Hiring an employee is tricky.
The same person that had that impressive CV on the day of the interview could be among the few employees that deliver low performances on their work.
According to research by Gallup, 70% of employees in the U.S are not fully committed to delivering their best in their jobs.
Why is that?
Well, companies are still using outdated practices with no tools nor relevant data to respond to today's demand for talent.
The traditional methods of evaluating an employees' performance are not reliable in today's work environment.
We need to look for new ways that can help us predict the performance and behavior patterns of our workers. This is where talent management comes into play.
The good news?
In this simple, easy-to-digest guide, you will learn:
- What's Talent Management Software (TMS)?
- Pillars of a TMS
- Key Features of a TMS
- The model of a TMS
- Benefits of using a TMS
- Popular Talent Management Software.
- And more…
When we are done, you will have all the information you need to choose the best talent management software for your company.
Let's dive in
What is Talent Management System?
Let me ask you a question.
What if you could predict when an employee gets detached from his or her job?
Also, how would such information impact your company's retention and recruitment strategy?
Talent in any company is valuable, and finding real talent is rare. Talented employees are an asset to your organization. If you could find a system that predicts the above employee behaviors and patterns, then you would know when:
-To start looking for new employees
-When to reward or acknowledge an employee and
-When to fire incompetent employees.
Talent management is the process of attracting people to your company, interviewing them, hiring them, and developing their skills in your company.
The term talent management came into the limelight in 1997 based on a study conducted by McKinsey & Company. The term got popularized by The war for Talent book by Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield Jones, Beth Axelrod. The book talked about how great talent is scarce and how to look for real talent in the 21st Century.
In the past, companies have always relied on the HR department to help; attract, interview, develop, and retain employees. In the last decade, big companies began appreciating the benefits of talent management, and most organizations nowadays integrate talent management with the HR departments.
In the wake of the ever-changing workforce demographics, shortage of talent, and globalization, developers have designed talent management software that best addresses the objectives of talent management.
These software' are algorithm-based and use the principles of artificial intelligence to address the processes of talent management. At the end of this article, you will understand why using artificially based software in talent management can ensure a more diverse and dynamic workforce.
What are the Pillars of a TMS?
To succeed in implementing a talent management system in your company, it is beneficial first to refresh your memory on what the pillars of TMS stand for
Recruitment
The overall success of any organization is dependent on the talent you have. Recruiting employees is the first step in talent management. In this stage, you need to attract and engage talented individuals that could best fit that vacant position. Applying proper recruitment strategies will help you find real talent from the individuals that come to your interviews.
Performance Management
Once hired, employees are expected to show their worth and bring a positive return to your business. Manage your new hires properly to maintain their performance levels. Common performance management methods include using performance reviews to track an employees' performance and having one-on-one meetings with your staff, among others.
Learning & Development
This pillar is one of the most important pillars of talent management. In this pillar, make sure you train an employee about your organization's inner workings. Show the new hires how they fit in your company. Let them understand their roles and take them to train that helps fine-tune and develop their skills and talents.
Compensation Management
“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your clients.” - Richard Branson
If you create a work environment that excites and energizes your employees, then this energy will be passed naturally to your customers.
One way of destroying your business is by putting your customers above your employees. This practice leads to the alienation of you from your staff, and this can lead to serious repercussions.
Compensation management ensures your employees are engaged, acknowledged, and given rewards when they do a remarkable job or task for your organization. Make sure you are aware of the reward systems within your business—do they show the proper appreciation to your employees?
Succession planning
Are your workers well trained to fill the roles of leaders and key employees when they step down?
Talent is valuable, and having a talent-oriented culture in your organization depends on the succession planning programs that you use in your business. Look for programs that develop and prepare new hires to take the roles of key employees in the event of management turnover, organizational growth, or talent loss.
When a staff member takes a leave, retires, gets sick, gets fired, or quits without notice— is your business affected, or do you have strategies in place that take care of such situations? Succession planning ensures that there is a strategy in place in case the above events occur.
As stated earlier, real talent is rare and hard to find, therefore make sure you have a talent management system in place to acquire and obtain talent.
These are the five main pillars of a talent management system, now let’s take a look at the key features of a TMS.
The Model of Talent Management System
There is no standardized model for talent management; however, most HR professionals use the below 5-step model to your company.
5-step model of a TMS
Image Source
1. Planning
Planning is a process that involves setting up clear goals and objectives for your employees, which leads to employee productivity and the overall success of your organization.
Correct planning will enable you to seek individuals that have the right skills and experience for a particular vacant position in your organization. Through planning, you will get to know what’s working well for your company and what you should rectify. For example, if workers that have certain traits and characteristics tend to stay in your organization for a long time, then you should consider hiring more people like them.
