TALENT AND COMPETENCY MANAGEMENT

HRM – FLEXI CORE

Steps taken by the organisation and challenges they faced

In order to deal with the problem pertaining to hiring the right talent for various roles at different levels of the organisational
hierarchy, Oracle Hu man Resources Management department targeted the most important step that hiring process entails, i.e.
Interviewing. Oracle’s HR depart ment conducted Co mpetency Based Interviewing skills Training ( CBIT) for managers and
senior Individual Contributors for the interviewing process. This train ing program was designed specifically for the people
involved in the hiring process to inculcate in them the skills essential to conduct interviews that go beyond evaluation of a
candidate’s technical abilities and assess a candidate’s potential for selection based on a comprehensive set of parameters which

ISSUES, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND CHALLENGES

Instructor – Prof. Manjari Singh

12th March 2018

Group B4
Arzoo Nayan Bansal Puja Roy
Rashmi Teltumbde Shubhankar Gautam Thejaswi Havisha
TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................................3
ISSUES RELATED TO TCM IN ORACLE FUSION APPLICATIONS ................................................3
Hiring right talent ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Career Development of top talent ..................................................................................................................................................... 4
Retaining top talent................................................................................................................................................................................... 4
HRM SYSTEMS LINKED TO THESE ISSUES........................................................................................4
Recruitment and Selection .................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Employee training and Development .............................................................................................................................................. 5
Talent and Competency Management............................................................................................................................................. 5
STEPS TAKEN BY ORACLE......................................................................................................................6
Recruitment .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 6
Career Development - ............................................................................................................................................................................. 6
CHALLENGES FACED IN IMPLEMENTATION...................................................................................7
Retention ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 7
RECOMMENDATIONS ...............................................................................................................................7
Compensation .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 7
Succession Planning................................................................................................................................................................................. 7
Organizational Dynamics ...................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Career Development ................................................................................................................................................................................ 8
POSSIBLE CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTATION .............................................................................9
Compensation .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 9
Succession Planning................................................................................................................................................................................. 9
Organizational Dynamics ...................................................................................................................................................................... 9
Career Development ................................................................................................................................................................................ 9
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................................9
Primary source ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 9
Secondary source ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 9
INTRODUCTION
Today, companies are constantly re-assessing their business processes to find out newer and better ways to
improve and provide greater output in the market in order to gain competitive advantage. The Human
Resource Management focuses on workforce, which is essentially the key asset and also the biggest cost
incurred by the organisation. Oracle, through its integrated HR system is playing a proactive role in firing,
motivating and retaining the most capable workforce, providing a strategic value to the firm.

Oracle HR is a family of the integrated set of applications that help to effective manage the workforce and
reduce costs without compromising on the quality of the value delivered to the customer. Applications are
as follows:

 Oracle Human Resources (HR)  Oracle iRecruitment

 Oracle Payroll  Oracle HRMS Intelligence (HRMSi)
 Oracle Advanced Benefits (OAB)  Oracle Learning Management
 Oracle Self-Service Human Resources  Oracle Time & Labor (OTL)

ISSUES RELATED TO TCM IN ORACLE FUSION APPLICATIONS

In order to manage talent, Oracle delivers a competitive set of tools covering workforce management,
rewards and analytics. Oracle’s core modules include compensation management, incentive compe nsation,
performance management and goal management. These modules are creatively designed to tackle each of
the key issues mentioned below.

Compensation Incentive
Management Compensation

Performance Goal
Management Management

Core HR Modules of Oracle Fusion Applications

 Career
Hiring Right Development Retaining Top
Talent Talent
of Top Talent

Issues Related to TCM in Oracle Fusion Applications

Hiring right talent

With the aim of keeping the customer in mind, Oracle lays emphasis in hiring the right talent in order to
create the most value. Hiring the right talent claims importance due to the cost attached to the employees’
firing in case of a misfit. It closes the growing skills and competencies gap. Further, fitting into Oracle’s
dynamic culture is a requirement in addition to possessing a checklist of competencies.

Career Development of top talent

Career development is a way in which the company invests in their employees by providing a well-defined
career progression in the organization. A career development path provides employees to look something
forward to, inculcates a desire to learn and progress in their work and life. It is esse ntial for high for
employee motivation and satisfaction levels, which in turn impacts productivity.

Retaining top talent

Oracle functions in a highly competitive industry, therefore it cannot afford to have high attrition rate due
to the costs attached to re- hiring, training valuable employees and finding the perfect cultural fit to the
organization. Retention strategies are also used to boost employee morale creates a positive work
environment and strengthens employees’ work towards the organization.

HRM SYSTEMS LINKED TO THESE ISSUES

Recruitment and Selection
As per the Iceberg theory, in recruitment and selection, identifiable and measurable competencies forming
10% of the characteristics of a candidate are evaluated. The remaining 90% forms the behavioral attributes
like attitude, thinking style, organizational fit form the challenge in identifying the right talent.
As per our conversation with HR representative at Oracle, during recruitment stage, an HCM tool allows
for systematic segregation of talent into various buckets from where action planning can be done for each
bucket.

Employee training and Development

This encompasses Goal management, Performance ma nagement, Networking and Talent management.
Goal management enables the setting and tracking of goals while also being tightly integrated with
performance management were based on the performance, employees are empowered with more
responsibilities. It also helps in identification of performance gaps to improve employee productivity.

