Talent Management System

Perhaps for the same reason that we let go of our exercise regime once we are in a relationship, so too do we neglect employment development tools once that new hire has signed their requisite I-9 and W-4 documentation. To what ongoing engagement and effort is to a relationship however, a talent management system is to a company’s talent acquisition and retention efforts. In short, leveraging a talent management system is closely akin to the bricks that form a solid personal relationship, and is guaranteed to provide talent management solutions for an array of employee-based problem situations.

Normally associated with the company’s human resources department, a performance management system, which is integrated into each department from the sales team to the customer service squad, will dramatically curtail employee attrition while reducing hiring costs. Using a talent management system provides knowledge management solutions equally across each department, and managers can use it as a benchmark on which to establish a performance management system that is fair to both employer and employee alike. As such, the talent management industry has taken off in recent years to help meet this rising demand for comprehensive onboarding programs for industries that traditionally experience a high rate of turnovers.

Talent Management Strategy

As the old adage notes, “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.” The same certainly holds true when putting together a performance management strategy for your company. What does this have to do with your strategic management talent plans? As any talent management consultant will tell you, it is critically important to develop a well thought-out talent management strategy that identifies obtainable goals, and outlines achievable paths on which to arrive at those goals when it comes to measuring employee performance.

Such considerations might include:

What are your annual talent management goals?
Which Key Performance Indicators should you monitor?
What available technology is there to facilitate talent development?
What is the most efficient way to track talent management?

Keeping your goals obtainable, and measureable, allows for fostering employee skills across the board. Ideally, this will result in your employee’s measured advancement within their department and upward in the company. As they say, “In for a penny, in for a pound,” so it makes sense to spend money on training that will retain the employee that was expensively hired.

Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

As mentioned, the strategic talent management industry is booming, and you need not reinvent the wheel when your time could be spent more valuably elsewhere. That is because there is a myriad of available talent management strategy examples that can be folded into your own talent management strategy template.

Talent Management Definition

Any number of talent management articles have probably alerted you to the importance of developing a strategic talent management system for your employee hiring, onboarding, and retention efforts. That being said, the Internet’s standby for quick information, Wikipedia, defines talent management as “an integrated software suite that addresses the “four pillars” of talent management: recruitment, performance management, learning and development, and compensation management. Talent management defined however means nothing unless you can use it within your organization to increase productivity and enable employee retention. As such, when parsing about for an integrated talent management definition, it is critically important to develop an understanding of the term, and how it applies to your vision for your company. In short, there is no one definition that works for everyone.

Talent Management 101

When it comes to fully understanding what is meant by talent management, human resource managers, supervisors, and line level leads must first develop a strategy that is designed to meet specific professional goals. For instance, if employee retention is problematic, more efforts are turned to onboarding efforts that integrate a sense of community within the work environment. Similarly, if falling sales numbers were an issue, perhaps you would define talent management as the ability to get your entire sales force to read from the same script.

Talent Management Process

Savvy entrepreneurs know that hiring a new employee is a process rather than an event. Within a talent management framework therefore, each individual components of talent management must work together throughout the hiring and training process. Successfully integrating the talent management processes means that you will achieve a seamless hiring and retention program that will work across every division of your company.

What is Talent Management Process?

The talent management process begins the moment you place a notice of an open position in applicable venues until an employee retires or otherwise moves on. One of the main objectives of a good talent management process is to optimize the value each employee brings to your company. Every effective talent management model is composed of the following four separate segments.

Talent management processes include:

Recruiting

Recruiting starts the moment an open position is identified, whether it’s the result of a current employee resigning or retiring or enough of an increase in the overall workload that it’s necessary to bring on a new employee. When reaching out to potential employees, make sure your job description provides a clear picture of the job and clarifies necessary qualifications—the better you do this, the less initial weeding out you’ll have to do.

Onboarding

The onboarding process can make or break a new employee’s future with the company. While some companies have adopted a sink-or-swim approach, it’s better to provide new hires with the tools they need to succeed. Assign a mentor if applicable, make sure to provide comprehensive job descriptions as well as an employee playbook, create attainable goals, and schedule plenty of time with new hires for questions and feedback.

Training

Initial training needs to be delivered in easily digestible chunks with a focus one-on-one interactions with mentors and superiors. Developing a training checklist helps keep everyone involved on track. Training should also be ongoing throughout the employees time with your company.

Retention

Cultivating a positive work environment results in higher employee retention levels. Team-building exercises provide a sense of purpose and unity but never underestimate the effects of providing a market-rate or higher salary. Benefits are also an important component of employee satisfaction.

Leveraging a strategic talent management system is the best way to ensure that your program is not delivered in a piecemeal fashion that ignores critical aspects of employee development. Indeed, the hallmark of successful talent management processes recognizes that working towards employee success means exiting the human resources department and continuing the training throughout the employee’s working career with your company.

Importance of Talent Management

According to Forbes Magazine, too many small to medium-sized firms fail to recognize the purpose of talent management programs. A number of factors including the lack of making talent management a priority cause this failure. Additionally, many newly minted business owners have no background in organizational performance issues, and lacking a knowledge of the history of talent management, simply don’t know what they don’t know regarding the most effective ways to hire and retain qualified employees.

The objectives of talent management include scouting for prospective new employees, recruiting, onboarding, ongoing employee development, and retention. However, it also involves daily operational aspects such as payroll, billing, and accounting. It’s essential to have a comprehensive talent management strategy in place to prevent your company from piecing together a human resources plan on the fly.

