Strategies for securing and retaining key talent: How to view it as strategic human resource management

If the person you worked so hard to hire leaves after 1-2 years, the company loses both recruitment costs and work gaps. So, in human resource management classes, “how to keep good people” is as important as “how to select good people.” This article summarizes the securing and retention of key talent from the perspective of strategic human resource management.

What is strategic human resource management

Strategic human resource management is a perspective that aligns various systems for managing people with the organization's strategy in one direction. We don't stop at running recruitment, placement, evaluation, compensation, and training well, but we also look at whether these systems work together to contribute to the organization's goals. For example, if a company that promotes innovation has an evaluation system that severely punishes mistakes, the systems will clash.

The key difference in perspective is whether you view the money you spend on people as a 'cost' that needs to be reduced or an 'investment' that needs to be increased. Although education and training costs or performance compensation may seem like expenses right now, if skilled talent remains and performs well, re-recruitment and adaptation costs resulting from job change can be reduced.

How is it different from traditional human resource management

A change in perspective is usually explained in three stages. The table below compares how each stage views people.

In the third step, it is important to design the system as a package to create synergy.

학교 수업에서 한 과제도 배운 점 중심으로 쓰면 좋은 경험이 되더라고요. 경험을 한 줄 문장으로 요약해 두는 습관이 저한테는 도움이 됐어요.

How to secure key talent

Key talent refers to people with capabilities that are difficult to replace and have a particularly large impact on achieving the organization's strategy. In the securing stage, we must first define what capabilities our organization needs based on job criteria. If the criteria are blurred, employees will be selected only based on their impressive resumes, and employees may leave early due to a mismatch between expectations and actual work after joining. It is also important to honestly communicate the company's vision and way of working in job postings and interviews. If someone with the right values comes in from the beginning, the adjustment period is short, and the money spent on training is more likely to remain within the organization.

Retention strategy for long-term retention

• Fair Compensation: You need to believe that you will be rewarded in proportion to your contribution, such as performance-based pay and annual salary systems that reflect performance and ability.
• Growth Opportunities: Showcasing training, job rotation, and career paths can help you envision your future within the company.
• Sharing vision and philosophy: When people know where the organization is going and what their work means, they don’t leave easily.
• Teamwork and relationships: Support from colleagues and superiors is something that is difficult to fill with compensation alone.

Philosophical discussions on whether the standards for dividing compensation are fair can be examined from the perspective of Rawls and Nozick in the document Distributive Justice.

Order of writing for assignments and tests

It would be neat to write the report in the following order: changes in human resource management perspective → characteristics of strategic human resource management → methods for securing key talent → retention plans → examples or limitations of our company. When providing examples, it is safe to only use data or articles directly disclosed by the company and not to include figures without sources. In conclusion, it would be good to summarize why a culture where people share a vision is more important than institutions. Campus-like strategic human resource management core talent material can be helpful for those preparing for human resource management or personnel administration assignments in maintaining the flow of the table of contents.