With dynamic changes in the global economy, Talent Management will be on the top of the agenda for CEO’s and HR heads in India. In spite of the slightly slower GDP growth of 6 to 7% and high rate of inflation, the Indian economy will grow at a pace much faster than the US, Europe and other developed nations. The top trends that will define Talent Management in 2012 will be the war for talent, the return of NRIs and foreigners wanting to come to India and the advanced human capital planning aligned to business strategy.

War for talent will continue to be a critical trend. It will be a challenge for CEO’s and HR heads to attract, retain and motivate high quality talent. The business growth plans will also depend on having the right talent at the right time and the quality of talent will be critical. To select the right talent from a huge pool of candidates will be a challenge. Even though identifying talent through social media like Linkedin, Facebook, Orkut, etc. will be much more prevalent, mediums like Monster and Naukri will continue to be important for middle and lower levels. Assessment centers, behavioral interviews and robust reference checks will be critical for assessing the right quality of talent to fit the company culture. As is already prevalent in IT and BPO/KPO companies, service sector companies will also tie up with educational institutes and custom design the course curriculum with an assurance of placement of the top performers. This will help quick on-boarding, learning and quick attainment of standard productivity norms. Companies will also form Company Alumni Groups (similar to College & School Alumni groups) through social media and will keep in touch with them through the House Magazine. The talent that is exiting the company will be the company’s ambassadors on one hand and can also be attracted back into company at a later date.

Retention of talent is an integral part of the entire war of talent. HR Heads will have to find answers to a lot of issues that are prevalent right now. It is not only important to know why people leave, it is equally important to understand why people stay. The reasons might not be totally opposite. Companies where attrition is high, such as IT, BPO and Service sectors, will outsource their exit interviews to HR agencies. The experience has shown that external agencies get more genuine feedback from exiting employees who are contacted 3 to 6 months after they have left. This gives the company a much more realistic view of why people are leaving. Work-life balance will also be critical for ‘Generation Y’. HR analytics will be used much more to predict who are likely to leave. Social media analysis and analysis of data from employees seeking jobs through Naukri and Monster, etc., will help companies know in advance which talent is likely to leave and thus they will able to take proactive actions for retention and building backup for risk mitigation.

‘Generation Y’ (‘Twitter Generation’) will expect short and quick feedback both positive (praise) and negative for improvement on an ongoing basis, rather than waiting for six monthly or yearly feedbacks during performance reviews and feedback sessions. CEO’s and CXO’s will need to be in touch with and mentor high potential talent personally.

With the slow GDP growth and downsizing in the developed countries, a large number of NRI’s are seeking opportunities in India and the numbers are growing. Recent reports predict that 3 lac NRI’s will be coming to India in the next 5 years. NRI’s would also be ready to accept compensation on the PPP (Purchasing Price Parity) Model. Many young foreigners are also excited to work and get exposure to India and China which are the fastest growing economies.

Capital planning aligned to business strategy will be an area of focus. Depending on the growth plans, organic or through M & A, joint ventures, etc., planning for the right quality of talent, right numbers at the right time will be critical. To take care of the uncertainty and wide fluctuation on the demand side, more and more companies will have contractual employees on temporary and part time basis. These numbers can be increased or decreased with flexibility depending on business cycles. Temping companies will be in demand where the Contractual Employment remains with the temping companies and they lease the manpower to organizations as per their requirements. Higher automation to improve productivity, reduce costs and manpower numbers coupled with the challenges of Industrial Relations will be a major trend.