Abstract:
competitive advantage. This study sought to determine strategies employed by commercial banks in Nakuru town to acquire, reward and develop their talents on the one hand and the effects of these strategic talent management activities on competitive advantage. The specific objectives included, determining the relationship between talent acquisition strategies, talent development programs and reward management strategies on competitive advantage among commercial banks in Nakuru town. Purposive sampling method was used to select 62 respondents from the selected banks. Data was collected by use of a structured questionnaire and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics (correlation and regression analysis). The findings were presented in percentages, tables, pie charts and graphs. The study established that Talent management had been incorporated in the firm’s corporate strategy to a larger extent especially in aspects such as company growth, company vision, performance management, career planning, training and development and recruitment and selection; Level of talent acquisition was found to be high whereas the level of talent training and development as well as reward system was moderate in the organizations; The overall level of competitive advantage was moderate and competitive advantage in the sampled organizations was significantly influenced by the talent identification and acquisition in the respective organizations. This study recommended effective application of talent management in order to achieve measurable improvement in the organizational competitive advantage; more efforts to be done especially in the talent training as well as the rewards system in the banks and strengthen particular aspects such as talent management and development in the banks.
