Academic staff are in high demand at South African institutions and talent retention issues are a huge challenge for university management.
The primary objective of this study was to develop a framework for talent management in higher education that would allow South African public universities to attract and retain academic staff.
There is a paucity of studies on the holistic talent management system within South African public universities although previous researchers attempted to investigate some of the components that constitute the topic.
The study was subject to mixed methods to analyse data collected from a random sample survey (
Seven themes emerged, highlighting shortcomings in talent management processes and practices at the investigated South African university. Specifically, workforce planning, compensation and rewards, recruitment and selection, performance management, succession planning, training and development and talent retention showed the need to revitalise a strategic approach to attract academics whilst retaining the best to ensure that South African universities achieve their visions and missions.
Human resource professionals and talent managers in South African public universities can use the study’s findings to improve talent management practices in their institutions, which significantly lead to sustainable competitive advantage.
This research offers human resource professionals and talent managers a talent management framework for attracting and retaining employees in the higher education sector. The proposed framework guides talent management processes and practices at South African public institutions by highlighting activities to further efficiently and effectively attract and retain academic staff.
Organisations utilise talent management as a strategic method to attract and retain professionals, resulting in a sustainable competitive advantage (Bluen,
In South African public universities, there is limited research on the integrated talent management system, although previous studies attempted to investigate some of the components that make up the talent management system. Previous researchers who sought to investigate talent management aspects in South African universities mainly looked at academic turnover and retention variables (Theron, Barkhuizen, & Du Plesis,
The primary objective of this study was to develop a talent management framework in higher education that would allow South African public universities to attract and retain academic staff. Thus, this study sought to explore the talent management processes and practises of a selected South African public university in order to address talent management issues.
Literature provides several definitions of talent management (Armstrong,
Many frameworks for talent management are available in the literature. However, none of these frameworks has been able to explicitly address the talent management issues confronting South African institutions. For example, contemporary talent management frameworks developed by Meyer (
Talent management system.
According to Meyer (
From
The first essential step that an organisation takes in effective talent management is talent planning. Planning for talent can be split into two: talent planning and workforce planning. Several scholars concur on the practical approaches to talent planning, which includes talent management strategy, business strategy, environmental analysis and talent success profile (Bussin,
Grobler, Warnich, Carell, Elbert and Hatfield (
Acquiring is a crucial element of talent management that focuses on attracting, recruiting, selecting and employing talent (Bussin,
Another aspect of acquiring talent is recruitment, which refers to the process through which an organisation brings to light a new vacancy. Hunter (
Developing talent is essential for South African universities. To develop employees’ skills, organisations often use several methods amongst these being training, development, career management, coaching, mentoring, succession planning. Training is a deliberate intervention for employees to acquire skills, competencies and attitudes that will enhance organisational performance in their present jobs and most of these are short term in nature (Erasmus et al.,
Career management is another important component of developing talent in an organisation. It includes employer’s efforts aimed at influencing the career development of either individuals or groups of employees (Arnold,
Coaching is another method that may be utilised to help employees develop their talent and skills. It is a one-on-one interaction involving a professional coach and an employee. The purpose of coaching is to help employees perform better at work (Schutte & Steyn,
Mentoring is another method for developing employees, particularly new staff members. It can be described as ongoing support provided by a senior employee (mentor) to a less experienced employee (mentee). Mentoring involves managing and helping new employees to support them through tough transitions by easing the path, encouraging, leading and training them in the organisation (Fletcher,
Succession planning involves various efforts to predict leadership requirements, recognising candidate pool, developing and improving leadership competencies and capabilities through planned organisational programmes (Hor, Huang, Shih, Lee, & Lee,
Organisations use performance management and compensation and reward management practices to manage talent. Firstly, performance management refers to a structured goal-oriented process whereby individual goals are linked with the organisational objectives (Mondy,
The second part of managing talent is compensation and reward management. Compensation is the entire amount of monetary and non-monetary incentives that a company provides to an employee in exchange for his or her work (Meyer & Kirsten,
Talent retention encompasses several initiatives that an employer utilises to retain employees (Bussin,
The investigation utilised a case study research design to explore the talent management phenomena in a real-life environment (Bryman & Bell,
This investigation embraced mixed methods to contribute to the existing talent management literature in a more in-depth way. The use of the mixed method facilitates the removal and elimination of potential gaps, which might be present during the collection of data if one method is used to collect the data (De Vos, Strydom, Fouche, & Delport,
This study assumed the interpretive and positivist research paradigms as the researcher sought to benefit from ‘both worlds’. The idea was to explore and grasp complex meanings of the talent management phenomenon at the selected university as supported by various scholars (Quinlan, Babin, Carr, Griffin, & Zikmund,
Research population of this investigation included academic and non-academic employees from a South African public university. On the one hand the inclusion criteria for the selection of academic employees in this study were based on the premise that the participants should be employed either on a permanent, fixed term contract or on temporary basis at the selected university. On the other hand, the inclusion criteria for non-academic employees (seven human resource experts) into the study were only based on the premise that the participants should be responsible for the overall talent management practices at the selected university.
