In the article, attached you will read about emerging trends in your area of talent management. While you read the article identify three trends you would want to learn more about due to strong relevance for your specific company.
Imagine you are an HR professional at a company you are familiar with, management has asked you to identify, track, and prioritize important emerging trends within your area of talent management.
arti.pdf
See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349967658
The shifting boundaries of talent management
Article in Human Resource Management · March 2021
DOI: 10.1002/hrm.22050
CITATIONS
36 READS
4,741
4 authors, including:
Vlad Vaiman
California Lutheran University
86 PUBLICATIONS 2,540 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
Wayne F Cascio
University of Colorado
192 PUBLICATIONS 15,690 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
David G. Collings
Trinity College Dublin
144 PUBLICATIONS 9,143 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
All content following this page was uploaded by Vlad Vaiman on 02 March 2023.
The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349967658_The_shifting_boundaries_of_talent_management?enrichId=rgreq-38193c054f7c875ce2e3d6ba2b449032-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzM0OTk2NzY1ODtBUzoxMTQzMTI4MTEyMzczMjgwM0AxNjc3Nzg1Njg5NDU4&el=1_x_2&_esc=publicationCoverPdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349967658_The_shifting_boundaries_of_talent_management?enrichId=rgreq-38193c054f7c875ce2e3d6ba2b449032-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzM0OTk2NzY1ODtBUzoxMTQzMTI4MTEyMzczMjgwM0AxNjc3Nzg1Njg5NDU4&el=1_x_3&_esc=publicationCoverPdf
https://www.researchgate.net/?enrichId=rgreq-38193c054f7c875ce2e3d6ba2b449032-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzM0OTk2NzY1ODtBUzoxMTQzMTI4MTEyMzczMjgwM0AxNjc3Nzg1Njg5NDU4&el=1_x_1&_esc=publicationCoverPdf
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vlad-Vaiman-2?enrichId=rgreq-38193c054f7c875ce2e3d6ba2b449032-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzM0OTk2NzY1ODtBUzoxMTQzMTI4MTEyMzczMjgwM0AxNjc3Nzg1Njg5NDU4&el=1_x_4&_esc=publicationCoverPdf
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vlad-Vaiman-2?enrichId=rgreq-38193c054f7c875ce2e3d6ba2b449032-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzM0OTk2NzY1ODtBUzoxMTQzMTI4MTEyMzczMjgwM0AxNjc3Nzg1Njg5NDU4&el=1_x_5&_esc=publicationCoverPdf
https://www.researchgate.net/institution/California-Lutheran-University?enrichId=rgreq-38193c054f7c875ce2e3d6ba2b449032-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzM0OTk2NzY1ODtBUzoxMTQzMTI4MTEyMzczMjgwM0AxNjc3Nzg1Njg5NDU4&el=1_x_6&_esc=publicationCoverPdf
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vlad-Vaiman-2?enrichId=rgreq-38193c054f7c875ce2e3d6ba2b449032-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzM0OTk2NzY1ODtBUzoxMTQzMTI4MTEyMzczMjgwM0AxNjc3Nzg1Njg5NDU4&el=1_x_7&_esc=publicationCoverPdf
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wayne-Cascio-2?enrichId=rgreq-38193c054f7c875ce2e3d6ba2b449032-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzM0OTk2NzY1ODtBUzoxMTQzMTI4MTEyMzczMjgwM0AxNjc3Nzg1Njg5NDU4&el=1_x_4&_esc=publicationCoverPdf
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wayne-Cascio-2?enrichId=rgreq-38193c054f7c875ce2e3d6ba2b449032-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzM0OTk2NzY1ODtBUzoxMTQzMTI4MTEyMzczMjgwM0AxNjc3Nzg1Njg5NDU4&el=1_x_5&_esc=publicationCoverPdf
https://www.researchgate.net/institution/University_of_Colorado?enrichId=rgreq-38193c054f7c875ce2e3d6ba2b449032-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzM0OTk2NzY1ODtBUzoxMTQzMTI4MTEyMzczMjgwM0AxNjc3Nzg1Njg5NDU4&el=1_x_6&_esc=publicationCoverPdf
