Making impactful hires serves as the initial stride toward retaining top talent.

Talent management applications come with a range of tools that help make that foundation strong from the outset:

• Applicant tracking capabilities for managing the recruiting process.
• AI capabilities, such as screening and candidate matching.
• A career portal and customized career sites where candidates can apply.
• Candidate assessments to evaluate potential hires on relevant skills and cultural fit.
• Interview scheduling tools to efficiently manage time.
• Chatbots for answering candidate questions and providing job matches.
• Offer letter and documents management to compliantly hire new employees.

Once candidates sign the dotted line, onboarding enters the picture. You just spent a lot of time hiring this new person. The tools at this stage guide and acquaint new hires with your organization, their teams and their roles.

Onboarding tools help your new hires start off on the right foot with the following functions:

• Standard forms and documents that support e-signatures.
• A self-service portal to set up direct deposit and other details.
• Benefits selection and enrollment.
• Welcome materials like employee handbooks.
• Training programs and learning resources.

Monitor employee performance

Monitoring performance is a crucial aspect of effective talent management, as it bridges the gap between theory and practice. That’s where managing your talent becomes a reality. Any talent management system worth its salt has tools for tracking employee performance.

Here are some specific features to be on the lookout for:

• 360-degree performance reviews
• Employee goal setting
• Visualizations for tracking team-based performance levels
• Coaching and mentoring tools
• Real-time/continuous feedback capabilities
• Performance evaluation reports
• Competency management

Improve employee engagement and job satisfaction

Building a workplace where employees thrive and find true fulfillment goes beyond simply having a team on board. It’s about nurturing an environment that delivers the promises set during recruitment.

Leverage talent management solutions to acknowledge and motivate individuals to achieve their goals.

Here are some strategies that lay the groundwork for an engaged workforce:

• Fair compensation management policies.
• Career enhancement opportunities.
• Promotion paths and progress tracking.
• Diversity, equity and inclusivity programs.
• Work-life balance tactics and remote-capable workflows.

Listening to your employees’ voices is key to understanding your workforce’s sentiments towards your organization and your tactics to support them.

Talent management solutions get a pulse on how your employees truly feel about different aspects of their jobs and offer insights into what you can do to improve job satisfaction:

• Check-in meetings and questionnaires
• Anonymous feedback responses
• Employee pulse surveys
• Employee engagement capabilities like collaborative spaces.
• Recognition tools like organization-wide leaderboards.

Provide development opportunities

According to a recent study by McKinsey, lack of growth and development opportunities was the top reason employees changed employers. Employees have aspirations, and the chance to develop valuable skills that will further their career is a major deciding factor in whether to stay or look for job opportunities elsewhere.

Plus, providing your workforce with reskilling and upskilling programs is vital for finding potential successors who can take over the reins in the future. Focusing on developing your workforce positions your company to ride the waves of change instead of drowning.

Talent management systems often have built-in learning modules that provide learning and development tools like:

• Course and resource management
• Training and scheduling
• Progress tracking
• Training analysis
• Integration with third-party learning management tools

Facilitate succession planning

Planning for the future is a central part of talent management. It’s not enough to know where things stand today in terms of employee counts and performance metrics. Preparing for the future involves crafting strategies to anticipate and leverage upcoming trends and ensure a prosperous future for your organization.

What if your Superman-like Head of Sales is nearing retirement, or your company’s planning an expansion and needs to fill new roles quickly?

Succession planning helps you prepare for inevitable and unforeseeable employee exits. Rely on tools to identify your company’s MVPs and gain insight into who’s ready to advance to newly vacated roles.

Succession planning capabilities offer analytics dashboards displaying essential metrics and career progression. These frameworks also identify the skills your employees require to move up the proverbial career ladder.

Promotional paths ensure your company has a steady stream of qualified workers who can step into roles as needed. Consequently, development and coaching opportunities are crucial components of effective succession planning.

The list below outlines some main succession planning features:

• Talent pools and pipelines management
• Career paths
• Talent assessments
• Competency matrix and 9-box grids
• Candidate comparisons

FAQs: The Scoop on Talent Management

What is talent management?

Talent management is the process of managing the end-to-end employee lifecycle. The software used to execute talent management encompasses core HR functions:

• Recruitment and talent acquisition
• Onboarding and training
• Career development
• Compensation management
• Performance management
• Succession planning

The primary objective is to place individuals in the right roles to maximize their potential and contribute to the organization’s overall success.

Talent Management vs. HR Management

At first glance, talent management and HR management are similar but not the same:

• Talent management is a subset of HR management, while HR management encompasses a broader range of responsibilities.
• HR management covers broader administrative functions like payroll, compensation and employee benefits. Whereas talent management handles the people aspect of HR, like attracting, developing and retaining top talent.
• Talent management strategically leverages human capital through workforce planning and leadership development for long-term success. HR management involves strategic and operational elements, ensuring efficient internal processes and compliance.

How can my company implement talent management?