As the study adopted mixed-methods, probability and non-probability sampling techniques from two sample groups were utilised. The first sample group was for the quantitative research approach. This sampling group was made up of a total of 153 participants who completed the designed talent management Likert-type scale questionnaire. To identify the respondents from this sample, simple random sampling was employed, with each element having an opportunity to partake in the study (Brynard & Henekom,
The second study sample consisted of seven human resource experts. The sample was selected through purposeful sampling. Purposive sampling was utilised to collect knowledgeable data from individuals who were only familiar with the researched talent management aspects. This second sample group was interviewed by the researcher.
This study utilised a Likert-type scale questionnaire to obtain quantitative data from 153 respondents. Prior to data collection, the study determined the questionnaire’s reliability and validity to establish the consistency, trustworthiness and credibility of the data collection instrument. This was performed by means of a pilot study involving 15 non-participants. Furthermore, respondents self-completed the questionnaire in their own spare time. The questionnaire was considered as a data collection tool because it typically enables larger amounts of data to be collected in a reasonable amount of time and at a relatively low cost (Bless, Higson-Smith, & Kagee,
The study questionnaire was split into two sections. The first section collected biographical data of the respondents. The second section consisted of six sub-sections that collected data about respondents’ understanding of workforce planning, compensation and rewards, succession planning, recruitment and selection, performance management, training and development and talent retention. These sub-section themes were drawn from the literature review with 45 items rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale: (1) strongly agree, (2) agree, (3) neutral, (4) disagree and (5) strongly disagree. The usefulness and efficacy of the Likert-type scale questionnaire have been used by many scholars (Buthelezi,
Internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha.
Number of items | Construct | Cronbach’s alpha |
---|---|---|
7 | Workforce planning | 0.722 |
6 | Compensation and rewards | 0.868 |
8 | Succession planning | 0.854 |
7 | Recruitment and selection | 0.560 |
7 | Performance management | 0.702 |
5 | Training and development | 0.862 |
5 | Talent retention | 0.675 |
George and Mallery (
To obtain qualitative data, the investigation utilised semi-structured interviews. This entailed personal interaction with seven human resource experts, who were asked a series of questions concerning talent management. The interviews included face-to-face engagement with every participant utilising an interview guide with 23 questions. Each interview session took around 40 min. Based on the foregoing information from the literature, research interview questions were formulated.
Prior to data collection, a pilot research was conducted involving two individuals via face-to-face semi-structured interviews utilising an interview guide. Thereafter, the researcher managed to obtain suggestions and constructive criticism. Relevant shortcomings in the data collecting instrument were identified and communicated to the researcher. Subsequently, revisions were performed for the true participants to assure that the interview questions were meaningful and also that participants accurately comprehended them.
Quantitatively, the investigation utilised Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to analyse the data through the assistance of a qualified and experienced statistician. Furthermore, the researcher utilised quantitative descriptive statistics that included the mean and standard deviation to produce item statistics. Averages of the items in each group were calculated to create new variables that represent the main categories.
Qualitatively, the data obtained was analysed by means of thematic analysis. This involved identifying and interpreting qualitative data collected using themes (Neuendorf,
The researcher further validated the data by consolidating mixed methods used to generate a holistic assessment of the data analysed. As a result, the mixed methodologies utilised in this investigation were equally valuable, facilitating the synthesis of research data to analyse the phenomena of talent management in the selected South African institution.
All ethical considerations and procedures were adhered to throughout the study. These include permission to conduct the study, informed consent, voluntary participation, right to privacy, confidentiality and honesty in presenting data (2015FBREC288).
As depicted in
Demographic information of quantitative data.