Oracle talent & development team provides various online and offline career development courses, and
classes for the development of employees. Oracle also allows employees to build their social network
within the organization and connect with domain experts and co lleagues in other domains with similar
interests or competencies. This helps employees in getting public recognition by advertising their skill sets
and experience to build a positive image and seek better opportunities. Networking opportunities also allow
managers to understand their team members and get a better insight into their competencies.

Talent and Competency Management

Compensation management allows organizations to attract, motivate and retain top talent. It is integrated
with talent management, involving strategic planning, allocating and communicating compensation. The
established system for retaining top talent is:
 Employee empowerment - Employees are promoted and given more responsibility for the
organization
 Training - In- house training programs help in building oneness of the organization which in turn
strengthens the organizational culture
 Transparency - This helps in increasing ownership sentiment. Town hall meetings are an example
where organizations share the operations of the firm with the employees
 Recruitment
and
selection

Employee
training
and
developm
ent
Talent and
Competency
Management

HRM Systems linked to issues at Oracle

STEPS TAKEN BY ORACLE

Recruitment -
Oracle Human Resources Management department targeted the most important step that hiring process
entails, i.e. Interviewing. Oracle’s HR department conducts Competency Based Interviewing skills
Training (CBIT) for Managers and Senior Individual Contributors for the interviewing process. This
training program was designed specifically for the people involved in the hiring process to inculcate in
them the skills essential to conduct interviews that go beyond evaluation of a candidate’s technical abilities
and assess a candidate’s potential for selection based on a comprehensive set of parameters which includes
assessing the applicant’s behavioral/cultural fit for the job and the organization.

Career Development -
In addition to regular certification programs and training sessions, special workshops on career
management were regularly organized for employees across levels, including managers. As per a study
conducted on a related subject, 36 per cent of employees are looking for a new job with the majority citing
“career growth opportunities” as their biggest motivator. [1] This implies that there’s a direct correlation
between retention of top talent and provision of career development and growth opportunities for
employees. Thus, Oracle targeted both the issues by means of career management workshops.
CHALLENGES FACED IN IMPLEMENTATION

Retention -
The major challenge that Oracle faced in implementing its policies was retention of top talent. The fact that
Oracle’s compensation package for its employees is less than the industry standards is what makes it
difficult for Oracle to prevent its top performers from switching over to its competitors, most of whom pay
these employees double than Oracle. In order to deal with it, Oracle is trying to gradually benchmark its
compensation packages with the industry standards.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Succession
Compensation
Planning

Organizational Career
Dynamics Development

Compensation
Since Oracle is paying below industry average salaries; they need to identify other ways to incentivize their
employees. Oracle can leverage its brand name and its multinational presence. Foreign project should be
allotted to talented employees early on in their careers to boost their engagement. A brief period o f foreign
exposure also enhances the employee’s talent.

Succession Planning
Due to high retention rate, it is become a challenge to replace the outgoing employee’s position. Hence,
adopting a futuristic view is crucial for Oracle. They can implement succession planning in the following
way –
 •Workforce projection data or demographic analysis is essential in identifying
risk areas
Identify Critical
Positions •A risk assessment to compare current and future

•Competency or position profiling to gain an understanding of the key

responsibilities of the position including the qualifications and behavioural
Identify
Competencies and technical competencies required

•Choose from a menu of several human resource strategies, including

Succession
developing internal talent pools, onboarding and recruitment to address
Management succession planning
Strategies

•Action Plan provides a mechanism for clearly defining timelines and roles and
Document and responsibilities.
Implement

•Systematically monitor workforce data, evaluate activities and make necessary

Evaluate adjustments.
Effetiveness

Organizational Dynamics
Oracle currently has a bureaucratic culture across all levels. However, the current generation of employees
value more flexibility in the organization’s structure, system and processes.
 Structure - Modifying the steep vertical structure can improve career prospects for employees
and increases their enthusiasm at work.
 Processes – Centralized decision- making in the organization leads to unproductive work.
Hence, employees should be empowered with some level of decision-making power.
 Systems – High levels of formalization increases complexity and redundancy. Since Oracle
majorly recruits fresh graduates who value freedom, they should allow flexible working
conditions. This increases engagement of employees and lays foundation for loyalty among
employees.

Career Development
Apart from regular training programs, respective managers can provide a bi-annual review of individual
career path. In the meetings, the manager should try to understand the long term goals of the individual and
advise the employee on the short- and long-term and skill requirements.
POSSIBLE CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTATION

Compensation
Foreign opportunities are uncommon and sending Indian professionals abroad is costly. Moreover, allotting
such projects to top performing employees may create resentment among other employees in the same
level.

Succession Planning
Uncertainty of future trends and dearth of talent especially in fields like commerce will li mit the extent to
which this can be implemented.

Organizational Dynamics
Oracle is a huge corporation and hence bringing structural changes in the company is extremely difficult
and might face severe resistance. However, many MNCs have achieved this feat in the last few decades.

Career Development
Individual career growth review demands enormous time dedication from managers. Moreover, the
relationship between managers and employees may restrict the functionality of this process.

(1497 words)

REFERENCES

Primary source
1. Neha Verma, HR at Oracle Fusion Release Engineering department

Secondary source
1. https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E18727_01/doc.121/e13511/T6652T6654.htm
2. https://www.hrmonline.ca/hr-news/career-development-the-best-way-to-retain-top-talent-
187642.aspx
3. https://www.oracle.com/applications/modern-best-practice/hr-and-talent- management/career-
planning.html#establish
4. https://www.oracle.com/applications/category.html