Overview
Passionate about human resources, but drawn to the strategic development side? A recruitment 2.0 profession is waiting for you: that of talent manager.
Talent management holds considerable potential in terms of competitiveness and economic performance, allowing a company to build a long-term strategy that goes well beyond the day-to-day tasks of HR departments.
What is a Talent Manager?
The Talent Manager draws on a range of human resources processes and practices designed to secure the lasting effectiveness of the company's most highly qualified staff. The overriding aim is to keep the organisation's innovation and performance at the highest level.
Their remit spans talent acquisition, talent development and talent retention. Yet this manager plays several other roles that are equally central to talent management, including identifying talent, running assessments, sourcing and more.
The talent manager, or talent acquisition manager, is the newest addition to human resources. Working from the growth strategy of the company that employs them, they identify the employees best suited to the various positions to be filled. Their goal? To optimise the team they recruit in order to draw out the very best from it and help the organisation thrive.
In a luxury hotel or palace, every member of staff is hand-picked to meet the expectations of the most demanding guests. It is therefore the most seasoned professionals in their field (hence the word "talent") who are recruited.
The work of this particular manager does not stop there, however. Once talent has been recruited, they take care of their professional fulfilment so that they remain happy and motivated in their role. Their work is therefore a far cry from the conventional recruitment seen in most companies.
What does a Talent Manager do?
The talent manager's work begins long before anyone is hired. The starting point: defining the employer brand. What image, what values does the company want to convey? Combined with its growth objectives, a strategy is then drawn up, and it will serve as the guiding thread for all future recruitment. This is where this professional demonstrates their gift for anticipation, matching the strategic roles needed to achieve the organisation's objectives with the environments most likely to meet the criteria sought. Once these characteristics have been mapped out, this strategic recruiter can move on to the second part of their remit: identifying the ideal profile.
To do so, they draw on a number of elements such as sourcing (to keep effective track of applications) and expertise, combined with analytical tools such as KPIs (performance indicators), which measure recruitment quality and time-to-hire as well as manager satisfaction. They can then move on to the recruitment phase and select THE candidate who matches the markers identified beforehand. This includes writing the job advertisement, screening CVs and holding interviews — in other words, the conventional side of recruitment.
The talent acquisition manager also handles relationships with recruitment providers, since companies frequently call on specialist agencies. This aspect is known as "outsourcing". They therefore make sure candidate profiles are kept up to date with a view to possible future hires.
Once recruitment is complete, the talent manager moves on to their final mission: profile retention. To safeguard their teams' human capital, they must draw on attractiveness factors that go beyond the purely financial (pay, bonuses, incentives and fringe benefits).
This is where the values established upstream, when the employer brand was created, come into play. Career management, working environment, diversity and inclusion — every organisation has its own added extra to meet employees' expectations. An employee's skills, for example, can be developed through a training plan. Finally, the talent manager creates procedures based on a synthesis of all the tasks within their remit.
What skills & qualities does a Talent Manager need?
As an HR specialist, this professional has a firm command of human resources management techniques. Fluency in English is equally essential in order to recruit talent internationally. Alongside this:
- Rigour and a keen eye for detail come naturally to them. These qualities are essential for properly establishing the various competency frameworks, skills maps and appraisal interviews built around target skills, and for standardising talent management procedures in line with the latest HR practices identified through market monitoring.
- Creativity and empathy round out their natural ease with people. Coaching and mentoring tools are thus used to full effect to steer recruitment and to nurture talent's aspirations, both professional and personal.
- Open-mindedness is the watchword for sharpening their command of IT and other tools, which are constantly evolving.
A solid general knowledge, along with a thorough understanding of the company they work for, is also indispensable.
What career prospects and salary can a Talent Manager expect?
Talent manager is simply an optimised version of the HR manager role.
This role commands an average gross salary of €4,834 per month. With greater responsibilities, however, the talent manager's median salary stands at around €65,300 gross per year, or roughly €5,400 gross per month.
It follows quite naturally that, after several successful years of experience, this professional can aim for a position as HR Director (DRH), also known as Director of Human Resources Development (DDRH). They may also move into roles such as HR development manager or training manager.
How do you become a Talent Manager?
The conventional route into a human resources manager role is a five-year postgraduate degree (bac+5) in the field. It is also possible to enter the profession through a related course, provided it includes an HR specialisation. The talent manager, however, must master a broader range of skills, such as management and a flair for strategic development. Rounding off your studies with a management programme is therefore a real asset.
CMH offers a Grande École Programme open to students straight after the baccalaureate and through direct entry, leading to the "MBA International Hospitality and Luxury Brand Management" degree. Over five years, the school awards an RNCP Level 7 qualification, preparing students to become future managers of luxury establishments.