Item | Frequency | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Male | 87 | 57 |
Female | 66 | 43 |
Black | 61 | 39.9 |
White | 29 | 19.0 |
Mixed race | 46 | 30.1 |
Indian | 17 | 11.1 |
20–29 | 16 | 10.5 |
30–39 | 55 | 35.9 |
40–49 | 52 | 34.0 |
50–59 | 15 | 9.8 |
60 years and older | 15 | 9.8 |
Diploma | 2 | 1.3 |
Bachelor’s degree | 16 | 10.5 |
Honours degree | 11 | 7.2 |
Master’s degree | 93 | 60.8 |
PhD | 30 | 19.6 |
Others (please specify) | 1 | 0.7 |
Permanent employee | 91 | 59.5 |
Fixed contract employee | 50 | 32.7 |
Temporary employee | 12 | 7.8 |
0–3 years | 55 | 35.9 |
4–6 years | 29 | 19.0 |
7–10 years | 36 | 23.5 |
More than 10 years | 33 | 21.6 |
Faculty of Applied Sciences | 6 | 3.9 |
Faculty of Business and Management Sciences | 78 | 51.0 |
Faculty of Education and Social Sciences | 18 | 11.8 |
Faculty of Engineering | 21 | 13.7 |
Faculty of Informatics and Design | 19 | 12.4 |
Faculty of Health and Wellness Sciences | 11 | 7.2 |
Junior Lecturer | 39 | 25.5 |
Senior Lecturer | 29 | 19.0 |
Lecturer | 73 | 47.7 |
HOD | 9 | 5.9 |
Admin staff | 3 | 2.0 |
HOD, Head of the Department; PhD, Doctor of Philosophy.
Qualitatively, the sample composed of seven human resource experts of which three were females and four were males. With regard to ethnicity, the sample was distributed as follows: 6 = black and 1 = mixed race. In terms of tenure, one participant had the shortest tenure (5 months) whilst other participants ranged from 1 to 11 years of employment with the investigated university. In terms of academic qualifications, two participants had MCom in Industrial Psychology and MPhil Labour Law as their highest level of qualifications whereas other participants had various academic qualifications such as National Diploma, B.Tech degree, Honours degree and postgraduate degree.
In this study, the researcher analysed variables to understand and uncover the relationship between pairs of variables in a statistical context. Although there are several techniques that researchers can use such as the Pearson’s correlation, the researcher used Spearman’s rho, which is denoted by the Greek letter ρ to analyse the correlations because the pairs of variables were ordinal. The computed values of Spearman’s rho vary between 0 and 1 and can either be negative or positive (Bryman & Bell,
Correlation analysis of the variables
Spearman’s rho | Spearman Correlations |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
WP | CR | SP | RS | PM | TD | |
Correlation Coefficient | 0.073 | - | - | - | - | - |
0.369 | - | - | - | - | - | |
153 | - | - | - | - | - | |
Correlation Coefficient | 0.189 |
0.537 |
- | - | - | - |
0.019 | < 0.001 | - | - | - | - | |
153 | 153 | - | - | - | - | |
Correlation Coefficient | 0.331 |
−0.247 |
−0.463 |
- | - | - |
001 | 0.002 | 001 | - | - | - | |
153 | 153 | 153 | - | - | - | |
Correlation Coefficient | 0.366 |
−0.152 | −0.163 |
0.324 |
- | - |
001 | 0.060 | 0.044 | 001 | - | - | |
153 | 153 | 153 | 153 | - | - | |
Correlation Coefficient | 0.596 |
−0.304 |
−0.236 |
0.555 |
0.582 |
- |
001 | 001 | 0.003 | 001 | 001 | - | |
153 | 153 | 153 | 153 | 153 | - | |
Correlation Coefficient | 0.293 |
0.619 |
0.409 |
0.007 | 0.036 | −0.053 |
001 | 001 | 001 | 0.936 | 0.662 | 0.516 | |
153 | 153 | 153 | 153 | 153 | 153 |
WP, workforce planning; CR, compensation and rewards; SP, succession planning; RS, recruitment and selection; PM, performance management; TD, training and development; TR, talent retention.
, Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
, Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
A Spearman correlation was computed using SPSS to determine if there were any significant relationships between two constructs. From
Means and standard deviations for workforce planning, compensation and rewards, succession planning, recruitment and selection, performance management, training and development and talent retention.
Statistics | Group statistics | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Workforce planning | Compensation and rewards | Succession planning | Recruitment and selection | Performance management | Training and development | Talent retention | |
Valid | 153 | 153 | 153 | 153 | 153 | 153 | 153 |
Missing | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Mean | 2.90 | 3.62 | 3.79 | 2.65 | 2.47 | 2.21 | 3.25 |
Standard deviation | 0.703 | 0.955 | 0.847 | 0.620 | 0.747 | 0.896 | 0.902 |
With regard to workforce planning, seven items relating to workforce planning for talent management were included in this theme. A general pattern can be observed where frequencies moved from ‘strongly agreed’ to ‘strongly disagreed’.
