Introduction to Talent Management
In today„s challenging business environment of going global and competition becoming
intense, organizations have mounting pressure to perform better than before. Over the years,
creation and preservation of knowledge has become a key tool in accelerating
competitiveness and enhancing organizational capabilities to respond to market changes
wherein employees„skills and personalities are appropriately deployed to optimize
performance, is a critical and difficult task. Furthermore, identifying and developing
executives who have leadership potential, like every other vital strategic function, is a
demanding process that is equal parts of Arts and Science.
Not only Software and BPO Companies, no organization can rest in peace under the
assumption that once they have recruited the employee in place, their job is done. The real
challenge that is faced by these industries is not hiring the right person for the right job,
neither their Performance Management System, nor their Work Climate nor Culture, but in
retaining the employee. It is proven beyond argument that it is the people who make or break
Managing the talent of key employees is critical to achieve the success in long-term by any
organization. Talent management involves individual and organizational development in
response to a changing and complex operating environment. It includes the creation and
Talent in general terms refers to the capabilities, skills or the art, a person possess in a particular
field. It also refers to those people who have high potential, scarce knowledge and skill or
who can successfully bring about transformation and change in the organization. Such
individuals are usually sought after in the market and their contributions to the business add direct value to
its strategic or competitive positioning.
Coming to the word Talent Management in an Organisation, it refers to those special steps an organization
adopts to recruit, develop and retain its pool of top talent. Talent Management also denotes a
deliberate approach taken up by an organization to attract, develop and retain people with
the aptitude and abilities to meet not only the current requirements but also future organizational needs.
In today‟s talent-hungry market scenario, one of the greatest challenges that organizations are
facing is to successfully attract, assess, train and retain talented employees. Talent Management
encompasses in itself the entire process of Planning, Recruiting, Developing, Managing,
and Compensating employees throughout the organization. Organizations have realized the need for
talent management and are now focusing to develop and retain the existing talent in their
organization rather than trying to acquire a new talent because the cost of identifying,
developing and retaining the talent internally is more cost effective instead of replacing the talent
which is lost from external market. Though it may appear initially that in the process of retaining talent, we are
spending more in terms of increased wages, rewards and recognition, when we practically analyze, the cost
of acquiring a new talent is higher. Apart from higher cost of acquiring the new talent it has to
additionally face the initial hiccups of this new employee getting along with the
organisational goals and strategies. Every business unit is making sure that they can respond and
withstand the challenges of talent crisis by developing an effective talent management strategy
like identifying the key talented people in the organization, cultivating anddeveloping the skill of their
present workforce and retaining highly talented employees by protecting them from
Talent management is a term that emerged in the 1990s to incorporate developments in Human
Resources Management which placed more of an emphasis on the management of human resources
or talent. The term was coined by David Watkins of Softscape published in an article in 1998, and
further defined in the book "Talent Management Systems" in 2004 " however the connection between
human resource development and organizational effectiveness has been established since the
1970s. Talent management is part of the Evolution of Talent Measurement Technologies.
The issue with many companies today is that their organizations put tremendous effort into attracting
employees to their company, but spend little time into retaining and developing talent. A talent
management system must be worked into the business strategy and implemented in daily processes
throughout the company as a whole. It cannot be left solely to the human resources department to
attract and retain employees, but rather must be practiced at all levels of the organization. The
business strategy must include responsibilities for line managers to develop the skills of their
immediate subordinates. Divisions within the company should be openly sharing information with
other departments in order for employees to gain knowledge of the overall organizational
objectives. Companies that focus on developing their talent integrate plans and processes to track
and manage their employee talent, including the following:
Sourcing, attracting, recruiting and on boarding qualified candidates with competitive
Managing and defining competitive salaries
Training and development opportunities
Performance management processes
Promotion and transitioning
The talent management strategy may be supported by technology such as HRIS (HR Information
Systems) or HRMS (HR Management Systems). Modern techniques also use Competency-based
management methodologies to capture and utilize competencies appropriate to strategically drive an
organization's long term plans.
Talent Management: Concept
Wide variations exist in how the term „talent‟ is defined across differing sectors, and
organisations may prefer to adopt their own interpretations rather than accepting universal or
prescribed definitions. That said, it is helpful to start with a broad definition and, from our
research, we have developed a working definition for both „talent‟ and „talent management‟:
Talent consists of those individuals who can make a difference to organisational
performance either through their immediate contribution or, in the longer-term, by
demonstrating the highest levels of potential.
Talent management is the systematic attraction, identification, development,
engagement, retention and deployment of those individuals who are of particular
value to an organisation, either in view of their „high potential‟ for the future or
because they are fulfilling business/operation-critical roles.
These interpretations underline the importance of recognising that it is not sufficient simply
to attract individuals with high potential. Developing, managing and retaining those
individuals as part of a planned strategy for talent is equally important, as well as adopting
systems to measure the return on this investment.
More organisations are also now broadening their definitions, looking at the „talents‟ of all
their staff and working on ways to develop their strengths (see „inclusive versus exclusive
approaches‟ below). At its broadest, then, the term „talent‟ may be used to encompass the
entire workforce of an organisation.
