on high working capability in an organization rather than hierarchy level.  It is an important factor in an organization for attraction, development, recruitment and management. The talent is a driver of success. Talent is a quality or set of different qualities upon which everyone can agrees independent of context.

Every employee within an organization is a talent. There is a competition of talent due to shortage of talent in today’s working environment. No matter what are the economic conditions talented people, these who are skilled, hard workers and determined to bring change for good will always be in demand in an organization. Talented people have capacity to stick longer in an organization. With the growth in world demand of talented and skilled people has increased. It is very important for an organization to hire talented people in an organization to ensure growth. Talent is something particular which goes along with particular situation. (Fitzgerald, 2014)

What really is, and is not Talent?

Everything which coincides with the interest and development of organization is talent while which does not favors the organization or its growth is not a talent. Talent is not something with which one is born with it develops over time with experience. Talent and practice complement each other and they are not odd factors. Within an organization several types of employees are present. Some are extremely talented and skilled while some are comparatively less competent. So in this case, managers or leaders are compared with their colleagues to motivate them. It often happens that people get compared to their colleagues this done only to develop their working skills.

It is the duty of managers to keep talented and non-talented individuals separate within an organization. Managers provide employees with equal opportunities. The employees are kept separate on the basis of such groups but it leads to make some secret or unpopular decisions which can give birth to negative emotions from employees. Researchers have found that the lack of transparency can lead towards unfair practices, nepotism and lack of trust. Envy is not a talent which commonly arises between employees but being genius is a talent.

People develop emotions like envy and lower self-esteem when they miss out on opportunities which are provided to other employees but not them. Survey and research showed that 80% of employees want to be counted as talent of the organization. The companies which keep their talent management practices a secret can make some untalented individuals wonder that they are a talent increasing the risk of mismanagement and such people can miss out on good training programs which can improve their functioning skills. (Roper, 2015)

Assessment of talent in employees

With the acknowledgement of talent in an organization comes up interest, development, assessment, compensation and retention of talent. Presence of talent in an organization is known as life and reason of success of an organization. Nowadays, organizations have designed sophisticated system to evaluate performance and talent of an employee. All the fast growing organizations have intelligent method of hiring talented employees. It includes pre-hiring test, interview and behavioral observation and once an employee is hired within organization talent is assessed through several methods.

There are some characters of talented employees which help in their identification. Talented employees are creative, integral, and good at group projects, deliver positive energy, possess good leadership skills, has growth potential, work ethics, have decision making skills and focus on customer service.

Determination of employees who connect well

The employees who have talent to connect well and play in teams turn out to be great leaders. The employees who have capability of performing well turn out to play great leadership roles.

Character of talent in employees

This quality is difficult to determine. Some organizations who excel in talent management have found way to determine character of its employees. People who respect their superiors and colleagues the same display example of good character.

Dedication of talent in employees

Best employees who put their best effort into practice and give extra time to understand every detail. (Briner, 2015)

Communication of talent in employees

If the seniors communicate with junior employees regularly they can have an insight of their talent and future plans.

Difference between talent and talent potential

TALENT	TALENT POTENTIAL
It is a natural ability to work and perform well.	It is capability of an individual to perform bigger tasks without having those abilities naturally.
Talent is something which is already present on the table.	Potential is practice and development for the future.
Talented person can display high potential and great performance.	It can produce positive attribute great performance in future.
Talent is there in an individual even before the potential is displayed.	Potential to work hard should be there to enhance the talent.

Talent in employees

Talent is the natural ability of an individual. The person who is known as talented has special abilities which enhance the skill. In order to succeed one should be open to opportunity of risks and failure. It is up to the one’s confidence in his abilities. (Kaufman, 2013)

Talent potential

This is unrealized and unknown ability of an individual. Everyone living has potential in himself. Every individual has something they are good at and passionate about. It is then up to that leader or manager to have that vision and ability to determine that hidden ability. High job performance depends upon potential of an individual. For high potential, competence is required. There is a strong link between high potential and high performance but sadly not all best performers are best leaders. Talent potential depends upon following factors.

Ability to learn

Creative thinking

Competition

Courage of management

Talent is very important in every organization. It is considered as the prime reason for the success of an organization. In many organizations, talent hunt means to determine the talent which already exists and enhance their abilities and potential so they can play more effective and remarkable roles in an organization. Talent potential means one is determined to become more than what he already is. People with high potential have ability to grow, learn, develop and become better versions of them. A person or employee with high potential is known as dynamic people because they have ability to change and grow from their current state. (Holm., 2018)

Different methods are followed to determine potential of an individual. Majorly the judgment is through evaluation of one’s competencies and focus on performance. Potential is a factor which is responsible for person’s capacity to grow which in turn opens wide range of opportunities for career development. For some organizations talent potential runs in C-site roles of the organization. Such as Chief Operation Officer (COO), CEO, Chief Marketing Officers (CMO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) and Chief Information Officer (CIO). In some organizations talent potential is determined in distinct group of people.

