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Talent Management:

Getting the Most from Your Greatest Strength
by Kevin Boatright

“Welcome to your first day on the job at Beige State University, ‘Where People are Paramount™.’ You found our vaguely written ad, endured our tedious search process, and now you’re fully prepared to be disillusioned. Once we find you a desk your orientation will be complete. As your new boss, I look forward to providing meaningful feedback the next time they tell me I have to. Again, congratulations!”

The way some universities hire, integrate and nurture staff, it’s a wonder anybody works there. The rush to fill a slot, the ambiguity of committee-written position descriptions, and the view that new hires should sink or swim practically ensures hit-or-miss personnel decisions.

“It’s ironic,” says John W. Moore, president of Penson Associates, Inc. and president emeritus of Indiana State University, “that, although our mission is the development of human capital, we invest only minimally in the training and development of our people.” Instead, “new faculty are left on their own, promotion occurs without systematic evaluation of performance, socialization is left to chance, and we keep our fingers crossed that the right people will influence their careers.”

“Deliberate, Unified Process”

It doesn’t have to be that way. During the past decade, the concept of “talent management” has emerged as a business-world response to the perennial and expensive challenges of finding, energizing and retaining productive people. The goal is to reduce the cost and disruption of turnover, enhance a sense of teamwork and worth, and focus the efforts of employees on a clear-cut mission.

  1. Broadly defined, talent management includes such elements as:
  2. Having and implementing coherent strategic business plans;
  3. Creating candidate profiles and attracting new staff in light of those plans;
  4. Integrating new hires into the culture of the institution as much as the job;
  5. Developing, keeping and promoting current staff; and
  6. Communicating useful feedback and sharing overall objectives.

Taken in isolation, there’s nothing new about the items on the list. In practice, however, they tend to remain isolated, becoming the responsibility of human resources, the hiring department, the supervisor, the employee, or no one. What’s often lacking is the commitment to making this a deliberate, unified process that’s practiced at all levels of the organization throughout the person’s employment.

Moore, who coordinates AASCU’s annual New Presidents’ Academy, says he challenges universities to look at their budgets for professional development. While the needs are different for faculty and staff in student affairs, finance or advancement, the “HR office is usually not a high priority, nor is the training and development of talent,” he says. All too often, universities focus on hiring and terminating and the rest is neglected.

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