Senior human resources and talent management analyst Brian Westfall once wrote that no one should think of talent management as an alternative to human resources. According to Westfall, talent management and human resources are not two different approaches to the same process; they do not offer a choice in doing one over the other, reiterating that every business has to do both.
Considering this, identifying those things that differentiates human resources from talent management can be achieved by defining what human resources is, as well as defining talent management.
What is Human Resources?
With the many definitions you can easily come across on the internet, look at human resources from this perspective: a key figure in making things happen.
Human resources is the administrative arm that delivers the essential needs and services to an organisation. The responsibilities provided by human resources go beyond the day-to-day operations of the department but often the processes and procedures that dictate the day-to-day of every employee within the organisation.
Human resources have a major role to play in the successes of any organisation. This is evident in how employees at one point or another are touched by human resources—from interviews, onboarding, and training to other personal issues that employees encounter on the job.
What is Talent Management?
Prominent among organisations is the need to get talent managers to aid management’s efforts in achieving organisational goals. As a result, we find more courses channelled towards delivering the best module in talent strategy.
As defined by the Michigan State University course on Human Resource and Talent Strategy, talent management is the systemic, planned effort to attract, retain, develop, and motivate highly skilled employees and managers.When assessed, systemic and planned effort as identified in the definition involves a long-term strategy for building an organisation’s employee talent by cultivating a stable workforce that is dynamic and thrives in an organisation’s value system, at the same time filling the gaps with new perspectives and skills.
Many different strategies are put in place to reach this goal. First, because talent management works to build a strong brand for the organisation that will attract strong job candidates. This goes beyond working with the human resources department to working with executive leadership on overall strategic planning that aligns the process of recruiting, hiring, and developing talent in line with the organisation’s goals.
Conclusion
Strategy drives execution, which is basically the relationship that exists between talent management and human resources. Talent management performs the role of informing and dictating the decisions that are taken by the human resources and their team members.
As stated by Human Resources and Talent Strategy courses, “Human resources management and talent management are not an “either or” proposition, nor are they separate responsibilities or entities moving in parallel within your organisation.
“To identify, recruit, develop, and connect the right people to your organisation, you need a cohesive and aligned strategy.”
While human resources management and talent management are dependent upon each other to achieve an organisation’s people’s goals, there are key differences that influence the role they play within an organisation and how professionals in these areas handle their responsibilities.
