High-Achieving Mid-Level Managers In Department Of Talent Management

Talent management is defined by Ruona (2014, p.440) as a strategically aligned practice applied to diverse groups of performers in an attempt to attract, select, develop, retain, utilize talent with the required skills and aptitudes to attain an organization’s strategic objectives in future-oriented ways that support the business strategy of the organization. The starting point for TM is a firm’s strategy, with a careful analysis of the overarching goals and its internal and external environment, signifying what characteristics and capabilities of talented performers are required in order to achieve the strategic goals and objectives. This should provide a sense of direction and focus and a clear guidance on what the firm is looking for. In

A clear example of talent management in Department of Human Services is the APS-wide Public-Sector Management Program. The main purpose of this program is to identify high-achieving mid-level managers in the department who should be promoted and to develop their capability of future managers in the public service context, focusing on Building the Business of Government (Department of Human Services, 2016, p.141). To reach a desired outcome, the organization’s TM should be integrated with the organization’s strategic plan (Phillips & Gully, 2012). This program is closely related to TM approach 2 outlined by Ruona (2014), focus on the leadership pipeline, to ensure the continuity of the department’s leadership and to prevent these high-achieving mid-level managers from being promoted prematurely. This approach is regarded as the modern version of succession management (Ruona, 2014; Lewis & Heckman, 2006). This approach has the potential to affect the organization’s long-term direction and growth as well because it can help the department’s future managers and top management prepare for their positions, resulting in the creation of a series of feeder groups up and down the organization’s leadership talent pipeline (Phillips & Gully, 2012). A further example is workforce segmentation by using the APS Job Family Model to emphasize the identification of key positions, particularly specialist divisions, such as jobs in technology, strategic policy, research program and project management and compliance and regulation, and develop tailored workforce strategies for diverse workforce segments or business areas to meet the specific workforce needs of each business area