Integrated Talent Management
Authors: Al Barwani Fatma 
Published: November 2019

Objectives/Scope

To drive optimal levels of success coupled with ensuring sustained increased levels of efficient work related performance deliverables, the Finance Directorate (FD) Leadership Team of Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) conceptualized determining sufficient numbers of high performing employees to ensure of this sustainment across Finance. To this end from a successful CP (Contracts and Procurement – in Finance) pilot of 2015, high performing talented FD staff were identified through the FD Integrated Talent Management (ITM), a successful tool that provides means of identifying, selecting, developing & retaining top talent within our predominantly Finance organization. These high competent candidates are developed with essential skills and further stretched henceforth holding uniquely valued company competencies.

Methods, Procedures, Processes

The implementation of an end-to-end systematic approach where qualitative and in some parts quantitative data could now be determined to Plan, Assess, Develop, Mobilize & Retain our most talented employees. In summary, this methodology would ensure objective deep insights about employees, their goals & aspirations, strengths and weaknesses, abilities, likes and dislikes & what the flight risk of staff could entail. It would provide better investment decisions on where to steer employees towards learning and development. It would ensure developing of strategies to ensure retaining of employees through the possibility of more senior job opportunities, external assignments and even internal within PDO exposure to other directorates etc. henceforth ensuring a more committed engaged productive workforce.

Results, Observations, Conclusions

In summary and as a result of the Hackett findings (an international external benchmarking report) which concluded in 2014 noting that PDO Finance with the ITM process in place is World Class, the ITM helped tremendously in understanding/assessing the Finance Directorate staff to enable more candid feedback, identify underperformers to provide support either through development and/or reassignment, define talent pools to provide more targeted development, develop better succession plans to define career paths and develop flight risk matrixes to proactively manage retention.

In effect employee engagement was significantly improved and further alignment of the PDO Leadership behaviours during the management of the ITM exercise was strengthened where staff were expected to demonstrate these as well as two other behaviours to improve performance and maximize potential and was/is paramount to facilitate organizational growth and business continuity. Furthermore understanding staffs’ potential & capabilities greatly improved the Finance Depts’ attrition rates to single digit percentage. Previous to this it had the alarmingly potential risk of attrition being and remaining in double digit numbers. The ITM’s effective systematic approach would enable us to deliver stretch business goals and world-class services for the immediate now and foreseeable long term future.

Novel/Addictive Information

As a result not only of the ITM positioning of sowing the seeds for an efficient workplace with an open and honest environment being created, employees were assured of feeling like an asset to the company where expectations and goals of the company is clear to them and where opportunities to grow and learn is observed. The impact of this model safeguards knowing potential and the capacity of staff and staff are more comforted by knowing what the expectation of them over time is.