The impact of talent management on council employee's in Local Governement Institution in Botswana

Abstract

Background and Aim: Botswana as a developing country is affected by rapid technological changes needing different talents, so as to ensure that they are performing well. Local government needs to become better at talent management for all employees, not just an elite group. Thus as we live in a knowledge society the skills and knowledge of the employees particularly council employees need to be enhanced to allow them to cope with different new working environments. There has been a general complaint about poor government performance particularly implementation of government policies and programmes. The more employees' talents are managed and developed the more they are likely to focus their energies on improving their performance there by achieving organisational goals. The main aim of this research was to determine the Impact of Talent Management on Council Employees in Botswana. Method: A cross-sectional research design was followed with data collected from employees of Tutume Sub Council (N=261 ). The Human Capital Index (HCI) and Performance Management Scale were administered. Principal Component Analysis, Reliability Analyses, Descriptive Analyses and Regression Analyses were applied. Results: The results showed the following: - Talent Management practices are poorly applied in the Botswana local government. The practices that seemed to be most problematic included Talent Review processes and talent retention practices. - The respondents viewed all talent management practices as important for their organisation. - Talent Management practices (i.e. Management Commitment, Talent Acquisition, Talent Development and Talent Retention) is a statistically significant predictor of Performance Management, which was determined from the results of a Simple Linear Regression analysis. - The importance of talent retention practices were also a predictor employee performance. Practice Relevance: In Botswana there have not been many studies conducted on the Impact of Talent Management on Council employees performance. The study will attempt to identify if there is a significant relationship between the concepts, and makes a contribution to the body of knowledge surrounding the relationship between the two concepts. Furthermore, the study determined if Talent Management Practices are really applied in Council and whether they are perceived to be important and to what extent could they help improve employees performance. For an organisation to be productive management should make sure that Talent Management Principles and strategies and also ensure that performance feedback is given to employees so as to motivate employees and perform to the best of their ability.