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wayne-Cascio-2?enrichId=rgreq-38193c054f7c875ce2e3d6ba2b449032-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzM0OTk2NzY1ODtBUzoxMTQzMTI4MTEyMzczMjgwM0AxNjc3Nzg1Njg5NDU4&el=1_x_7&_esc=publicationCoverPdf
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Collings-5?enrichId=rgreq-38193c054f7c875ce2e3d6ba2b449032-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzM0OTk2NzY1ODtBUzoxMTQzMTI4MTEyMzczMjgwM0AxNjc3Nzg1Njg5NDU4&el=1_x_4&_esc=publicationCoverPdf
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Collings-5?enrichId=rgreq-38193c054f7c875ce2e3d6ba2b449032-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzM0OTk2NzY1ODtBUzoxMTQzMTI4MTEyMzczMjgwM0AxNjc3Nzg1Njg5NDU4&el=1_x_5&_esc=publicationCoverPdf
https://www.researchgate.net/institution/Trinity_College_Dublin?enrichId=rgreq-38193c054f7c875ce2e3d6ba2b449032-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzM0OTk2NzY1ODtBUzoxMTQzMTI4MTEyMzczMjgwM0AxNjc3Nzg1Njg5NDU4&el=1_x_6&_esc=publicationCoverPdf
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Collings-5?enrichId=rgreq-38193c054f7c875ce2e3d6ba2b449032-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzM0OTk2NzY1ODtBUzoxMTQzMTI4MTEyMzczMjgwM0AxNjc3Nzg1Njg5NDU4&el=1_x_7&_esc=publicationCoverPdf
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vlad-Vaiman-2?enrichId=rgreq-38193c054f7c875ce2e3d6ba2b449032-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzM0OTk2NzY1ODtBUzoxMTQzMTI4MTEyMzczMjgwM0AxNjc3Nzg1Njg5NDU4&el=1_x_10&_esc=publicationCoverPdf
S P E C I A L I S S U E A R T I C L E
The shifting boundaries of talent management
The effective management of talent is one of the great challenges of
our time, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic that has
resulted in significant changes in how and where we work and that
are likely to endure over time across the globe (Caligiuri, De Cieri,
Minbaeva, Verbeke, & Zimmermann, 2020; Collings, Nyberg,
McMackin, & Wright, in press). In the global context, Collings, Mellahi,
and Cascio (2019) defined talent management as the (a) systematic
identification of pivotal positions that differentially contribute to an
organization’s sustainable competitive advantage on a global scale,
(b) development of a talent pool of high-potential and high-performing
incumbents who reflect the global scope of the MNE to fill these
roles, and (c) establishment of a differentiated HR architecture to fill
these roles with the best available incumbents to ensure their contin-
ued commitment to the MNE.
It has been over two decades since a group of McKinsey consul-
tants (see Michaels, Handfield-Jones, & Axelrod, 2001) heralded the
War for Talent, which marked the emergence of talent management as
a distinct area of focus for organizational leaders and human resource
professionals alike. However, the earliest roots of talent management
can be traced to the 1960s and 1970s, when the need for a deeper,
more comprehensive understanding of cross-cultural issues, expatriate
management, and the effectiveness of differentiated management prac-
tices were first mentioned in the academic literature (Cascio &
Boudreau, 2016). The majority of academic interest in the topic, how-
ever, has been more recent, particularly over the past decade (Al Ariss,
Cascio, & Paauwe, 2014; Collings, Mellahi, & Cascio, 2017; Collings,
Scullion, & Vaiman, 2015; Gallardo-Gallardo, Nijs, Dries, & Gallo, 2015;
McDonnell, Collings, Mellahi, & Schuler, 2017). To a large extent, this
interest may be explained by the widening gap between job demands
and the skills available in the labor market. The phenomenon of talent
management also remains a key area of interest for practitioners, with
many struggling to deliver on the talent agenda in their own firms
(Charan, Barton, & Carey, 2018; PWC, 2019).
