Talent Management in the Gig Economy: A Case Study of Uber

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes Uber's talent management challenges.

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Talent management and sustainable
development in Uber

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Executive summary:
In this report, there is a vivid description of the talent management along with its importance in
organizational socio-0economic growth and development. Here, information is taken mainly
from different secondary web sources as talent management related issues in Uber in U.k and
other countries is a burning issue. It is emphasized here that, what are the importance of talent
management and how such management procedure has changed the scenario of other global
organizations like IBM, Google Inc, and others. It will provide a core understanding of the
entire topic to the students in a nutshell.

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Table of contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................4
Introduction to talent management and sustainable high performance in organizations.................4
Discussion of issues related to talent management and HR levers in Uber and potential
solutions.........................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................13
References:....................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction:
In this assignment, there is a vivid explanation of talent management in Uber. It is also
discussed that, how talent management can change the managerial issues and help an
organization towards growth and development. Talent management, its introduction in the
U.K, and other countries, talent management related issues in Uber and how peoples of this
organization can control all of these issues are discussed here in a lucid form. All of these
scenarios are discussed in the next part of the assignment from a birds view.
Introduction to talent management and sustainable high performance in organizations
Talent management is a highly crucial wing of all organizations and all the human resources
executives and others are trying to making a high level of engagement among their employees.
In this aspect, it is highly needed to complete the alignment between talent management
strategy and organizational strategy. In this talent management procedure, specific
competencies like analytical skill, technical skills, educational qualification, and experiences
are functional areas where cumulative cultivation is highly emphasized ( Latukha 2018). For all
of these reasons, nowadays recruitment section of organizations are very serious to acquire,
hire and retain only some talented employees to arrange an efficient and talented workforce.
For sustainable development and economic growth presently business leaders provide the
strategic management procedures for talent management which also help the employees to get
the clarifications of their job roles. It is observed from enormous secondary information talent
management is the only way to manage their employees in an effective way along with
optimum job performance. In his talent management related aspects, there are the needs of
proper work allocation systems, training, and development of employees from their skills and
internal dedications towards their organizations. It will help them to get potential performances

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from their employees. On the other hand, to get optimum output from the organizations
through talent management systems there are requirements of potential contribution,
dedication, and participation from employees. In the introduction period of talent management
in any organizations, it needs the successful assemblages of three processes which helps the
organization to find out their high potential employees along with implementation related
barriers also (Sheehan et al., 2018). Such systems are assessment related tools such as
competency assessment of employees, performance related appraisals, potential forecasting
about developing employees, and career planning activities. Another thing is multi-rater
assessment tools along with performance diagnostic tools for employees and employers.
Implementation of all of these tools will help the organization to find out their actual number
of potential and dedicated employees. On the basis of these results after running of these tools
it will be more playful for the organizations to allocate their resources or activities and in this
way, they will be able to remove their back-up activities, surplus productions as well as many
other troubleshooting related activities through their potential employees. Managing the human
capitals in a better manner and to allocate other resources talent management is the best way
for all organizations. Talent management has the best contribution to help an organization to
outperform its aggressive competitors and to get a loyal relationship with their customers.
Rapid movement and allocation of human resources or human capitals in required situations, as
well as human resource-based management activities and strategical management related
activities, are three golden key in getting successful socio-economic growth and development
of organizations. In this aspect, when resources and working activities will be allocated
according to the talent and performance-based ratings of employees, an organization will be
continued in a smooth flair. In this way. An organization will be able to grow with sustainable

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development. As human capitals or talented employees are a treasure trove for organizations so
there is also demand and supply related insufficiency in the global market related to talent
acquisition. Nowadays there are multifarious kinds of applications of talent management and
presently talent management is applied in the social issues also which is called brain drain. It is
highly observed in Chinese background where Chinese business leaders attracted a lot of
human capitals from different corners of the world for their employee management, production
enhancement, and other purposes (Dirani et al., 2018). Presently different global organizations
utilize the talent management procedures in different ways. In IBM, Google, and many others
there are different kinds of talent management system along with their situation oriented
differences also. In IBM the talent management continues in the evidence-based solution
providing procedures where employers have the high-performing tracking system for their
employees. It will help them to get talent engagement from their employees, requisition of
employees as well as overall good performing human resource-based activities. In this
organization, there are social performance-based tracking for their employees, performance
management on the basis of their track records as well as providing compensation in the
industry standards. On the other hand, in Google Inc, there is a great emphasis on the activities
of employees in a business. In these organizations, it is believed that the recruitment of
dedicated employees along with proper skill, talent, and academic qualification is highly
necessary and maintenances of these parameters only can make a business organization
successful. In this aspect, it is highly emphasized here to providing proper emphasis upon
employees will help employees to provide them a lot of motivation along with self-ownership
feelings (Mahajan 2019). Along with talent, such internal motivations are highly emphasized in
such a big global organization. Talent management is dependent on the cultural condition of a

