Emergent Talent Management Model and Industry Toolkit During a Pandemic – An Investigation in the Vietnamese Banking Sector

Abstract

There is still limited research studying multilevel factors influencing talent management (TM) practices in general and TM practices in the Vietnamese banking sector, particularly within the Covid pandemic context. Considering this gap, this article has three research objectives: developing a conceptual framework about multilevel contextual factors affecting TM within the studied sector, assessing the framework's suitability and applicability, and proposing a TM model and toolkit for bank leaders to improve TM strategic planning. The study employed the qualitative research method and semi-structured interviews with bank managers from different types of banks. The conceptual framework formulated in this study indicates a progression in examining factors influencing TM practices in developing countries. All the interviewees revealed their interest in studying the framework and their agreement with the arrangement of the relevant factors in the framework. As per the suggestion from the interviewees about the need to develop a TM model or guideline to execute TM practices, this paper also provides a suggested TM model with specific steps and an industry toolkit used for TM strategic planning and decision-making process based on the proposed framework. The model's steps, indicating explicit recommendations for bank managers to enhance TM effectiveness, are arranged in accordance with the process included in the proposed framework's TM flow. Besides, the reflection questions in the toolkit are helpful for managers to improve their critical thinking about their actual TM flow. The transformation from the framework to the toolkit can be viewed as how theoretical contribution can lead to managerial implications. This study contributes to the progress of contemporary TM literature during historical events in unstable business environments. It can be seen as a contribution to the applications of TM literature in practice.