To be sure, the landscape has shifted significantly since the late
1990s, when McKinsey consultants began their research that led to
their conclusion of an ongoing “War for Talent.” However, many of
the same challenges they identified have reemerged after the
2007–2009 recession, including tight labor markets, more complex
talent demands in terms of global business acumen, more complex
technology and organizational structures, and increasing job mobility.
According to a recent survey conducted for the Society for Human
Resource Management’s Global Mobility and Immigration Sympo-
sium (2020), 85% of respondents believe that global talent is needed
to meet business needs, 40% of HR professionals struggle to find can-
didates to staff their global teams, and 75% say foreign-born workers
drive growth and innovation. However, additional complexity comes
from four key factors that will fundamentally change the dynamics of
contemporary talent management.
It is difficult to begin any discussion on the future of talent man-
agement without considering the impact of COVID-19.1 Although at
the time of writing (October 2020) it has been only 7 months since
the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, the impact
of the pandemic on work and employment in general has been
unprecedented in modern times (Caligiuri et al., 2020; Collings &
McMackin, 2020; Kniffin et al., 2020). There is little doubt that many
of these changes, such as reshaping world trade (Schlesinger, 2020),
will endure. The impact on talent management will be significant as
well. While a thorough review of all current and potential impacts is
beyond the scope of the current article, we highlight some examples
of how the pandemic will likely affect the context of talent manage-
ment. A first key impact is a shift in where work is done, with a signifi-
cant increase in the extent of working from home (WFH), initially as a
means of protecting employee wellbeing—physical, emotional, and
financial. For example, Bank of America’s, 2020 workplace benefits
report (Bank of America, 2020) reveals that 62% of employers feel
extreme responsibility for their employees’ financial wellness, up from
13% in 2013. Fully 83% of employers believe that financial wellness
tools lead to greater productivity. It looks highly likely that many
employers will reevaluate their polices on WFH long-term, resulting in
a larger percentage of employees spending at least some of their time
WFH. As a senior executive at KPMG recently noted: “Companies
worldwide enabled remote workforces nearly overnight, and what
started as an extraordinary pilot is now considered permanent in
many organizations’ operating models” (Huffman, 2020).
From a talent perspective, this creates opportunities in terms of
more flexible working arrangements and the potential to access more
geographically diverse talent pools. Staffing firm Robert Half, for
instance, reported that 53% of senior managers hired new full-time or
temporary staff remotely during the pandemic. Of those, 75% con-
ducted remote interviews and onboarding sessions, 61% advertised
fully remote jobs, and 60% expanded their search geographically to
access a wider pool of potential talent (Robert Half, 2020). A key chal-
lenge will be creating opportunities for collaboration and connection
in spatially distributed workforces (Caligiuri et al., 2020; Kniffin
et al., 2020). Ensuring that employees who are located remotely are
not disadvantaged in selection for talent programs is another issue
organizations will need to resolve in the future. For example, Bloom,
Liang, Roberts, and Ying’s (2015) research on Chinese call centers indi-
cates that those who work remotely are less likely to be selected for
promotion compared to colleagues who are based in the office.
DOI: 10.1002/hrm.22050
Hum Resour Manage. 2021;60:253–257. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrm © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC. 253
http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrm
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1002%2Fhrm.22050&domain=pdf&date_stamp=2021-03-10
The pandemic has also challenged organizations to reorient their
key talent-development programs (Collings & McMackin, 2020). For
example, these programs have typically emphasized face-to-face net-
working as a core element of the curriculum. This has been shelved in
the short-term as delivery shifted to a virtual format. That shift, how-
ever, has resulted in more cohorts, as programs that were traditionally
delivered regionally are now delivered on a more global basis. Other
organizations have embraced the crisis as an opportunity to use key
projects emerging from the crisis as learning opportunities for top tal-
ent (Collings & McMackin, 2020). Yet another challenge, given the
lethal threat that COVID-19 presents, is succession planning
(Cascio, 2020). If leaders get sick or become incapacitated, successors
need to be found across all aspects of operations on what is likely
short notice. This suggests that succession planning must go much
broader and deeper than the C-Suite in order to respond to possible
disruptions. So also must cross-training, particularly in manufacturing
operations (Wayland, 2020).
