Talent management plays an important role in an organisation's commitment to recruit, manage, develop and retain talented employees. It deals with all the work processes and systems that pertain to retaining and developing the needed superior workforce. This article assesses the readiness of senior management for the implementation of talent management within municipalities. South Africa is challenged by a distorted supply and demand of skills. The key to talent management lies in improving employee retention through matching employee skills with specific job functions to increase organisational performance, while simultaneously adapting to the fourth industrial revolution. The objectives of this study included understanding whether talent management would aid in the attraction and planning for succession in key scarce and leadership roles; and investigating if talent development would assist in critical skills transfer and the r