Economists categorise production factors as being land, labour, capital, entrepreneurship, and data. The most complex and crucial production factor of all is people, and this book contributes to the management of this valuable production factor.

Organisations recruit people and specialists at great costs, but not equal attention and efforts are spent on the retention of these staff when being employed. The management of talent falls within this realm and therefore highlights the importance of this book. Adding the new world of work that emerged after Covid-19, namely a hybrid form of working, we need to focus on people more than ever before. Remote work is a given and this adds to the complexity of the world of work. How will organisations manage their businesses effectively in a hybrid work model? How do we build a cohesive team?

Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University states ‘The workplace for managers and professionals is clearly moving to hybrid, with three days a week in the office on Tuesday to Thursday fast becoming the new norm.’ This is confirmed by Mark Ein, chairman of Kastle Systems, namely ‘What’s happening is a lot of companies are adapting to three or four days a week in the office’.

Huge differences, disagreement and a tug of war started between employers and employees about where to work. Flexibility is preferred by employees while companies claim that better teamwork, productivity, and innovation require attendance. High-profile companies such as Starbucks, Walt Disney and Amazon, to mention but a few, demand that staff return to office for 3 to 4 days a week and then receive some levels of resistance from the staff.

Managing talent to focus on what people need to enable them to thrive, by offering growth opportunities, work-life balance, and sustaining connection on the one end, with balancing suitable presence, productivity, service to clients, and equal treatment of both hybrid and non-hybrid staff, on the other end of the scale.

This book unpacks several themes to address the new challenges faced by the place of work, such as Managing talent in the new hybrid workplace: evidence from Saudi Arabia, shedding light on the leadership abilities to manage talent in the new world of work.

The chapter titled Talent wellness and -resilience management in a VUCA environment: human resource professionals’ perspective emphasizes the management of wellness to enhance talent resilience.

It is estimated that South Africa, as the most industrialised country on the continent, will have an unemployment rate of 35,6% in 2023. In 2019 the youth unemployment rate was 57,38%. The chapter titled Putting a transformed onto-epistemological ethic to work in post-colonial and post-apartheid talent development provides information on the post-colonial and apartheid past and its after-effects, and in so doing contributes to the development of our youth and insights to remove hurdles with a view to develop young talent.

In the chapter titled The rapidly evolving situation impacted by the emergence of Covid 19 on employee efficiency the pros and cons of working from home (WFH) are explored and guidelines are indicated for managing WFH.

The value aspect of ethics is elucidated by the chapter titled The ‘talent’ to corrupt or be corrupted in the workplace: an ethical appraisal’. This chapter highlights the pitfalls and suggests preventive measures to mitigate the risk of corruption. The moral aspects regarding corruptive behaviour are explained and examined and guidelines are drawn up for managing and avoiding corruptive behaviour.

The talent development of teachers at tertiary institutions, and specifically the identification, recruitment and attraction of such teachers are elucidated in the chapter titled A transformative philosophy for teacher leaders’ talent development. The application of transformative learning theory can enhance talent development. This chapter suggests A transformative philosophy framework for teacher leaders’ talent development by means of an analysis of stipulations in three South African education policy documents. It further indicates that teacher leaders, as seen from a transformative philosophical perspective, can apply their talents to become transformative leaders.

Researching the relationship between employees’ perceptions of performance assessment regarding fairness and public service motivation is unpacked in the chapter titled The relationship between employees' perceptions of fairness in performance reviews and their motivation within the public service among North-West provincial army officials. This study makes recommendations for strengthening the performance assessment process to retain high levels of public service motivation.

The management of talent in the domain of international business is explored in the chapter titled Talent management in the international business landscape. The gaps in talent management indicate a holistic view of the global business landscape as a pre-requisite. This research presents talent management gaps and recommends a holistic and broad view of the global business landscape for scholars and talent management practitioners.

The chapter titled Advancing gender equality and sustainability through the expanded public works programmes demonstrates how the EPWP contributes to gender equality in the Winnie Madikizela municipality, which could be generalised to other sectors.

Finally, a practical method to ensure satisfaction and engagement of employees is reflected in the chapter titled ‘Effective’ employee onboarding. A new practical model for organizations. Research indicates that onboarding assists in improving employee performance, engagement, and satisfaction, and reduces turnover and attrition rates.

This book will make a valuable contribution to the management of talent in the workplace. It further provides novel insights, applied research and practical guidelines to manage talent in the new world of work.

Professor Sonia Swanepoel, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Community Engagement, North-West University