The correlation of talent management practices in employee performance and job satisfaction in department of Education and Sport Development in North West (Rustenburg district: Palladium House)

Abstract

The South African public service faces significant challenges on several fronts in retaining its talented employees so that it remains instrumental in providing quality service delivery to all public stakeholders. The continued under-performance of the Department of Education and Sport as a service industry suggests that its workforce is not satisfied. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of talent management practices in employee performance and job satisfaction in the Ministry. A cross-section research design was followed with questionnaires distributed manually to purposively sampled employees in the Department of Education and Sports Development, Palladium House (North West Province). An adapted version of the Talent Management Measure was used to identify the perceptions of employees about the current talent management practices. To measure employee performance and job satisfaction, a questionnaire was designed and administered from which quantitative results were identified. From the results, it is clear that the respondents perceived that talent management practices are fairly applied in the Department of Education and Sport Development, even though a wide gap still exists between current application of talent management practices and what is perceived as important by respondents. Spearman's rho correlations were used to show the conection of talent management, job satisfaction and employee performance. The interpretations of the correlation coefficients showed that there is a strong positive correlation between talent management and job satisfaction; a moderate positive correlation between job satisfaction and employee performance and a moderate positive correlation between employee performance and talent management. The Cronbach’s alpha were used to test reliability of study. Recommendations are that employers should be aware of the wide gap that exists between current talent management and its importance. Employers should also prioritise the needs of employees in order to improve performance.