Captivating Talent Through Eco-Friendly Practices: How Does Signalling Theory Resonate in Green Talent Management?

1. Introduction

The fact that the concept of talent is used in other disciplines and is explained with similar concepts and the same content enriches the definitions of the concept of talent. In particular, the integration of the concept of talent into business life has led to an expansion in the scope of the concept. First of all, understanding what the concept we consider as talent means and proceeding in this direction and explaining it with the concept of management is important in terms of adding depth to the subject. The element mentioned as talent is individuals. It is a concept that emerges when individuals are described as human resources. Human beings are described as a resource because the capacity of human resources can be improved, they have unlimited abilities and are numerous. The fact that it expresses human resources in its talent shows that it is human capital with its knowledge, skills and abilities. Therefore, talents, which are described as resources for organizations, are of primary importance in ensuring the existence of the organization. In this regard, talent management is primarily expressed as the management of human resources directed within certain goals and objectives. These are the business strategies that organizations put forward and implement in order to retain talented employees.

Business strategies and talent management exist. The most important reason for this is that in talent management, the concept is approached from this perspective in terms of operating an analytical process, making long-term plans and serving the organizations' sustainable competitive advantage. Thus, approaching talent management from a strategic perspective is important for the health of the organization so that the organization can continue its life, meet its mission requirements and maintain its sustainable competitive advantage. Today, due to changing conjunctural reasons, changes have occurred in the evaluation of talent management. Changes in the external environment have brought about changes in the evaluation of human capital by taking into account the changes in the ecosystem of organizations. It has become especially important for organizations that make changes at the core of their business strategies by taking the ecosystem into consideration to include individuals who have high awareness of nature and can minimize the impact of changes in the ecosystem.

In this case, the concept of talent management evolved into the concept of green talent management. What is meant by green talent management is that there are individuals who have a high awareness of nature, who are nature conscious, and who can implement the initiatives they undertake to protect nature both in their individual life and business life, and that these expressions also shape their business strategies. The features mentioned above are of great importance in terms of serving the goals and objectives of organizations. The green talent management practices of organizations and the business strategies they create to retain employees also vary. It is seen that there are differences between talent management and green talent management, and certain differences are created in shaping business strategies. They are similar in that they are both human-oriented, but the strategies they use to increase awareness, the existence of information about nature, the existence of practices that raise awareness among employees about nature, differ. Therefore, in green talent management, practices are created in the processes and activities related to talent management within the framework of nature-oriented policies. The differentiation of green talent practices across organizations paves the way for deepening knowledge about the applicability of the concept. Therefore, providing organizations with information about what types of applications exist allows the expansion of the areas where the concept can be practiced. By doing this, the various green talent management practices that will be included in the study are important in terms of providing information about how they are implemented in which institutions. Another factor that will make the study important is the conceptual evaluation of green talent management within the scope of signaling theory. In this regard, green talent management, which is examined within the scope of signalling theory, is important in terms of providing information about the inputs and outputs of employees and managers and how it has differences from the others theories which had been used in other academics papers.