The war for talent is a term coined by Steven Hankin of McKinsey & Company in 1997, and a book by Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield-Jones, and Beth Axelrod, Harvard Business Press, 2001 ISBN 978-1-57851-459-5.
In the book, Michaels, et al., describe not a set of superior Human Resources processes, but a mindset that emphasizes the importance of talent to the success of organizations.
While talent is vague or ill-defined, the underlying assumption is that for knowledge-intensive industries, the knowledge worker (a term coined by Peter Drucker) is the key competitive resource (see the Resource-based view of the firm).
[5] There are also social costs like remaining employees having to pick up the workload where there is a vacancy, reducing efficiency and effectiveness[5] decreasing productivity[2] and having a negative impact on morale.
[10] A talent war happens when there is a limited supply of workers with in-demand skills so employers have to battle it out to gain access to the most highly sought-after employees.
A growing number of experts are sounding the alarm that this will be exacerbated in the future as the global population is headed for a steep decline—and in many countries, that decline has already begun.
In today's tech-based global economy, where digital transformation is reshaping industries and job markets, companies that have access to the best talent could have a significant advantage over those that do not.
Talented employees are not only more productive and innovative, but they also bring fresh perspectives and diverse experiences that can help businesses stay competitive and adapt to changing market conditions [13][14] Labour markets have tightened in many countries since the onset of the pandemic, especially in the Anglophone countries, where vacancy-to-unemployed ratios have been trending upwards.
Record employment levels in countries are putting upward pressure on wages and salaries, as labour demand rises relative to supply[15][16] The COVID-19 crisis may have triggered a change in workers’ preferences.
This is a very common practise in militaries around the world, where personnel are brought in with the intent to grow and develop them over many years through specific training and promotion requirements, and clearly defined pathways with multiple job options within the same organisation [22][23] The third views Talent Management as the generic management of talents to fill talent gaps by focusing on top/star performers [24] And the fourth stream focuses on key positions that can impact outcomes and actively adopts workforce differentiation by dividing jobs into two categories: those that are strategic and those that are nonstrategic.
It is the set of values, beliefs, attitudes, systems, and rules that outline and influence employee behaviour within an organization (Wong, 2023).
When the organisational value, goals and objectives are clearly aligned with the employees, people are motivated to put in their best effort into job performance because they feel the sense of purpose and belonging.
Agencies with great cultures often put in the effort to build continuous value alignment with their employees through regular webinars and organisational newsletter and updates.
Giving employees the autonomy to perform their work and encourage innovation is also very important to foster an engaged organisational culture.
It is important to make sure they have the freedom to operate in their work and the ability to use technology and resources to apply their creative thinking to all aspects of the organisation (Wong, 2023).
When the organisation has a culture of family support, it can help organizations attract, recruit, and retain employees (Carless & Wintle, 2007; Lee & Hong, 2011).
This means that people of different gender, ethnicity, culture, background, and beliefs are treated equally at their work in performance recognition and career progression.