War Of Talent | Meaning and Definition

What is a War Of Talent?

It indicates a scenario of changing landscape around drawing and retaining talent. As time passes, the war for talent is getting more harrowing. Currently, it is not just overwhelming and full of challenges but complex as well. War talent is typically caused due to the following reasons:

•   The rise of medium and small-sized companies escalates the competition.
•   There is an increase in job mobility, and employees are keen to explore job opportunities that can be either abroad or virtual.
•   The younger generation of employees is not much interested in conventional positions and employment.

The term was originally coined by Steven Hankin of McKinsey & Company in the year 1997 and in a book written by Helen Handfield Jones, Ed Michaels, and Beth Axelrod. The book describes a mindset that iterates the significance of talent to the success of companies.

Through the economic downturns, the war for talent is deemed as becoming irrelevant by diverse sources. Nonetheless, there has still been a conspicuous hunt for talent by solvent organizations that are suffering economic hardship.

HR professionals, nowadays, resort to typically three approaches, namely, engage and hone the talent they have currently, creatively source talent wherever it can be found, and establish a prospective talent pipeline that pays off for companies at large, to build a future-oriented workforce. Thus, the war for talent helps in bringing in talented individuals to the company, which is also turning employers and company leaders toward apprenticeships, internships, and work-study programs.