8. The neglected role of talent proactivity : Integrating proactive behavior into talent-management

 

As per McKinsey, (2018).  Effective talent management is considered a key driver of an organization's ability to outstrip competitors Talent management has been broadly defined as a specific bundle of human resource (HR) practices to attract, select, develop, and retain high performing or high-potential employees in pivotal organizational positions (Collings, Mellahi, & Cascio, 2018; Silzer & Dowell, 2010). Scholars assume that talent management affects organizational performance by producing positive attitudes, cognitions, and behaviors among the organization's most high potential and high performing employees. In other words, employee reactions to talent management (i.e., changes in their attitudes, cognitions, and behaviors) are assumed to be a important arbitrating mechanism in the relationship between talent management and organizational-level talent-management outcomes, such as increased innovativeness and firm performance (Collings & Mellahi, 2009; De Boeck, Meyers, & Dries, 2018).

In line with this assumption, the available literature has mainly focused on exploring how employees react to talent management, operationalized as being identified as talent (i.e., having a talent status) or having access to talent-management practices (De Boeck et al., 2018; Gelens, Hofmans, Dries, & Pepermans, 2014; King, 2016). While this available work has led to valuable insights, it has treated talented employees as mere passive recipients who react to organizational initiatives (e.g., De Boeck et al., 2018; Gelens et al., 2014; King, 2016). Hardly any publication has addressed the (pro-)active role that talented employees may play in gaining access to and capitalizing on organizational talent-management initiatives (Thunnissen, Boselie, & Fruytier, 2013). Exceptions are the work of Cappelli and Keller (2014) on the role of proactive job design in talent retention, and the work of Dries and Pepermans (2008) on the role of proactive behavior in high potential identification.

I observe a lack of publications on talent proactive behavior, defined as self-initiated behavior that aims to improve or transform one's circumstances (Bateman & Crant, 1993; Parker & Collins, 2010), as a major gap in the talent-management literature. This perception is grounded in predictions about the future of the field, directing out that effective talent management needs more than passive employees who react to organizational triggers ̶ even if these employees are high potentials or high performers. Al Ariss, Cascio, and Paauwe (2014) anticipate that the continuous technological progress will increase the occurrence of virtual work, enabling organizations to tap more diverse, yet remote talent pools (cf. Tannenbaum, Mathieu, Salas, & Cohen, 2012). Instead of investing into long-term employment relationships with talented employees, organizations will start to use more short-term, project-based employment contracts for talented individuals. This allows organizations to gain the talent they need at a particular location at a particular point in time (Al Ariss et al., 2014). Subsequently, intensive investments in talent will be less attractive for organizations because such investments will only yield a healthy return if employees work on a constant basis for the same organization. Subsequently, organizations will have to rely on employees to proactively develop their knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs), plan their career progression, and seize opportunities to contribute and to innovate. This implies that it is high-time for talent-management scholars to learn from related academic fields, such as careers (Bell & Staw, 1989) and leadership (Crant & Bateman, 2000), that have long embraced proactive behavior as a core concept in their respective field.

The present paper signifies a first step in this direction, directing to integrate the concept proactive behavior into talent-management conceiving. More explicitly, this paper explores three possible relationships between talent proactive behavior and talent management to expand talent-management theorizing. First, building on the idea that employees are not only products, but also producers of work systems (cf. reciprocal determinism; Bandura, 1997; Frese, Garst, & Fay, 2007), I suggest that employees are likely to secure their inclusion in a talent pool and/or access to talent-management practices by showing initiative and effort (Seibert, Kraimer, & Crant, 2001; Thunnissen, 2016). Second, drawing on the Ability Motivation Opportunity (AMO) model (Appelbaum, Bailey, Berg, & Kalleberg, 2000) and Self Determination Theory (SDT; Deci and Ryan, 2000, Deci and Ryan, 2008), I suggest that proactive behavior functions as a mediator between talent management and employee reactions (attitudes, cognitions, and behavior). Third, in line with theories on person-environment interactions (cf. Griffin, Colella, & Goparaju, 2000), I suggest that talent proactive behavior can act as a moderator in the relationship between talent-management practices and employee reactions. Based on these three possible relationships, I develop a new conceptual model of the relationship between talent-management and employee reactions that outlines relevant avenues for future research in the talent-management domain.

Section snippets

The common talent-management paradigm: talented employees as passive recipients of talent-management practices

The academic discourse on the interface between talent management and individual employees predominantly focusses on how employees react to the talent-management practices provided by their employing organization (e.g., Björkman, Ehrnrooth, Mäkelä, Smale, & Sumelius, 2013; Gelens et al., 2014; Swailes & Blackburn, 2016). Talent-management practices form a subset of human resource (HR) practices (Meyers & van Woerkom, 2014) that is exclusively accessible for a small group of high performing and

Integrating proactive behavior into the common talent-management paradigm

To integrate research on proactive behavior into the talent-management literature, I propose to expand the common conjectural model that informs talent-management research (Fig. 1) by including the concept proactive behavior in three potential roles: as a analyst, mediator, and moderator (see Fig. 2). I will theoretically explain all three roles and derive propositions after defining proactive behavior.

Discussion

Proactive behavior of talented employees is a topic that has hardly captured the attention of talent-management scholars (Thunnissen et al., 2013). It emphasizes that proactive behavior merits this attention because it is not only likely to influence who gets access to talent-management practices, but also how these practices relate to employee attitudes, cognitions, and behaviors. Today's organizations increasingly expect employees to assume responsibility and to show personal

Practical implications

The present paper has several implications for talent-management practice. Scholars and practitioners alike often discuss talent management and, in particular, talent development, as if it was the responsibility of the organization alone. However, implementing talent management in a top-down manner may not be flexible enough and may not generate enough momentum any more to keep up with the fast developments in today's dynamic labor market (Al Ariss et al., 2014; Major et al., 2006).

Conclusions

In the present paper, I reason that it is high-time to integrate the notion of talent proactive behavior into the talent-management discourse. For talent-management research, it is pivotal to explore the role that proactive behavior among talented employees plays in achieving valued talent-management outcomes. This includes an exploration of how employee initiative influences access to talent-management practices, how access to talent management can induce proactive behaviors, and how talent

7. Building Ethical AI for Talent Management

As per Thomas C (2019) Artificial intelligence has disrupted every area of our lives — from the curated shopping experiences we’ve come to expect from companies like Amazon and Alibaba to the personalized recommendations that channels like YouTube and Netflix use to market their latest content. But, when it comes to the workplace, in many ways, AI is still in its infancy. This is particularly true when we consider the ways it is beginning to change talent management. To use a familiar analogy: AI at work is in the dial-up mode. The 5G WiFi phase has yet to arrive, but we have no doubt that it will.

To be sure, there is much confusion around what AI can and cannot do, as well as different perspectives on how to define it. In the war for talent, however, AI plays a very specific role: to give organizations more accurate and more efficient predictions of a candidate’s work-related behaviors and performance potential. Unlike traditional recruitment methods, such as employee referrals, CV screening, and face-to-face interviews, AI is able to find patterns unseen by the human eye.

Many AI systems use real people as models for what success looks like in certain roles. This group of individuals is referred to as a “training data set” and often includes managers or staff who have been defined as “high performers.” AI systems process and compare the profiles of various job applicants to the “model” employee it has created based on the training set. Then, it gives the company a probabilistic estimate of how closely a candidate’s attributes match those of the ideal employee.