Talent is everywhere; the difficulty today lies in identifying the right kind. Talent is a
complex chemistry that combines personal history, a great capacity for analysis and
contextualization, the ability to listen, respect for others and a perfect knowledge of one's
profession, practices and changes. Previously, talent was easily identifiable. Now we have to
find it with tools such as annual reviews, the 360 °, assessment centers, social networks, work
groups and all the Web 2.0 tools. However, according to the survey of BCG, 60% of
companies have no experience on the subject. This is a new challenge that lies before us in
the training and skills management business to help companies with the identification
process. They can benefit from benchmarking done with the help of our knowledge on this
Talent management as part of skills management has become a key element for business
performance. It is a source of individual recognition, which is a key factor for internal
mobility and generates change for innovation. Identifying talent is finding the people that will
transform business knowledge by sharing it around them and transforming it into tools, goods
or services that can create future wealth for the company.
Talent management refers to the anticipation of required human capital the organization
needs at the time then setting a plan to meet those needs. Talent management in this context
does not refer to the management of entertainers. Companies engaging in a talent
management strategy shift the responsibility of employees from the human resources
department to all managers throughout the organization. The process of attracting and
retaining profitable employees, as it is increasingly more competitive between firms and of
strategic importance, has come to be known as "the war for talent." Talent management is
also known as HCM (Human Capital Management).
The term "talent management" means different things to different organizations. To some it is
about the management of high-worth individuals or "the talented" whilst to others it is about
how talent is managed generally - i.e. on the assumption that all people have talent which
should be identified and liberated.
Talent Management in organisations is not just limited to attracting the best people from the
industry but it is a continuous process that involves sourcing, hiring, developing, retaining
and promoting them while meeting the organisations requirements simultaneously. For
instance, if an organisation wants the best talent of its competitor to work with it, it needs to
attract that person and offer him something that is far beyond his imagination to come and
join and then stick to the organisation. Only hiring him does not solve the purpose but getting
the things done from him is the main task. Therefore, it can be said that talent management is
a fully fledged process that not only controls an entry of an employ but also his or her exit.
To achieve success in business, the most important thing is to recognize the talent that can
accompany one in achieving his goal. Attracting them to work for and strategically fitting
them at a right place in the organisation is the next step. It is to be remembered that placing a
candidate at a wrong place can multiply the problems regardless of the qualifications, skills,
abilities and competence of that person. How brilliant he or she may be, but placing them at a
wrong place defeats the whole purpose. The process of talent management is incomplete if
you are unable to fit the best talent of the industry at the place where he or she should be.
Some organizations may find the whole process very unethical especially who are at the
giving end (who loses their high-worth employee). But in this cut-throat competition where
survival is a big question mark, the whole concept sounds fair. Every organization requires
the best talent to survive and remain ahead in competition. Talent is the most important factor
that drives an organization and takes it to a higher level, and therefore, cannot be
compromised at all. It won‟t be exaggerating saying talent management as a never-ending
war for talent!
Talent Management: Process and Importance
People are, undoubtedly the best resources of an organization. Sourcing the best people from
the industry has become the top most priority of the organizations today. In such a
competitive scenario, talent management has become the key strategy to identify and filling
the skill gap in a company by recruiting the high-worth individuals from the industry. It is a
never-ending process that starts from targeting people. The process regulates the entry and
exit of talented people in an organization. To sustain and stay ahead in business, talent
management cannot be ignored. In order to understand the concept better, let us discuss the
stages included in talent management process:
● Understanding the Requirement: It is the preparatory stage and plays a crucial role in
success of the whole process. The main objective is to determine the requirement of talent.
The main activities of this stage are developing job description and job specifications.
●Sourcing the Talent: This is the second stage of talent management process that involves
targeting the best talent of the industry. Searching for people according to the requirement is
the main activity.
●Attracting the Talent: it is important to attract the talented people to work with you as the
whole process revolves around this only. After all the main aim of talent management process
is to hire the best people from the industry.
●Recruiting the Talent: The actual process of hiring starts from here. This is the stage when
people are invited to join the organization.
●Selecting the Talent: This involves meeting with different people having same or different
qualifications and skill sets as mentioned in job description. Candidates who qualify this
round are invited to join the organization.
●Training and Development: After recruiting the best people, they are trained and
developed to get the desired output.
●Retention: Certainly, it is the sole purpose of talent management process. Hiring them does
not serve the purpose completely. Retention depends on various factors such as pay package,
job specification, challenges involved in a job, designation, personal development of an
employee, recognition, culture and the fit between job and talent.
●Promotion: No one can work in an organization at the same designation with same job
responsibilities. Job enrichment plays an important role.
●Competency Mapping: Assessing employees‟ skills, development, ability and competency
is the next step. If required, also focus on behaviour, attitude, knowledge and future
possibilities of improvement. It gives you a brief idea if the person is fir for promoting
●Performance Appraisal: Measuring the actual performance of an employee is necessary to
identify his or her true potential. It is to check whether the person can be loaded with extra
responsibilities or not.