As mentioned, talent management is a strategic approach and requires thorough planning and implementation to meet your goals and KPIs.
Follow the steps to develop a talent management strategy:

1. Define Your Company’s Goals

First, define what you want to accomplish. Knowing your requirements is the starting point from which your strategy needs to flow. Your company’s objectives and priorities are the compass pointing your company toward success.

Note down areas for improvement, weaknesses and challenges your HR teams face to uncover where gaps exist in your internal policies and talent practices.

2. Involve Key Stakeholders

Everyone needs to be rowing in the same direction — working together — to win the race. Adopting an all-hands-on-deck approach helps align your workforce’s goals with your organization’s strategy and ensures everyone works towards your company’s mission.

Aligning goals also gives your employees a sense of ownership and that their work has meaning and value, leading to greater motivation and engagement.

3. Measure and Improve

It’s also critical to put KPIs in place. You can do this by asking questions like:

• How will we define and quantify success for each objective?
• What metrics are the most important to track?
• How frequently should we track and review the metrics?
• Are there any leading indicators or early warning signs we should monitor?
• How will we ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data?

Asking key questions internally brings your goals into clear focus. And when you miss the mark, you can evaluate where you fell short and improve for the next time.

Once you have concrete numbers to shoot for, it’s time to work out how talent management initiatives will help meet those numbers. Identify key individual and organizational performance competencies and develop plans to ensure your workforce possesses the skills needed for desired results.

Go beyond corporate KPIs like revenue. Refine your company culture by leveraging employee satisfaction insights from peer and manager ratings. The goal is to foster a healthy environment where your employees can thrive.

What are the benefits of implementing a talent management System?

Let’s look at some of the concrete ways that implementing a talent management system can help your company:

• Develop and hire talent internally.
• Identify and close skills gaps.
• Provide compensation beyond normal paychecks like bonuses, commissions and incentives.
• Let your workforce recommend candidates with employee referral programs.
• Enhance your employer brand to attract talent organically.
• Develop robust talent pipelines to fill open roles quickly and ensure smooth operations.
• Enhance internal skills and unlock potential with continuous strength-based coaching.
• Save hiring and training costs by retaining talent and knowledge.
• Use a data-rich approach to refine your talent strategy and develop innovative problem-solving methods.

But that’s only half the story. Talent management is also valuable to employees. Here are some examples:

• Equip your workforce with useful skills.
• Positions employees to succeed in their career paths.
• Empower employees to explore different career paths based on skills and interests.
• Provide quality experiences in your company.
• Enrich the sense of ownership.

Do I need a talent management system?

Managing talent is not a linear process. Most of the time, recruiting, onboarding, training, tracking progress and evaluating performance coincide. Whether new to the game or a seasoned enterprise, you’ll need the right tools to manage your people effectively.

Does your business experience any of the following:

• Your recruitment process is lengthy and stressful.
• Integrating new employees takes too long.
• Performance management is haphazard, with limited tracking of goals, feedback and development opportunities.
• You lack formal and consistent succession planning frameworks, leaving key positions vulnerable and lacking future leaders.
• Employee engagement and retention rates are consistently low.
• HR and talent management tasks are primarily manual and paper-based.
• Your HR folks find identifying top talent and developing internal skills challenging and stressful.
• Your organization is growing rapidly and outgrowing your existing talent strategy.

If you checked “yes” for at least four items, it’s time to upgrade your HR toolkit.

Talent management systems are here to save the day, offering automation and providing rich insights to streamline those complex processes effectively and compliantly.

While talent management software is a good investment, exactly how you go about that is up to you. Here are a couple of popular options:

• Choose HR software with an integrated talent management module.
• Implement a standalone talent management system and connect it with your HR solution.
• Create an HR software ecosystem by piecing together a talent management system and other standalone products for recruiting, performance management, talent acquisition and learning management.

Maintaining a standard HR system is pretty much non-negotiable, and the depth of functionality varies across vendors.

Some systems cover only the basic HR needs with a single platform and require connecting systems for other key functions like payroll. While others provide full product suites, allowing you to choose the necessary components.

Picking talent management software with so many choices and variations feels overwhelming. That’s why we recommend you research the market to understand your options.

How do I select a talent management system?

The people you choose to be part of your company are critical to your overall success. As such, the software you select to manage your talent is equally important.

But choosing the right solution isn’t a simple matter. It involves gathering your requirements and conducting extensive research. Checking prices, attending demos, and shortlisting vendors are complicated.

We want to help make that process easier. Leverage our free resources to guide your search:

• Check out our requirements checklist to learn about the top features and modules to look for in talent management solutions.
• Use our easy-to-use selection platform to manage each step, from gathering requirements to evaluating vendors to selecting the right system.
• Add company specifications and software requirements into our customizable comparison report to generate top alternatives.

Need help figuring out which talent management software is right for you? Our team is here to support you on your journey! You can get personalized recommendations by emailing [email protected] or calling 855-850-3850.