CHALLENGES AND PRIORITIES IN TALENT MANAGEMENT DURING THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC CAUSED BY COVID-19

The paper deals with the talent management issue as one of the effective human resource management practices during the global pandemic caused by COVID-19 and points to the main challenges and priorities in the research area. Talent management has undergone a dynamic development in recent years. It has recently become a frequently discussed concept among business and academics alike and one of the priorities of the modern management of all companies. The paper also presents the results of research carried out on a sample of 137 human resources managers. Respondents who participated in the questionnaire survey are human resources managers in companies operating in the Slovak Republic at national and international markets. Data were collected using the online questionnaire. For the research, two research hypotheses were established. The hypotheses aimed to determine whether there are statistically significant relationships between the scale of talent recruitment and selection process over the past year; the change in the management and organizational style of the company during the COVID-19 pandemic; the existence of the statistically significant relationship between the budget allocated to talent management and headhunting practices over the last year. The hypotheses were verified using correlation analysis and the methods of inductive statistics. Testing the statistically significant relationships verified hypothesis H1. It confirmed the existence of statistically significant relationships between the scale of the talent recruitment and selection process over the past year and the change in management and organization of the company during the COVID-19 pandemic. The hypothesis H2 was rejected. It stated the absence of statistically significant relationships between the budget for talent management in the organization during the COVID-19 pandemic and the competition for qualified talent for the last year. The questionnaire survey results pointed how human resources managers in companies operating in the Slovak Republic perceive the situation associated with the current COVID-19 pandemic. The findings identified the pandemic impact on talent management and how human resources managers see human resource management's future and priorities.