Talent Management

Don’t panic. Talent management in the banking and finance world won’t involve dealing with the diva egos of any Naomi Campbell or Miley Cyrus types. This area is all about sourcing and developing the best people for the many, many roles that make up a bank or financial firm’s huge work force.

Many professionals start out in this areas in HR apprenticeships or graduate roles, in which they assist the talent management department in various tasks such as candidate screening and attending meetings with employees in order to learn the ropes.

Talent spotting

Talent Managers themselves can handle the recruitment and career development aspects of the company’s employees, taking charge of duties such as graduate recruitment, corporate talent management and succession planning (finding the most appropriate candidate to take the place of senior members of the company who leave their position).

In terms of graduate recruitment, it’s up to the talent management department to listen to the requirements of senior representatives of the business, thoroughly understand the types of candidate they look for, and then apply these requirements in the recruitment process. This could be graduates from certain degree disciplines, such as economics or mathematics, and sometimes candidates from target universities.

They meet face-to-face with prospective graduates at recruitment fairs, and are heavily involved with filtering through assessment days and interview stages of the recruitment process.

Tasks may also involve liaising with the marketing department and media outlets to organise promotion of job vacancies. Once the graduates are hired, the talent managers will help to devise strategy for training and development.

Got the talent for talent management?

Talent managers working with senior employees of a business have to be very good at listening to their needs and how they can continue to develop professionally. They have to ensure they are kept happy and continue working to the best of their ability with the company by coming up with appropriate career development strategies.

In general, talent managers have to be great with people – and be highly organised! The area offers the opportunity for career development; many senior roles require a CIFA qualification. Talent management is also a popular area for people considering a career change – extensive experience of how a business works can be highly advantageous. Talent managers can expect to earn salaries of around £30,000, with senior talent managers earning in the region of £50,000 to £65,000 in the City.