‘I am not aware of a formalised process. Currently, it is carried out on an ad hoc basis …’ (Participant 5, male, black, HR expert, MCom Industrial Psychology, 11 years of work experience at the investigated university)
‘[…
Based on comments from participants 5 and 7, it emerges that there is no consistency and universal applicability of policies across all departments when it comes to workforce planning, and it is only carried out for particular purposes at times.
Furthermore, participants 1, 2 and 6 mentioned that the Institutional Planning Office conduct workforce planning. They then advise human resource experts on how to implement those plans. However, this result contradicts the argument in the literature review, which stated that the duty for workforce planning falls with human resource practitioners, who take the lead throughout the process whilst collaborating with frontline supervisors (Warnich et al.,
Findings from the compensation and rewards management theme revealed a consensus amongst the participants as they perceived their employer’s compensation and rewards as unsatisfactory. Whilst this study complements and correlates with other previous reports and studies (Industrial Action Report,
In addition, a significant majority (57.5%) of the participants disagreed that their compensation packages are competitive when related to the labour market. However, as per qualitative data, the participants positively indicated that the institution’s compensation packages are competitive when linked to the labour market. The participants (human resource experts) validated their responses with more substantial information thereby eliminating gaps left in the Likert-type scale questionnaire. To be specific, the participants had this to say:
‘We do compare each year’s salaries using the REMchannel. Our institution participates in surveys of salaries via REMchannel … our institution’s salary packages are competitive because right now I have a report that I received recently that indicates in terms of where we are in terms of competitiveness.’ (Participant 1, male, black, HR expert, MPhil: Labour Law, 1 year of work experience at the investigated university)
‘Well competitively we are. When you compare this university’s, competitiveness using the REMchannel, you see that we are to a certain extent competitive against some local universities …’ (Participant 5, male, black, HR expert, MCom in Industrial Psychology, 11 years of work experience at the investigated university)
The research findings show that succession planning items were consistently negative throughout the whole eight statements. Descriptive statistics were generally high and ranged between 3.46 on the average mean and 4.05 whilst standard deviation scored between 0.985 and 1.428 (see
Participants 1, 5 and 7 reported that the university uses external programmes. These programmes are part of the Department of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET) attempts to recruit skilled scholars to replace ageing employees (DHET,
‘We don’t have succession planning policy or structured plan for the institution, hence we heavily rely on those two programmes, Khula and New Generation of Academics Programmes as I have mentioned earlier.’ (Participant 1, male, black, HR expert, MPhil: Labour Law, 1 year of work experience at the investigated university)
Therefore, the study argues that succession planning is poorly managed by the institution and there are talent management problems. This is because of a lack of an internal succession planning system and a policy.
The overall remark that can be drawn from the Likert-type scale questionnaire findings for recruiting and selection is that the participants agreed with five out of seven items. Descriptive statistics show a low but positive aggregate average mean score of 2.65 and a standard deviation of 0.620 as presented in
As observed earlier in the literature, for recruitment and selection activities to be effective, these activities should be guided by written policies and procedures (Kleynhans,
Despite some concerns, the participants pointed out that the existing process of finding potential talent in the institution is impactful and effective. According to the participants, the strategies of recruiting and selecting employees enable crucial activities to be performed. Furthermore, as mentioned by participant 6, the recruiting and selection procedure complies with the
‘It is effective because it follows and conforms to Labour Relations legislation. It is also effective because we advertise positions in the right channels and people go through the selection process and we also make appointments … ’ (Participant 6, female, black, HR expert, B. Tech: Human Resource Development, 6 years of work experience at the investigated university)
However, other participants claimed that efficacy is determined by the specialty of the post to be replaced. This suggests that when a position demands a scarce expertise, it will be difficult to recruit new staff than it does for a regular lecturing position. Participant 5 recounted:
‘It varies with the discipline, for example, in engineering countrywide it is a scarce skill. The few scarce skills that are there at the market are targeted by everyone. So, sometimes through these traditional ways of advertising sometimes you don’t get the people, and, in that way, we don’t have a targeted way of sourcing candidates where you go and source candidates and convince them to apply … ’ (Participant 5, male, black, HR expert, MCom Industrial Psychology, 11 years of work experience at the investigated university)
The study also discovered that the institution’s recruiting and selection procedure is overly protracted. The SENEX Committee, which convenes monthly to review and approve final nominations, adds to the length of time it takes to fill academic jobs. As a consequence, four participants agreed that owing to delays, some candidates do not accept offers from the institution because of a lack of patience caused by the institution’s bureaucracy in finalising the recruitment and selection processes.