●Career Planning: If the individual can handle the work pressure and extra responsibilities
well, the management needs to plan his or her career so that he or she feels rewarded. It is
good to recognize their efforts to retain them for a longer period of time.
●Succession Planning: Succession planning is all about who will replace whom in near
future. The employee who has given his best to the organization and has been serving it for a
very long time definitely deserves to hold the top position. Management needs to plan about
when and how succession will take place.
●Exit: The process ends when an individual gets retired or is no more a part of the
Talent Management process is very complex and is therefore, very difficult to handle. The
sole purpose of the whole process is to place the right person at the right place at the right
time. The main issue of concern is to establish a right fit between the job and the individual.
Talent Management is on HR professionals„minds these days, as HR works to obtain, retain
and develop manpower. For talent management to be effective, what is important is to hire
employees who seem to be the best fit in the organization. Organizations are taking steps to
manage talent most effectively and also to develop their own employer brand. These brands
simplify decision-making and communicate the value they create for their customers.
Likewise, employees also identify themselves with certain organizations especially in the
light of forecasted labour shortage. Organizations that formally decide to "manage their
talent" undertake a strategic analysis of their current HR processes. This is to ensure that a
co-ordinated, performance oriented approach is adopted.
Quite often, of late organizations are adopting a Talent Management approach and are
focusing on co-coordinating and integrating various aspects, such as:
Recruitment, Retention, Employee development, Leadership and "high potential
employee" development, Performance management, Workforce planning and Culture.
The Researcher found from the present study that, there is a tremendous change in human
resources in the past decades. The reasons behind are the changes in technology and global
economic environment. Even though organizations are aware of the need for human talent
they were neglecting it all these years without giving comprehensive outlook.
The novel Economy is a different place from the aged one and requires a shift in value
systems to become accustomed. To deal with this changing world the present age bracket
needs to be aware of its contributions, developments and ability to manage both the present
Talent management is gaining increased attention. Talent management (TM) brings
together a number of important human resources (HR) and management initiatives.
Organisations that formally decide to "manage their talent" undertake a strategic analysis of
their current HR processes. This is to ensure that a co-ordinated, performance oriented
approach is adopted.
Quite often, organisations adopting a TM approach will focus on co-ordinating and
Recruitment - ensuring the right people are attracted to the organisation.
Retention - developing and implementing practices that reward and support
Employee development - ensuring continuous informal and formal learning and
Leadership and "high potential employee" development - specific development
programs for existing and future leaders.
Performance management - specific processes that nurture and support performance,
Workforce planning - planning for business and general changes, including the older
workforce and current/future skills shortages.
Culture - development of a positive, progressive and high performance "way of
An important step is to identify the staff or employees (people and positions) that are critical
to the organisation. They do not necessarily have to be senior staff members. Many
organisations lost a lot of "organisational knowledge" in the downsizing exercises of a few
years ago. The impact of the loss was not immediately apparent. However, it did not take
long for many companies to realise their mistake when they did not have people with the
knowledge and skills to either anticipate or solve problems that arose.
The current discussions about skill shortages and the ageing population are also helping
organisations to focus on the talent management issue. It may not be possible to simply go
out and recruit new people to meet operational needs. Many leading companies have decided
to develop their own people, rather than trying to hire fully skilled workers.
Talent Management: Benefits and Financial Benefits
Benefits of Talent Management
Talent management can be a discipline as big as the HR function itself or a small bunch
of initiatives aimed at people and organization development. Different organizations
utilize talent management for their benefits. This is as per the size of the organization and
their belief in the practice.
It could just include a simple interview of all employees conducted yearly, discussing
their strengths and developmental needs. This could be utilized for mapping people
against the future initiatives of the company and for succession planning. There are more
benefits that are wide ranged than the ones discussed above. The benefits are:
●Right Person in the right Job: Through a proper ascertainment of people skills and
strengths, people decisions gain a strategic agenda. The skill or competency mapping
allows you to take stock of skill inventories lying with the organization. This is especially
important both from the perspective of the organization as well as the employee because
the right person is deployed in the right position and employee productivity is increased.
Also since there is a better alignment between an individual‟s interests and his job profile
the job satisfaction is increased.
●Retaining the top talent: Despite changes in the global economy, attrition remains a
major concern of organizations. Retaining top talent is important to leadership and growth
in the marketplace. Organisations that fail to retain their top talent are at the risk of losing
out to competitors. The focus is now on charting employee retention programs and
strategies to recruit, develop, retain and engage quality people. Employee growth in a
career has to be taken care of, while succession planning is being performed those who
are on the radar need to be kept in loop so that they know their performance is being
●Better Hiring: The quality of an organization is the quality of workforce it possesses.
The best way to have talent at the top is have talent at the bottom. No wonder then talent
management programs and trainings, hiring assessments have become an integral aspect
of HR processes nowadays.
●Understanding Employees Better: Employee assessments give deep insights to the
management about their employees. Their development needs, career aspirations,
strengths and weaknesses, abilities, likes and dislikes. It is easier therefore to determine
what motivates whom and this helps a lot Job enrichment process.