2. Attracting
Searching for new employees should not always be tied to when someone leaves your company. It is possible to have employees that take on new responsibilities in your organization. Talent management ensures that your company has sufficient people that can carry out all the operations in your business. This helps prevent giving your employees heavy workloads that can demotivate them.
A good talent management software can help your business to attract the right kind of people that fit your business best. TMS increases the visibility status of your company to the public as an excellent place for people to work. Increasing the visibility status of your company makes your business more approachable.
3. Developing
As an employer, you should seek to build your staff within your company. You need to get to know your employees’ strengths and also their weaknesses. Knowing the strengths of your employees’ can help you identify the right role to give to your staff for the overall success of the company.
It is essential to provide value to your employees. A good talent management software will look for what keeps most of the staff excited and energized. This information can help you know how to motivate your team—and also gives new employees a great impression of your business from the beginning.
4. Retaining
Another key importance of talent management is to keep employees stay at your company for a long time. It is important for your employees to feel that your company is an enjoyable place for them to work. You can achieve these by using compensation and management strategies.
5. Transitioning
A good employer plans for his employees’ transitions. In this stage, your main goal should be to keep their knowledge within the company. You need to have strategies that promote your employees, assign them new roles, or move them to other offices or departments.
Benefits of using Talent Management Software
Talent management capitalizes on your employees while maximizing their value in your company.
Image source McKinsey.com
The graph above shows that talent management is effective when it comes to attracting and retaining talent. It also indicates that using a talent management system can improve the overall performance of your organization. There are a few reasons why this is the case.
1. Improves business performance
Having top talent in your organization can improve the overall performance of your company. Hiring top talent allows your company to stay competitive.
2. Retain top talent
Talent dictates the success of any company. Top talent is valuable and worth retaining. Through TMS, you can easily spot the top talented employees in your organization and retain them. The software helps you to track their performance and review their goals, skills, and talents. A TMS captures all this information and helps you analyze your employees better.
3. Improving your organizations hiring techniques
A talent management system is a software that has been designed to not only analyze the behavior of employees in a company but also to enhance the sourcing and recruitment process. The software can quickly help you recruit those individuals that are highly talented for a specific task. The software does this by posting job descriptions and tracking the applicant’s data, and this makes the whole workforce of hiring new staff smart and comfortable.
4. Allows companies to stay competitive
Hiring and developing talented employees makes your organization strong and prepares you to face risks and new changes in the market.
Top Talent Management Suites
When looking for talent management software, make sure you choose a software that does what you need it to. Secondly, look for software that will integrate well with your employees, technology, and processes. The talent management software you choose should have the following features:
- Recruitment functionality
- Performance and goals management
- Career and development planning
- Compensation
- Succession planning
- Learning management
- Reporting, Analytics
Some of the top talent management suites are:
1. Talent Soft
Talent Soft is one of the best TMS software for small-sized businesses. The application meets all the different needs of the talent manager. The software is best known for; sourcing, recruiting, and internal employee development. Talent Soft has multilingual support of over 25 languages.
Features:
- Succession Planning
- Cloud deployment
- SaaS deployment
- Web deployment
- Online talent management
- Performance Tracking
- Compensation & development management
Website: TalentSoft
Pricing: Contact the vendor
2. ADP Workforce
ADP is a talent management software that helps you and your employees develop as you all grow together in the long run. This software is designed for medium-sized businesses. Some of the features that come with this software are; time & attendance, payroll, and talent management features. This is among the few talent management software that has strong security practices.
Features:
- HR management
- Time tracking
- Labor tracking
- Use of Artificial Intelligence to find data based on location
- Recruiting management
- Performance management, compensation management
- Tax and payroll management
Website: ADP Workforce
Pricing: According to a third-website, the pricing starts at around $62 per month; however, contact the vendor for more details.
3. Oracle HCM Cloud
Unlike TalentSoft, Oracle HCM Cloud is a talent management software that is best suited for medium-sized businesses. The application is best known for its selection and AI-based recruitment features. The application software has both machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) functionalities. The virtual reality and digital assistant features of the software help department managers to manage employees within an organization.
Features:
- AI-based recruitment
- Competition tab
- Attendance management
- Workforce rewards
- Performance tracking
Website: Oracle HCM Cloud
Pricing: $8 per month per staff with a minimum of 1000 employees
Conclusion
We need to stop using old, outdated practices to respond to today’s demanding talent market. Your company needs to have an effective talent management system that helps you identify real talent. Also, you need to have a system that is tailored to your business alone. Talent management is something that is here to stay; therefore, get to know more about what talent management entails.