Theoretically, this method could be used to find the right person for the right role faster and more efficiently than ever before. But, as you may have realized, it has become a source of both promise and peril. If the training set is diverse, if demographically unbiased data is used to measure the people in it, and if the algorithms are also de-biased, this technique can actually mitigate human prejudice and expand diversity and socioeconomic inclusion better than humans ever could. However, if the training set, the data, or both are biased, and algorithms are not sufficiently audited, AI will only exacerbate the problem of bias in hiring and homogeneity in organizations.

In order to rapidly improve talent management and take full advantage of the power and potential AI offers, then, we need to shift our focus from developing more ethical HR systems to developing more ethical AI. Of course, removing bias from AI is not easy. In fact, it is very hard. But our argument is based on our belief that it is far more feasible than removing it from humans themselves.

When it comes to identifying talent or potential, most organizations still play it by ear. Recruiters spend just a few seconds looking at a resume before deciding who to “weed out.” Hiring managers make quick judgments and call them “intuition” or overlook hard data and hire based on cultural fit — a problem made worse by the general absence of objective and rigorous performance measures. Further, the unconscious bias training implemented by a growing number of companies has often been found to be ineffective, and at times, can even make things worse. Often, training focuses too much on individual bias and too little on the structural biases narrowing the pipeline of underrepresented groups.

Though critics argue that AI is not much better, they often forget that these systems are mirroring our own behavior. We are quick to blame AI for predicting that white men will receive higher performance ratings from their (probably also white male) managers. But this is happening because we have failed to fix bias in the performance ratings that are often used in training data sets. We are shocked that AI can makes biased hiring decisions but fine living in a world where human biases dominate them. Just take a look at Amazon. The outcry of criticism about their biased recruiting algorithm ignored the overwhelming evidence that current human-driven hiring in most organizations is ineradicably worse. It’s akin to expressing more concern over a very small number of driverless car deaths than the 1.2 million traffic deaths a year caused by flawed and possibly also distracted or intoxicated humans.

Realistically, we have a greater ability to ensure both accuracy and fairness in AI systems than we do to influence or enlighten recruiters and hiring managers. Humans are very good at learning but very bad at unlearning. The cognitive mechanisms that make us biased are often the same tools we use to survive in our day-to-day lives. The world is far too complex for us to process logically and deliberately all the time; if we did, we would be overwhelmed by information overload and unable to make simple decisions, such as buying a cup of coffee (after all, why should we trust the barista if we don’t know him?). That’s why it’s easier to ensure that our data and training sets are unbiased than it is to change the behaviors of Sam or Sally, from whom we can neither remove bias nor extract a printout of the variables that influence their decisions. Essentially, it easier to unpack AI algorithms than to understand and change the human mind.

To do this, organizations using AI for talent management, at any stage, should start by taking the following steps.

1.     Educate candidates and obtain their consent. 

Ask prospective employees to opt in or to provide their personal data to the company, knowing that it will be analyzed, stored, and used by AI systems for making HR-related decisions. Be ready to explain the what, who, how, and why. It’s not ethical for AI systems to rely on black-box models. If a candidate has an attribute that is associated with success in a role, the organization needs to not only understand why that is the case but also be able to explain the causal links. In short, AI systems should be designed to predict and explain “causation,” not just find “correlation.” You should also be sure to preserve candidate anonymity to protect personal data and comply with GDPR, California privacy laws, and similar regulations.

2.     Invest in systems that optimize for fairness and accuracy.

Historically, organizational psychologists have pointed to a drop in accuracy when candidate assessments are optimized for fairness. For example, much academic research indicates that while cognitive ability tests are a consistent predictor of job performance, particularly in high-complexity jobs, their deployment has adverse impact on underrepresented groups, particularly individuals with a lower socioeconomic status. This means that companies interested in boosting diversity and creating an inclusive culture often de-emphasize traditional cognitive tests when hiring new workers so that diverse candidates are not disadvantaged in the process. This is known as the fairness/accuracy trade-off.

However, this trade-off is based on techniques from half a century ago, prior to the advent of AI models that can treat the data very differently than traditional models. There is increasing evidence that AI could overcome this trade-off  by deploying more dynamic and personalized scoring algorithms that are sensitive as much to accuracy as to fairness, optimizing for a mix of both. Therefore, developers of AI have no excuse for not doing so. Further, because these new systems now exist, we should question whether the widespread use of traditional cognitive assessments, which are known to have an adverse impact on minorities, should continue without some form of bias-mitigation.

3.     Develop open-source systems and third-party audits.

Hold companies and developers accountable by allowing others to audit the tools being used to analyze their applications. One solution is open-sourcing non-proprietary yet critical aspects of the AI technology the organization uses. For proprietary components, third-party audits conducted by credible experts in the field are a tool companies can use to show the public how they are mitigating bias.

4.     Follow the same laws — as well as data collection and usage practices — used in traditional hiring.

Any data that shouldn’t be collected or included in a traditional hiring process for legal or ethical reasons should not be used by AI systems. Private information about physical, mental or emotional conditions, genetic information, and substance use or abuse should never be entered.

If organizations address these issues, we believe that ethical AI could vastly improve organizations by not only reducing bias in hiring but also by enhancing meritocracy and making the association between talent, effort, and employee success far greater than it has been in the past. Further, it will be good for the global economy. Once we mitigate bias, our candidate pools will grow beyond employee referrals and Ivy League graduates. People from a wider range of socioeconomic backgrounds will have more access to better jobs — which can help create balance and begin to remedy class divides.

To make the above happen, however, businesses need to make the right investments, not just in cutting-edge AI technologies, but also (and especially) in human expertise — people who understand how to leverage the advantages that these new technologies offer while minimizing potential risks and drawbacks. In any area of performance, a combination of artificial and human intelligence is likely to produce a better result than one without the other. Ethical AI should be viewed as one of the tools we can use to counter our own biases, not as a final panacea.

The Legal and Ethical Implications of Using AI in Hiring

Digital innovations and advances in AI have produced a range of novel talent identification and assessment tools. Many of these technologies promise to help organizations improve their ability to find the right person for the right job, and screen out the wrong people for the wrong jobs, faster and cheaper than ever before.

These tools put unprecedented power in the hands of organizations to pursue data-based human capital decisions.  They also have the potential to democratize feedback, giving millions of job candidates data-driven insights on their strengths, development needs, and potential career and organizational fit. In particular, we have seen the rapid growth (and corresponding venture capital investment) in game-based assessments, bots for scraping social media postings, linguistic analysis of candidates’ writing samples, and video-based interviews that utilize algorithms to analyze speech content, tone of voice, emotional states, nonverbal behaviors, and temperamental clues.

While these novel tools are disrupting the recruitment and assessment space, they leave many yet un-answered questions about their accuracy, and the ethical, legal, and privacy implications that they introduce.  This is especially true when compared to more longstanding psychometric assessments such as the NEO-PI-R, The Wonderlic Test, the Ravens Progressive Matrices test, or the Hogan Personality Inventory that have been scientifically derived and carefully validated vis-à-vis relevant jobs, identifying reliable associations between applicants’ scores and their subsequent job performance (publishing the evidence in independent, trustworthy, scholarly journals).  Recently, there has even been interest and concern in the U.S. Senate about whether new technologies (specifically, facial analysis technologies) might have negative implications for equal opportunity among job candidates.

