Good Essay On Talent Development – Leadership Development Compared And Contrasted With Career Development Interventions

Modern employees (especially talented) seek to build a career and can move from one organization to another in search of the best places for self-realization. At that time, the driving force of the organization is the potential leader. The human capacity of the organization determines the success of a business. Therefore, it is necessary to define the main similarities and differences between the talent development and career development, namely what will benefit organization – the search of outside talented human resources or attention to the inside skilled resources and their promotion.

Differences

The crucial difference between talent development and career development lies in their focus. Speaking about talent development, the focus is on the development of appropriate skills and knowledge, which the company considers should help it in the business management and successful achievement of strategic objectives. So, in pursuit of a competitive advantage, companies are beginning to seriously engage in “soft” factors affecting the business like management competence development, updating of the corporate culture, maintaining employee satisfaction. A striking example is the work on the formation of personnel reserve; a task solved one way or another by any company aspiring to leadership. For example, the researches of Business Week showed that within previous ten years the total profit of the hundred largest US corporations increased by more than 2.5 times, while the total number of personnel hasn’t changed much. It means that success was caused by the fact that the leaders of these companies have created conditions, conducive to a significant increase in employee productivity. On the contrary, career development focuses on the formation of employees’ important for their individual progress. Thus, employees are fully responsible for their own career development. They decide whether or not they remain in the organization, make certain job assignment, work with a certain load and participate in personal development through training and individual self-study projects.
The next difference concerns the goals. The goal of career development is the development of the workforce through the provision with necessary knowledge about organizations and the surrounding reality by counseling, seminars, materials for self-development, professional information and program evaluation. The goal of the talent development is the development of company’s supervision and managerial talent. The company refuses to equal treatment of all employees and focuses on talent. A close-knit corporate group is formed from a sample of talented employees. The company provides it with the priority development that takes place in an atmosphere of transparency and openness. Its purpose is not to prepare a person for a particular position, but promote him to a higher management level, to help develop thinking and leadership skills, strategic vision. Thus, the use of talent is not limited to the typical career path and, if necessary, possibly sending them, for example, in management positions in the new business.
Also, career development and talent development have different stages of work. The talent development starts from the assessment of employee potential to rise (personal fulfillment) in the company and his performance. The first criterion is measured by the corporate competencies, defined by strategic goals of the company and set requirements for personal characteristics and motivations of each employee. The second criterion is based on key performance indicators (KPI) or another existing company criterion. Without waiting for appointments, the potential of selected employees began to be used extensively in strategic priority projects; mentoring and transferring the best practices; and introducing innovations or conducting various reforms. Over the next 1-2 years, the strongest among the selected talents are appointed to higher positions, replacing weakly operating managers. The main incentive for talented employees is non-financial. Concerning career development, it can take many years to achieve the desired position through the preparation, choice of career path, development of work skills, promotion, preparation to retirement through the search of replacement and retirement.
Finally, talent development is aimed at the implementation of innovative ideas for the company’s success, while career development can be within standard frameworks of the company.
Therefore, talented employees can also choose the career development path as they are valuable company’s asset, so the company should motivate them properly in order to save.

Similarities

First of all, both developments require the cooperation with HR unit. HR unit is responsible for the selection of employees and the implementation of the program for employees’ development.
Also, they require training. It doesn’t matter how talented the employee is if he cannot apply his skills properly. Career development conducts the work with staff according to the plan, which provides activities for the acquisition of professional and managerial knowledge, development of leadership skills. Talent development education is directly related to the activities of the company and mainly includes independent work, participation in projects, practical work.

Conclusion

It is difficult to say what system is better – career development or talent development. However, the great example is General Electric, which leader, Jack Welch, has developed and implemented a system of talents’ identification and development. These talents have the highest rates of personal and collective performance, so managers train and move up them. The system is based on the special evaluation procedure, which allows ranking three categories of managers, namely “A”, “B” and “C”. And his dream was the transformation of the entire corporation to corporation of “A” managers.

References

Bloomberg Business (2000). Funds That Haven’t Lost Their Zip. Business Week Archives. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/stories/2000-08-06/funds-that-havent-lost-their-zip
Cummings, T. G. and Worley, Ch. G. (2014). Organization Development and Change, 10th ed. Boston: Cengage Learning.
Stacey, R. D. (2011). Strategic management and organizational dynamics: the challenge of complexity to ways of thinking about organizations. 6th ed., Harlow, England; New York: Financial Times Prentice Hall.