Talent management in ibm

TALENT MANAGEMENT 2014
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT Page 1
Indian Institute of Planning & Management
(IIPM Tower, AQ-6, Sector-V, Salt Lake City, Near Techno Polis. Kolkata-700091)
A PROJECT REPORT ON
IN
SUBMITTED TO
PROF. ANIRUDDHA BANNERJEE
SUBMITTED BY
Name : SUKALPA DAS
ARNAB KONAR
MANAS JYOTI DAS
JOYSHREE SARKAR
Batch : SPRING-SUMMER/2012-2014
Section : SH-T4

ABSTRACT
With businesses going global and competition becoming intense, there is mounting pressure on
organizations to deliver more and better than before. Organizations therefore need to be able to
develop and deploy people who can articulate the passion and vision of the organization and
make teams with the energy to perform at much higher levels. .
These people build and drive the knowledge assets of a corporation, the value of which has been
established to be many times more than the tangibles. The capacity of an organization to hire,
develop and retain talent is therefore the most crucial business process and priority on the CEO’s
agenda.
Finding and managing talent has become more complex and turbulent than ever before. Today,
talent is harder to find and nurture easier to waste and lose. The organization’s ability to
consistently seek, attract and keep talent provides a source of competitive advantage to the
organization. Talent contributes greatly to the performance of the organization and its
management has a great impact on the overall business performance.
The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of talent management on organizational
productivity in IBM. The objectives of this study are to assess the impact of talent management
on organizational productivity, to appraise the practice of talent management in IBM and to
determine the extent to which the talent management contributes to the employee performance in
IBM.
A questionnaire has been made and filled up by the top HR managers/executives on a face to
face interview with them and data’s are collected. Study findings showed that talent management
increased productivity in organizations through job alignments, and talent identification and
development. Further rewards, training and development and performance appraisal is found to
be the most effective talent management practices which ensured IBM has skilled, motivated and
competent workforce.
From the findings, the challenges faced in implementing talent management are related to job
alignment, rewards, working environment and performance appraisal system.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Words put on paper are mere ink marks, but when they have a purpose there exist a thought
behind them. We too have a purpose to express our gratitude towards those individuals
without whose guidance the project would not have been possible.
We would like to express my thanks to Mr. Sujay Mallick (Head Personnel Division),
IBM who has kindly permitted us to undertake the project in the organization.
We are also thankful to other members of the organization for their support and providing the
required information.
It was a pleasure to be associated with IBM. The experience that we have garnered has had a
profound impact on our career choices and has helped us to realize what the requisite for success
in the corporate world is. We carry high regards for the complete team of IBM.
We also take this opportunity to express a great sense of gratitude towards our internal project
guide Mr. Anirudh Bannerjee for providing us the vital inputs to correlate the present project
work and hence provide a sound base to the report structure. A special word of thanks also goes
to all the teaching and non-teaching staff of my institute and my Friends.
CONTENTs

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:......................................................................................................................... 5
INTRODUCTION:.................................................................................................................................... 6
COMPANY PROFILE:.............................................................................................................................. 7
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: .......................................................................................................................... 8
DATA SOURCES: .................................................................................................................................... 8
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: ................................................................................................................. 9
LITERATURE REVIEW........................................................................................................................... 10
QUESTIONNAIRE EXPLANATION:........................................................................................................ 12
FINDINGS(PRIMARY) & ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................ 16
CONCLUSION......................................................................................................................................... 18
RECOMMENDATION.............................................................................................................................. 19
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................................... 19
APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................................ 19
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Talent Management describes the process through which employers of all kinds – Firms, Govt.,
and Non-profit organizations – anticipate their human capital needs & set about meeting them.
This talent management framework encompasses an end-to-end (holistic) approach. It is
comprised of seven components with numerous initiatives (where the rubber hits the road) under
each component. The Talent Management Cycle outlined in this framework includes: finding
talent, on-boarding, developing employees, managing performance, planning for succession,
retaining employees and de-boarding. Talent management has become a top priority for
organizations and will continue to increase in significance over the next three years. In today’s
volatile business market, effectively managing human capital can play a crucial role in business
success.
Decisions about Talent Management shape the competencies that organizations have & their
ultimate success; & from the perspectives of individuals, these decisions determine the path &
pace of careers. We may thus understand that this term is usually associated with competency
based HRM practices. Talent Management decisions are often driven by a set of organizational
core competencies as well as position – specific competencies. The competency set may include
knowledge, skills, experience & personal traits.
There is more to diversity than gender. Diversity helps achieve business goals by fostering
innovation and by increasing and retaining available talent. Hence it is important to find the
optimal degree of diversity and the optimal mix of people in an enterprise, and to evaluate its
contribution to creating business value and high performance. This goes far beyond compliance
and analyzing the business implications of basic demographics.
Collaboration can significantly increase innovation, efficiency & effectiveness, and reduce costs
and time to market. However, collaboration projects often start on a small local scale and are
focused on enabling technology. Behavioral and cultural obstacles to high performance
collaboration must be overcome by an overarching approach, aligning every-day collaboration
practice with business goals. This in turn requires common processes that are understood by
everyone, governance structures, incentives – and an appropriate change management approach.
Introduction