For instance, some business owners have little-to-no formal training or experience in any aspect of human resources and winging it usually results in loss of productivity and employee engagement, which ultimately has a negative impact on the bottom line. It can also stand in the way of finding the best people for the job, keeping them once they’re hired, and identifying strengths among employees as well as areas that can use improvement. If you don’t have an effective employee retention program in place, you run the risk of losing the best people to outside competition. If you aren’t aware of areas in which certain employees are flailing, you won’t be able to provide them with the tools they need in order to successfully do their jobs. It’ll also provide you with the chance to recognize and reward top performers.

Failure to have a good talent management strategy in place may also result in expensive mistakes in accounting and payroll. Or, you lose the opportunity to address employee problems in hopes of finding workable solutions. It’ll also help keep hiring costs down — one of the major financial drains on any business is a revolving door of employees, and finding the right hires in the first place significantly cuts down on turnover. Training new people on a constant basis is expensive, creates a negative working environment, and decreases employee productivity.

Elements of Talent Management Systems

Effective talent management system software provides businesses with customized strategies designed to facilitate operational goals. The major goal is to create a team of successful individuals using an integrated talent management system that includes the following elements.

Operational Planning

Overall workforce planning is the building block of any successful company. It involves identifying the workplace needs of the business, including qualification requirements for each individual position. It also requires strategies for optimizing in-house talent and reaching out to those outside of your organization with the abilities necessary to meet the objectives you’ve set for your company.

Recruitment

Identifying, attracting, and onboarding the right job candidates are the cornerstones of a successful recruitment policy. Including a clear mission statement elevates your company’s appeal in the eyes of the type of applicant you’re hoping to attract.

Training and Development for New Hires

Even the most qualified new hires require some degree of training after they start a new job with your company. Failure to properly provide training may result in higher turnover rates and lost productivity as a result of employee dissatisfaction. Assigning mentors and providing plenty of opportunities for one-on-one feedback sessions are basic talent management tools that every business should implement.

Department Alignment

One of the most effective talent management in the workplace strategies a company can have is to align goals within each department. This ensures that team members are all working toward the same end result.

Ongoing Employee Development

Employee development shouldn’t stop when new employees are sufficiently trained. Goal setting, leadership development, executive coaching, and periodic performance reviews are all important aspects of cultivating employee performance. A good talent management program includes regular performance review plans so everyone can develop and grow.

Employee Rewards Programs

Ongoing rewards and recognition programs keep employees engaged in their work in a positive way. Those who feel appreciated experience more overall job satisfaction and loyalty to their company in comparison to employees who work for a company that doesn’t have management software programs.

Retention

Recruiting, onboarding, and training employees is a significant investment, and it’s frustrating when they move on before the company has recouped their investment. Retention strategies help identify why employees leave and provide strategies designed to help businesses hang onto skilled personnel.

Objectives of Talent Management Program

The objectives of your talent management program should be detailed and precise, while still addressing a large swath of corporate territory. From the human resource director at the time of hiring to the line supervisor during training to the departmental boss who signs off on annual reviews, each aspect of the employee’s development can be managed efficiency through a comprehensive strategic talent management program.

With a myriad of tools available, you can set identifiable goals that your staff will meet on each stage of their professional development. They won’t atrophy inside their cubicle, and you won’t risk losing outstanding workers through the rough calculus of attrition and boredom.

The most effective arrow in your business quiver is a well-trained employee, and putting a strategic talent management system into place means that that arrow will always be on target when you are shooting to hit a business goal.

Implementing a Great Talent Management Process

It’s important to keep in mind that the most essential component of any process is the human element, and your talent management strategy will only be as good as your implementation. Here are several best practice suggestions to consider before implementing your process.

Invest in Continuous Learning Experiences

Employee-specific learning held in non-formal environments has been found to be superior to more formalized, one-size-fits-all employee education formats. They’re also more likely to increase feelings of employee engagement.

Maintain Balance

Lopsided talent management programs typically fail to produce an optimal workplace environment. For instance, if you’re overly focused on bringing in fresh new ideas, you may be neglecting to make the most of your experienced personnel. The same thing is true in reverse. Make sure that the whole employee lifecycle is represented in your human resources program, including outgoing personnel.

Avoid Micromanaging

Many business owners make the mistake of using their talent management system software to micromanage employees, but this approach only leads to confusion, resentment, and a decrease in employee loyalty. Keep in mind that successfully implemented talent management systems result in employees feeling connected and engaged instead of fostering feelings of fear and mistrust.

Cultivate an Environment That Encourages Employee Engagement

Employees shouldn’t feel intimidated by engaging with your talent management system. Make sure it’s user-friendly and that it offers features that employees actually want to use.

Avoid relying on annual employee appraisals

Annual — or even biannual — employee appraisals often fail to present a bigger picture. While these types of appraisals do have a certain value, they shouldn’t be the only measure of employee performance. Be sure to balance them with frequent, informal feedback sessions.

Ask others in your industry for recommendations

Not all talent management programs are equal, and ones that work well for some industries aren’t so great for others. You can hedge your bets by asking others in your industry for talent management system examples that have worked well for them.

Include the IT team in the implementation process

Your IT team needs to be involved when the program you decide on is implemented. In-house IT personnel with a clear handle on your organization are better equipped to perform slight tweaks at the time of integration than outside IT professionals.

Choose the right talent management strategy

Be sure to investigate several systems before deciding on the one that best suits your individual needs and preferences. Choosing the wrong program can be worse than not having one at all, so avoid blindly choosing software or thinking that all systems are alike.

Please feel free to contact us for more information on how the right talent management strategy can increase both your bottom line and make your company a better place to work.