●Better professional development decisions: When an organization gets to know who
its high potential is, it becomes easier to invest in their professional development. Since
development calls for investment decisions towards learning, training and development of
the individual either for growth, succession planning, performance management etc, an
organization remains bothered where to make this investment and talent management just
make this easier for them.
Apart from this having a strong talent management culture also determines how
organization rate their organizations as work places. In addition if employees are positive
about the talent management practices of the organization, they are more likely to have
confidence in the future of their organization. The resultant is a workforce that is more
committed and engaged determined to outperform their competitors and ensure a
leadership position in the market for their organization.
There are pros and cons of every management philosophy and the associated processes.
Talent management is no exception to it. While many organizations simply decline to
have it under their umbrella because it costs the exchequer, still others approve of it
equally strongly as an effective people management process.
Before we discuss the financial benefits of talent management the following may be of
our interest and worth a thought:
Most of the organizations are short sighted, when it comes to people management.
People management may not go well with pure capitalists.
Organizations and industries are growing at a fast pace, faster than the rate at which talent
There is dearth of talented and skilled professionals both at the top as well as bottom.
Due to cut throat competition and a consequent lack of talented professionals the attrition
rates have increased across all industries, especially so in services industry.
Poaching has become common place; employee retention has become the Achilles heel of
All the above mentioned statements clearly indicate that the talent is unable to keep pace
with the growing industry and also that the industry has failed to breed the pool of
talented individuals as per its requirements. A fast industry growth meant that there would
be a need for talented professionals for upcoming avenues and unfortunately corporate
seemed to miss out on this. Business houses nowadays have diversified interests in
different industries, employment opportunities are fast coming up but unfortunately the
talent is pool is shrinking. This tells upon the finances of an organization in a big way.
Less attrition means lesser expenditure on hiring: BPO‟s and start ups, for example where
the attrition rate is the highest remain occupied in searching for people every now and
then. Now this incurs financial losses to the organization. An organization not only pays
an employee for his/her work but also spends a considerable amount on their training and
development. There is transfer of skill and expertise and when the same employee leaves
after a brief stint with the organization, it costs the latter.
The problem gets even worse when such a scenario occurs at the top level. An
unoccupied executive position can cost an organization dearly. The solution - a proper
talent management in place can solve this problem. The following facts become worth
New employees cost the company 30-60 % more than the existing employee in terms of
There is an additional cost incurred on training and developing the new individual.
The process of recruitments itself costs an organization in a big way, right from
advertising a post, to attracting talent and finally short listing and hiring someone for the
job. Often there is a compromise in hiring when the need is urgent.
Organizations clearly need to look inside for solutions and design and develop better
employee retention, rewards and recognition strategy. Performance management needs to
be taken care of.
Talent Management: Principles and Challenges
There are no hard and fast rules for succeeding in execution of management practices, if
you ask me. What may work wonders for one organization may ruin another one! For
convenience sake however there are certain principles of Talent Management that one
should follow or keep in mind.
Principle 1 - Avoid Mismatch Costs
In planning for future manpower requirements, most of the HR professionals prepare a
deep bench of candidates or manpower inventory. Many of the people who remain in this
bracket start searching for other options and move when they are not raised to a certain
position and profile. In such a scenario it is better to keep the bench strength low and hire
from outside from time to time to fill gaps. This in no way means only to hire from
outside, which leads to a skill deficit and affects the organizational culture.
Principle 2 - Reduce the Risk of Being Wrong
In manpower anticipations for future an organization can ill afford to be wrong. It‟s hard
to forecast talent demands for future business needs because of the uncertainty involved.
It is therefore very important to attune the career plans with the business plans. A 5 year
career plan looks ridiculous along with a 2 year business plan.
Principle 3 - Recoup Talent Investments
Developing talent internally pays in the longer run. The best way to recover investments
made in talent management is to reduce upfront costs by finding alternative and cheaper
talent delivery options. Organizations also require a rethink on their talent retention
strategy to improve employee retention.
Another way that has emerged of late in many organizations is sharing development costs
with the employees. Many of TATA companies for example sponsor their employees‟
children education. Similarly lots of organizations use „promote then develop‟ programs for
their employees where the cost of training and development is shared between the two. One
important way to recoup talent investments is spotting the talent early, this reduces the risk.
More importantly this identified lot of people needs to be given opportunities before they get
Principle 4 - Balancing Employee Interests
How much authority should the employees‟ haves over their own development? There are
different models that have been adopted by various corporations globally. There is „the chess
master model‟, but the flipside in this is that talented employees search for options.
Organizations can also make use of the internal mobility programs which are a regular feature
of almost all the top organizations.
These principles are just broader guidelines; their application varies across industries and
There is no dearth of professionals but there is an acute shortage of talented professionals
globally. Every year b-schools globally churn out management professionals in huge
numbers but how many of are actually employable remains questionable! This is true for
other professions also.