Talent management implies recognizing a person's inherent skills, traits, personality and offering
him a matching job. Every person has a unique talent that suits a particular job profile and any
other position will cause discomfort. It is the job of the Management, particularly the HR
Department, to place candidates with prudence and caution. A wrong fit will result in further
hiring, re-training and other wasteful activities. Talent Management is beneficial to both the
organization and the employees. The organization benefits from: Increased productivity and
capability; a better linkage between individuals' efforts and business goals; commitment of
valued employees; reduced turnover; increased bench strength and a better fit between people's
jobs and skills. Employees benefit from: Higher motivation and commitment; career
development; increased knowledge about and contribution to company goals; sustained
motivation and job satisfaction.
In these days of highly competitive world, where change is the only constant factor, it is
important for an organization to develop the most important resource of all - the Human
Resource. In this globalize world, it is only the Human Resource that can provide an
organization the competitive edge because under the new trade agreements, technology can be
easily transferred from one country to another and there is no dearth for sources of cheap
finance. But it is the talented workforce that is very hard to find.
Talent signals an ability to learn and develop in the face of new challenges. Talent is about future
potential rather than past track record. So talent tends to be measured in terms of having certain
attributes, such as a willingness to take risks and learn from mistakes, a reasonable (but not too
high) level of ambition and competitiveness, the ability to focus on ‘big picture’ issues, and an
awareness of their own strengths, limitations and impact on others.
Several talent management processes need to be in place on a strategic level in order ensure its
success. Such processes/strategies include talent identification, recruitment & assessment,
competency management, performance management, career development, learning management,
compensation, succession planning etc.
Talent management has a number of benefits to offer such as employee engagement, retention,
aligning to strategic goals in order to identify the future leadership of the organization, increased
productivity, culture of excellence and much more.
COMPANY PROFILE

The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is an
American multinational technology and consulting corporation, with headquarters in Armonk,
New York, United States. IBM manufactures and markets computer hardware and software, and
offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe
computers to nanotechnology.
The company was founded in 1911 as the Computing Tabulating Recording Company (CTR)
through a merger of three companies: the Tabulating Machine Company, the International Time
Recording Company, and the Computing Scale Company. CTR adopted the name International
Business Machines in 1924, using a name previously designated to CTR's subsidiary in Canada
and later South America. Securities analysts nicknamed IBM Big Blue in recognition of IBM's
common use of blue in products, packaging, and logo.
In 2012, Fortune ranked IBM the No. 2 largest U.S. firm in terms of number of employees
(435,000 worldwide, approximately 100,000 in the US), the No. 4 largest in terms of market
capitalization, the No. 9 most profitable, and the No. 19 largest firm in terms of
revenue. Globally, the company was ranked the No. 31 largest in terms of revenue by Forbes for
2011. Other rankings for 2011/2012 include No. 1 company for leaders (Fortune), No. 1 green
company worldwide (Newsweek), No. 2 best global brand (Interbrand), No. 2 most respected
company (Barron's), No. 5 most admired company (Fortune), and No. 18 most innovative
company (Fast Company).
IBM has 12 research laboratories worldwide and, as of 2013, has held the record for
most patents generated by a company for 20 consecutive years. Its employees have garnered
five Nobel Prizes, six Turing Awards, ten National Medals of Technology, and five National
Medals of Science.]
Notable inventions by IBM include the automated teller machine (ATM),
the floppy disk, the hard disk drive, the magnetic stripe card, the relational database, the
Universal Product Code (UPC), the financial swap, the RDBMS and SQL, SABRE airline
reservation system, DRAM, and Watson artificial intelligence.
The company has undergone several organizational changes since its inception, acquiring
companies such as Kenexa (2012) and SPSS (2009) and organizations such as PwC's consulting
business (2002), spinning off companies like Lexmark (1991), and selling off product lines
like ThinkPad to Lenovo(2005)

