Courtney and Kaiser here again with another HR Tech 101 post, this time inspired by a recent Subject Matter Expert’s presentation on the topic of Talent Management. Because there is so much going on behind the lump term “Talent Management”, we thought we’d break it down for you!
Talent Management is the area of Human Resources focused on anticipating and planning to meet the human capital (you and me!) needs of an organization. Talent Management is an ongoing process as it follows employees throughout the life of their career with that company. According to a report by Bersin & Associates, it is an “integrated process designed to attract, manage, develop, motivate and retain key people.”
Several vendors have started marketing Talent Management using phrases like “from hire to retire.” However, one important point to note is that Talent Management as it is typically delivered is not everything an employer needs to manage their HR duties. Often, Talent Management packages only include the strategic aspects of HR and rely on another system (HRIS) to manage transaction or organizational functions. This is the key differentiator in the modules out there.
Talent Management is made up of 5 pillars:
- Recruiting
- Learning Management
- Performance Management
- Compensation Management
- Succession Planning
Recruiting= (also known as Applicant Tracking Systems) handles the recruitment needs of a company electronically. Recruiting systems help management and HR keep track of application information and resume data, mine that data later, coordinate recruiting efforts of a company, filter applications based on specified criteria (i.e., keywords used in resumes and applications) and enable the offering of new positions to existing employees of the company by searching candidate information.
Learning Management= delivers the features needed to develop the knowledge and skills of an organization’s employees. A Learning Management System (LMS) administers, documents, tracks, reports and delivers e-learning programs to employees. You can create online courses and training material, store it in the system and push it out to your employees. After they have completed it, you can then track and report the results. If a vendor is missing one of the talent pillars, this is the one most commonly provided by a third party. Another key thing to note about an LMS is if they provide content or just the system to use.
Performance Management = assesses an individual’s job performance and productivity in relation to certain pre-established criteria and organizational objectives, and then provides feedback for improvement. A Performance Management system manages administrative tasks to help managers make/justify pay decisions, provide documentation for the organization to defend itself in court and enable the organization deal with poor performers.
Compensation Management= enables a company to design, manage and adjust compensation programs to meet the organization’s goals. Compensation Management systems provide decision support tools and calculators to manage decisions regarding the different components of compensation including base pay, variable pay, allowances, equity, etc.
Succession Planning= identifies and develops existing employees career paths to potentially fill key roles within the organization. A Succession Planning system provides visual career maps by identifying employees’ key strengths and talents, critical roles and performance. It allows managers to be able to view the talent pool for vacant positions.
Talent Management has been a major part of every company’s HR department for years; recently however, there has been a huge increase in the popularity and functionalities of Talent Management technology systems (TMS). Vendors for TMS’s have been popping up left and right, even offering one of the biggest trends in this space: mobile capabilities. TMS allow companies to align employee activities with organizational strategy.
There are both stand-alone vendors for TMS and the individual pillars, as well as integrated options from some of the more “all-inclusive” vendors.
Some of the vendors (but definitely not all of them!) include:
Stand-Alone
Halogen Software, Silkroad, Peoplefluent, SumTotal, Cornerstone OnDemand, Saba Software, Taleo, ReviewSnap, Empxtrack, People Goal, TribeHR, Perryman Software, TalentGuard, Lumesse, Jobvite, Spark Hire, Combidata and many more! We expect a lot of merger and acquisition in this space as the musical chairs HR Tech game continues.
Integrated
Ceridian, ADP, Ultimate Software, Workday, Oracle-Taleo, SAP-Successfactors, iCIMS
Talent Management Systems can be both on-premise or SaaS-based depending on the system, although SaaS Talent Management Systems are definitely the trend. It is important to note whether a system can be integrated or is interfaced with your other HRIS. (Forgot the difference between interfaced and integrated? Read this!) Most vendors claim some level of integration and the convergence of TMS and ERPs are definitely a recent trend. Although stand-alone TMS providers offer more advanced features and can focus on different markets, ERPs like Oracle and SAP have acquired Taleo and SuccessFactors respectively, so customers can experience a more integrated product. My prediction is that this trend will continue.
Some other Talent Management trends include:
- Talent Management in general is becoming a bigger focus of HR. Companies are realizing the importance of finding, developing and keeping the right employees. This is creating a bigger demand for TMS as managers see TMS as a cost-savings with strategic value to their companies.
- With Social Networking at an all-time high, Talent Management has gone social. Most systems are providing some sort of integration with social media.
- Mobile is the new platform for TMS (and all other HR Technologies). With employees checking their phones on average 34 times a day, this is becoming an increasingly important functionality for TMS. (Mobile Health Consumer, “Mobile Technology: The Missing Link for Employee Engagement”)
- There is an increased focus on HR data analytics to understand and prepare for workforce trends, performance drivers and predictors of future performance.
Do you see any other trends in the Talent Management space? What are your thoughts on this topic? Please share by commenting below.