The scenario is worse even in developing economies of south East Asia. Countries like
U.S and many European countries have their own set of problems. The problem is of
aging populations resulting in talent gaps at the top. The developing countries of south
East Asia are a young population but quality of education system as a whole breeds a lot
of talent problems. They possess plenty of laborers - skilled and unskilled and a huge man
force of educated unemployable professionals. These are the opportunities and challenges
that the talent management in organizations has to face today - dealing with demographic
It faces the following opportunities and challenges:
Training and Developing talent
Developing Leadership talent
Creating talented ethical culture
The recent economic downturn saw job cuts globally. Those who were most important to
organizations in their understanding were retained, other were sacked. Similarly huge
shuffles happened at the top leadership positions. They were seen as crisis managers
unlike those who were deemed responsible for throwing organizations into troubled
waters. It is the jurisdiction of talent management to get such people on onboard, who are
enterprising but ensure that an organization does not suffer for the same.
Training and Developing Talent
The downturn also opened the eyes of organizations to newer models of employment -
part time or temporary workers. This is a new challenge to talent management, training
and developing people who work on a contractual or project basis. What‟s more big a
challenge is increasing the stake of these people in their work.
While organizations focus on reducing employee overheads and sacking those who are
unessential in the shorter run, it also spreads a wave of de motivation among those who
are retained. An uncertainty about the firing axe looms in their mind. It is essential to
maintain a psychological contract with employees those who have been fired as well as
those who have been retained. Investing on people development in crisis is the best thing
an organization can do to retain its top talent.
Developing Leadership Talent
Leadership in action means an ability to take out of crisis situation, extract certainty out
of uncertainty, set goals and driving change to ensure that the momentum is not lost.
Identifying people from within the organization who should be invested upon is a critical
talent management challenge.
Creating Talented Ethical Culture
Setting standards for ethical behavior, increasing transparency, reducing complexities and
developing a culture of reward and appreciation are still more challenges and
opportunities for talent management.
The human resource professionals are the cornerstone of any organizations. They not only
solve business problems today but also participate in strategic aspects of the organization;
talent management is one of them.
Formulation of a talent management strategy is the responsibility of the HR function. This is
often done in consultation with the business function. Be it talent mapping and planning or
performance, recruitment and retention the human resource professionals of the day are
seeking out ways to streamline and integrate their functions with the broader business
people are empowered very early in their careers to give them more responsibilities and
build more competencies in employees. This enables to develop high potential personnel. The
organization runs an internal programme ID venture where they promote entrepreneurship.
You have an idea; you come forward, share and develop a comprehensive business plan. The
best plan receives a support from the organization!
Some strategies followed are:
Aligning Business strategies with the HR strategies: Business HR is one function that is
developing fast as part of the human resource department. The person is responsible for
ensuring a smooth relationship between business and HR functions. They work with business
heads to develop people strategies to support both short term and long term business
Performance Planning and Evaluation: An integrated HR approach means that are uniform
and standard procedures for employee performance evaluation and compensation, up and
down the organization. Performance is linked to growth and the process adds value for
employees to evaluate their work on their own. Indian digital disk giant Moser Baer employs
Strategic Manpower Planning: HR and Business function are interrelated. None can exist
without the other. HR functions need to work in collaboration to assess current and future
manpower requirements are plan for the same. They need to strategize on the approximate
manpower requirements, the relevant skills and educational qualification, compensation and
the like. This has to happen well in advance. Recruitment itself means a host of other
activities like training and development, compensation, induction and orientation etc.
Mapping your Talent: An ever increasing emphasis is being laid on identifying the top
performing and talented employees to think of ways to develop, nurture and retain them.
Further organizations also like to keep skill inventories for contingencies. As organizations
realize the skills and abilities of individuals, they can then be more focused on devising
means and strategies to attract, develop and retain these people.
In the globalized business environment, historical sources of advantage have diminished in
value to the point that they are now fast becoming irrelevant. Research indicates that
sustainable competitive advantage in the future will come through investing in people to
build organizational capabilities.
Infosys believes in the progressive reality that HR is much more than a support function. A
fact of economic life, HR needs to be used as a springboard to drive business. No more about
merely dealing with HR issues, it has a strategic role that requires dealing with business
issues – truly elevated to a “seat at the table”. The challenges thrown up by this fast-changing
business environment have also opened a window to a plethora of opportunities like dramatic
shift in costs through global talent sourcing and de-risking through global task distribution,
achieving global operational excellence through a judicious mix of technology and service
delivery models, etc.
Solving the talent paradox is not an impossible task. But it requires an integrated, strategic
approach to talent management, from planning and sourcing to training, development, and
retention. Insightful, integrated talent-management practices can not only help an
organization overcome a talent shortage, but also deliver financial results that will win the
approval of all stakeholders.
HR is headed towards and offers insights into some key strategies to capitalize on the
consequent opportunities – from the combined perspective of Infosys as a practitioner and a
“Workforces Gone Global – 77% respondents say globalization factors are making a
difference in their talent management strategies” - Talent Management Trend Survey 2007 by
BPM Forum, Success Factors & Human Capital Institute
INFOSYS- TALENT EDGE
Infosys unveiled Infosys TalentEdge, a comprehensive talent management platform that
deepens employee engagement. Infosys TalentEdge addresses the entire HR lifecycle helping
companies streamline their HR processes and reduce operational costs. The platform is built
on state-of-the-art technology and is delivered in the Cloud on an outcome-based pricing
Leading global enterprises, across industries, are already on their talent management journey
with Infosys TalentEdge.
