The war for talent has intensified — round the globe, and in India, across every field and every profession. Attrition is up, loyalty is down, if not out. Organisations are desperate to find and keep talents for survival, forget success.

A report says that Indian corporates are increasingly using retention bonuses as a tool in the war for talent and the number of employees covered has shot up three times in the last three months from five to 15 per cent. “There is a lot of movement happening in the market and bonuses have become imperative”, says the head of GlobalHunt, the Delhi-based executive search firm. Not just retention bonuses. In their despair, the Human Resources guys will stick at nothing: It is now a no-holds-barred, all-stops-pulled, grab-as-grab-can onslaught to lure, tempt, pull, push, drag, snatch, poach talents wherever found. The first rule in the rules of the game is that there are no rules of the game. The job-market is one big melee.

The war for talent is a direct offshoot of the war on talent. The havoc wrought by erosion, corrosion and collapse in standards of education, research and work culture is aggravated by the destructive invasion of politics into institutions, organs of governance and even professions such as law, medicine, teaching, engineering, whatever.

Degrees and diplomas have ceased to be measures of talent. Ph.D.s, an almost unreachably high distinction 25-30 years ago, can be had by the thousands, with the choice of subjects and the quality of theses bordering on the banal.

GILPIN'S HORSE

The connotation of talent itself has become blurred and even a serious-minded boss is at a loss to spot it, leave aside nurturing it. At one time, it was thought to embody not only intellectual curiosity, innovative ability, and creativity, but also versatility and psychological insights into human behaviour. Nowadays, you should be happy if the given assignment is done diligently, dutifully and honestly.

The problem has been complicated by some factors never before encountered in such an overwhelming manner. The most challenging is the simultaneous outbreak of the knowledge, information, communications and technology revolutions, followed by the social engineering involved in the assertion of equality and affirmative action, and the volume and variety of transactions travelling at the speed of light.

It is like riding Lord Gilpin's horse which had the legendary capability of galloping off in all directions at the same time.

In the old connotation, talent was also associated with commitment to values. The distinguishing characteristic of global political and economic governance nowadays is the greed of those in the higher reaches of organisations of whatever nature and their complicity with culprits and crooks out to plunder and loot public funds and cause devastation to natural resources and national interest.

CRUMBLING VALUES

There is irrefutable proof of this proposition available in the subprime mortgage horror, the global financial meltdown, the foul-ups of the bailouts, and the depredations caused by India's spectrum, housing, mining land grabbing mafias, out to finish those daring to cross their path.

It is the crumbling of values all around that is at the root of the people's anger coming to the boil and taking the forms of the Arab Spring, the anti-corruption movement and the ‘Occupy Wall Street' type of upsurges. And, as the Americans would say, you ain't seen nuffing yet!

However attuned the top echelons of organisations may be to the necessity of fostering talent, it will not take long to crush it if the ecosystem does not allow it to flourish. Talent spotting and nurturing is inversely proportional to the size of the organisation. The larger the size, the greater the danger of its turning bureaucratic which means being insensitive, wooden and apathetic.

The top echelons should keep their outfits lean and flat, and be receptive to unorthodox ideas, spending more time on the shop floors and in the cubicles than in their offices. In sum, even if they do not know how to wage the war for talent, they should at least know how to head of the forces spoiling for a war on talent.

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