Introduction
Personnel learning and talent development is one of the most critical areas of human resources management, as well as a key factor in the success of any business. It should be noted that, compared to the improvement of production facilities, investing in employee development plays a greater role in increasing a company’s performance (Al Aina and Atan, 2020). Learning and talent development is defined as a unique set of activities aimed at enhancing skills and improving employees’ psychological characteristics. Organisations create certain methods and systems for the management of professional and career development (Training strategies and implementation: in-depth, 2019). Large corporations have specialised professional development departments led by experts in the field with extensive experience in human resources.
The necessity to prepare and train personnel for current and future conditions can be caused by changes in both external and internal factors. For example, the former include increased competition and modifications in the economic policy of the state or legislation (Al Aina and Atan, 2020). The latter is about alterations in conditions of the organisation, namely restructuring, the introduction of new technologies and the emergence of new jobs. Besides, in case there is a major expansion of the company’s activities into different regions of the United Kingdom, it typically leads to the need to implement learning and talent development strategies at the national level (Kucukusta, 2017). This business report is aimed at discussing the crucial elements and possible issues of such programmesâ implementation.
National Talent Management
National talent management is an essential concept that has not yet received a proper interest and academic research but has already proved its importance, relevance and influence on businesses all over the world (Kucukusta, 2017). Overall, global talent management involves all activities of an organisation that are aimed at retaining, developing, selecting and attracting the best workers in the most strategic and core roles that are needed to achieve the companyâs objectives and priorities (Schuler, Jackson and Tarique, 2011). The difference between this and ordinary learning and talent development is that these activities are implemented on a national scale.
As mentioned above, despite the lack of academic research regarding national talent management, there is no doubt that its strategies have an entirely positive and rather strong impact on businesses. Organisations should pay special attention to global learning and talent development in order to create and sustain talented and devoted workforces (Stahl et al., 2011). Successful national talent management strategies have the purpose of recruiting, developing, deploying and retaining the right persons who are likely to contribute to the success of the organisation and will consider it their objective (Training strategies and implementation: in-depth, 2019). Certainly, just as any strategy, global talent management methods have specific issues and problematic factors that have to be addressed before implementing a programme (Kucukusta, 2017). Overall, suppose any possible problems are successfully foreseen, and several core principles are followed. In that case, it is likely that national learning and talent development programme will improve the performance of the company and take it to a higher level on a global scale.
General Issues Related to Learning and Talent Development
Learning and talent development programmes generally involve a vast number of various people, namely leaders, managers, educators and employees. Additionally, there are many factors that have to be taken into account before such a strategy may be successfully used. Therefore, several problems may arise at any stage of implementation. For example, employees’ needs and preferences can be misunderstood, so their interest and involvement in training are significantly reduced (Training strategies and implementation: in-depth, 2019). Accordingly, this leads to negative or ineffective program outcomes and wasted effort and money of the organisation (Schuler, Jackson and Tarique, 2011). The wrong training format can also lead to less meaningful results. Finally, it is not always easy for the companyâs leaders to correctly estimate and address the employeesâ cultural diversity or difference in skills and experience levels, reducing the outcomes.
National Learning and Talent Development: Basic Problems that Need to Be Addressed
Overall, issues that may appear before or while implementing national learning and talent development strategies are the same as with local programmes. However, there are also some differences that are discussed further. To begin with, national level strategies are much more challenging to be implemented successfully and correctly since they include a vast number of a companyâs departments all over the country (Schuler, Jackson and Tarique, 2011). Therefore, the first issue or difficulty is to make sure that all managers work together and put the same effort into providing employees with learning. Unfortunately, in newly opened branch offices, it can be difficult for managers and employees to focus on the training program (Schuler, Jackson and Tarique, 2011). That is why it may be necessary to wait for several months to allow the workers to get acquainted with and used to their new duties and tasks.
Further, national learning and talent development strategies involve a particular educational and evaluation plan. Those responsible for creating it should take into consideration that some of the employees are new to the organisation, so the training should be suitable for both them and those who have been working there for a long time. Nevertheless, it may be rather complicated to create such a programme that will include unique tasks that are interesting, effective and useful for everyone since all workers have different skills and experience (Schuler, Jackson and Tarique, 2011).