In this article, we focus on the potential repercussions of new technologies on the privacy of job candidates, as well as the implications for candidates’ protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal and state employment laws. Employers recognize that they can’t or shouldn’t ask candidates about their family status or political orientation, or whether they are pregnant, straight, gay, sad, lonely, depressed, physically or mentally ill, drinking too much, abusing drugs, or sleeping too little. However, new technologies may already be able to discern many of these factors indirectly and without proper (or even any) consent.

Before delving into the current ambiguities of the brave new world of job candidate assessment and evaluation, it’s helpful to take a look at the past. Psychometric assessments have been in use for well over 100 years, and became more widely utilized as a result of the United States Military’s Army Alpha, which placed recruits into categories and determined their likelihood of being successful in various roles. Traditionally, psychometrics fell into three broad categories: cognitive ability or intelligence, personality or temperament, and mental health or clinical diagnosis.

Since the adoption of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, employers are generally forbidden from inquiring about and/or using physical disability, mental health, or clinical diagnosis as a factor in pre-employment candidate assessments, and companies that have done so have been sued and censured. In essence, disabilities — whether physical or mental — have been determined to be “private” information that employers cannot inquire about at the pre-employment stage, just as employers shouldn’t ask applicants intrusive questions about their private lives, and cannot take private demographic information into account in hiring decisions.

Cognitive ability and intelligence testing have been found to be a reliable and valid predictor of job success in a wide variety of occupations. However, these kinds of assessments can be discriminatory if they adversely impact certain protected groups, such as those defined by gender, race, age, or national origin. If an employer is utilizing an assessment that has been found to have such an adverse impact, which is defined by the relative scores of different protected groups, the employer has to prove that the assessment methodology is job-related and predictive of success in the specific jobs in question.

Cognitive ability and intelligence testing have been found to be a reliable and valid predictor of job success in a wide variety of occupations. However, these kinds of assessments can be discriminatory if they adversely impact certain protected groups, such as those defined by gender, race, age, or national origin. If an employer is utilizing an assessment that has been found to have such an adverse impact, which is defined by the relative scores of different protected groups, the employer has to prove that the assessment methodology is job-related and predictive of success in the specific jobs in question.

Unfortunately, there is far less information about the new generation of talent tools that are increasingly used in pre-hire assessment. Many of these tools have emerged as technological innovations, rather than from scientifically-derived methods or research programs.  As a result, it is not always clear what they assess, whether their underlying hypotheses are valid, or why they may be expected to predict job candidates’ performance. For example, physical properties of speech and the human voice — which have long been associated with elements of personality — have been linked to individual differences in job performance.  If a tool shows a preference for speech patterns such as consistent vocal cadence or pitch or a “friendly” tone of voice that do not have an adverse impact upon job candidates in a legally protected group, then there is no legal issue; but these tools may not have been scientifically validated and therefore are not controlling for potential discriminatory adverse impact — meaning the employer may incur liability for any blind reliance.  In addition, there are yet no convincing hypotheses or defensible conclusions about whether it would be ethical to screen out people based on their voices, which are physiologically determined, largely unchangeable personal attributes.

Likewise, social media activity — e.g., Facebook or Twitter usage — has been found to reflect people’s intelligence and personality, including their dark side traits.  But is it ethical to mine this data for hiring purposes when users will have generally used such apps for different purposes and may not have provided their consent for data analysis to draw private conclusions from their public postings?

When used in the hiring context, new technologies raise a number of new ethical and legal questions around privacy, which we think ought to be publicly discussed and debated, namely:

 

What temptations will companies face in terms of candidate privacy relating to personal attributes?

As technology advances, big data and AI will continue to be able to determine “proxy” variables for private, personal attributes with increased accuracy. Today, for example, Facebook “likes” can be used to infer sexual orientation and race with considerable accuracy. Political affiliation and religious beliefs are just as easily identifiable. Might companies be tempted to use tools like these to screen candidates, believing that because decisions aren’t made directly based upon protected characteristics that they aren’t legally actionable?  While an employer may not violate any laws in merely discerning an applicant’s personal information, the company may become vulnerable to legal exposure if it makes adverse employment decisions by relying on any protected categories such as one’s place of birth, race, or native language — or based on private information that it does not have the right to consider, such as possible physical illness or mental ailment.  How the courts will handle situations where employers have relied upon tools using these proxy variables is unclear; but the fact remains that it is unlawful to take an adverse action based upon certain protected or private characteristics — no matter how these were learned or inferred.

This might also apply to facial recognition software, as recent research predicts that face-reading AI may soon be able to discern candidates’ sexual and political orientation as well as “internal states” like mood or emotion with a high degree of accuracy. How might the application of the Americans with Disabilities Act change? Additionally, the Employee Polygraph Protection Act generally prohibits employers from using lie detector tests as a pre-employment screening tool and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act prohibits employers from using genetic information in employment decisions. But what if the exact same kind of information about truth, lies, or genetic attributes can be determined by the above-mentioned technological tools?

What temptations will companies face in terms of candidate privacy relating to lifestyle and

activities?

Employers can now access information such as one candidate’s online “check in” to her church every Sunday morning, another candidate’s review of the dementia care facility into which he has checked his elderly parent, and a third’s divorce filing in civil court.  All of these things, and many more, are easily discoverable in the digital era. Big data is following us everywhere we go online and collecting and assembling information that can be sliced and diced by tools we can’t even imagine yet — tools that could possibly inform future employers about our fitness (or lack thereof) for certain roles.  And big data is only going to get bigger; according to experts, 90% of the data in the world was generated just in the past two years alone.  With the expansion of data comes the potential expansion for misuse and resulting discrimination — either deliberate or unintentional.

Unlike the EU, which has harmonized its approach to privacy under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the U.S. relies on a patchwork approach to privacy driven largely by state law. With regard to social media, specifically, states began introducing legislation back in 2012 to prevent employers from requesting passwords to personal internet accounts as a condition of employment. More than twenty states have enacted these types of laws that apply to employers.  However, in terms of general privacy in the use of new technologies in the workplace, there has been less specific guidance or action. In particular, legislation has passed in California that will potentially constrain employers’ use of candidate or employee data. In general, state and federal courts have yet to adopt a unified framework for analyzing employee privacy as related to new technology.  The takeaway is that at least for now, employee privacy in the age of big data remains unsettled. This puts employers in a conflicted position that calls out for caution: Cutting-edge technology is available that may be extremely useful. But it’s giving you information that has previously been considered private. Is it legal to use in a hiring context? And is it ethical to consider if the candidate didn’t consent?

What temptations will companies face in terms of candidate privacy relating to disabilities?

The Americans with Disabilities Act puts mental disabilities squarely in its purview, alongside physical disabilities, and defines an individual as disabled if the impairment substantially limits a major life activity, if the person has a record of such an impairment, or if the person is perceived to have such an impairment. About a decade ago, The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued guidance to say that the expanding list of personality disorders described in the psychiatric literature could qualify as mental impairments, and the ADA Amendments Act made it easier for an individual to establish that he or she has a disability within the meaning of the ADA. As a result, the category of people protected under the ADA may now include people who have significant problems communicating in social situations, people who have issues concentrating, or people who have difficulty interacting with others.

In addition to raising new questions about disabilities, technology also presents new dilemmas with respect to differences, whether demographic or otherwise. There have already been high-profile reallife situations where these systems have revealed learned biases, especially relating to race and gender. Amazon, for example, developed an automated talent search program to review resumes — which was abandoned once the company realized that the program was not rating candidates in a gender-neutral way. To reduce such biases, developers are balancing the data used for training AI models, to appropriately represent all groups. The more information that the technology has and can account for/learn from, the better it can control for potential bias.

