Senior Talent Management Practitioner

Structure & Nature of a Typical STMP^™ Exam

A typical STMP^™ exam test-paper includes 60 questions - a mix of THREE types.

TYPE A - GENERAL UNDERSTANDING OF CONCEPTS
Questions directly test the examinees ability to correctly and precisely recollect concepts, principles, techniques and generally accepted practices in contemporary Talent Management. The answers to TYPE A questions will reflect examinees' awareness and comprehension of critical Talent Management concepts, elements, and issues as enshrined in the TMI body of knowledge. TYPE A Questions would be facts–based with answer–options being clear statements – either clearly correct, or incorrect. There is only one CORRECT answer to TYPE A questions, and examinees are scored only if the correct options are selected/ checked.

TYPE B - ABILITY TO APPLY UNDERSTANDING & KNOWLEDGE
Questions directly test the examinees ability to APPLY and DEPLOY their awareness, understanding and appreciation of the concepts, principles and techniques in real–life practice of Talent Management. The answers to TYPE B questions will reflect examinees' capacities for critical analysis, judgement and objectivity in measuring and gauging Talent Management challenges scientifically and devising approaches, plans and programs to resolving them with accountability and higher degree of success and effectiveness. TYPE B Questions also would all have four answer–choices and ONLY one of these four would be INCORRECT. The rest of the THREE of these ANSWERS would be principally correct, but they represent varying levels of suitability for the situation expressed in respective questions. The best of these THREE answers carries the maximum 10 marks, and the least suitable the least – 5 marks. The third correct answer with mid-level suitability carries 7.5 marks. Examinees have to choose only ONE of these FOUR answer choices and they are scored 0, 5, 7.5 or 10, depending on their choice of answer-option.

TYPE C - UNDERSTANDING OF ISSUES AND ELEMENTS OF PRACTICE IN GLOBAL CONTEXTS
Questions directly test the examinees ability to RECOLLECT, APPLY and DEPLOY their awareness, understanding and appreciation of unique global forces and elements that demand using the concepts, principles and techniques in real–life practice of Talent Management in a specially informed and mature manner. The answers to TYPE C questions will reflect examinees' capacities for critical analysis, judgement and objectivity in measuring and gauging Talent Management challenges in large, complex global organizations with diverse workforce, and tackle them with accountability and higher degree of success and effectiveness. TYPE C Questions also, like TYPE B ones, would all have four answer–choices and ONLY one of these four would be INCORRECT. The rest of the THREE of these ANSWERS would be principally correct, but they represent varying levels of suitability for the situation expressed in respective questions. The best of these THREE answers carries the maximum 10 marks, and the least suitable the least – 5 marks. The third correct answer with mid–level suitability carries 7.5 marks. Examinees have to choose only ONE of these FOUR answer choices and they are scored 0, 5, 7.5 or 10, depending on their choice of answer-option.

The Objectives and Principles Underlying the Design of STMP^™ Exam

The TMI exams aim at validating the registrants' potential and capacity to effectively perform a breadth of Talent Management roles and functions in complex, large organizations operating within a transnational business/ non–business system. The TMI exam system validates this potential through assessing registrants' knowledge about Talent Management theory and practice, and their ability to apply this knowledge to achieve excellence in their performance of the roles assigned to them. These exams are designed on standards derived from the TMI Standardized Knowledge Architecture for Practice Excellence. TMI-UKF^™ is the capstone TMI framework on which the TMI Body of Knowledge has been fleshed out to redefine the profession of Talent Management in the 21^st century.

TMI exams test registrants on their knowledge of the state–of–the–art principles, theories, techniques, tools and generally accepted practices of Talent Management as boned out in TMI-UKF^™. These exams expect that individuals being assessed for their TMI credentials not only read the material contained in the TMI Starter Kits, but also constantly maintain familiarity with the latest in Talent Management theory and practice by reading journals and books; attending podcasts of experts and participation in professional development programs and events.

Qualifying the STMP^™ Exam

Usually, a score of 65%-70% on the aggregate in an STMP^™ certification exam can be safely deemed to be eminently qualification-worthy, yet, practically an examinee's actual, individual scores do not decide the recommendation for credential award. Instead, the final recommendations for the STMP^™ award are actually given by the TPCB after considering the benchmarked scores – which are derived by scaling the actual scores of examinees of a particular exam event by a factor denoting the variances of scores obtained by the entire universe of examinees in the same exam event. The TPCB certification award recommendation system works on the affirmative–action approach, ensuring that examinees across various exam regions do not suffer or gain because of the uncontrollable systemic or environment elements.

Preparing for the STMP^™ Exam

If you are preparing for your STMP^™ certification exam, the first critical step to take is to pause and size up the gigantic expectations of Talent Management understanding, knowledge, and perspective that employers will have of you. On-the-move HR professionals like you, looking at breaking the glass ceilings should realize how important therefore it is for TMI to assess and validate your potential and capabilities before the award of the STMP^™ Credential. It is critical therefore for all STMP^™ aspirants to focus more on building up their knowledge on Talent Management to be able to practice the profession at its best – the exams will be taken care of better this way. While the TMI STMP^™ Resource Box contains reading-books as well as guidelines on how to study for the STMP^™ exam, you should avoid getting the impression that studying from these can prepare you completely for your exam.

As an HR practitioner already, you will agree that Talent Management is still an evolving discipline, and will perhaps never become an exact enough science to be contained in all its completeness in one single textbook, or even in a few of them. There is a grave danger of our understanding of Talent Management getting restricted if we decide to refer to just a couple of books or a few more. Indeed, TMI has evolved its landmark essential knowledge model in what is the world’s largest and most extensive ever project on defining knowledge essentials for excellence in Talent Management. Yet, as said earlier, simply because of the enormous and growing breadth that Talent Management covers, it is impossible to prescribe a single, omnibus exam reference resource, sources, texts or references etc., for preparing for TMI certification exams. As the world’s foremost standards and credentialing body in Talent Management, TMI shoulders the onerous responsibility of covering the entire landscape of contemporary Talent Management, and everything else that may be connected to it, for only then, can TMI claim it has assessed and validated individuals across all areas that impact, or have the potential of impacting their professional capabilities for practicing Talent Management.

Hence, to ensure that you groom yourself into the most dynamic and perceptive of young HR leaders of tomorrow, TMI advises you to read extensively on the subject from as many sources as possible. Please do refer to the Exam Preparation Guide included in the STMP^™ Resource Box to know some of the important external resources and modes you can use to expand your understanding of Talent Management, as well as prepare better for your STMP^™ examination. While all TMI STMP^™ examinees are clearly advised to use the official TMI publication – The TMI Practitioners’ Handbook on Talent Management– as the master reference for preparing for their exams, this text in no way can be assumed to prepare an examinee completely enough for the STMP^™ examination. Though, a sizable number of questions in a typical STMP^™ exam are certainly drawn from content which is available in the Handbook, other questions in the exam are drawn also from content that is external to the TMI Handbook and suggested references. Indeed, the topics of all STMP^™ exam questions are covered in the TMI Handbook, their treatment is not extended or detailed enough to provide the necessary depth. We therefore strongly advise all STMP^™ examinees to tap as many online and offline resources as possible to not only comprehend how Talent Management concepts and theories impact business and HRM, but also how businesses and organizations today expect talent-focused human capital management to help them navigate through successfully into the future.