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Resourcing and Talent Management

Module description

Resourcing and Talent Management as a subject incorporates many aspects of the HRM practice with links to organisational performance. Central to organisational success is an ability to attract and retain the right talent committed to adding value to the organisation and its stakeholders. This module will enable you to explore people resourcing and enhance your resourcing skills, which are of value within an HRM career. It will help you develop the skills and knowledge you will need to manage staffing and talent management activities on behalf of an employer to the highest standards. The module focuses on these activities both from a strategic and practical perspective, namely employee attraction, assessment, selection, onboarding and retention. It will also introduce you to the most significant contemporary debates in this field and to developments that are likely to shape its future evolution. Anyone seeking to develop a career in HR, in the UK or globally, will find it to be both interesting and essential to their professional development. It will also be of importance to anyone with an interest in the management of people or who anticipates building a generalist management career.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module concentrates on organisations’ need to recruit and retain effective people with the necessary skills to achieve organisational objectives. It combines a strategic and practical focus on recruitment, selection, retention, dismissal and flexible working with the academic rigour necessary to study resourcing and talent management in the context of UK as well as more globally. This requires an understanding of employment markets, the full range of resourcing options and relevant law.

The module has been designed to provide you with an opportunity to explore the different aspects of people resourcing practices that are used throughout the employee life cycle and enhance your skills in these areas. It requires you to critically evaluate and reflect on resourcing and talent management theory and practice both from an ethical and professional standpoint, and introduces you to a range of approaches and tools deployed by organisations, both in the UK and internationally, in support of their strategic choices and objectives. You will cover all aspects of the employee lifecycle within the broader HR and business context of talent management and strategic people planning practices. You will be able to critically evaluate the key features of HR practices which will include the ability to attract, retain and exit people from the organization. It will also include key issues such as the importance of flexible working. The methods which an organisation’s HR managers use to implement these strategic choices and mobilise the workforce include HR planning, recruitment, selection, onboarding and release. Therefore, a critical understanding of how you might deploy appropriate tools and techniques will enable you to support business strategy and contribute to organisational success.

On successful completion of the module, you will be well placed to manage and to develop organisational policy in the fields of human resource planning, succession planning, recruitment and selection, induction, employee retention, employer branding and strategic talent management. You will also be introduced to the ways that organisations seek to build their ‘employer branding’ and to position themselves strategically in the labour market in relation to their competitors.
The learning methods will combine elements of formal presentations, individual reading, group discussions, and class feedback sessions. Learning and development in this module is designed to appeal to a range of learning styles, and to integrate argument, action, and reflection. This means that the format of the learning periods combines lecturing, group work on case studies and discussion.

MODULE AIMS

1. To enable you to gain a detailed understanding of strategic approaches to resourcing and talent management practice within a global context. This is underpinned at all times by a critical understanding of relevant theory and research.
2. To enable you to evaluate and make constructive contributions to the development or enhancement of resourcing and talent management policies, processes and systems within your organisations.
3. To provide you with an opportunity to develop your knowledge and skills to be effective resourcing and talent management professionals.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Meet the core standards within the CIPD Profession Map in the field of Resourcing and Talent Management;
• 2. Analyse and critically evaluate contemporary debates and developments in the following areas of HRM: human resource planning /succession planning, recruitment selection, job analysis and design, induction / socialisation, employee retention, retirement, redundancy, talent management and resourcing strategy.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Evaluate the published literature on resourcing and talent management;
• 4. Explain the contribution made by resourcing and talent management activities to the achievement of wider organisational objectives.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Demonstrate that you are able to develop and argue an original case and justify your views effectively;
• 6. Provide managers and colleagues appropriate and timely advice about resourcing and talent management issues.

Syllabus plan

The module’s lectures and seminars will help you to understand people resourcing issues within organisations and related concepts in order that you can become a ‘thinking practitioner’ in the field. You will develop knowledge and understanding of a number of issues facing practitioners within organisations who are responsible for ensuring that the organisation is effectively resourced with people. Sessions will focus on the following:

• Labour markets and human resource planning
• Attraction/ Recruitment/ E Recruitment
• Selection: the ‘classic trio’ and advanced selection; psychometrics and assessment centres
• Strategic Talent Management
• Flexibility in Resourcing; flexible and hybrid working
• Joining the organisation (induction/onboarding)
• Managing Turnover and Retention
• Release from the organisation
• International Resourcing and Recruitment

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

New tasks/questions and new case studies will be provided.

Deferral – if you have been deferred for any assessment you will be expected to submit the relevant assessment. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be expected to submit the relevant assessment. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Selected readings include:

Basic reading

• Collings, D. G., & Mellahi, K. (2009). Strategic talent management: A review and research agenda. Human Resource Management Review, 19(4), 304–313.
• Collings, D. G, Mellahi, K. and Cascio, W. F. (2017). The Oxford Handbook of Talent Management. Oxford University Press.
• Taylor, S. (2022). Resourcing and Talent Management: The Theory and Practice of Recruiting and Developing a Workforce. (8^th ed.). London: CIPD.
• Reiche, B., Harzing, A. and Tenzer, H., (eds) (2023) International Human Resource Management. 6th ed. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
• Wilcox, M. (2016). Effective Talent Management: Aligning Strategy, People and Performance. (1^st ed.). Routledge.
• Wilton, N. (2022). An introduction to human resource management. (5th edition). Sage Publications Ltd.

Journals

• Human Resource Management Journal
• The International Journal of Human Resource Management
• International Journal of Selection and Assessment
• Personnel Review
• Harvard Business Review
• Work, Employment and Society
• Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology
• Selection and Development Review
• Journal of Management Development (online)
• International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management
• Journal of Management Consulting (online)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• People Management - available at: https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk
• CIPD - Surveys - available at: https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/reports/

You will have access to an online searchable and resources database, with links to several eBooks and eResources (eJournals) available through the Exeter Learning Environment (ELE). Within this environment, you will also be supported through online discussion forums and activities. Furthermore, lectures and seminars will include formative tasks.

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

As provided and recommended during classes and via ELE.

Key words search

Human resourcing practices, managing talent, employer branding