In conclusion, new technologies can already cross the lines between public and private attributes, “traits” and “states” in new ways, and there is every reason to believe that in the future they will be increasingly able to do so. Using AI, big data, social media, and machine learning, employers will have ever-greater access to candidates’ private lives, private attributes, and private challenges and states of mind. There are no easy answers to many of the new questions about privacy we have raised here, but we believe that they are all worthy of public discussion and debate.

6. Implementation of Talent Management as a Strategy for Achieving Company Competitive Advantage

 

As per Hadijah, H.S., 2023 In the current period of globalization, business competition is becoming more intense, and every organization must be ready to compete through preparing qualified human resources. The fulfillment of the need for competent human resources must be taken seriously by the organization in order to meet the need for successors in the future. In order for organizations to continue to exist in the national and worldwide arena, Human Resource Development is a crucial factor for achieving goals and objectives. Human Resource Development is an organizational function that focuses on recruiting, management, and navigation for people working in an organization, which is achieved through synergies that strengthen mutuality toward common goals.

In order to ensure the company's long-term viability, it must process the need for qualified human resources with great care. The amount of employees who have left the firm generates a labor supply and demand mismatch. This mismatch creates a talent problem that threatens the company's future viability by preventing it from satisfying the needs of its successors. The fulfillment of talent requirements (individuals with the highest potential and skills) can be obtained from both external and internal sources. This can be accomplished through succession planning, which is a procedure that ensures a supply of individuals with the capacity to take key firm positions is available from inside the organization. Facing the difficulty of a talent shortage, succession planning initiatives must be combined with retention activities.

The organization must implement a successful strategy for managing human capital in order to meet the demand for human resources and maintain a high level of employee retention. One of the finest human resource management responses to demographic shifts and talent problems is talent management implementation. Talent management is the process of identifying, attracting, and retaining key members of an organization's strategic workforce. They also show how talent management rewards those who succeed at specific tasks or performances and encourages them to "push the envelope" while documenting and disseminating their unique approaches so that others might emulate them. In order to maximize an organization's potential, talent management focuses on training and placing workers in positions where they may best use their skills and experience.

Talent management's benefits are numerous and extensive, including but not limited to increased productivity, a more positive work environment, and a culture of excellence. Talent management's contributions to an organization's success may be broken down into three main areas: the provision of incentives, the creation of advancement opportunities for bright employees, and the guarantee of high quality work inside the business. Human resource management problems arise in today's fast paced, cutthroat commercial environment. The importance of effective human resource management cannot be overstated for companies that compete on a global stage. Since these individuals will be responsible for steering the ship at the corporation, they must meet extremely high requirements to even be considered for the top jobs.

Methods

In order to gain a competitive advantage in the field of talent management research, qualitative methods along with literature review methodology are utilized. The goal of qualitative research is to develop one's knowledge through the processes of understanding and discovery. A process of inquiry and understanding based on an approach to exploring social and human problems is an example of qualitative research technique. In this study, the researchers capture intricate images, dissect language, report in great detail, and investigate the circumstances that were encountered. For the purpose of data collecting on the subject under investigation, this study makes use of library resources. Research in libraries is an activity that involves collecting, researching, and processing library data without the need for conducting field studies.

Result and Discussion

A.  The need for talent management in the Organization

Competence seen from an individualistic perspective, is considered as a characteristic that defines a person, and governs the way they think and act in certain situations; These skills are related to the personal success of workers, because in addition to regulating their behavior, it defines the values and perceptions of what they want and do, as stated by "Skills, as is well known, they are a set of characteristics of each person, which determines the way they think and act; is the knowledge, skills, attitudes, perceptions, values or behaviors related to successful performance, including the reasons that each individual has. Therefore, to consider ourselves competent and talented, we must have knowledge, learning, willingness to change and actions that facilitate new personal and professional outcomes considering why I should change, feeling the need to change and changing what I can handle. In addition, there is emotional competence, which is also part of everyone's personal behavior, and determine how workers communicate love each other, interact and be their own leaders.

According to, human talent consists of the skills, knowledge and abilities that each individual acquires during their education and job training, while individual talent, which is specific to each person, consists not only of acquired skills, but also of forged commitments. To do things responsibly and actions, which make him perform an activity. In light of this, some authors consider that, in order to fully develop individual talents, these three factors must be run together, as stated by “Talent requires all three ingredients at the same time. If one of them is not present, then superior results will not be achieved. If the professional is committed and takes action, but lacks the necessary skills, he will almost certainly not achieve results, even if he has good intentions. If, on the other hand, you have the skills and you act on the spot, but you are not committed to the project, you can achieve results. The only drawback is that his lack of motivation will prevent him from innovating or proposing things beyond what his leader gives him. On the other hand, if a professional has the skills and commitment, but when he acts that time has passed, he will not get the desired result either for the simple reason that one could have anticipated it. Today, neither technological evolution, competition nor customers wait. Either you're fast or you're out of the market." It should be added that human talent management, with the help of the Human Resources department, seeks to promote teamwork and leadership, as well as individualism so that each human being can work on their own life and work projects, because in the end they not only prepared for work life but for everyday life.

Explain that one aspect that characterizes individual talent is commitment, the key point needed to involve people in the organization, because it is stated that intellectual capital not only needs to be linked to financial resources to generate productivity, but workers must feel committed. To provide improvements for the company. To strengthen collective work, it is also necessary to cultivate individual skills, as it has been proven that providing workers with a better quality of life will improve their work performance, in addition, managers should intervene in negotiations between employees - companies seeking a balance point where both achieve their goals and objectives, this is according to “To involve people in the organization, it is not enough to mobilize their intellectual, physical or related resources, expect increased productivity, what is required involves people as personality subjects them in relation to work and organization. In this sense, the management of human talent for the strengthening of the company's work aims to be configured as an administrative process that includes a human component, based on the individual skills of each person, for the achievement of organizational goals, taking into account the planning stages. , execution and control, under the principles of identity, culture and collective philosophy... Organizations are immersed in a network of interactions between people (owners, administrators, workers, customers, suppliers, communities), each with its own universe, its own vision of the world and that has needs and goals, not only material, but also emotional and spiritual. This diversity of actors, with their needs and goals, compels managers to act in the process of negotiation and conflict resolution, not in a hostile environment, but seeking the advantage of all participants, and this is one of the most important components of management". is that the latter is a major problem facing organizations and financial benefits depend on it, in other words, because human beings are considered as proactive and capable agents given the task of making decisions, doing and innovating for the benefit of the company and its performance, increasing its production.