In the May 2011 report 'The Talent Management Suite Market Emerges' James Holincheck,
research vice president at Gartner, observed, "Customers are increasingly using more talent
management capabilities from a single vendor. Thus, a talent management suite market has
Infosys TalentEdge deepens employee interaction through rich social engagement and
interactive self-service capabilities. The social collaboration features of the platform helps
companies improve access to organization-wide expertise, generate ideas, and accelerate
innovation. The platform also allows employees to access HR functionalities "on-the-go"
through mobile and smart devices thereby enabling an always-connected workforce.
Infosys TalentEdge simplifies the entire Hire-to-retire lifecycle of the HR function. The
platform brings together preconfigured, best-in-class industry processes that helps enterprises
streamline HR operations and free up time spent on transactional HR activities such as
payroll, attendance, benefits processing, etc. The Infosys TalentEdge platform is built on
Oracle‟s industry-leading PeopleSoft Human Capital Management (HCM) Suite.
Delivered in the Cloud on an outcome-based pricing model, Infosys TalentEdge optimizes
costs and delivers better spend predictability to the HR organization. This frees up significant
capital expenditure typically locked into HR technology and process investments, allowing
the HR function to be a strategic enabler of an organization‟s business objectives. Infosys
TalentEdge provides companies with the convenience of single point of accountability by
taking complete ownership from technology to business operations.
Samson David, Vice President and Global Head - Business Platforms, Infosys said, "Infosys
Edge business platforms in the cloud, is focused on accelerating business innovation for our
clients across functions. Today HR organizations spend over 60% of their time on
transactional HR activities leaving little time to focus on talent engagement. With Infosys
TalentEdge, companies can focus more on deepening talent engagement while simplifying
transactional HR processes."
About Infosys Edge
Infosys Edge, business platforms in the cloud empowers organizations to accelerate business
innovation by driving deeper engagement with consumers and employees, powering new
engines of growth and simplifying business operations. Leading Global 1000 clients, across
industries, have partnered with Infosys Edge to accelerate business innovation across
Infosys Safe Harbor
Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking
statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results
to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and
uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and
uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our
ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which
may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly
skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client
concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to
manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas,
disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully
complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts,
the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or
expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal
restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of
our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional
risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United
States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-
F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011 and on Form 6-K for the quarters ended
September 30, 2010 and December 31, 2010 and June 30, 2011.These filings are available
at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-
looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The company does not
undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by
or on behalf of the company
Highlights of TalentEdge
Employee On-boarding: The on-boarding solution leverages "SmartHire" feature provided
by Oracle PeopleSoft. The offering includes a set of pre-configured employee-hire templates
that can be fine-tuned based on client requirements. This template-driven hiring approach
accelerates employee on-boarding process
Administer Personal and Job Data: At the core of the HR solution is an enterprise-wide
human resources database that supports a multitude of HR processes and serves as the single
source of personal and job data
Manager Self-Service: This web-deployed solution enables managers to initiate and approve
job data to their direct/ indirect reports, including promotions, transfers, terminations, and
other status changes and requests
Employee Self-Service: The solution enables employees to access and control their personal
information including name, address, phone number, and marital status through an intuitive
and user friendly interface thereby reducing administrative costs and hassles
Monitor Health and Safety: The solution facilitates tracking of workplace incidents,
injuries, illnesses, first aid and medical treatment, management of accident investigations,
corrective actions, and tracking of compensation claims
Reporting/ Regulatory Compliance: The solution includes a whole host of delivered HR
metrics and reports that aid decision making and ensure better regulatory compliance. Some
of the reports include Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), Employee Turnover Analysis,
Salary Structure Reporting, New Hire Details, and Pending I-9 submissions
Managing Organization Structure: The solution supports setting-up of organizational
structure, department trees and creation of organization charts. It provides managers with
easy-to-comprehend visual representation of the organization structure
Record Issues/ Grievances: Employee issues and grievances can be tracked and monitored
right from the time they are raised to up until they are resolved
Benefits of TalentEdge
Reduces employee on-boarding time by paper-less and error-free processes
Empowers employees and managers by providing self-service access. It results in reduced
administrative costs and drives employee satisfaction
Drives informed decision making by providing timely and relevant information through
Reduces time and effort spent on administrative activities resulting in employee retention,
effective people management and sharper focus on core business activities
Integrates seamlessly with other modules to form a single source for all HR data thereby
reducing data inconsistencies significantly
Improves employee productivity through simplified and unified interfaces
Infosys TalentEdge's Recruitment module is an integrated, cost-effective talent acquisition
solution that enables organizations to manage their workforce by searching and hiring the
right talent. It integrates job-boards, job postings, applicant searches, background checks,
résumé extractions, and test centers and provides an efficient, productive and enriching online
The Highlights are as follows:
360 Degree View Dashboard: Provides the recruiter with alerts on overall recruitment status
that includes details about new applicants, job openings, unconfirmed interviews,
unevaluated answers, online job offers, quick search, and auto-match results.
