3 Indicators You Need to Upgrade to a Talent Management System

In the 21st century, the Human Resources role has transformed from hiring, payroll and benefits to a strategic role in managing the workforce. To a large degree transactions became automated self-service, and HR technology developed into robust human capital management suites. They include core functions such as payroll, benefits, and administration, plus a full range of talent management applications.

Applications for recruiting and onboarding, performance and goal management, learning and development, compensation management, and succession planning are commonplace. There are dozens of vendors, and you can deploy talent management functions as stand-alone applications, as a complete suite, or any combination.

We put together a few of the indicators that it might be time for you to think about upgrading from transaction processing to talent management. See if any of these apply to you.

Your best people are leaving

High voluntary turnover could be because of the nature of the work, but more likely is one of more of these factors:

• Top performers aren’t rewarded for their performance. People who produce more expect to earn more. Compensation management integrated with performance and goal management enables you to easily manage compensation budgets and reward performance.
• People aren’t being challenged and developed. Learning management integrated with performance management and career development allows you to develop strengths and work with areas needing development. A well-designed career development function enables you to hold managers accountable for developing their employees. 
• Your people don’t get useful feedback from their managers, or worse, they only get negative feedback. Managers tend to get busy with their administrative functions and forget about feedback until something goes wrong. The current trend is moving away from annual behavioral performance reviews to more frequent feedback. Talent management system vendors are adapting to this trend and providing tools for regular coaching and accountability for doing it. 
• New employees are leaving. Early attrition will be high if new employees aren’t welcomed, trained, and assimilated into your culture.Onboarding applications help you engage new employees from the moment they accept an offer. By completing new hire processing online before the first day of work, you can make the first day a welcoming experience. New employees who go through a comprehensive onboarding program reach full productivity 34% sooner than those who don’t.

Recruiters are overworked and underperforming

It could be they don’t have the right tools to do the job. Check these indicators you need to automate or upgrade your recruiting technology:

• Your recruiters spend hours sifting through unqualified candidates, or they are buried in administrative work. Automation reduces administrative burdens, and screening tools give you the ability to set minimum qualifications for each job posting so you never see unqualified candidates.
• Candidates are dropping out of your talent pipeline. The number one reason candidates are dissatisfied with the recruiting process is a lack of communication about their status. A modern applicant tracking system enables candidates to log in to track their progress, learn about your company, and communicate with you. It will also include automated notifications when the applicant’s status changes.
• There are no internal candidates for critical jobs. A succession planning application integrated with career development and learning management will help you retain high potential employees.

You can’t get the information you need

It wasn’t so long ago that getting a new report from an HRIS was a two-week process. Today almost all talent management suite vendors provide a good set of standard reports and dashboards, and most have useful ad hoc reporting tools. Vendors are moving quickly into advanced analytics that help us measure the impact of sales training or make better predictions of how candidates will perform on the job.

If you are having some of these struggles, it is time to upgrade:

• You don’t know why people are leaving or whether a departure is good or bad for the business.
• You need to put three reports together in a complicated Excel workbook to get useful information.
• You don’t know who has completed mandatory training.
• You need a unique skill set for a special project but you don’t know if any of your people have it.

Our list of indicators is by no means exhaustive, but we hope if gives you an idea of the kind of problems talent management technology can help you solve. If you think it is time to upgrade, read our blog about making the business case for talent management and our guide to selecting a talent management system.