Currently, human talent and its management have taken a big influence in the management of human resources or human capital, because it is one of the strategies to generate value for company actions and processes, as well as become a competitive advantage. Intellectual capital is the greatest force that drives an organization, endowed with abilities that make it face challenges, therefore it is necessary to intervene not only in the implementation of actions but also in the design of strategic plans, according to “Similarly, the ability to maintain a company's competitive advantage focused on a strategy that focuses on the value added by human talent to the organization, through a strategy of focusing human talent on the line of action the company considers. In this sense, Dessler proposes to balance a firm's capabilities with the demands of its environment, and, therefore, an organization's human capital to meet those challenges. In addition, it is stated that human talent managers face three basic strategic challenges: first, the need to support efforts to increase productivity and company performance; second, employees have a broader role in the employer's efforts to improve performance; and third, superiors perceive that their human resource unit should participate more in designing (not only in implementing) the company's strategic plan”. "Social pacts" between employees-companies work with win-win assumptions, where the person is only offered a contract as long as it benefits both parties, for that is sought instead of throwing away employees who become obsolete knowledge, he is equipped with greater capacity and competence, with this method will not cease to be useful for the organization. As mentioned above, aspects such as market demands, globalization and radical external changes force organizations to provide greater value to employees, stop seeing them as simple work resources and start giving them a place as strategic partners that drive the organization's economy. . Talent management consists of six basic processes, which relate to the recruitment of employees to the company, their compensation and development of their job skills, and the retention or maintenance of personnel, under constant evaluation. Whatever the process, emphasizes that “Today the management of human talent is a sensitive area of thinking and the objects that dominate within. Situational in nature, because it depends on several aspects such as the culture of each organization, organizational structure, characteristics of the environmental context, organizational business, technology, internal processes, and others. Talent management includes six basic processes, namely: Recruitment of people, application of people, compensation of people, development of people, maintenance of people and evaluation of people. This last process is also known as personnel audit, which aims to monitor and control all the activities of the worker, able to verify the results from time to time. During this evaluation, databases and administrative information systems that have been collected during the employee's career are used.

In order to promote talent management in organizations, it is important to take into account various elements, as these factors enable human management and therefore companies should track them. To exemplify a few, reference is made to planning personnel requirements, i.e. knowing the number of employees needed and for what positions, or what functions they should perform, this will avoid unnecessary work. On the other hand, the job description is specified to establish the remuneration or compensation it offers; Likewise, the management of human talent is present at the time of recruitment and selection of personnel, not to dispose of people who do not have intellectual qualities, but those who have the potential to become human talents. The fundamental part of staff formation is that organizations are involved in planning the professional careers of employees, adding elements such as various evaluations to their development, motivating them with better incentives and opportunities, promoting a better working environment.

That is why, in order to manage human talent within the company, it is important to keep in mind certain elements, which make this hard work possible, both for its execution and for tracking it. These elements are as follows:

These elements are based on the need to adhere to basic human talent management processes, but if they are not balanced, a Balanced Scorecard (CMI) is required which will facilitate the integration of these processes in relation to each of the departments involved.

B.    Talent Management and Company Competitive Advantage

Any successful business plan will prioritize boosting the efficiency and productivity of internal processes. When a business aims to field a championship-caliber team, it must prioritize talent management. Companies will form such groups to address departmental issues or gaps. If there's an issue at the Ministry of Finance, for instance, the organization will put together a team of experts in the field to figure out the source and implement a solution. If organizational strategy and technology are going to be complex, research shows that the success of both will depend on the human element. Consequently, managers should think about what influences the organization's performance. When looking at the efficacy of talent management strategies, identified three key avenues. First, there is the school of thought that uses analytics to establish a direct correlation between talent management and financial outcomes; second, there are those who stress the importance of analyzing and optimizing talent management systems; and third, there are those who seem to view analytics as a collection of metrics and measures that can be applied by a variety of stakeholders. From a monetary standpoint, the researcher evaluates the connection between talent management expertise and financial organizational success, demonstrating the value of investing in talent management. When compared to their competitors, companies that invest in talent management practices achieve superior financial results in a variety of metrics, including revenue growth, sales productivity, net profit margin, operating profit, return on assets, return on equity, return on shareholders' value, and market value. Proactive internal succession planning and improved retention rates have been shown to reduce the overall cost of personnel management.

Findings suggest that talent asset management has an impact on company performance. Value creation for a company's main stakeholders has been shown to have a significant impact on a company's bottom line. Several competences are found to underpin successful organizational procedures, which are then employed to run a company. The created value plays a significant part in the administration of corporate operations. Talent asset management as an organization's final step in developing and processing organizational competencies. Accordingly, it has been established that the key to organizational competence is the efficient and effective management of talent assets that boost both business performance and value creation. The same is true for businesses: competent talent asset management will equip them to match supply and demand for talent. When markets change, arise, or perish, businesses leverage dynamic capabilities to achieve new resource configurations. When it comes to achieving long-term success and gaining a competitive edge, dynamic capabilities are far more valuable to individual businesses.

The importance of people management strategies in maintaining market competitiveness and gaining an edge over the competition has been established by extensive academic study. It is also discussed how innovations and new technology are the only ways for businesses to quickly achieve a competitive edge. Only through the systematic attraction, development, motivation, management, and appreciation of talent can a business maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace. Similarly to how machines require design, operation, and maintenance to function properly, businesses will fail to operate successfully if critical parts like processes, systems, and structures are not aligned or hampered by friction between those elements. The company's human resources (or "talent") are responsible for carrying out these duties. Talent (i.e., the people working for the company) is the primary factor in determining the level of success a company has. The organization's fundamental capabilities are the sum total of the expertise of the people who work there. Injecting a company with talent allows it to do things that are hard to replicate in a competitive market. Having talented people on your team is the single most important factor in maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage.

Conclusion

In light of the study's findings, it can be concluded that the company has a strong interest in talent management, as they believe that if they hire employees with the appropriate profile and skills to carry out their duties, the company's results will improve by participating in a global environment. However, business owners must recognize that training is an investment in the company's future and not an extraneous cost. Due to the fact that most organizations in Indonesia are micro-enterprises, the majority of them do not understand talent management or the process of recruiting, selecting, recruiting, and training. This is an issue for these organizations, because they hire people without knowing their profile and talents to develop, in addition to not training them. As a result, their market development is inadequate, and some of them fail and close down. Opening to the public Human talent management is a must for all businesses, especially those who wish to remain competitive in the market. In addition, talent management seeks to develop and place the appropriate people in the right jobs at the right time and offer the ideal atmosphere for them to demonstrate their abilities in the most effective manner for the firm.

5. Employer Branding and Talent Management in the Digital Age

The digital age is reshaping the way in which organization recruit, select and develop skills for a new generation of employees. At present, for improving organizational performance, HR is offering digitized solutions for business and employees, solutions that generate engagement and new experiences to employees. The study is structured upon the following dimensions:

1. Relationship between employer brand – Talent management programs – engagement - talent management represents a strategic component of the business model that generates retention and engagement, product and marketing communication innovation, value for consumers and financial performance.

1. Digital skills for managers and employees -The new take on talent means development of core skills for increasing organizational performance: leadership, analytics, advanced skills in problem-solving, decision-making, and design-thinking. In this process, managers become producers –creative content and storytelling; distributors of content through social media platforms; recipient – creating resonance and engagement via selective replies; analyst – monitor dynamics of social media industry; adviser – enable and support

360 degrees environment in social media usage; Architect – leverage social media for key business functions (Deiser & Newton, 13). CEOs and HR leaders are focused on understanding and creating a shared culture, designing a work environment that engages people, and constructing a new model of leadership and career development by embracing digital technologies (Deloitte, 16, p.1)

Employer brand and talent management: it is all about digital

In the context of economic competitiveness and digitization, one of the major challenges for global corporations is represented by attracting and retaining top talent. On a long term, talent management represents a strategic component of the business model that generates product and marketing communication innovation, value for consumers and financial performance. Hence, the search for talents is a never ending story and investments in youngsters with high potential translates in minimizing operational costs, giving the opportunity of learning the business on a practical level, in concordance with the market dynamics.