Another issue with national learning and talent development is that one has to choose a way to implement it. In other words, since there are various learning formats, the organisation needs to decide whether the employees will take online or offline courses (Schuler, Jackson and Tarique, 2011). In case the former option is chosen, it should be easier for the workers to study since they can get access from any place and device and usually at any time they prefer. However, if the company decides to provide their staff with traditional classroom courses, there may be a problem (Training strategies and implementation: in-depth, 2019). First, the leaders will need to organise the classes at a specially selected time and places throughout the country so that all branchesâ employees are involved. It is hard to disagree that this is a complicated task that requires additional efforts, funding and control.
Furthermore, national-level learning makes it more challenging to solve possible conflicts and address employees’ differences in culture, religion or moral views. Since all people are not the same, it is essential to make sure that no elements of the learning and talent development programme may hurt their feelings or seem to be offending. While it is relatively easy to achieve that when implementing a local strategy, it becomes much more complicated with national level talent development, so conflicts emerge more often and can be solved with more effort.
Overall, all issues with implementing talent development and learning appear precisely because of the national level and large scale of the programme. It is hard to disagree that it is always easier to organise and control local events, but learning courses provided in various areas of the UK require an extended number of people who can control the process and effectively interact with each other. They also have to think of an evaluation method and ways to get feedback from the workers, which is needed to assess the efficiency of the learning programmeâs outcomes. Thus, the main issue with national talent management is the difficulty in controlling the situation.
National Learning and Talent Development: Strategic Elements
In order to make sure that the national learning and talent development programme is more likely to be efficient, it is crucial for companies to follow specific rules. First of all, âtalent management has to be integrated and aligned with the organisation’s overall strategies because of its vital importance to articulationâ (Kucukusta, 2017, p. 215). Considering employees’ differences, references and needs is also a critical step that will make the programme more effective and interesting (Stahl et al., 2011). In addition, it is crucial to choose managers who will efficiently control the process in all branches and make sure that there are no issues with the strategy.
Furthermore, there must be a robust connection and mutual respect between leaders and employees so that both groups understand the necessity of learning and talent development and see this process as an opportunity for further growth. Neither managers nor workers should use such programmes as a way to get more profit; instead, they need to perceive it as an opportunity to develop their company and increase its performance (Kucukusta, 2017). When leaders spend much money on national learning strategies, they need to remember that talented staff are their primary compensation. At the same time, âit is also important that the talent themselves have to understand the importance of the management’s implementation, so that they are willing and able to contribute their efforts in knowledge sharing by accepting the reward of compensationâ (Kucukusta, 2017, p. 215). Thus, achieving collaboration and mutual acceptance is crucial.
Conclusion
To draw a conclusion, one may say that the importance and necessity of national level learning and talent development is difficult to overestimate. Indeed, when a company expands its operations into different regions of the country, it is essential to implement a national learning strategy in order to increase the success and productivity of this organisation. It will allow the company to have all employees focused on the same goals, gain necessary skills, interact with each other on a different level during the course and make sure that the workers have the same values as the firm. Despite various problems that may arise before and during the learning programme implementation, this process is actually worth the effort. Problems like cultural and ethical diversity, conflict management, complicated control and evaluation and education format are not as challenging as they may seem. Solving them and putting effort into national talent development will take the company on a higher level and make it more resistant to competition. Therefore, a thoughtful national personnel learning strategy is likely to significantly improve the companyâs performance and productivity.
Reference List
Al Aina, R. and Atan, T. (2020). âThe impact of implementing talent management practices on sustainable organizational performanceâ, Sustainability, 12(20), pp. 8372-8393.
Kucukusta, D. (2017) âLocal, national or international strategies for talent managementâ, in Horner, S. (ed.) Talent management in hospitality and tourism. Oxford: Goodfellow Publishers, pp. 213-216.
Schuler, R. S., Jackson, S. E. and Tarique, I. (2011) âGlobal talent management and global talent challenges: strategic opportunities for IHRMâ, Journal of World Business, 46(4), pp. 506-516.
Stahl, G. K. et al. (2011) âSix principles of effective global talent managementâ, Winter, 53(2).
Training strategies and implementation: in-depth (2019) Web.