AN INVESTIGATION INTO TALENT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AT A SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITY

CITATION: Lekganyane, N., C., & Barnes, N. (2017). An Investigation into Talent Management Practices at a South African University. International Journal of Human Resources and Procurement. Vol. 6 (6) pp 1 – 15.

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on talent management, a Human Resource practice that plays a critical role in many organisations and encompasses a set of integrated processes that are used to attract and retain, develop, motivate and engage, talented employees to achieve a set of business strategies. The study assumes that human capital is key to organisational high performance and sustainability of competitive advantage. The main objectives were to identify, evaluate and determine the usage of talent management practices at a South African University. The research also determines whether talent management practices are aligned to organisational strategy. Face-to-face and telephonic interviews were used by the researcher to gather data for this research. As a result, ten Talent Management committee members were interviewed to determine the talent management practices at a South African University. The research findings indicate that talent management activities at the selected University are still at a maturing stage, therefore there are practices which are running and some that are still to be implemented within the organisation. The organisation used career conversation to identify talent pools and these will then be taken into different interventions as per their career aspirations. However, some problem areas were identified and these include the unavailability of a talent pipeline and succession planning. As a result, some recommendations were made, and these include the need for a critical gap skills analysis, mentorship, coaching and the design/implementation of a promotion policy. The study will add to the body of knowledge and assist the organisation under study to enhance or align talent management systems and practices.