Assessment of talent potential

High potential employees add greater value to the organization. If a high potential is present in an organization he is more likely to boost up output of other group members. Several scientific and statistical methods are present for evaluation of high talent potential of employees. Some organizations mistake high performance in high potential. High talent potential employees can be identified by following methods.

Set a criteria

A criterion is set upon which abilities of employees are judged and evaluated. The behaviors, achievement and dedication describe the potential of an employee.

Transparency

The criteria upon which potential is checked are kept transparent and open for everyone to understand. It is a reliable method and output of every employee is judged.

Training programs of talent in employees

Those who fail to meet the demand of an organization they are provided with training and developmental programs. If the employees meet the demand through training and development program they are known to be talent potential employees.

Vision for future of talent in employees

High potential talent does not focus on past or present but pays more attention to future self-development. Personality is an indicator of a person’s potential especially team work.

“There are some personality traits which enable to assess talent potential among employee of an organization.”

Social skills of talent in employees

The people with greater social skills are known to be of high potential as they have skill to communicate with people of all kinds. The ability of handling pressure, adversity, integrity and dignity is checked and observed. Social skills of an employee allow establishing and maintaining the healthy and cooperative working environment. The ability of an employee to manage himself and people around him helps to measure potential of that person. And employees can further be assessed by development and training programs of the organization.

Abilities of talent in employees

Working in an organization requires ability of an employee to think and work strategically and play the lead role. Vision and determination is an X-factor of high potential employees.

Management of talent in employees

It determines the motivational skill of an individual. The ability allows an employee to motivate, develop and do whatever it takes to get the work done. The efficiency of an employee is checked. (Silzer, 2011)

Difference between Talent and Competence

TALENT	COMPETENCE
It is innate and something and individual is born with.	It is an ability of a person to perform every task perfectly and efficiently.
It is God gifted, thus natural.	It is an ability which a person develops with time.
Talent is rare and not everybody has it.	Competence is developed through learning and practice and everyone can develop it.
Talent requires recognition.	Competence requires development.
It can be developed by proper guidance.	It is enhanced via proper training.

Talent is an innate, inborn, inherent or something naturally occurring. It is limited to few individuals and only few acquire it. Talent is a raw and natural ability and it can be developed through proper guidance and training. Competence is quite different from talent. It is something which can develop in every person through training and practice. It is the aspect of nurture in an individual. It is considerably the effort of a person. Competence is a collective term which is used for several aspects such as skills; knowledge etc. And make a person enable to work efficiently in different situations.

Talent and competence are interrelated domains. Both possess ability to point out towards a person’s ability to work and perform a particular task. Both talent and competence can drive a person towards success and enable a person to achieve its goals. Both talent and competence are not substitutes of each other. Both have their own meaning and importance in grooming and development of a person. Talent and competence are innate and acquired, respectively.

These are refined abilities of an individual. It allows a person to live life efficiently and fully by giving chances of progress and development. The society in general is good at finding talents and pointing those out in others around. Unfortunately society is not good at finding and utilizing opportunities. It is efficient to base on competence because anyone can be competent for a particular thing even if he has got no talent for it.

Way to measure Talent

Talented employees are those who directly contribute to the organization and their role is considered vital. Top talents are those who cross the optimum standard set by the organization and poor talents are those whose performance is below average. Talented people send business towards great success and this cost is twice as much as output of average workers. Talent can be measured through following aspects.

High quality performance of talent in employees

Talent is measured through the input of an employee in a project or how much he is determined to get best work done with solo as well as team work. (Church, 2010)

Determination of greater output of talent in employees

In a team performance it can be difficult to find out where the greater output is coming from and whose input is resulting in improved and greater output. An employee referral program can be launched which can do the task. After finding the talented person of an organization, next step is to interview them and ask about more talented people.

The 9 box matrix of talent in employees

In 1970’s McKinney developed a useful 9 matrix box. It is utilized by HR of organizations to find out performance and potential within an organization. A talented individual with high performance gets the top most box, while the low performer or less talented employee gets the left box at the bottom. The method does not have a meaningful result thus gives easy to relate structure.

Way to measure Competence of talent in employees

Measurement of competence is an essential element of work place. It determines one’s effort in an organization. Each team has talented and determined employees who work together to achieve certain goal. Competence allows determining how a certain goal is accomplished. There is less time consuming and direct way to measure competence. That way is called KSA.

K = Knowledge

S = Skills

A = Attitude

Knowledge of talent in employees

Competence can be determined by what knowledge an individual has and how does he utilize it for goodness of an organization. It can also be determined by the role an individual is playing in achievement of goal. It describes the way the person is using the information he is getting.

Skill of talent in employees

It describes what talents does an individual has what is he capable of doing. Is he playing an appropriate role in a project and is he responsible for the output of the project (good or bad).

Attitude of talent in employees

Competence can be measured through the attitude of an employee towards his job and work.

All of these three elements are vital for determination of competence and it allows the way to make an accurate assessment about one’s competence. It can also help the employees of an organization to improve their working skills and be more efficient at the work they do.