Research Objectives
In the current scenario of cutthroat competition, every company has to survive to satisfy its
customers by providing them quality products and services. The survey at IBM was undertaken
with a view to study certain fundamental as well as the commercial and operational aspects of
the company. The training involved the study of the following:
 To understand the entire procedure of Talent management
 To understand the need of Talent Management
 To study the accuracy and quality of work of employees by talent management procedure
 To suggest possible improvement in Talent Management process.
Data Sources
The source of project depends on accurate data. That’s why collecting the appropriate data,
which differ considerable in context money, cost, time and other resources at the disposal
researcher.
There are two types of data collection methods available:-
1) Primary Data Collection Method.
2) Secondary Data Collection Method.
PRIMARY DATA
Primary data are those that are obtain by the user for fulfillment their purpose. I have taken
Primary data through personal visit of HR head, and HR executive, of IBM. This data helped us
to justify the statements that have made in this project.
SECONDARY DATA

The Secondary Data is that which is already collected and stored or we can say already saved or
ready data by others. We got secondary data from their journals, records, specimen of appraisal
form etc. and from newspapers magazines, articles, internet etc. to get basic information of
Talent Management. We collect secondary data by referring some specimen of company and by
referring some books and web sites of company from internet.
Research Methodology
Research Methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problems. It may be
understand as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. It is a descriptive type of
research. Descriptive Research survey and fact finding inquiries are of different kind. The major
purpose of descriptive research is descriptive the state of affairs, as it exist at present.
SAMPLE DESIGN
Data for the study has been collected from primary sources.
QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN
The data collected for the study is through questionnaires. The questionnaire is comprises of 18
questions is prepared keeping in the mind the objective of the research. It consists of both open
and closed ended questions with the organization’s pattern of managing talent in their
organization and the information revealed from the company is analyzed and interpreted in the
study.
Questionnaire is there in the appendix:-
LITERATURE REVIEW

Talent management v/s traditional HR approach
Traditional HR systems approach people development from the perspective of developing
competencies in the organization. This can actually be a risk-prone approach, especially for
companies operating in fast evolving industries, since competencies become redundant with time
and new competencies need to be developed. Thus, over time, the entire approach to
development of people might be rendered obsolete calling for rethinking the entire development
initiative.
Talent management on the other hand focuses on enhancing the potential of people by
developing capacities. Capacities are the basic DNA of an organization and also of individual
potential.
In fact, the following appropriately describes the role of talent management:
Translating organizational vision into goals and mapping the required level of capacities and
competencies to achieve goals aligning individual values and vision with organizational values
and vision.
Clearly understanding of the varied roles within the organization and appreciation of the value
addition from self and others leading to building a culture of trust, sharing and team orientation.
Assessment of talent to profile the level of capacities and set of competencies possessed within
the organization.
Enhancing capacities to learn, think relate and act through development initiatives.
Individual growth to meet and accept varied incremental and transformational roles in an overall
scenario of acknowledged need for change.
Gap analysis and identification of development path helping individuals realize their full
potential through learning & development. Developed individuals enabling breakthrough
performance
D Point of Departure
N Navigation
A Point of Arrival

