ABSTRACT
Organisations are increasingly talking about talent management and according to research, this trend is set to continue. Eighty-six per cent of companies anticipate that the profile of talent management will rise in the next 5 years (Hay Group and Human Resources, 2003) and 70 per cent of CEOs rate retention as one of their top four priorities (Deloitte Consulting, 2003). Talent seems to have become one of the ‘in’ words on the business agenda, which many attribute to Mckinsey et al.’s research summarised in the book The war for talent (Michaels et al., 1998). More recently, the Corporate Leadership Council research (2005) found that talent management directly contributes to increased organisational effectiveness and profitability, leading to as much as a 15.4 per cent advantage in shareholder return.