Current limitations on international travel also raise challenges for
talent-development programs that link international experience to
career progress for top talent (Caligiuri et al., 2020). The impact of
COVID-19 on talent management extends far beyond these few
examples and is likely to reveal itself over the coming years in ways
we cannot yet imagine.
Second, consider the current challenging political climate. In addi-
tion to tighter border controls wrought by COVID-19, which have sig-
nificantly restricted global talent flows, governments in major
economies are reevaluating their approaches towards incoming talent.
For example, a central issue in the Brexit negotiations in the UK cen-
ters on the right of EU citizens, who had enjoyed the freedom to
move and work anywhere in the EU, to continue to work in Britain.
Similarly, in the United States, the government’s approach to immi-
grant workers is making it more difficult even for skilled talent to
secure the H-1B visas or green cards to work there legally
(Hackman, 2020). Such trends affect talent availability in these key
economies. One striking example of the implications of this disruption
to traditional talent management strategies is Microsoft’s decision to
set up a new facility in Vancouver, Canada, to circumvent the risk and
challenges arising from relocating talent to the United States (Horak,
Farndale, Brannen, & Collings, 2017). However, such challenges also
potentially affect the willingness of foreign workers to remain in coun-
tries that make work-eligibility difficult, resulting in a potential push of
this talent out of those locations. Talent competitors from other
nations, particularly emerging economies, see demanding immigration
policies in developed nations as an opportunity to actively promote
policies to attract the talent diaspora back to their native lands. That
is a pull factor on talent mobility, with the potential to ease tight labor
markets that firms in those locations face for certain skills (Vaiman,
Sparrow, Schuler, & Collings, 2018a, 2018b). How these macro-level
trends affect talent management at the firm level will continue to
merit further study.
A third key trend is the emergence of the platform economy2 and
the increasing attraction to employers and individuals of the gig econ-
omy. Indeed, a growing number of workers are operating outside the
traditional confines of regular, full-time employment. They may be
“free agents” or “e-lancers” (i.e., freelancers in the digital world) who
work for themselves, or they may be employees of an organization a
firm is allied with (e.g., in a joint venture), employees of an outsourcing
or temporary-help firm, or even volunteers (Cascio &
Boudreau, 2017). Freelancers are a growing segment of the
U.S. workforce, and by some estimates now make up 35% of it
(Maurer, 2018; Pofeldt, 2016). In some industries, that percentage is
even larger. For example, 90% of the hands-on crew in an offshore
oil-exploration project work as contractors rather than employees of
the oil company (Barrett & Elgin, 2015).
This has led some to argue that we are moving “beyond employ-
ment” (Boudreau, Jesuthasan, & Creelman, 2015), reflecting a view
that in the future leadership will be increasingly premised on how best
to complete work rather than on how best to manage employees’
careers (Cascio & Boudreau, 2016). While this may not happen imme-
diately, the changes may not be as dramatic as suggested, and some
industries may be relatively unaffected, Boudreau and his colleagues
make a compelling case for this vision. More broadly, we are certainly
witnessing an increasing percentage of workers who are choosing to
spend at least some of their working time in the gig economy.
Although many of these individuals are operating at the lower end of
it, where precarious work is the norm and their power and choice are
limited, it is evident that there is a significant cohort of workers who
perform much higher-end gig work in areas such as engineering, infor-
mation technology, creative activities, finance, accounting, medicine,
and law. These individuals are often exceptionally skilled and offer the
potential to bring much value to employers from a talent perceptive.
Thus, there is no doubt they represent a growing segment of the
workforce that requires careful attention to talent management. How-
ever, almost all present legislation, HR systems, and talent programs
are designed based on a traditional employment model (Cascio &
Boudreau, 2016). It will also be interesting to see how the COVID-19
pandemic contributes to the growth and evolution of the platform
economy.
