Effective Talent Management in Malaysian Smes

INDIVUDUAL ASSIGNMENT                                                                HRM730

Journal Article: Review Report

Article Reviewed:

Kaliannan, M. & Abraham*, M. & Ponnusamy, V. (2016). Effective talent management in Malaysian SMES: A proposed framework. The Journal of Developing Areas 50(5), 393-401. Tennessee State University College of Business

The article of Effective talent management in Malaysian SMES: A proposed framework.  by Kaliannan, M. & Abraham were to address the main challenge of SMEs in Malaysia. Most of the SMEs in Malaysia facing this challenge in the finding of the right talent within the SMEs. In other word a perfect candidate for a specific job. Primary cause to this problem is due to migration of Malaysian graduates to other country to work due to appealing remuneration package. There no doubt that a huge gap incur for demand of skill worker in Malaysia. This current situation lead to a question of why Malaysian graduates is preferring not to work with Malaysian organizations. From this stated problem and issue, as series of research question arises by Kaliannan, M. & Abraham to be study in this research. Proposed research question are such:

• How do SMEs implement talent pool strategies
• Which talent management practices efficiently met the SMEs talent success goals?
• How do the SMEs implement talent pool strategies across the company?
• Where will improvement in talent quality drive strategic gains?

From the research question Kaliannan, M. & Abraham  develop an objective of the study. Besides, the research has develop a conceptual framework to explain the overall that happen in the study. Conceptual Framework were as defined below:

Talent Management Practices                         Organizational Performance

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 Independent Variable                             Dependent Variables

The framework basically explained how the independent variable (Practices in Human Resource Management) correlate or affect the Dependent Variable. How it would contribute to organizational performance.

In this study, Kaliannan, M. & Abraham specifically studied four main core talent management practices: Staffing & Recruitment, Training & Development, Rewards & Recognition and Retaining Practices. A qualitative research is applied in order to be able to demonstrate this nuances of practitioners. Series of interview between the research and practitioners are used to get a feedback for this study. A total of 30 respondent were interviewed and most of them is managers/owners/human resource executive from various SMEs in Klang Valley. Before the interview, the researcher also had chaired several meeting with SME Corporation to achieve good understanding between both parties. Three meetings were take place in Hotel UiTM Shah Alam and feedback from respondent were recorded and documented manually. Structured interview were established where standard question are asked and response were documented. At the end of the three interview only 18 respondent (2 from Manufacturing Sector; 16 from Services Sector). Findings were discussed as follows.

As mentioned earlier, this study focus unto four main core talent management practices and one of it is Staffing & Recruitment. Finding from this study shown that, most common recruiting channel by SMEs are employee’s referral, Walk-ins and internship programme. According to Kaliannan, M. & Abraham  the applicants, before they choose their potential employer there is several factor that will influence their decision. For example, company reputation, incentive provided and working environment. According to this study also, SMEs faced three main challenge in retaining employee because i) low salary ii) work related issue and iii) size of the organization. Some SMEs owners’ claim Gen Y prefer to work with large size organization due to its status and prestige.  As for training in SMEs in Malaysia, usually they utilized the fund from HDRF to equip their employees with on-the-job- training and off-the-job-training.

This per said as most common way to equip their employees with new skill and knowledge. In term of performance and appraisal, most use performance measure tool are such via customer feedback, KPI Target, individual performance and overall organization performance. Refer to this study, organization can or both tangible and non-tangible reward to appreciate and to retain their employees. However, found out that some employees would refer to their demographic characteristic to define their satisfaction toward the remuneration package offered. Different generation defined different needs. It is important for the SMEs to look for important dimension to show their appraisal toward employees. Effective incentive will increase employee’s motivation, loyalty and performance. In directly enhance employee’s satisfaction and commitments. Talent retention is important to keep skilled employee in the organization, therefore a good working environment and open communication between employer-employee is very crucial in making it a success. One of the important matter brought in this study is that, most of the respondent agree that the management team should have a proactive measure to ensure continuous effort in developing employees within the organization. Different in work culture between Gen X and Gen Y has become serious matter and some respondent suggest that an open communicating system can solve this issue. In addition, empowerment or an involvement of relevant government agencies such SME Corporation can help to enhance the talent management as a whole. For example making training session become more attractive to Gen Y to take involve. Not only it can solve Gen Y issue, issue such foreign worker and leadership issue may also be ease.