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country, its demographics, a difference in working frameworks and many others. In Uber talent
management is done through identification of proper gaps in the organization due to talent,
fostering their birthplace related activities through brain drain approach, enhancement of
employability, providing proper training along with removing the organizational issues.
Nowadays big technology companies have been suffering from some severe issues like a
continuation of a toxic environment, maintenances of transparency in the working
environment, and finally, the human resources related issues. Removal of these issues is highly
crucial to make a healthy and safe working environment which is important for getting
optimum performances from their employees. In Uber, talent management is completely done
on the basis of talent development through retaining and attracting new talents among
employees (Festing and Harsch 2018). On the other hand, there is the talent mobilizing related
tasks also.In these cases, human resources management has to provide proper training to the
employees to manage and improvise their talents and in this aspect, emp0loyees will get the
pathway for their future career progression. These are the basic ways for talent management in
organizations as well as to improvise the organizations.
· Introduction to Uber with a focus on the UK and one other country.
Having a lot of employees including forty thousand drivers and millions of customers across
the entire world most of the countries nowadays have declared Uber as a ban cab application.
There are enormous reasons behind this but talent management is one of them. In this issues of
Uber company, the main issue was not maintaining the renewal of licenses. As a result, there
was a great issue regarding the continuation of business in many places in the UK like London.
Across the entire world., Uber has gone t6hrough different kinds of obligations due to their
notorious relationship maintenances (Nayak et al., 2018). In this license related issues there are

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the governmental notice where it is clearly declared that after clearing all these issues Uber
will be able to continue their operations in other cities of the U.K. Along with Czech republics,
Bulgaria, France, and others like Denmark, Germany and many other countries, Italy and Asia
Pacific countries Uber is now banner only for violating governmental regulations. Moreover, it
is not the thing to make a limitation upon utilization of Uber but also it is observed that in
many BANNED COUNTRIES Uber drivers and other employees continues their activities and
police is also taking their steps (Pandita and Ray 2018). In most of the place, Uber has
maintained a great resilience to wait for a better alignment with governmental regulations.
Here, all of the things have happened due to a lack of talent management and other aspects.
Uber has a great platform where customers and Uber employees. In the initial moment, when
Uber has entered in the U.K, they have the basic mission to provide transportation system to
the p[eolple of the entire world like running water and it will help peoples to go anywhere
anytime. Through the android application of Uber, this app cab becomes able to make a proper
connection between service users and providers. Near about 4 millions of consumers across the
world are nowadays using this application. Peoples from the U.K and many other countries
have selected this transportation system due to their self-driving and air transport related
advantages. On the other hand, there is a system of eating in an online system through another
branch of Uber, called Uber eats. Uber has entered in the U.K along with their enormous fresh
ideas which have provided a great flair to all its consumers (Ashworth 2018). But, only due to
having lots of issues regarding governmental notifications and other issues, this organization is
now struggling for its existence in the global market. Having so many distinctive features
Uber has not continued its driving in London where talent management was a great reason.
Due to lack of proper motivation, knowledge, and skills of drivers, in London and many other

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parts of UK, most of the drivers used to deny their customers in a night and other rush periods.
It creates a great irritation in the people's mind who wanted the service. On the other hand,
Uber has violated several governmental rules again and again in enormous countries. From this
point of view, London of U.k and many other countries across the world has decided to stop
the renewal of licenses for Uber car business and its related persons. Along with these issues,
from the very beginning point of Uber in the UK, there were problems with overcharging. In
this period, the government has wanted to provide a barrier in the smooth flared business of
Uber (Thelen 2018). From all of these discussions, it can be observed that there were sufficient
systems for Uber to make their business as a global giant in the technical market due to having
a great strength of engineers, software-based technologists, drivers and finally consumers.
Only there was a crucial lack of talent management, skill development, training and lack of
tracking systems. For all of these lacking those drivers have got the scope to make
overcharging, denial and many other issues with their consumers. Ultimately it has made a
great black mark on the reputation of the global business giant Uber. In this aspect, it is highly
needed to find out the loopholes in Uber which will help this organization to manage their huge
human capital properly. It is the only way to recover their goodwill in the global market also.
All the positive approaches towards talent management along with their probable reasons are
discussed in the next part of this report where some recommendations will be made in
conclusion. These observations are highly crucial for Uber because repairing i9n these
loopholes will be the pathway of sustainable development of Uber in U.k and other countries
(Ehrnrooth et al., 2018).

