Exploring the issues of talent management

Explorathon - European Researchers' Night - is taking place in Scotland this Friday and HRM researcher Paddy Sherrard is giving a coffee house lecture as part of Strathclyde's contribution. Here he explains in more detail and you can check out his video.

The purpose of the Explorathon is to give greater public awareness to research within the universities across Scotland – my talk will showcase my initial research and illustrate how the British Army is advancing the talent debate both from a practical and academic perspective. This debate is one of many events taking place in Glasgow and across Scotland – check the Explorathon16 webpage for other interesting events for all ages.

The free Explorathon Coffee House Lecture will discuss one of the recurrent topics in Boardrooms this century – talent. Since the late 1990s when a number of McKinsey consultants first coined the phrase ‘the war for talent’, how talent is acquired and then retained has been a recurrent agenda item for most businesses. However, the issue of talent and its development has far wider relevance than just business, it is also a ‘war’ for the British Army, other governmental bodies, not for profit organisations, sport and even for our children as they go through education.

I will be highlighting the key debates on talent and getting a view of the audience’s opinions over a coffee this Friday 30 September 2016 at 1730 in the Tinderbox on Ingram St. Using my HR background as well as my coaching knowledge from a lifetime of playing, refereeing and coaching rugby, I hope we'll have a really interactive talk which will challenge some of the assumptions relating to talent and its development. Click on the video to have a preview!

About Paddy Sherrard

Paddy Sherrard is a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army and also a PhD Researcher in the Human Resource Management Department. He is the first Army Officer to be selected to read for a full time PhD in their Higher Defence Studies Programme. He has an extensive background as a HR practitioner in the Army and has been tasked with analysing how the British Army retains and maximises its officer talent.