Talent Management Amid Troubled Times – Step-Up to Identify Star Performers

People are not only the most crucial but also the most valuable assets that any organization can have. Fortunately, the businesses have realized and acknowledged this as well, especially the value of their star performers.  

Talent Acquisition: Major Challenge for Talent Management Professionals

As the HR professionals have realized that talent acquisition comes with multiple challenges and identifying the right fit is one of the biggest challenges of all. Acquiring a talent who is a right fit not only for the job role but also for an organization on the whole is the most daunting task an HR professional faces. 


The right talent that your organization will be able to acquire will ensure the difference in operations, and how happy you will be able to keep your customers as well as your stakeholders happy. 

Result: These will ultimately become the primary differentiators success and failure not only within teams and departments but also within the entire organization.              

Essentially, what it implies is that if we want to enjoy the fruits of talent, we need to take care and invest time and attention into the things that help talent retain in the organization. 

In other words – when we take care of things and invest time in their wellbeing then those things last longer. 

However, as most of the HR professionals and talent management professionals will attest that talent recruitment is not easy at any time, and pandemic has made it all the more difficult. It is not easy to find candidates who have the right skills, with the perfect blend of knowledge and aptitude required for the jobs advertised. In addition to their attitude and behaviors, which would perfectly align with your organizational values. 

Talent Acquisition – Skill Shortage a Harsh Reality! 

Acquiring a talent is not an easy task, as the recent report in the Economist, depicted that the Coronavirus crisis has not decreased the worry of CEOs and HR professionals alike about the skills shortages. And four-fifths of talent management professionals are actively concerned about the impact of this on their hiring plans. 

Now what – we know that recruitment is difficult, talent acquisition is a challenge so what is the next step? The challenge is steep but so must be our action plan to counteract this skill shortage

Enter your star performers – Talent Management in the Troubled Times! 

The global pandemic is the sign of troubled times when the entire workplace saw a dramatic shift in the working environment from physical office to remote working arrangement. 

But before let’s reprise what talent management is – Talent Management at its most basic definition is nothing but an organization’s strategy that helps in predicting and anticipating the potential future needs of an organization. 

Remember: Everyone has a capacity to grow further in their career. Yes, even your most skilled and experienced employee will have the capacity for growth. 

Consider this: Every company with its nuances, challenges and opportunities is unique.  And this is time when you need to identify your high performers and reward them with the recognition, responsibilities.   

Identifying Your High Potential (HiPos) Employees

How do you identify your star performers? Remember that the main idea of talent management is to recognize, develop, and then deploy the individuals who have been performing consistently well and are considered valuable to the organization. Note: Talent in its broader terms refers to people who make a significant impact to the organization through their performance and their contribution or through their potential in the future. 

Here are the ways you can identify the high potential employees in the organization, as they are easy to spot in the crowd of your average performing employees. So without further ado here’s how you can identify the HiPos. 

  1. Driven to succeed: Your star performers are always driven to succeed. They will always find ways to make their good better and better their best. And even after that they will not stop. 

  2. Ability to perform under any given circumstances: These individuals have the ability to take up any challenge and perform it well consistently. Their ability is visible in their day-to-day task as well. 

  3. Desirable Behaviors: They depict the behaviors that are considered desirable by both HR professional and talent management professionals and even by the top management. 

  4. Calm under pressure: They always depict calmness under high pressure and don’t let any high tension or any situation lose their calm and stay unflappable. 

  5. A desire to lead: They show their desire to lead through their daily activities as they help their juniors as well as their colleagues who need their helping hands. 

While talent acquisition is hard, it is not difficult to identify and recognize the star performers in your organization. So in the challenging times talent management mantra should be to identify and develop your HiPos for the next challenge.