According to Topic 1
Cappelli’s article is therefore timely in giving HR and Line Managers a process that can assist in talent management.
The main premise of the article is that talent management is ‘anticipating the need for human capital and then setting out a plan to meet it’ (Cappelli, 2008, p.1). The options for companies are to either do nothing or use 1950’s programs of succession planning and forecasting. Cappelli suggests that there is another, more effective way using a just-in-time concept (2008, p. 3-4) that includes:
• Make and buy to manage risk – talent is expensive to have waiting in the business and they will leave without opportunities. Therefore some roles can be sourced externally more effectively, while others could be internally.
• Adapt to the uncertainty in talent demand – the concept is to break up development programs for staff into smaller units so that staff complete the course over a longer period ie 3 years and this keeps them interested longer.
• Improve the return on investment in developing employees – get staff to part pay towards a course, whether this is financial or in time.
• Preserve the investment by balancing employee-employer interests – allow staff to apply for any internal job and make it easy for them to apply.
Cappelli concludes that by using a just-in-time concept and getting more engagement with talent through extended training, financial or time commitment and allowing staff to apply and move across the organisation that you can retain talent more effectively than using traditional systems.
According to Topic2:
When companies buy computers for their employees, they also provide training to make sure the investment pays off. So why do those same companies invest millions of dollars in health care without making any particular effort to ensure that their employees stay healthy?
As major purchasers of health care, corporations have almost as much of a stake in preserving or improving employees’ health as the employees themselves do. My company invests hundreds of millions of dollars in health care; a company like General Motors—which in June placed much of the blame for its massive layoffs on health care costs—invests considerably more. We need to protect these investments and capitalize on them as we would on any other.
Companies can do that by recognizing that they achieve larger gains when they address the causes, rather than the treatments, of ill health. Focusing on health care is inherently reactive; focusing on health is proactive and, potentially, a game changer. The chief reason companies fail to invest in health, I think, is that it is often difficult to quantify the return. Executives know how to measure savings from disease-management techniques that reduce the cost of care for an employee with a chronic condition. It is much trickier to accurately determine how much they could save by keeping that employee from getting sick in the first place. For that reason, significant investments in prevention require some faith.
Given that employees spend about a quarter of their time at the office, companies can do quite a bit to help them stay healthy and to cut their own costs in the process. For example, companies can:
1. Provide plenty of nutritious options in cafeterias and vending machines. And because healthy foods often cost more, employers can subsidize the purchase of them.
2. Make workplaces smoke free and help employees kick the habit outside of work.
3. Encourage exercise by offering employees free use of a fitness center or subsidizing employees’ memberships to local gyms. When possible, leaders should set the example themselves, even if that just means taking a brisk ten-minute walk at lunch.
4. Offer on-site health education and screening for conditions like high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

And if we go through Internet and references we will understand: (Answer-1)

Suggestions for senior leaders who want to create a culture of talent development: 1. Act as a role model. Be transparent about your own need to learn and develop and share how you’re able to do it. Embrace vulnerability: leaders are never more powerful than when they are shown to be learning. 2. Reinforce the value of learning. Go beyond the baseline conversation about goals. Ask about what they want to accomplish and what they feel their gaps are. When someone completes an assignment, celebrate both the outcome and the learning, especially if the assignment wasn’t completed as smoothly as everyone would’ve liked. 3. Build sustainable processes to support development. Managers should be expected to coach and develop their people. At a minimum, everyone knows what areas they need to improve, and for those with particularly high potential, career tracks are developed that give them a sense of where they can go inside the organization. 4. Reinforce shared values. Employees should be able to link their everyday tasks and responsibilities to the values in the organization. People need to understand why what they do is important. 5. Leverage problems as opportunities for real world learning and development. What’s an acceptable failure needs to be clarified and that way, by incorporating stretch assignments, employees can seek out challenges where they can develop without feeling like mistakes will set them back in their career or jeopardize their job. Learning organizations see problems as opportunities.

References: http://www.forbes.com/sites/drewhansen/2011/12/02/5-keys-developing-talent-in-your-organization/ http://newretailweb.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/review-of-%E2%80%9Ctalent-management-for-the-twenty-first-century%E2%80%9D-by-peter-cappelli/ http://hbr.org/2005/12/the-cost-benefit-of-well-employees/ar/1