Relationship between Talent and Competence of talent in employees

Talent is the natural ability which enables an individual to perform a certain duty or work. It is developed as someone grows and when appropriate training and knowledge is provided by surroundings. Competence is something that arrives as one learns and grows. It is based upon experience. It is based upon performance and separates one employee from another as suitable. In an interview self-awareness of a candidate is checked and what changes can he bring to the organization. Self-awareness is vital for organizational and self-growth.

Candidates are chosen by the organizations on the principle of right person for the right job. In an interview competencies are checked on the basis of KSA. Competence can be improved by providing right opportunities, talent and environment of the organization. So there is a interrelation between talent and competence and better results are produced due to presence of both. The source is the talent, competence is the whole process while performance is the result of both. (Rhatigan, 2017)

Talent Retention of talent in employees

These are the strategies and plans used by management to keep the employees intact with the organization for long period of time. Every organization puts efforts and design strategies to maintain long term relationship with talented employees and this require investment of both time and money. Factors like attractive salary package, suitable timings, dynamic organizational structure and compensations. It is important to keep experienced, skilled and oldest employee in the organization because if he is replaced all the investment of time and money, innovative planning and ideas, credibility, knowledge of organization and all his customers are lost and bring expenditure of recruitment, training and development of another new employee. To avoid such inconvenience strategies are required for employee retention.

The right way for retention of talented people starts right from the very start of recruitment. First of all person with talent, competence, creative mind, impressive conversation and well behavior is chosen and recruited because he is the ability to change the fate of organization and take it towards the greater good. The organization which is hiring the employee should have smart recruitment method so they are enable to find out hidden talents of the employee, so they can know what is good and what requires training and coaching. (Marsdd.com, 2014)

Another factor is the reduced turnover of the employees within organization, it attracts talented and long term employees, and reputation of an organization also has to be good in order to hire a talented and experienced individual. There should be a program to motivate and appreciate talented employees on the basis of their performance. Increased benefit can also attract an employee to stick with the organization.

Three Strategies for Talent Retention

Strategy 01: Employee Development Plan

Every employee that becomes a part of organization comes with a mindset of developing his skills, career and earnings. More abilities result in growth of organization. The development plan for an employee should contain all the attractive packages and skill development programs an employee desires. The needs of employees should meet the needs of an organization and should fall parallel.

If this aligns required competencies and skills are known and long term objectives are designed. Communication is the key so it is important to communicate with each one of them and know about their objectives and missions and what are they ready to do and how they are going to do it. It is important for an organization to provide employees with optimum work conditions and required training and developmental programs.

Strategy 02: Dynamic Culture of the Company

Development of favorable environment for employment is necessary and it attracts talented employees to build long term relations with the organization they find fit. In order to grow the organization and increase the productivity the environment should be good and flexible in order to welcome all sorts of innovative ideas coming from creative and talented minds of employees. If the environment of organization is based upon cultural values it will help business to prevail and will be reflected. But it is important to empower the employees and tell them the boundaries which they can exceed to develop better work environment. (Marsdd.com, 2017)

Strategy 03: Performance Review

It is important to evaluate performance of every employee and recommend the changes which they can make and the employees who turn out to be extraordinary should be appreciated and rewarded. This establishes a sense of responsibility and excels the creativity level of employees. A meeting should be arranged to clearly discuss the performance of employees and its overall impact on organization and the targeted goal. If employees are talented and well developed it makes an effective work force and organization prospers. If the employees are respected and recognized for their talent and good job they are less likely to look at any other organization.

References of talent in employees

Briner, R. (2015, March 18). What's the evidence for... talent management? Retrieved from http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/whats-the-evidence-for-talent-management

Church, A. H. (2010). Identifying and assessing high-potential talent: Current organizational practices. 231-279.

Fitzgerald, M. (2014). Talent and Talent Management Insights. 1-22.

Holm., M. (2018). Why there is no talent. Retrieved from http://timelessrepo.com/why-there-is-no-talent

Kaufman, S. B. (2013, July 07). What is talent and can scienc spot what we will be best at? Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/jul/07/can-science-spot-talent-kaufman

Marsdd.com. (2014, Sep 19). Talent management: How do I identify “A” players among employees? Retrieved from https://www.marsdd.com/mars-library/talent-management-identify-players-among-employees/

Marsdd.com. (2017, June 31). How do I find talent? Retrieved from https://www.marsdd.com/mars-library/find-talent/

Rhatigan, C. (2017, March 17). 5 METHODS TO ASSESS TALENT IN YOUR ORGANIZATION. Retrieved from https://www.tinypulse.com/blog/5-methods-to-assess-talent

Roper, J. (2015, June 15). What do we mean when we talk about talent? Retrieved from http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/what-do-we-mean-when-we-talk-about-talent

Silzer, R. (2011). Identifying and assessing high-potential talent: Current organizational practices. 213-279. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291820154_Identifying_and_assessing_high-potential_talent_Current_organizational_practices