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· Discussion of issues related to talent management and HR levers in Uber and
potential solutions
During making this assignment, after going through enormous secondary information sources
including web pages, blogs, and others that, in Uber talent management was a highly lacking
one which is prudently responsible for such a mess within Uber-like high profile organization.
It is found to be present that, due to lack of proper management of human capitals, there is a
high-level competition among all the employees without having any kinds of co-operation
among them. Such a highly competitive environment has made the working culture as a
severely toxic one. CEO of Uber Travis Kalanick has also obligated in this charge. From
enormous writings of Uber employees, it is found to be present from the mass media that
corruption and toxic culture has entered in this organization from a long ago and it has now
infiltrated in the entire organizational hierarchy. Moreover, there is also reporting of sexual
harassments also from the women employees of Uber. In this highly competitive environment,
all the lower level employees also make a great competition to fight with another same level
employees to get a slight appraisal and its related career growth. As a result there is no
collaboration which makes great chaos in trouble condition. When any of the employees feel
turbulent in their job there has nobody to help them for troubleshooting (Skok and Baker 2019).
It has made the entire condition as a highly criticized one. Excluding such a big issue there was
a highly important theme is immunization towards the reiteration of the human resources
executives. In this organization, there was a highly toxic practice which is mainly denoted
thro0ugh the term dog-eats –dog culture. As a result, there was a high level of competition in
the employees. Whenever any kinds of misdeeds are reported to the senior authorities they had
not taken any such important steps to prevent the entire organization. As a result corruption

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and bad habits after starting from a grass root level and finally, it has reached the top level of
organizations also (Kremer et al., 2019). It is reported through the mass media in enormous
blog channels and personal pages that, after starting of such an inter-organizational mess in
Uber both of CEO and chief advisors had taken leave for an uncertain time period. Initiation of
region-based autonomy and policy-making activities of the managers through their
depreciating imagination the human resources department of this organization has also taken
big steps. This human resources wing has started to take their decisions in an isolated manner
without making any kinds of decisions with their senior or junior employees. It makes a great
agitation among the employees which also has resulted in a violation of rules, regulations, and
policies of Uber employees, and drivers. As a result, of all these problems, employee
motivation becomes a normal term in Uber without making any organizational implementation.
From the cultural environment based aspect, there is also some issues during the transgression
of Uber from a start-up business organization to a big global organization. In Uber, the primary
stage based growth was highly appraised across the entire world and it has established their
name as a highly recognized brand in a very short period of time. In such a condition, there
was a great issue with the leadership procedure also. In the changing environment of business,
there is a need for prudent leadership where it will be easy for organizational employees to be
adopted with the changing situation of an organization. In Uber, leaders become fail to
establish a collaborative environment and in that place, they make a highly competitive one. In
this competitive one, where all employees compete with one another, the entire environmental
condition of togetherness which is a prime thing for teamwork and accomplishment of
organizational goal become devastated. In this time, there was no such integration among their
emp0lotyees, and it was a mismanagement of human capitals. From this discussion, it becomes

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clear that there was a great issue regarding talent management. To get escape from such
mismanagement there is a great need of talent management system. In an aspect of
improvement of such a talent management system it is important to create an employee
tracking system where senior executives will be able to track or supervise all of their
employees. After joining the organization, there is a great need for training and post-training
based examination also. In this training session, employees will be able to make their
motivation towards their organization as well as to make improvement of their skills. On the
other hand, in this condition of Uber,m there is a high need for a change of leadership
procedure. In this leadership process, employees will be motivated enough to co-operate and
collaborate with one. In the working environment, when there will be integration among all of
the employees, then they will be able to share and exchange their ideas, knowledge, and
problems. In this way, the talents and performances of employees will be more improvised
(Rotolo et al., 2018). In the final step of talent management, in this situation of Uber, there is a
high need to make a system of integrative assemblage where all the seniors, human resources
executives, and others will be able to enhance their decision-making ability. Proper
maintenances of all these recommendations will help the organization to continue its business
in a social and economic flair.
Conclusion:
It can be concluded from the entire discussion that, talent management is a highly important
one in Uber which should be emphasized. Maintenances of recommendations will help the
organizational executives and others to make an integrative environment. Nowadays all
organizations like IBM, Google and others have made a great emphasis over talent
management. it is the backbone of the entire system of organization. Through maintenances of