Talent Management Moderating the Relationship between Recruitment for the Highly Skilled and HR Policies

INTRODUCTIONHuman resource policies are the backbone of any organization. The way in which an organization treats its human capital speaks about its culture and ability to attract the highly skilled. Several authors suggest that human resources are not only vital, but that they are amongst the most relevant resources (Laursen & Mahnke, 2001). The employment market has been known to be rigid (Cipollone, Patacchini, & Vallanti, 2014). Attracting and preserving talent is usually considered the biggest challenge all companies face today, particularly smaller firms that compete with the "big boys" for the same talent consortium (Abraham & Newcorn, 2000, p.32). In the face of tough economic crisis in the world, government and business leaders are challenged to obtain, develop, maintain, reward, and pass on the knowledge of the finest human capital. Commonly, talent management is usually aligned with efforts to obtain, develop, and maintain this capital (Rothwell, 2012). Managers usually believe that those highly skilled are most productive and promotable to higher degrees of authority. Talent is acquired in two ways, first, it can be developed within the organization or, second, it can be recruited from within the organization or from external sources (Rothwell, 2012). Recruitment must thus consider talent advancement. Talent attainment and talent advancement should therefore have the same foundation based on shared competencies measured by behavioral identifiers or work outputs (Rothwell, 2012). Most studies have discussed the effect of applying HR policies on recruiting employees; however, this research considered the opposite, that is, the effect of recruitment of the highly skilled on HR policies. Thus, the researchers sought to study whether recruiting highly skilled employees changes the HR policies adopted by an organization and to what extent (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Moreover, a third factor was added to the equation, namely managing talent. Moreover, we aimed to assess whether managing talent moderates the relationship between recruitment of the highly skilled and HR policies. In other words, does appropriately managed talent affect the way in which the recruitment of the highly skilled affects HR policies? This research took place in different regions and sectors of the Lebanese labor market.LITERATURE REVIEWTalent is defined as "special ability or aptitude, with those seen as talented able to demonstrate outstanding accomplishments in mental and physical domains" (Tansley, 2011, p.267). In addition, talent management is defined as "the concept that is often used to emphasize the strategic importance of strong HR practices in organizations" (Nilsson & Ellstrom, 2012, p.30). Nilsson and Ellstrom (2012) zoomed in on talent substance and the challenges associated with it. Employability is coupled with aspects other than talent; therefore, it obscures an organization's pursuit, development, and training of talented employees (Nilsson & Ellstrom, 2012). Beheshtifar, Nasab, and Moghadam (2012) clarified aims, duties, accountability, and responsibility to manage and retain HR, to claim that talent management is "the systematic attraction, identification, development, engaging/retention, and deployment of those individuals with high potential who are of particular value to an organization" (p. 229). Consequently, the literature focuses on certain dimensions of talent and its relationship with HR management and employability. Moreover, Rothwell (2012) formulated a talent management strategy that helps recruit, clarify, evaluate work performance, and analyze future work, postulating that recruitment, as other elements of HR, should be competency-based, where also organization's name brand is essential to external recruitment name. "Tactical talent management is the process of driving talent management efforts into the daily thinking and actions of organisation leader, managers, and even workers" (Rothwell, 2012, p. …