Understanding Talent
The idea of developing talent is not a new concept in any business. In fact every successful
company that has 'stood the test of time' has done so, Because of their ability to attract, retain and
get the best out of their talent.
Today we read of a 'war for talent’. This has emerged not because the companies have forgotten
about talent or allowed it drop off the radar but because in some fundamental ways, the talent has
changed. We have a new kind of young person entering the business world, with a very different
world view, set of values, priorities and goals.
Focus 1: Attracting and recruiting Talent:
In order to effectively attract and recruit talented employees you need to understand what talent
is looking for in a career and how they will view your business in terms of fitting in with their
needs. Your approach to each one of your potential recruits needs to be altered to suit that they
are.
By examining this through the perspectives of the different generations, we are able to look at
their attitudes to work what kind of career, organization and benefits they are looking for and
know what kind of techniques will ensure that your recruitment process is successful in each
generational context.
This focus unit looks at the following:
 attitudes to work
 career goals
 views on organizations and how they are currently run
 what benefits each generation is looking for
 Techniques to attract the different generations: what will make your organization stand
out?
 Techniques to recruit the different generations: how should the job offer be presented?
Focus 2: Retaining and developing Talent
In order to effectively retain and develop Talent you need to understand what the generations are
looking in a future career and in an organization. Your approach to each one of your employees
needs to be altered to fit individual goals and personal needs.
 work ethics and values
 career planning
 work environments and culture
 benefits and reward systems

 ways of motivating
Focus 3: Managing Talent
An in depth look at how the generations internalize authority will enable you to adjust your
management style to fit in with who they are.
We are able to look at the attitudes of the different generations to leadership and management; what
kind of management approaches will ensure that you gain maximum loyalty, productivity and job
satisfaction from each of your employees.
 attitudes to authority
 management styles for the different generations including conflict management
 leadership styles used by the different generations
 specific techniques to help you manage different generations including
communication and feedback preferences
 coaching and mentoring preferences including
 The role of coach
 The coaching process
Questionnaire explanation
In this context, we are trying to give a simple understanding of each question and the reasons
behind choosing them on the questionnaire. Here we give each of the reasons followed by the
questions.
1. How does your organization identify talent pool?
We have put this question in order to know how organizations differentiate
the talented employee from any other employees
2. Is the concept equally shared by practitioners?
We have put this question to know if the concept of differentiating the
talented employees from any other employees is shared by practitioner
3. Recessionary/tough times: How do you develop your talent with little or no
budget ?

We have put this question in order to know how the organization manages
their talent in tough times with low or no budget
4. Does your organization meet the expectations of the workforce?
We have put this question to know if the organization enables to fulfill the
expectation of the workforce or not?
5. What are your talent management challenges?
We have put this question to know what are the talent management problems
are faced by the organization
6. Are the good performers leaving?
We have kept this question to know if the organization’s good performers
are leaving or not?
7. Are the poor performers staying?
We have kept this question to know if the organizations poor performing
employees are staying in the organization or not?
8. Is your business evolving with the changing demographics?
The meaning of this question seeks to know whether your business changing
with the changing behavior, culture, life style, income level of the
employees.
We have put this question in order to know if the business is changing with
the changing behavior, culture, life style, income level of their employees.
9. Which of your talent management initiatives have most impact?

The meaning of this question seeks to know which of your talent
management technique have the most impact in your organization.
We have kept this question to know which one of the talent management
technique has the most impact in their organization.
10. What are the talent metrics that your organization actually finds useful?
The meaning and purpose of this question seeks to identify the vision and
the values of the organization.
11. ROI (Return on investment) in Talent Management – can it be measured?
We have put this question to know if the Return on Investment on talent
management program is measured.
12. ROE (Return on expectation) in Talent Management – Do you meet short
term and long term expectations of the leadership team/stakeholders? Are
they realistic?
The meaning of this question is to know whether your company’s short term
and long term expectation of the leadership team/stakeholders achieved or
not.
We have put this question to know whether the company’s short term and
long term expectation of the leadership team/stakeholders are achieved.
13. Are your career development process getting the financial and leadership
support that they need?
We have kept this question to know if company’s career development
process of employees gets the financial and leadership support from their
company that the employees need.
14. Are you strategically aligned to focus on capabilities that create value?

The meaning of this question is to know whether your company identifies
capabilities of the employee and whether the company is creating value for
them or not.
We have put this question in order to know if the company identifies
capabilities of the employee and create value for them.
15. Does your talent management program deliver high impact & deep
strategic value for your employee?
We have set this question to know if the organization’s talent management
program creates any highly impact on their employees.
16. Does your talent management function contribute to the success of HR in
your organization as a whole?
We have placed this question to know if the organization enables to
contribute the success of HR by their talent management program.
FINDINGS (PRIMARY) & ANALYSIS

