Talent Management and technology for improved results

The much discussed “war for talent” is well underway as comapnies compete for the best people with the hopes of driving greater organizational performance. While being tasked with finding the best and brightest, we are also admonished to reduce costs and work as lean as possible. This paradox may seem insurmountable, but organizations can deploy measures to hire and retain great people while also driving efficiencies and reducing costs. Organizations should consider a talent management initiative facilitated by an integrated technology solution that links the vital components.

Many companies rush to purchase a technology solution in the hopes that their woes will disappear after implementation. Of course, workforce technology will still yield poor results if policies and practices are flawed. I recommend first investing time and resources to define and employ a talent management program within the organization. Once you have successfully rolled out a solid approach to talent management, purchase workforce technology that will link components and provide you with the reporting and metrics necessary to manage your talent management process.

Talent management can be defined as the “activities associated with hiring, training, developing, and managing an organization’s people for the purposes of maximizing performance”.

It is important to view talent management with an eye towards performance. If you don’t achieve the results you seek, your efforts in talent management are fruitless. There are five primary areas of focus for Talent Management:

• Strategic Workforce Planning: what are the goals of the organization and the objectives you expect your people to deliver? Do you have the people to accomplish this?
• Total Talent Acquisition: where will you get the talent to fill the gaps you identified in planning?
• Employee Development: how do you train and prepare your people so they will be successful?
• Performance Management: are your people successful and are they accomplishing the goals you set for them?
• Succession Planning: do you have a plan for key people and roles?

Once an organization rolls out its talent management program, it should seek a workforce technology solution to automate and streamline the relevant processes. Ideally, the solution should integrate all of the components of talent management.

When evaluating technology solutions for managing your workforce, you should look for organizations that have a comprehensive and integrated approach. The five key areas of talent management tie together, having disparate systems will hamper user adoption, which may prove cumbersome and disjointed. Technology leaders provide solutions that integrate the various components so that you can maximize efficiency, reduce costs, and gain meaningful/actionable data.

Think about your processes and find a solution that will complement them. For example, your organization may have conducted a level of strategic workforce planning that indicates you need to hire additional talent, focus on training and develop certain skills for employees. You have identified the key competencies to which you must train and hire. These competencies should reside in both your employee development and talent acquisition modules. Importantly, your talent acquisition software should not simply be focused on direct hires. Addressing talent acquisition, solely with applicant tracking software, only targets a percentage of your workforce. Progressive software providers offer total talent acquisition allowing you to hire full time employees, contingent labor, offshore labor, and project/statement of work labor. These same providers tie all relevant information and workflow into the developmental plans, learning management systems, performance appraisals, and succession planning pieces. Once you have a superior talent management program powered by a comprehensive and integrated workforce technology solution, you’ll find you are far more effective at finding/keeping the best people in a far more efficient and less expensive manner.

BIO

Doug Leeby currently serves as SVP, Business Development at Beeline, a Jacksonville, FL based workforce management solutions organization. At Beeline, Mr. Leeby oversees the Talent Management Solutions division. In 1990, he received his Masters in Human Resources Development from Vanderbilt University and has, since then, held various leadership roles managing talent.