Another issue discovered was the institution’s failure to attract South African nationalities, which compels the university to recruit scholars from other nations. Furthermore, it was discovered that the university is not completely adopting technology, preferring to rely on old ways such as paperwork.
In terms of performance management, the vast majority of respondents in this theme supported literature (Hunter,
Based on qualitative data, the participants did not provide any positive information on the institution’s performance management strategies. They expressed several issues. Three participants concurred that the university lacks a performance management policy. Participants 4 and 7 recounted:
‘We are very weak in that area because at this stage even the performance management policy has not yet been adopted, it’s still work in progress. The managers also do not know how to conduct performance management in their respective departments although there have been workshops arranged by the Learning and Development Department to encourage the line managers to attend these workshops, still, these line managers do not attend.’ (Participant 7, male, black, HR expert, National Diploma in Human Resource Management, 3 years of work experience at the investigated university)
Upon reconciling quantitative research findings of performance management using qualitative findings, it is clear there is a partial performance management at the university, lack of performance management policy guidelines, lack of managerial skills to conduct performance management and non-uniformity of application of performance management practices.
Overall, the majority of participants responded positively to the training and development findings. They ‘strongly agreed’ with the statements on the Likert-type scale questionnaire. The pattern was generally consistent throughout five items with a positive group score of 2.21 on the aggregate average mean score (
Qualitatively, the overall remark is that the majority of participants reported doing little in terms of training and development. As recounted by Participants 1 and 2:
‘Training and Development is not performed by Human Capital.’ (Participant 1, male, black, HR expert, MPhil: Labour Law, 1 year of work experience at the investigated university)
‘As Business Partners we are just partially involved. The full responsibility lies with the Learning and Development Department.’ (Participant 2, female, black, HR expert, BCom: Industrial Psychology, 9 years of work experience at the investigated university)
In terms of talent retention, the participants in this study appeared to be slightly dissatisfied with the management of some of the talent retention factors (work environment, professional work development and advancement opportunities and compensation packages). The general agreement from the participants is that these factors are poorly managed whereby they all recorded negative average scores. It must be observed that all these three statements that participants highlighted negatively are factors that could encourage employees to leave if not addressed properly (Robyn & Du Preez,
‘[…]
The research themes that emerged: workforce planning, compensation and rewards, recruitment and selection, performance management, succession planning, training and development and talent retention demonstrated the need for a strategic approach to attract academics whilst retaining the best to ensure that the selected South African university achieves its vision and mission as shown in
A framework for talent management in the higher education sector.
In South African universities, there have been few studies on the comprehensive talent management system, although previous studies tried to explore some of the elements that form talent management. The study embraced mixed-methods that contributed to the existing talent management literature in a more in-depth way. The research results have implications for talent management practices in South African universities. Human resource professionals and talent managers in South African universities can use the study’s findings to improve talent management practices in their institutions, which significantly lead to sustainable competitive advantage. This study provides human resource practitioners with a talent management framework to attract and retain talent in the higher education sector. The proposed framework practically guides talent management practices within South African universities by highlighting activities to better attract and retain academic staff efficiently and effectively.
This study set out to develop a talent management framework for the South African higher education sector that would enable South African universities to attract and retain academic staff. It provides new insights into the talent management practices of South African universities. A framework for talent management in the higher education sector was developed, which practically guides human resources practitioners on talent management practices within South African universities. It highlighted activities to better attract and retain academic staff efficiently and effectively. This is crucial because it incorporates efficient strategies for attracting and retaining talent, which may considerably enhance universities’ capacity to manage the difficulties of an ageing population.
Because just one South African public university was investigated, the research findings cannot be regarded as reflective of the entire population (all 26 South African public universities). As a result, the study suggests that when the proposed talent management framework is to be utilised at other institutions, it must be modified to match the institution’s talent management requirements.
Future studies should be carried out on a larger scale by including other several South African universities. If further studies are to be carried out, a new model, methods or processes in talent management practices may be adopted for South African universities or other universities in the global fraternity.
The author would like to acknowledge Dr Corry Uys for helping him with statistical analysis.
The author has declared that no competing interest exists.
R.N.M. acted as the primary researcher of this study who formed part of his master’s research.
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author.