CASE STUDY – TALENT MANAGEMENT

“The concept of career is being shaken to its core. In the past,

employees learned to gain skills for a career; now, the career itself is
a journey of learning.” – Deloitte HC Talent Trends Study
1. Company X - Context
The CHRO of Company X (a large manufacturing company in India) was given a
new and aggressive milestone to reach: ensure X is on the Top 10 lists of both
Best Performing Companies and Best Employers by 2020. No large
manufacturing organization had ever been able to achieve this distinction
because of the pressure between the need to control costs for financial
performance and the expenditure required for employee engagement and
satisfaction.
You are an HR consultant who has been engaged by the CHRO of Company X.
On the first day of work, he asks you for some help. He says he is trying to figure
out what is really going on with the company’s internal talent process. While there
are internal talent processes in place to identify and engage some high potential
talent, Company X is struggling hard to engage its employees, leading to a huge
talent flight risk.
Also, there appears to be a strong bias towards hiring professional / individual
contributor roles from campus (especially tier 1). This is in spite of a very high
attrition rate from all campuses within the first few years. (Read Section 3 for
more details on current scenario.)
The CHRO asks you to help him do an initial evaluation of what the problem
might be?
2. Assignment
The CHRO has said he will spend 1 hour with you to answer your questions. You
task is to do some thinking about what might help you identify the cause of this
“X” company’s talent needs. This forthcoming meeting with CHRO is the only
opportunity you will have to get clarity on the task. Think of this in exactly the
same way you would in the office. Your assignment should include:
a) What are the questions you would want to ask before proceeding in
investigating this question?
b) Summarize the problem statement (after reading Section 3: Current
Scenario. Also make any assumptions if reqd.)
c) Articulate how you plan to research – sources, people, meetings,
discussions etc. Your research could include but not limited to:
a. Primary research: SWOT Analysis, Talent analytics etc.
b. Secondary research: External benchmarks etc.
d) Problem Analysis
e) Near term and long term talent intervention proposal
Note: Write your teams name clearly in your submission. No more than 4 slides
per presentation.

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Case Study - Talent Management
 3. Company X - Current Scenario

a) Company X has manufacturing sites majorly in rural / semi urban areas of

Tamil Nadu with their corporate office in Chennai
b) Changing workforce demographics – ageing workforce, co-existing with a
“millennial” talent pipeline
c) Internal talent review process not robust and effectively implemented
d) There is little change in the proportion developing more talent in-house or
focusing on retaining rather than recruiting
e) Recent high profile exits in the HR department
f) Real time employee engagement not being captured
g) Career management framework not flexible. i.e career progression only
possible through an internal job posting. Low employee visibility of career
opportunities etc.
h) Talent movement is only vertical – “ladder movements”
i) No competency model in the organization
j) Job referrals not a major source for recruitment currently
Specifically for the employees at an individual contributor level, Company X is
facing the following issues:
a) Attrition has been increasing over the last 3 years
b) There is little change in the proportion developing more talent in-house or
focusing on retaining rather than recruiting.
c) Competition for well-qualified talent [especially for Graduate Engineer
Trainees (GET), Management Trainees(MT) etc.] has increased over the
past two years as organisations compete for key skills
d) Attrition has been increasing over the last 3 years (~ 50% for MTs and
45% for GETs). Significantly high attrition from tier 1 colleges and from
manufacturing sites, and within 3 years of joining. High performers are
50% of the attrite
e) Recent Compensation increase for GET and MTs has reduced attrition
marginally

4. Caveat:

(1) There is no wrong or right answer to the case study! Important to see how
each of you tackle this problem.
(2) Whatever you submit is original work that is not ‘cut and pasted’ from
anywhere else
On a lighter note:

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Case Study - Talent Management