Integrated Interview Management: Provides bi-directional integration with MS Outlook
2007 to schedule interviews and enables the recruitment team to allocate resources needed to
Profile Utilization: Imports person profiles and creates new job openings, thereby saving the
effort of creating jobs from scratch.
Robust Multi-tiered Auto-screening: Automates screening to filter out applicants in the
online application process. Screening consists of mandatory questions for applicants, with
points assigned to them. The application can be configured with multiple levels of screening
options such as preliminary levels to final, which sorts applicants at various stages of
Online Job Offer: Enables applicants to review, accept, and reject job offers online via their
career portal page. Online features include attachments such as offer letters, benefit details
and corporate policy documents.
Approval Delegation: Authorizes proxy users to temporarily act on behalf of administrators
to approve job openings and offers.
Search: Notifies registered candidates when a matching job opportunity opens up.
Employee Referrals: By using the employee referral option, applicants can mention names
of employees who have referred them to the job opening.
Benefits if TalentEdge Recruitment are as follows:
Highly configurable and flexible features to meet business needs accurately
End-to-end integrated solution, from searching for the right candidates to hiring the
Easy integration of job-boards, job posting, and background checks by third party
Reduced effort and time by template based hiring
Reduction of paperwork with enhanced online actions and workflow-driven processes
Applicant-job combination searches enabled by robust search capabilities
Easy use and generation of custom reports
Benefits to employees of TalentEgde
Infosys TalentEdge's Benefits Administration module enables implementation of a full
spectrum of benefits including health, insurance, saving, spending, and additional non-
The solution is designed to define various types of benefit events including open enrollment;
employment changes such as hire and termination; family status changes such as birth and
marriage; passive events based on employees and dependents age; and Consolidated
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) qualifying events. The events can be
configured to automatically determine the benefit plans that need to change accordingly. The
effective-dated employee data including employee address, benefit elections, 401(k) options,
dependent and beneficiary details changed through open enrollment, and benefit change
events are maintained in a centralized database enabling comprehensive reporting.
Highlights of Administrative Benefits
Employee Self Service: Internet-based self-service module enables employees to update
personal, dependent and beneficiary information, initiate life events such as marriage and
birth, and to enroll for various benefits
Evidence of Insurability (EOI) administration: Life and disabilities are covered by transfer
of electronic files to vendor and making enrollment changes after high coverage vendor
Documentation Proofs: The solution tracks documentation proofs required for life events
such as birth and marriage and follows up with employees for the same
Unpaid leave billing: It enables billing for unpaid leave, COBRA and pay for retired
employees by generating monthly invoices
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA): It processes Family and Medical Leave Act
(FMLA) in compliance with federal and state requirements, by generating notification/
warning letters and leave packets
COBRA and HIPAA Administration: It creates certificates of creditable coverage and
COBRA initial letters based on qualifying life events and enrollment changes
Vendor Compatibility: It Interfaces with vendors by dispatching eligibility and enrollment
information electronically in the industry-standard ANSI 834 format or in custom format
Change Notification: It notifies employees about the changes in benefit enrollments along
with costs triggered by a benefit event via e-mail - for instance, changes resulting from a life
event, such as marriage or birth
Administrative Help: The solution enables administrators to resolve life event issues by
providing real-time summary of life events status
Employees can view, compare or make enrollment changes themselves through the self-
service module. This results in reduced operation costs. It also reduces printing costs for
Enrollment and Confirmation worksheets. Employee satisfaction increases as they are in full
control of their data.
The solution sends approval notifications to personnel administrator, as and when employees
initiate life events. Employees are allowed to process life events and make enrollment
changes only after they receive the administrator's approval.
The solution provides one-stop help desk with a toll-free number for employees to make
enrollments, initiate life events, receive confirmation statements and get clarifications for
benefit queries related to eligibility and costs
It automates open enrollment and event maintenance processing which reduces manual errors
and premium overpayments
FSA Administration tracks pledges, processes claims, disburses money, and prints checks
Unifies interfaces and provides consistent data through seamless, real-time integration with
all system components such as payroll and core HR
Monitors changes in policies that affect eligibility
Performance Management at TalentEdge
Performance Management is a basic and critical element of an enterprises‟ talent
management strategy. Infosys TalentEdge's Performance Management module manages
performance by setting certain parameters like performance goals, aligning individual's goals
with corporate objectives, progress monitoring, periodic performance rating, identifying
development needs, and rewarding performers.
Highlights of Performance Management
Configurability in Goal Setting Phase: Various parameters including goal status,
percentage completion, start date, end date, employee measurement, and adding and deletion
of goals can be configured. Users can choose to either display participant evaluator
information or maintain anonymity.
