Generation Y Talent Management Strategy and Competitive Advantage: Case of Commercial Banks in Kenya
Almost every organizational activity brings about a competitive world thus, making a paradigm shift inevitable. It therefore calls for the function of human resource in the organization to understand the category of that shift in order to implement meaningful change. Organizations need to identify the impact of values and work preferences of the young generation of workers in order to employ, develop, retain and prepare staff for future leadership. This study examined the relationship between talent management strategies for Generation Y which included Human Resource Planning, Human Resource Procurement, Human Resource Retention and Human Resource Development and the competitive advantage of commercial banks in Kenya. The study tested four hypotheses that related to independent and dependent variables and a cross sectional descriptive survey design was employed. The target population was a census of all the 43 Commercial Banks in Kenya as indicated in Central Bank's Annual Report of December 2014 and the unit of observation was six (6) departments in each bank. A sample of 258 respondents was drawn and data was obtained through a semi structured questionnaire that was self administered through a drop and pick later method. The data collected was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics with multiple linear regression analysis to test the hypotheses. With the analysis of the data collected on all the variables and the testing of hypotheses, the study revealed that Talent Management Strategies of HR Planning, HR Procurement, HR Development and HR Retention contributed to a fairly good extent (Mean 3.8) so as to contribute to competitive advantage of Commercial Banks in Kenya with a percentage level of 56.3% (R2 .563) The results of the hypotheses found that there exists a statistically significant, but negative relationship between HR planning strategies and competitive advantage (b= 0.323, p 0.05) However, there was a strong positive and statistically significant relationship between HR retention strategies and competitive advantage (b=.599, p<0.05) There was also a positive statistically significant relationship between HR procurement strategies (b=.322, p<0.05).The study suggested that Commercial Banks in Kenya should consider Talent Management Strategies for Generation Y when making organizational policies. They should also embrace best HR practices that contribute to the management of human capital in order for them to realize a competitive advantage.