According to the literature review in this field, employer brand comprises a series of dimensions characteristic to commercial branding: Employer branding creates two principal assets – brand associations - shape the employer image that in turn affects the attractiveness of the organization to potential employees; and brand loyalty - through organizational culture and brand identity (Backhaus & Tikoo, 04, p.505); Employer branding represents an effective strategy for motivating employees to <live the brand> and it represents what makes an organization attractive to its current and future employees (Maxwell & Knox, 09, p.1).

Employer brand represents brand-led culture change and customer experience management: a robust mechanism for aligning employees ’brand experience with the desired customer brand experience, as a common platform for marketing and HR (Mosley, 07, p.123). From HR perspective, “employer branding, involves identifying the unique “employment experience” by considering the totality of tangible and intangible reward features that a particular organization offers to its employees” (Edwards, 10, p.7). 

This is often defined as “employee value proposition” and it comprises the functional and economic benefits such as salary & remuneration policy, working environment, career development, organizational learning and psychological benefits such as job satisfaction or reputation (App, Merk & Buttgen, 12, p.269). Hence, employer branding has become a strategic instrument for HR in the battle for talent acquisition and retention, helping employees to internalize company values and organizational culture (Sathya & Indradevi, 14, p.203).

 

At present, employer brand has become synonymous with employee engagement because the most important brand ambassadors are the employees and in the context of digitization, information about organizational culture, leadership, remuneration policy and career opportunities influences directly the desirable image of the company. The concept of employee engagement refers to the degree of attachment to the company, the internalization of organizational culture, the roles and the relationship with the colleagues and employer (KPMG, 12). Engaged employees are dedicated to their profession and organization and they represent a strategic component for the company that generates intangible benefits (in terms of positive reputation and awareness – brand ambassadors for the company and promoters for products and services), but also tangible benefits – in terms of organizational performance, cutting costs through retention and recruitment; delivering concrete results consistent with the company’s business objectives.

Nicholas Born and Seoung Kang (2015) identify the most important components that shape a strong employee brand:  

1. Assess & Shape an Authentic, Consistent Message of What Your Organization Values – A strong employer brand must deliver to potential employees the value proposition of the brand. For example, Unilever defines employment in the company as the development of a career with growth opportunities, benefits and a work environment where diversity is appreciated. This implies that HR strategy must focus on learning in the workplace through training and coaching, mobility and promotion opportunities.

1. Communicate the Message by Leveraging the Right Channels – For potential employees, it is essential to know insights about the company – organizational culture, business objectives, training and professional development opportunities. In addition, talent management programs should be communicated to all stakeholders, including current employees. Social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook or YouTube are very effective tools in strengthening employer brand – in this regard, the most active companies from Romania come from the financial industry and banking, IT or commerce (EY Romania, 15). When discussing the impact of social networks on the employees' empowerment in Roman, the forum www.undelucram.ro provides positive or negative insights from different multinationals employees concerning the recruitment and selection process, salaries, organizational culture, personal life -work balance, career and promotion opportunities.

1. Develop Employer Branding Metrics & Measure Their Effectiveness Against Talent Goals-Metrics are very important in assessing employer brand and the costs involved in the recruitment and selection process. Examples of traditional metrics that have been used to measure

ROI on employer branding activities include cost per hire, time to fill, time to productivity, and candidate satisfaction rates. For Millennial generation, employee brand is very important and their attachment to companies is impacted by a series of factors concerning organizational cultural and corporate environment:

1.     Work/life balance – The perfect balance between professional and personal life – flexibility.

2.     Engagement, personal and professional development, career opportunities – The tasks must be interesting and relevant to youngsters, learning through training/workshops/coaching, career succession plan;

3.     Competitive salary – Equal opportunities for promotion and rewards (PwC, 11, p.10).

For Generation Y, always looking for the next best thing and eager to advance rapidly to management positions, talent management programs represent a good opportunity for career development. The millennial choice on the employer must match their requirements and aspirations and is based on both pragmatic and emotional aspects. Catalyst Solutions Report – The most desired employers 2015 –indicates that Generation Y chooses its employer depending on the package of wages and benefits, the company’s reputation, training and professional development programs. In this regard, the most desirable employers for Gen Y are multinationals such as Oracle, Google, Microsoft, IBM, HP, Vodafone, Renault Romania, Coca-Cola HBC, Orange, P&G, EY Romania, Accenture, Deloitte orKPMG (Catalyst Solutions, 2015).

William Rothwell (2008) indicates that in order to attract youngsters with high potential, talent management programs should comprise the following dimensions:

1.     Get commitment on behalf of senior managers and employees – Talent management implies employees with technical expertise - career double scale; dissemination of information and knowledge - management succession planning; mentoring for prospective successors.

2.     Analyze the Work and the People Now — and Determine What Talent Means - Analyzing the work is accomplished through systematic work analysis, carried out to prepare current job descriptions that realistically summarize work requirements. Analyzing the people is carried out by competency modeling, which profiles successful performers at every level and/or in every department of the organization. Determining what talent means requires organizational leaders to establish criteria for talent - individuals who are doing a good job where they are and are also promotable are called high potentials (HiPos); individuals who are the most productive of anyone doing a job are high performers (HiPers); and individuals who are the most knowledgeable about a specific area of the organization’s work are high professionals (HiPros).

3.     Recruit and Select Talent - In a robust talent management program, recruiting and selecting talent from outside is full, seamlessly integrated with developing talent from inside the organization. At present, the most important tools in recruiting focus on digital and employment branding.

4.     Evaluate Performance - Employees must be evaluated based on the results they achieve (current productivity) and on the competencies and behaviors they demonstrate.

5.     Analyze the Work and People Needed in the Future-organizational leaders take the time to forecast work requirements and the competencies that will be needed in the future if the talent management program is to align with the organization’s strategic objectives. Indeed, an organization’s strategic objectives imply the kind of work to be performed, the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will be required in the future, and the kind of personal characteristics (competencies) essential to success.

6.     Evaluate Potential - Common ways to assess potential include supervisory nominations, 60-degree assessment based on the competencies required for higher levels of responsibility (not the current level), assessment centers, psychological tests, work assignments/rotation experiences.

7.     Develop People - Potential assessment is carried out to assess individuals against future requirements at higher levels. Then, individual development plans (IDPs) are used to close developmental gaps by finding actionable strategies to build requisite competencies, organizations establish leadership development programs, action-learning programs, training programs, rotation experiences, mentoring programs, and other planned efforts to narrow gaps.

8.     Retain the Best People-organizational leaders are well advised to start by interviewing employees about why they stay. It is particularly important to know why HiPos, HiPers, and HiPros stay, since awareness of their reasons for staying can shape themes for future recruitment. It can also suggest areas of focus improve retention efforts.

9.     Evaluate Program Results-In short, the most important measures of success for talent programs may be these: How well is the program achieving the measurable objectives established for it? How many people are available, and ready to perform, when any vacancy occurs? How quickly can those qualified people be identified, selected, and oriented? What kind of people is available, and ready to perform, when any vacancy occurs? (Rothwell, 08).