A final trend we point to is the continual advance in technology
and its impact on work, jobs, and careers. There is little reservation
that technology in general, and automation in particular, will have pro-
found impacts on how work gets done. Although it will make some
roles obsolete, new jobs requiring higher-level skills will continue to
emerge, especially those created by automation (Cascio &
Montealegre, 2016; World Economic Forum, 2018). According to the
McKinsey Global Institute, 30 to 40% of workers in developed coun-
tries may need to move into new occupations or upgrade their skill
sets significantly by 2030 as their job roles become automated
(Hancock, Lazaroff-Puck, & Rutherford, 2020). There is no doubt that
the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated these trends. By one esti-
mate, U.S. e-commerce penetration has achieved 10 years of growth
in just 90 days in the first quarter of 2020 (McKinsey, 2020). In a simi-
larly significant trend, the UK healthcare system held as few as 7% of
all appointment in person during the pandemic, compared to 99% in
2019 (Agrawal, Lacroix, & Reich, 2020). At the same time, however,
telemedicine is growing rapidly (Fouquet, 2020). Skilled workers in
254 VAIMAN ET AL.
short supply will become even scarcer. This is a precarious situation,
because companies that fail to address their current talent needs may
not be able to achieve their future digital aspirations. At the same
time, senior managers have a great opportunity to collaborate with
employees to create a prosperous, fulfilling future, as they work
through employee transitions.
From a talent perspective, the pandemic and wider automation
trends are likely to create questions around the relative balance
between technology and human capital in generating value. It is also
likely to add increased importance to identifying pivotal roles that add
the greatest value by increasing the number or quality of people per-
forming them. Indeed, roles that have been critical in the past may be
overtaken by technology, forcing organizations to reevaluate their tal-
ent strategies. To illustrate, the foreign affiliates of the world’s multi-
national companies account for only about 9% of the global output of
manufactured goods, with a great deal of economic activity happening
within national borders or regional zones (Rees, 2020). In the newest
era of evolving global systems, however, Levinson (2020) argues that
factory production and foreign investment are less important than the
transmission of services—banking, engineering, information technol-
ogy, auditing, and idea production (creative activities). Companies dis-
tribute their freshest knowledge and ideas across technical centers
positioned throughout the world, and rely on licensing arrangements
and contracts with global suppliers. In this emerging global system,
information and ideas are keys because every country, company, and
individual rely more heavily on borderless knowledge. Artificial intelli-
gence and robotics have increasingly taken over such tasks as book-
keeping, clerical work, and repetitive production jobs in manufactur-
ing. In the creative economy, the most important asset is intangible. It
is the intellectual capital that resides in people (Montealegre &
Cascio, in press). When assets were physical things like coal mines,
shareholders truly owned them. But when the most vital assets are
people, there can be no true ownership. Today, therefore, the wise
management of talent is just as important as the shrewd ownership of
assets. The best that corporations can do is to create an environment
that makes the best people want to stay (Dougherty & Wilson, 2018).
It is likely that technology will disrupt entire professions significantly
(see Susskind & Susskind, 2015), and therein lies the challenge of
managing talent—domestic or global—effectively.
There are, of course, other pressing contextual issues that are
likely to force us to significantly reframe our understanding of talent
management in the future. The papers in
Interested in getting help with this assignment?
Get a professional writing team to work on your assignment!
Order Now
Recent postsFor this final assignment, you will prepare a brief paper detailing the steps undertaken to complete a presentation that disseminates information you assemble
Please choose to answer only one of the 2 following questions. Option 1: In your opinion and based on scientific, peer-reviewed published evidence, does child
At the beginning of the previous academic year, the institution announced it would drop football at the conclusion of the season. The announcement created pub
you will review current research in Personality and provide a critical evaluation of that personality research through an annotated bibliography. An annotated
In Module 5, we considered the third in our three-part series on research design. Specifically, the focus was on the longitudinal studies, in which the resear
Need help with a similar or different Task?
We have the best writers to help you. Hire Writer Now
