5.1 Considerations about talent at the organisational level
Organisations find greater value in formulating their own meaning of what talent is than
accepting universal or prescribed definitions. So there will be considerable differences in
how talent is defined in a local authority, a trans-national organisation and a small enterprise.
For example, researchers for the CIPD found that:
B At Gordon Ramsay Holdings, talent is essentially viewed as the creative flair of chefs.
B At Google, those regarded as talented are referred to as being a ‘‘Googler’’, which is
described as being confident, an ‘‘ideas person’’ and ‘‘a challenger who thinks outside
the box’’.
B At PricewaterhouseCoopers talented individuals are those who possess ‘‘drive, energy,
an applied intelligence, a willingness to take on challenges and demonstrate the ability to
make a distinctive difference to the business’’. These may be leadership- or
management-based or in a different function or discipline (Chartered Institute of
Personnel and Development, 2007).
Different parts of the organisation will invariably draw on many different talents in the shape
of skills, knowledge and that individuals’ competence levels in them may not be highly
inter-correlated. Another aspect of defining talent is consideration of the levels of
responsibility necessary within a particular organisational context.
5.2 Talent at group level
The paradoxical nature of the way that organisations group their talent is that it has both
positive connotations (being of value and recognising strengths and having access to
organisational resources) but also negative connotations (of marginality of ‘‘the brightest
and the best’’ with resentment of co-workers impacting on performance/production and
potential). There are a number of elements to this conceptualisation:
B ‘‘Leadership talent’’ can be described as those individuals whom ‘‘the competition would
hire within seconds’’ and they are indispensable because of their ability to ‘‘see the
future’’. Typically, an expanded definition includes ‘‘high potentials for leadership’’, and
also specialists, thought-leaders and individuals with niche (and scarce) skills.
B ‘‘Key talent group’’ typically represents 2-5 per cent of the employee population.
Individuals in this group may often be targets for headhunters.
B ‘‘Core talent’’ comprises individuals who perform the core business processes, and
execute what is important within the short term (6-12 months) without too much focus on
the future. These constitute a majority of the employees within the workforce. They are the
‘‘production’’ staff, mainly responsible for delivery. Though the skills of individuals in this
talent group are not very difficult to replace, new hires would undergo a learning curve
that can be equated to loss of productivity.
B ‘‘Peripheral talent’’ comprises contractors and third party providers who provide services
that are essential but not necessarily core to the organisation. Replacement of these
individuals could be a matter of weeks.
5.2.1 Talent pools. Most organisations group their talent into talent pools. A talent pool
describes a collective of talented employees who have been identified as talented. They can
take different forms, have different memberships and be used for example as a means of
resourcing project work, secondments and internal recruitment. In some organisations we
encountered the practice of classifying different talent pools; one such example is
exceptional talent for executive-level roles, rising stars, emerging leaders and local talent.
5.2.2 The paradoxical nature of organisational talent. The paradoxical nature of the way that
organisations define their talent in this way is that it has both positive connotations (being of
value and recognising strengths and having access to organisational resources) but also
negative connotations (of marginality of ‘‘the brightest and the best’’ with resentment of
co-workers impacting on performance/production and potential.)