Talent Identification in Recruiting and Personnel Selection. Past, Present and Future

Scientific Essay from the year 2018 in the subject Psychology - Work, Business, Organisational and Economic Psychology, grade: A, University College London, language: English, abstract: Finding and retaining the right employees is a critical element for the success of each Multinational Enterprise (MNE). Over the last few years, the interest in the field of talent management has grown rapidly, as more and more academics, consultants and practitioners are starting to understand its impact on organisational sustainability and organisational prosperity. Talent management can be broadly defined as "all organizational activities for the purpose of attracting, selecting, developing, and retaining the best employees in the most strategic roles (those roles necessary to achieve organizational strategic priorities) on a global scale" (Scullion, Collings, & Caligiuri, 2010). At the center of talent management lies the presumption that "talent" must be identified, sustained, and allocated to important positions that are essential for the competitive advantage of the company. One of the major challenges for MNEs is to adequately identify high-potential and high-performing employees and to establish them in key positions within the MNE's international structure. Taking this into consideration, in the following work, we will focus primarily on the area of talent identification, starting with a differentiation between talent identification and talent development. Next, we will move on to an in-depth review of the existing literature on talent identification in recruiting and personnel selection. Consequently, we will briefly review the validity of the most implemented personnel selection tools. After that, we will assess the three tools currently used in your organisation. Finally, we will explore the future of talent identification and recruiting tools by taking into consideration the technological advancements in the last decade, and provide you with research-based recommendations and best-practices to increase the likelihood of finding the right employees for your organisation.