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Alright people! I bring to you the latest Carnival of HR. Themed as “The Talent Race”, this edition contains interesting posts about how could organizations effectively Attract, Engage and Retain their employees and what are the latest practices in Talent Management. Additionally, I wanted to have some Asian flavours by getting posts by people writing about the Asian context. Unfortunately, I didn’t get many posts about talent management practices from Asia. And that means that one, we need more professionals in Asia to blog on the subject and two, I need to expand my Asian network even more!

• Jon Ingham is one of my favourite bloggers. He feels that there is a need for a differentiated unique proposition for people management. Sticking to the theme of “talent race”, he shares how Haier (a consumer electronics MNC that started off in China) established race tracks for a unique way of managing their talent base.

• Laura Schroeder wonders where has all the talent gone. She analyzes reports from the Economist Intelligence Unit and Bersin & Associates to come up with strategies to bridge the talent gap.

• Talent retention is on top of the agenda for most HR professionals. Derek Irvine from GloboForce outlines some Tips to Keep Headhunters Away from your Top Employees.

• Tanmay Vora writes at the QAspire blog and shares with us some Core Lessons in Leading & Managing People. He says that “working with people, guiding a team and helping them in their quest for peak potential is one of the noblest things we can do as leaders. It is an opportunity and an obligation as well.

• As HR professionals, we are often heard advising employees to “take charge of your own development”. But do most employees really know how to do this? In this post, Dan McCarthy, from Great Leadership, offers a free step-by-step self-study guide to developing leadership skills. Best of all, it’s free to use and/or share, as a way to engage and retain valuable employees who are willing to learn on their own but need a little structure”.

• Yes, programs are needed. Benefits have to be appropriate. Salary right. But no matter what the industry, the killer app in retention is the personal involvement of management with employees, says Marsha Keeffer.

• Heard about the “HR Hairball”? Find out in this excellent post by Mark Stelzner.

• Ian Welsh writes in from Canada and says that “If we need talent for the future, we need to belong to the future we visualize”. Simply “buying” talent is not the panacea.

• It might be important to hire employees for their skills, but hiring for culture-fit is really important as well. Wally Bock shares his views on Hiring Well. One of my favourite lines from the blog post – “Performance and growth are often situational”.

• Amy Wilson writes about transforming existing performance models into one that is more work-centric and embedded in the natural flow of business to get the best work done.

• Robin Schooling has a different take on Talent Management – Family Style.

• A strong learning & development platform is critical for organization looking at managing their talent base effectively and driving sustained business performance. Linda Fisher Thornton from Leading in Context shares 11 Learning & Development Reports. Informative!

• Anita Lettink feels that “best practices” may not always work for you because you have your own unique context. Instead, she shares some guidelines for winning the Talent Race.

• Finally, to add more of an Asian touch to the Carnival, here is one of my posts about Change Management and Leadership in Asia 2.0