Writing Tools: The platform leverages HR writing tools such as Results Writer,
Performance Notes, Language Checker, Spell Checker, and Development Tips.
o Both the employee and the manager can record private, free-format notes at any time during
the review period and store them along with their performance documents
o The Language Sensitivity Checker reduces the risk of inappropriate language in performance
o Managers can access Results Writer that aids in writing constructive feedback based on
employee performance rating
o Managers can access Development Tips to identify ways in which an employee can attain a
certain competency or goal
o Usage of Spell Checker increases professionalism and accuracy of performance reviews
Goal Cascading and Goal alignment: This feature enables cascading of goals through
defined hierarchy - from corporate goals to individual goals. For instance, it enables manager
performance goals to be passed on to an employee performance document.
Electronic Document Sign-off: Users can electronically sign-off performance documents,
without generating paper copies.
Simplified Processes Initiation: Document creation process is made flexible for employees,
managers and HR administrators.
360 Degree Evaluation: Apart from the manager and employee, peers and team members
also participate in evaluation process. It offers flexibility in configuring participant
Benefits of Performance Management:
Easy-to-use, one stop solution: Streamlines performance management for employees,
managers and HR administrator.
Increases Employee Performance: Defines clear performance targets collaboratively at the
beginning of the performance period. It includes feedback from peers, managers, or other
parties to foster development. Managers can provide interactive feedback, coaching, and
development to employees throughout the performance period.
Drives Business Results: Links individual goals and rewards to business objectives by
communicating employee contributions. Ensures adequate support of key initiatives and
Improves Talent Management: Identifies high performers and team members in need of
Improves Feedback to Employees: Enables managers to construct high-quality feedback to
employees with the help of writing tools that aid in appropriate language usage.
Embedded Analytics and Normalization Reports: Managers and administrators can access
reports that show performance review summary status, reviews owned by the manager,
reports of late or missing review documents, goal alignment details, goal completion
progress, and online graphs of review rating distributions for defined groups of employees.
Integration with other solutions:
o Enables cultivation of pay for performance culture by integrating it with compensation
o Provides profile and competency data flow
o Determines and adds to learning of an employee by integrating with learning solutions
o Achieves integrated talent management by integrating Performance Management solution
with Core HR, Successions and learning solution. It enables use of critical information about
talent across business functions by providing deep insight into workforce, thereby aiding in
informed talent management decisions
one of the biggest risks facing many organisations is having the right talent to enable them to compete
in the future.
The reality for many business today is that a large majority of its key executives will probably retire in
the next 5-10 years. While this may not have been an issues 10 or 15 years ago, pressure have been
such that businesses have had to reorganise and resize themselves to a point where the talent pool that
would have been ready to step up into key roles are either not ready or not there.
companies need to integrate their talent and succession planning with their strategic business plans
and view talent management as a long-term, continuous process.
1. Think strategically. Talent management requires a strategic perspective. What are the things that
might impact your organisation in the future? Will it grow and acquire other businesses, or is the
market shrinking and therefore a different leadership approach may be needed? What ‘type’ of
managers and business leaders will be needed in the future?
2. Understand key roles. Which functions and roles in the organisation drive the majority of the
business’s value? Think broadly, and not just about traditional leadership roles, specialist technical
roles such as product development may be as equally important. Once this is complete it is a
straightforward task to examine the age profiles of those currently in the key roles. How many of these
could retire in the next 5-10 years? How many of these roles have ‘ready now’ successors?
3. Identify the requirements of the key roles. Effective talent management requires clarity on technical
and behavioural requirements for the roles as well as specific experience, such as international or
specific market experience. All key roles should have the necessary components and characteristics for
superior performance clearly defined. These requirements can then be used as a basis to assess
people, either internally via a promotion or externally via recruitment.
4. Understand who your talent is. Use assessment centres to identify talent internally.
5. Agree your succession strategy. Once the organisation knows who is likely to retire, and who the
potential talent is, objective decisions can be made about how the key roles will be filled in the future.
Does the business need to actively recruit and bring in new blood or can all the key roles be filled from
within? Should the strategy be a balance of recruiting externally as well as promoting internally?
6. Define career paths for internal promotions Once your succession strategy is clear, establishing
career paths and the ability to describe the requirements for pursuing the path becomes easier.
Creating effective career paths requires two components, knowing the requirements for the next level
and creating clear plan of how to gain the necessary skills, behaviours and experience.
7. Link talent management with performance management. Talent management and succession
planning should become a part of the organisation’s performance management and career
development processes. Regular performance discussions are important to collect evidence of how
potential successors have performed. In addition, the discussions also provide the opportunity for
managers to coach talent to ensure ongoing development and readiness.
8. Provide ongoing development. Managers need to support the ongoing development of their talent
to ensure that make the necessary progress.
9. Monitor readiness and prepare a succession plan. Senior managers should meet at least annually to
initially agree who the potential successors are for the key roles and to subsequently monitor their
progress. Who is ready now to move to their next role? Is their evidence to suggest that any of the
successors will not ‘make the grade’? If not what needs to be done?
10. Ensure ownership . Succession planning needs to be owned by line managers and needs to be
actively led by the Chief Executive or owner of the business for it to be successful.
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