This study investigated the relationship between talent management practices and employee performance in West African Tannery Co. Ltd in Kano, Nigeria with the objective of evaluating the relationship between employee talent acquisition, employee talent training and development, and employee talent retention to performance in the tannery industry. The research design used was descriptive survey research with quantitative approach and data collection technique was stratified random sampling with 152 respondents. Data was analyzed descriptively, correlation analysis (Pearson correlation) and multiple regression analysis on SPSS version 27. The results showed that all three dimensions of talent management were positively significant and the overall model accounted for 55.5% of the variance in the performance outcomes. Training and development (β = 0.382, p < 0.01), talent acquisition (β = 0.287, p < 0.01), and talent retention strategies (β = 0.229, p < 0.01) were the top three factors that predicted employee performance. The correlation analysis also revealed that all the dimensions of talent management were positively correlated with employee performance with the highest correlation coefficient being between training and development with employee performance (r = 0.681), followed by talent acquisition (r = 0.623) and talent retention strategies (r = 0.587). Consequently, the study suggests that management should place more emphasis on regular and comprehensive training programs that are specifically designed for the technical needs of leather processing operations, improve talent acquisition practices by adopting more rigorous competency-based recruitment and selection processes, and improve talent retention strategies by introducing more competitive compensation packages, better recognition systems, and well-defined career development paths.
Keywords: Employee Performance, Tannery Co. Ltd, West African, talent management
