In this episode, hosts Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham talk about the Talent Life Cycle with Cloud Delivery Lead Nigel Wiltshire. They discuss how organizations can nurture their employees' skills, help them set goals that align with business objectives, support their desired progression, and promote a happy work-life balance.   Oracle MyLearn: mylearn.oracle.com Oracle University Learning Community: education.oracle.com/ou-community LinkedIn: linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/ Twitter: twitter.com/Oracle_Edu   Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.   --------------------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript: 00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started. 00:26 Lois: Hey there! Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast. I’m Lois Houston, Director of Product Innovation and Go to Market Programs with Oracle University, and with me is Nikita Abraham, Principal Technical Editor. Niki: Hi everyone! Last week, we spoke about the Reward Life Cycle, which is the fourth life cycle in the overall HCM Business Process, with our Cloud Delivery Lead Nigel Wiltshire. Nigel is back with us today to talk about the last life cycle, Talent. 00:55 Lois: We’re wrapping up this discussion on HCM life cycles today so if you’ve just joined us, be sure to check out the prior episodes this season as you’ll want to get the full picture of the entire HCM business process flow. Hi Nigel! Thanks for agreeing to pop in one last time (this season that is!) to take us through these HCM business process life cycles. 01:16 Nigel: Thank you for having me again. Lois: So, let’s get right down to business here. What is the Talent Life Cycle? Nigel: The Talent Life Cycle contains all the processes that serve to manage and promote an employee’s career growth. Niki: And what are the processes that make up this life cycle? 01:30 Nigel: Well, Niki, there are four business processes that make up the Talent Life Cycle: Goal Setting to Performance, Talent Review to Succession, Career Planning to Development, and Employee Insight to Work Life Balance. The Goal Setting to Performance process covers the two main aspects of Talent Management:  Performance Goals and Performance Reviews. 01:50 Nigel: The second process, Talent Review to Succession, allows for managers to review the overall performance and potential of each of their employees. This is to ascertain how the employees are progressing through their career and whether there are any steps that need to be taken to address any challenges that the employee may be having with their performance and/or potential. And on the flip side of that, whether there are any actions or recommendations for career progression for their higher performing employees. 02:15 Nigel: Now the Career Planning to Development process centers around the career progression and opportunities for the employee, and there are a couple of main activities that support this venture.  The first is the Career Plan or Path, which is where the employee seeks out the roles that they are interested in pursuing, whether that is in the same field of work, a sideways move, or something completely different. To support this, the employee would create a Development Plan, with goals to support their desired progression. These goals can be designed to support their existing role, to help them pursue another role, or could simply be something personal, such as learning a new language, which is not necessarily related to their employment. 02:53 Nigel: The fourth and final process is Employee Insights to Work Life Balance. Happy employees are productive employees, in the same way that a happy workplace is one that employees are happy to get out of bed for in the morning.