Currently, talent management has entered into a new stage of development: thus, HR has evolved from the traditional function of recruitment and selection to a strategic function of recruiting high potential youngsters, with a focus on creating a strong employer brand recruiting via social networks and developing digital skills. For example, companies such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or Google are investing in the development of online talent communities for attracting new employees but also in aggressive marketing campaigns conducted in the academic field or at student job fairs. Companies such as Ford or General Motors have created blogs in order to attract fans of the auto industry or engineers that would like to work for them (Deloitte, 14, pp.66-68). Garr, Atamanik, and Mallon (2015) defines a new approach to talent management building focusing on critical talent capabilities at lower levels of maturity, and transitions to building a systemic and inclusive relationship with talent at the highest levels of maturity. At the center of mature organizations we have a clear, targeted and communicated talent strategy that comprises integrated talent activities that heavily reinforce the importance of leader growth and a widespread learning culture. “Talent as an asset” means that organization should:

1.     Put in place processes designed to enhance leaders’ understanding of their employees from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective.

2.     Develop talent processes that allow their organization to act on the greater insight.

3.     Provide resources and opportunities to employees that enable them to develop a “conversation” with the organization.

4.     In addition to simply indicating to employees that their diversity is welcomed, these organizations build both high-level strategies (e.g., aligning diversity and inclusion strategy to organizational objectives) and broad-based talent management practices (e.g., integration between diversity and inclusion, and learning and performance management), which help to reinforce the importance of bringing in people of diverse backgrounds and behaving in inclusive ways Garr et al., 15, p.2).

Figure . Talent Management Maturity Model (Garr et al., 15)

What should the talent strategy for the digital age comprise in order to attract high potential youngsters

 

1.     Constantly looking to equip employees with new skills through continuous learning or mobility programs.

2.     In the fast-paced digital world, innovative thinking drives competitive advantage; the fire of innovation, adaptability and creativity is fueled by diversity, when people with a wide range of perspectives work together, not just people of different ages and gender, but people who are different across every dimension – with different backgrounds, physical characteristics, life experiences and personalities.

3.     Getting leadership right - The digital world requires a different form of leadership and management. The winning leadership capabilities of the future will include some of the traditional leadership traits of vision, courage, and humility, but increasingly an ability to drive a sense of purpose, build trust with internal and external stakeholders, adapt to change at warp speed, anticipate fierce competitors, and deal with significant and evolving risks.

4.     Use data analytics to provide better insight into how effectively skills are being deployed within the organization.

5.     Use multiple channels to find talent including online platforms and social networks (PwC, 15, pp.13-19).

The Mercer (2016, p.26) study -Future proofing HR: bridging the gap between employers and employees indicates that at this point many companies are at the beginning of the HR development journey and will have to address in the near future a series of challenges concerning management of diverse workforce in a period of rising skill shortages, rethinking talent infrastructure and day to day talent practices; in this regard, HR departments will need to deliver a new Talent imperative with five priority areas to consider.

 

1.     Building diverse talent pools – expand the use of analytics to identify talent flow opportunities and pinpoint the drivers of change, build for tomorrow via experience - based development interventions focusing on diverse population pools and emerging competencies.

2.     Embrace the new work equation – recognize “one size fits one” and build a growth culture that supports flexibility, development, and autonomy, create an environment where employees feel valued and have transparency around pay, feedback and progression, rethink how managers are incentivized for identifying, developing and exporting talent.

3.     Architect compelling careers – design career frameworks to reconcile the succession needs of the organization with the expectations of the individual around career direction and velocity, stimulate talent movement in intentional and systemic ways through making careers fun and focusing on mobility and development programs.

4.     Simplify talent processes – challenge existing talent management processes and technology to reduce duplication and be short and intuitive, align performance management fundamentals with the organization’s business model and rewards philosophy, reimagine employee interaction with HR processes to promote a positive employer brand.

5.     Redefine the value of HR – reassess how the HR function delivers HR operations, strategic talent insights, and the employee experience; commit to investing in HR capability building, specifically around analytics, workforce planning, and strategic partnering skill; establishing the vital role of managers and executives in promoting a Talent-driven environment and sponsoring change.

In the new open talent economy as it is defined by Deloitte (2016) an organization’s talent strategy must account for the following lifecycle phases: plan & acquire -workforce planning; lead & develop - leadership development & succession; deploy & reward – employee rewards and performance management; engage & retain – employee engagement & retention. Companies must define their talent strategy by prioritizing investments in talent (people, process, program, and infrastructure) based on what is required to execute the business strategy. This includes work redesign, automation, technology, and leveraging talent beyond the walls of an organization with focus on innovation, growth, and profitability, in order to obtain important talent outcomes such as critical talent retention, top talent acquisition and employee productivity (Deloitte, 13, pp.8-9)

 

Digital skill for managers and employees

The new economy or digital economy implies usage by companies of new information and communication technology IICT) in innovative and efficient means. The business environment is extremely competitive and the skills shortages of employees create a  major problem in the labor market concerning all the economic sectors. What are the main factors that influence this trend? First, the use of mobile and analytical technologies implies the need for training and professional development of the existing employees. Secondly, in order to face the challenges in dynamic markets, companies need to reinvent themselves and to become agiler. A distinct problem is concerned with the fact that HR divisions of companies are not actively involved in the acquisition of digital skills of employees, resulting in a fierce battle for talents (Capgemini Consulting, 13, pp.2-3). Social media offers a real opportunity for companies to identify, recruit and select talent through digital tools.

Digital platforms are effective in identifying high potential individuals for specific jobs, contribute to the development of digital skills and abilities, precisely planning for career development and development of a new generation of leaders. Currently, the digital platforms represent the link between Big Data analytics and improvement of organizational performance in IT field (De Smet, Lund & Schaninger, 16).

The report of the European Commission (2014), E-skills for jobs in Europe. Measuring progress and moving ahead, synthesizes the most important trends that shape digital professionalization of European employees.

 

1)    Technological trends

a)    The Internet of Things (IoT) –it refers to the fact that the Internet includes ‘things’ or devices such as smartphones and smart appliances.

b)    Big data – including website postings and usage data, sensory data, user-generated content, GPS, and RFID. Big data is important because it provides insight into marketing departments, finance, operations, strategy, and for economies and societies as a whole.

c)     Cloud computing - Cloud computing or ‘cloud’ is perceived as highly important by most businesses to focus on transforming our business and not just our IT”. The benefits of cloud resonate particularly strongly with SMEs as they are able to exploit ICT possibilities, previously only available to large multinationals.

d)    Mobile technologies - are having a huge impact on business operations globally. IDC estimates that smart mobile devices will generate % of the IT industry’s overall growth worldwide. Technological trends are more likely to trigger in the near future the need for a specialist in cyber security, mobile technologies, cloud, big data, social entrepreneurship and consumerism (BYOD policy).

2)    Macroeconomic and societal trends

a)    Youth unemployment – The global landscape is defined by uncertainty due to lack of digital skills for entry- level workers.

b)    Global demand for skilled workers - talent shortages in a wide range of occupational clusters largely because populations are ageing rapidly and educational standards are insufficient.

c)     The digitalization of SMEs - Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are central to the European and world economy and the way that it adapts to ICT will have a significant impact on the need for e-Skills.

d)    The skills most likely to remain ‘onshore’: Information security skills; ICT supplier management skills; Enterprise architecture skills; Business Process Management skills; Digital Marketing skills; E-leadership skills; data visualization/data analysis, High-performance computing skills and User Experience (UX) Design skills; Legacy maintenance skills.

e)    The skills most likely to be offshored: Coding/ software engineering/ app building skills and software testing skills (European Commission, 14).

 

Capgemini Consulting (2013) indicates that the development of digitals kills implies a transformation of existing business models with a focus on training and compliance with the use of new technologies, innovative tools for recruitment and selection of talents, public-private partnerships with universities and business incubators/ start-ups. Training programs for development of digital skills represent a strategic component for obtaining organizational performance: for example, the partnership between P&G and Google for the development of employee skill in digital marketing. A specific instrument for the professional development of Generation Y is represented by mentorship programs, successfully implemented by companies such as General Electric, L’Oréal or Cisco.

