Recycled Bullsh-IT

When I was looking for my first job (just after the Falklands War, but it wasn’t my fault), I was interviewed by a Personnel Manager. She (they were all female in those days) sorted out my expenses and paperwork, and asked me inane, leading questions such as: “So what is your biggest achievement?” Although the Engineers Soc induction challenge of drinking eight pints without going to the loo sprang to mind, I managed to blurt out some anodyne academic achievement and was duly offered the job. Other than at annual appraisal time, I rarely came into contact with Personnel, and the same was true at the other companies I worked for over the next fifteen years or so.

 Over this time, Personnel Management turned into Human Resources, and us workers were labelled and treated in the same way as other company equipment (badly maintained and thrown on the scrapheap when we had outlived our usefulness – thanks to the Gordon Gecko Eighties leading to the recessionary Nineties).

 More recently, this has morphed into Human Capital Management. (Boy! That makes me feel more wanted!) Finally, and this is where the title should make more sense, we have Talent Management.

 The term Talent Management, first published in an article in 1998, was coined by David Watkins of Softscape, and is defined as: “the process of attracting and retaining profitable employees, as it is increasingly more competitive between firms and of strategic importance.” So, over my working life I have gone from being seen as a person, a resource, some capital, and finally a mechanism to generate profit for my owners – sorry, bosses. I can’t say that I am particularly impressed with the HR Professionals if they continue to treat me this way.

 The ironic part of this is the increased emphasis on the “our people are our greatest asset” mantra; spouted by companies wanting to appear conscientious and moral. My experience is that companies that preach this are staffed by people who would shove this nonsense up the assets of their management. The best companies to work for are where the line managers spend time with their staff, encouraging and supporting them and building constructive team environments.

 What you don’t need is some flashy, jumped-up personnel executive wittering on about performance, potential and competencies. So, if you are inflicted with Talent Managers, put them on a coach and send them to Simon Cowell to sort out.

John “X-Factor” Moe