Executive Summary

Chapter 1: the Case for Talent Management provides the context for the subject, its imperatives, drivers and different focuses that lead to significant developments in adopting organizations. A case study on St Luke’s Communications is provided.

Chapter 2: Positioning and Structuring Talent Management examines its internal rationale, how efforts are positioned, structured and organized and the challenges being faced in this area. The case study is First Data Corporation.

Chapter 3: Building Brands and Propositions discusses how a talent focus is applied to the employment deal by strengthening the appeal of a corporate image and by rethinking what it is that differentiates an organization in the eyes of its employees. The case study is Agilent Technologies.

Chapter 4: Defining the Talent Groups emphasizes the importance of specific talent groups that can have significant impacts on strategic performance including executive, professional and operational groups, defined talent pools or segments of the whole workforce. The case study is Carter Holt Harvey.

Chapter 5: Deploying Talent Interventions examines how talent management interventions are identified, sourced, prioritized, introduced and adapted in the light of external/internal contextual issues, especially those that optimize performance and employee loyalty. The case study is Manpower plc.

Chapter 6: Managing Talent Effectively discusses shortcomings in managing talent as a critical imperative and provides developments in management involvement, building accountability, rethinking work and improving performance management. The case study is International Paper.

Chapter 7: Evaluating Talent Management describes different approaches that can be applied to evaluation, including strategic frameworks, talent measures and emerging concepts, such as employee value measurement and human/social capital assessment. The case study is South African Breweries.

Chapter 8: Reviewing Talent Management considers its implications, how a talent focus is refreshed and helps construct an agenda for change, including the use of emerging practices and the ongoing challenges that talent management always brings. The case study is ST Microelectronics.