Talent on Demand - Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty

Citation

Cattell, A. (2008), "Talent on Demand - Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 40 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict.2008.03740gae.002

Talent on Demand - Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty

Article Type: Bookshelf From: Industrial and Commercial Training, Volume 40, Issue 7

Peter Cappelli,Harvard Business Press,Boston, MA,2008,277 pp.,£18.99 UK, $35 USA (hardback),ISBN: 9781422104477

The author of this book Peter Cappelli is Professor of Management at the Wharton School and Director of Wharton’s Centre for Human Resources. The content of the text is likely to be of interest to senior managers of any discipline including human resource management (HRM) and human resource development (HRD) managers whose roles encompass talent management forecasting and executive development.

The aim of the book is to examine traditional models of talent management and to present a new four stage framework for thinking about talent, deciding how much talent to develop internally and how to manage the economic risks and requirements of doing so.

The initial chapters in Part 1 of the book – Why Traditional Talent Management No Longer Works – consider talent management problems in the light of:

• •

  the failure of traditional means of forecasting;

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  changes in the nature of competition;

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  changes in boundaries of the firm; and

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  rise in outsourcing.

Evidence of such failure is explored as regards:

• •

  outside hiring;

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  online job searches;

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  declining attachment between the employee and the employer; and

• •

  little in-house development of talent.

Part 2 of the book – “A new model of talent management” – consists of five chapters which capture the proposed four principles for matching talent supply and demand. The author points out that the starting point for doing so is fundamentally different from previous practice in that it emphasizes organizational goals rather than human resources targets. As such the focus is on helping the organization to perform by managing talent risks in times of uncertain business demand and a new more open labor market.

The four principles consist of:

1. 1.

   Make and buy to manage demand. This outlines the principles for guiding talent management and highlights the need to understand and anticipate the cost of inevitable mistakes in forecasting demand. The balance between developing talent in-house with buying it on the open market is explored.

2. 2.

   Reduce the uncertainty in talent demand. This examines practices that can help reduce the uncertainty in predicting talent needs. The main premise of this principle is on managing the uncertainty in talent needs forecasts.

3. 3.

   Earn a return on investment in developing employees. This considers the risks in supply of labor and the financial implications that employers face when developing talent. Procedures to assist employers in recouping investment in employees are also examined. The primary objective of this approach is to maximize returns on the investment in talent.

4. 4.

   Balancing employee interests by using an internal market. Discusses new innovations to change the ways matches are made between employees and new jobs, which potentially reduce turnover. They also raise a number of challenges to long-term talent development. The text highlights how to replicate the advantages of the external job market by creating an in-house market that links available talent to jobs.

The final chapter identifies the interests that employees and wider society have in the talent development strategies that employers pursue. The author states that these interests demand more attention than this aspect of the book gives but that the text is a starting point not an end.

Peter Cappelli’s book presents alternatives to traditional models of succession and talent forecasting by examining historic perspectives and new business imperatives and contexts. Whilst examples and statistics within the text reside primarily within the US labor market and economy, in a broader sense talent management problems and potential solutions are global issues and exist outside of solely national boundaries. In suggesting a new framework for talent management Cappelli draws on supply chain management as a source of his ideas. In doing so he states “There is a need to acknowledge the uncertainty that appears to be a permanent part of the business world and being able to respond and adapt to it”. The four principle strategies presented in the text are intended to ensure that an organization has the skills it needs, when it needs them.

The book relies mainly on narrative explanation and contains a minimum of figures to break the text up. As a result the presentation of content appears to be “dry” in approach. However, the examples and ideas described are highly practical in terms of identifying good or best practice. The Notes section for each of the chapters is very comprehensive and contains an excellent balance between key historical references and up-to-date bibliography.

The text is successful in identifying key issues and proposing potential solutions to these and is likely to benefit HRM and HRD planners, managers and strategists in their role as business partners.

Alan CattellUniversity of Bradford, Bradford, UK