Data whatever collected from the primary sources throughout the project duration are analyzed
and interpreted systematically in statements.
Ans. Checking certain job criteria and matching them with their employees. The criterias
are like
 Training modules
 Overall performance and feedback
 Analyzing and researching of peoples
Ans. Yes, the concept equally shared by practitioners and equal opportunities is provided to
each employee.
19. Recessionary/tough times: How do you develop your talent with little or no budget?
Ans. Taking example of 2008 recession, IBM had undertaken several steps like
 Cost cutting- IBM Concentrix had stopped home pickup & drop and started point
pickup (before 7am) and point drop (8 pm) and no transportation is provided
between 7am-8pm.
 Time management- within their normal time session (8 hrs- 9 hrs) they are forced
to do training with their normal hours of work.
Ans. Yes.
Ans. Challenges are like
 Demotivation of not getting selected
 Better salary and better designation
Yes  No 

Yes  No 
Reason: Consistently tracking a particular person and feedback to that and if that person
is consistently poor performer then he or she should be resigned.
Ans. Yes, mainly according to different culture. For example, process Maruti Insurance Pan
India required different languages since different centers are there in different regions
due to which different religious persons are required.
Ans. One of the most impactful is ACE and IJP which is a training program to groom the
employees to move them into the next level.
Ans. Key metrics are-
 Velocity- as in a particular employee capable to go with the flow or not i.e.
moving with the wave.
 Values- dedication towards all the relationships not only in the office but also
outside the office.
Ans. Yes, it can be measured but the reason is disclosed by the recruiter.
28. ROE (Return on expectation) in Talent Management – can you meet short term and long
term expectations of the leadership team/stakeholders? Are they realistic?
Ans. The long term goal is to reduce the cost of the recruitment through vendors and referrals.
Short term goals are transportation.
Yes, they are realistic.
29. Are your career development process getting the financial and leadership support that
they need?
Ans. Absolutely yes. Leadership team designs it.
Ans. Yes.

31. Does your talent management program deliver high impact & deep strategic value?
Ans. Yes, talent management program deliver high impact.
Taking an example, after training program, an accreditation or test has been undertaken
and if the particular person clears the test then that person moves to the next level like
for voice process, mock calls are taken and for non-voice process, sending mails,
checking their language skills tests are undertaken.
32. Does your talent function contribute to the success of HR as a whole?
Ans. Yes, encourage people to work in the company.
Conclusion
Talent Management for the HR Community is an opportunity for HR professionals to develop in
their areas of expertise and in their careers. A strong HR Community helps create a strong public
service. The goal of talent management is to better understand their people in the HR
Community so they can support professional and career development and align individual needs
and goals with the business focus of HR. They also want to ensure that they as a Community
have the ability to develop people so that they are meeting the future needs of the community
and government and their clients. This first broad sweep of the Community provides a
foundation on which to ensure leadership continuity, knowledge transfer and service continuity.
The initial implementation resulted in a number of important human resource priorities and
strategies, such as performance management, leadership and management development,
attraction and retention, employee learning and development and culture, all of which are
supported by the HR Strategy for the HR Community.
The critical next step in the process is the implementation of the Talent Management Plan for the
HR Community. Individually, members of the community and their managers should work
together to move forward individual career development plans.
The HR Community must work together to promote a talent management mindset, commit to
supporting development as a professional group, and integrate talent management into the daily
fabric of doing business.
Suggestions and Recommendation

1) Organization should make research to avoid talent drain.
2) HR Department should interact and expose inbound employee
3) Perform various task to motivate employee for work, because various employee
cannot work with motivation they just do it, because organization pay for them.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM
http://www.ibm.com/in/en/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talent_management
APPENDIX
QUESTIONERE
Dear sir/ Madam
I am a student of Indian Institute of Planning and Management, Department of
Management studies, Kolkata and presently doing a project on “Talent Management in IBM”. I
request you to kindly fill the questionnaire below and assure you that the data generated shall be
kept confidential.
3. Recessionary/tough times: How do you develop your talent with little or no budget?

Yes  No 
Reason:
Yes  No 
Reason:
12. ROE (Return on expectation) in Talent Management – can you meet short term and long
term expectations of the leadership team/stakeholders? Are they realistic?
13. Are your career development process getting the financial and leadership support that
they need?
15. Does your talent management program deliver high impact & deep strategic value?
16. Does your talent function contribute to the success of HR as a whole?

Talent management in ibm

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