Concerning talent recruitment, it is very important for companies to understand that Generation Y is very selective when it comes to employer brand and prefer employers that recruit via social networks – for example, L’Oréal introduced the gamification component in recruitment through Reveal platform and offer site visitors the possibility to discuss with the company employees and to engage in virtual assessment centers. Another trend in the development of digital skills consists of fusions and strategic alliances between companies and start-ups specialized in different technologies – for example, Walmart has created several research labs focused on product development (Small Society) and SEO –Kosmix. The development of strategic partnerships helps companies in the development of digital expertise on R&D –for example, Boehringer Ingelheim company from the pharma industry, in partnership with Kaggle data analytics platform creates predictive models in clinical research. Development of digital literacy among employees increases the economic competitiveness of organizations and can also be obtained by sponsoring start-ups from different market niches – for example, Nike in collaboration with Techstartsincubator promotes innovation in product development through Nike+Digital Accelerator (Capgemini Consulting, 13, pp.7-8).

Although Millennials have been labeled as digital natives, Kate Meyer (2016) indicates that in reality, Generation Z has proficiency in digital technologies. Not all members of Generation Y have a native ability to use digital devices and most of them do not know how to use in a practical way real business problems; also, in comparison to Generation X, their attention spam is very low and they are not very good at multitasking. Regardless of this, Generation Y members are focusing on obtaining jobs in digital marketing and mobile devices. Barbara Anne Combes (2009, p.38) defines Generation Y as <digital refugees>, due to the fact that in reality, “they have poor Internet literacy skills, rely on keyword searching, trust search engine results and, as a consequence, exhibit a high level of satisficing and snaffling behavior”. When discussing digital skills for Romanian youngsters, we can differentiate between three distinct profiles.

 

1)    The Enthusiasts-are keen on using technology; they are always connected online, even when they relax, they have chaotic work schedules, but they prove to be competent.

2)    Rebels-are attracted by ITC and they are keen on using it, they are more independent than Enthusiasts and less interested in receiving feedback at work.

3)    Pessimists-are passive, disconnected from the ITC world, they do not understand technology well and they use it only superficially (Mitan, 14; Pinzaru et al.,2016).

In the near future, under the pressure of the business environment, youngsters will have to specialize in performance and be able to use automation platforms or internally developed software. The research developed by Educational Testing Service (2015), America’s Skills Challenge: Millennials and the Future indicates that Generation Y is struggling with a series of problems concerning digital technology: Literacy; Numeracy; Problem solving using digital technology(Biro, 16).

When it comes to managers, Roland Deiser and Sylvain Newton (2013) identify six social media skills that every leader needs for shaping their enterprise 2.0 strategy: creativity, authentic communication, the ability to generate engaging multimedia content and the ability to develop social and technological infrastructure beyond geographical and physical boundaries. Within the organization, the leader does not fulfill only his leadership position, but also several roles related to digital literacy.

 

1)    Creating compelling content – creative skills, ability to tell compelling stories that can be converted into media; digital skills –including multimedia production and editing videos. Effective leadership also means video communication and to incorporate video streams into blogs.

2)    Leveraging dissemination dynamics – Business people are familiar with control and formal communication. Social media changes this standardized process and internal communication by encouraging employees to create content. In this context, leaders should implement efficient communication strategies that correlate traditional paradigm with the digital one. Managers should have the ability to create relevant content but also the ability to disseminate viral messages to employees-with the help of informal opinion leaders. For example, Lorraine Bolsinger, vice president and general manager of General Electric acquired these skills through experimentation: she has created a "360blog” to encourage free dialog with employees about her reports and strategies.

3)    Managing communication overflow – Efficient managers should have the ability to filter and prioritize information. Due to the fact that in social media information gets shared and commented on within seconds, managers must decide quickly on what messages to share with different publics and online communities. Bill Ruth (General Electric-Software & Analytics Center Director) states that “a leader has to develop empathy for the various channels and the way people consume information."

4)    Driving strategic social-media utilization – Leaders should fulfill a proactive role as promoters of an organizational culture that encourages the development of digital skills (especially for Generation Y employees). At General Electric, customer relationship management is based upon informal teams developed through social media. Leaders must become community mentors, content curators, network analysts, and social entrepreneurs.

5)    Creating an enabling organizational infrastructure – The digital infrastructure creates cohesion among employees by promoting a participatory organizational culture. For a better connection with customers, videos developed by employees concerning the company and its product and services can be promoted through social media.

6)    Staying ahead of the curve – Leaders must be informed constantly on the latest trends on business models and Internet of Things. Thus, it is essential that companies become more agile and competitive through the implementation of innovative technological systems. Leadership Academy of General Electric is focused on training managers from Generation Y to be familiar with latest technologies and innovation management (Deiser & Newton, 13).

 

The report “The Quest for Digital Skills. A multi-industry executive” of the Economist Intelligence Unit (2016) outlines the dynamic development of digital skills in various economic sectors and the main challenges that managers need to face in this regard.

 

1)    Companies from industries such as production or financial services face major deficiencies concerning digital skills.

2)    At present, skills on cyber-security, mobile and web applications represent the most important skills required in the labor market; nonetheless, by 2018, skills on big data will become essential for the shift of companies towards 4.0 industry.

3)    In comparison to Generation Y, Generation X is more reluctant towards digitization of processes and jobs.

4)    Talents with digital skills choose creative industries, detrimental to production, retail or banking industries. The main solution for managers is to develop partnerships with business lab incubators and research labs.

5)    Digital skills gap ranges according to digitization trends from different industries – retail companies are focused on the development of smart products, mobile and web applications, while companies from financial industry are more concerned with cyber security (Economist Intelligence Unit, 16, pp.3)

 

Employees and implicitly managers need to adapt rapidly to the technological changes of business; this involves dynamism, interactivity, new tools of communication, a new perception of workplace and experiences. “The digital work place gives employees the tools they need to improve their communication, collaboration, and connections with each other. Implemented effectively, it also allows organizations to mitigate common risks, adhere to their regulatory compliance mandates and ultimately realize enhanced business value” (Deloitte, 12, p.14).

 

Conclusions

HR has entered into a new stage of evolution and effective organizations need to reinvent themselves at as structural level and this implies digitization of HR processes, new tools for communication and learning, new skills with a focus on people analytics and new organizational design. The digital age is reshaping the way in which organization recruit, select and develop skills for a new generation of employees. This new take on talent means development of core skills for increasing organizational performance: leadership, analytics, advanced skills in problem solving, decision-making, and design thinking. CEOs and HR leaders are focused on understanding and creating a shared culture, designing a work environment that engages people, and constructing a new model of leadership and career development; at the same time, becoming laser-focused on the external employment brand and embracing digital technologies to reinvent the workplace, focusing on diversity and inclusion as a business strategy (Deloitte, 16, p.1). An important challenge for managers and implicitly, HR division, is represented by attracting and retention of Gen Y members in this case, employer brand value for career development and learning becomes an imperative for attracting high potential youngsters; the main challenge is to find the right balance and incentives to develop digital skills for Gen Y members that despite the fact that are professionally well equipped, they lack the ability to become real business problem solvers and to generate profit for companies (Pînzaru & Mitan, 16).