Talent management at Toyota South Africa.

Master of Business Administration. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville 2011.The South African Motor industry is evolving through challenging times, placing tremendous pressure on Toyota SA Motors to remain efficient and competitive. The organization has identified human capital as one of its most valuable resources contributing to the achievement of this goal. It is therefore imperative that the organization implements a strategic talent management policy that would focus on retaining talented staff members and created a competitive advantage.The objective of the study was to examine the effectiveness of talent management as a retention tool with the aim of determining the employee perceptions and factors influencing competitive advantages of talent management and to provide recommendations to Toyota on the importance of strategic implementations of talent management in order to increase staff retention and improve competitiveness. This was to be achieved through the breakdown and analysis of the relevant components of talent management, along with theory comparison and the aid of quantitative research. The objective was achieved by sampling two hundred employees of Toyota. The empirical studies revealed that the perceptions of the employees were misaligned with international best practices particularly in terms of the identification of talented employees. Overall there was consensus that a strategic talent management policy would greatly benefit the organization to achieve its business objectives. A large percentage of respondents believed that talent management is very important to Toyota. It was found that the majority of respondents believed that in order to improve the talent pool it was vital to develop individual career paths for all employees. The results revealed that a key factor for employee retention was better developmental opportunities. It was recommended that Toyota South Africa should nurture existing talent and source and develop new talent. Toyota needs to develop a strategic talent management policy in order to attract and retain the best talent