In today’s ever-changing business world, an effective talent management strategy plays a key role in an organization’s success. And, by integrating a single system designed to streamline the talent management process, users can spend their time on other, more important things and optimize business success in the process.

Enter talent management systems (or TMS)!

Read on to learn more about talent management systems and how you can benefit from working with our team at Surety Systems.

What is a Talent Management System?

Talent Management refers to the practice of supporting an entire employee lifecycle from acquisition to succession planning, employee training, performance reviews, and more.

A talent management system (or TMS), is a unified software platform that supports core talent management processes like recruitment, onboarding, performance management, professional and learning development opportunities, succession planning, and compensation management. These processes are usually delivered by advanced software modules, meaning that  businesses can start with what they need and add functionality as they go.

A TMS allows organizations to combine human resource planning initiatives with their existing business strategies. This ensures the talent coming can support current and future business goals. And, when executed properly, talent management systems can benefit the employer and employee with improved functionality and increased engagement across the board.

Why is Talent Management Important?

Talent management is a key factor in the success of companies across any industry. Typically, businesses that take the appropriate time to acquire, develop, and maintain employees tend to be profitable and innovative. Whereas, businesses that cannot retain talent typically have limited employee engagement, decreased potential for growth, and poor customer satisfaction.

How Does a Talent Management System Work?

Talent management systems focus on integrating all HR modules needed to acquire the right talent and keep employees engaged and productive over time. People commonly refer to individual HR modules, like performance management and recruitment solutions, as talent management systems, but singular modules lack the versatility and sustainability of a fully-integrated system.

A talent management system typically  runs in the cloud to offer larger data storage capacities and easier integration with built-in applications like payroll, career planning, and other systems. It also offers the secure storage of employee data, including demographics, compensation, and personal information, across the entire organization.

Here’s a look at the core strategies supported by talent management solutions:

  1. Plan: Work with leadership teams to understand business objectives, outline a strong talent strategy, and ensure plans are aligned with business needs.
  2. Onboarding Employees: Utilize a paperless employee onboarding portal to streamline new-hire processes and automate workflows for onboarding, offboarding, and cross-boarding.
  3. Recruiting Candidates: Acquire talent from across the globe, build relationships with  candidates throughout the recruitment process, and leverage a comprehensive applicant tracking and management system to improve efficiencies.
  4. Manage Employee Performance: Utilize guided action planning for continual employee performance and goal management.
  5. Plan and Design Compensation: Reward strong performers for their effort and dedication
  6. Retain and Develop Employees: Provide up-to-date learning experiences and training for employees across teams. Develop proactive training plans, conduct compliance training, and train existing employees to be leaders.

History of Talent Management Systems

In the past, talent management roles were mainly focused on developing existing employees, leaving a surplus of middle-management roles out to dry. During the economic shift, businesses reconstructed and shifted their focus to improve external talent acquisition. After this, the focus shifted once again to align with a greater need for talent retention and professional development. Talent management systems were created to integrate all HR talent modules within a single platform. And, because of this, workflows became digitized and automated to increase efficiency across the entire organization.

Now, talent management systems are utilized by companies across all industries. An efficient TMS helps organizations with unique challenges stay up-to-date with talent management trends in the 21st century, including:

  • Diversity and inclusion: Put candidate growth plans and diversity sourcing in place and provide continuous development for a more diverse workforce.
  • Remote work: Change how remote employees are supported across  the workforce tto ensure employee engagement and talent management are maximized and innovative interaction styles are offered.
  • Skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling: Identify skills gaps and create training and re-skilling paths to move employees into new positions as needed.

Benefits of a Talent Management System

Here are some main benefits of a talent management system from a business perspective:

  • Integrated and concentrated data model for all talent management-related activities
  • Recruitment strategies that match business objectives
  • Improved employee onboarding, development, and retention
  • Increased engagement with managers and employees
  • More efficient processes for compensation management, employee rewards, and performance reviews

Specific user-based benefits:

  • Recruiters: Utilize career portals, job ads, applications, applicant screening, and employment offers to better manage the entire talent process. Candidates can visit career websites, research relevant positions, and participate in interviews and job offers through a specialized candidate portal.
  • Managers: Managers can collaborate with recruiters to improve efficiencies across the board. With talent management systems, companies can welcome new hires,. control team compensation, and track all allocated workers’ actions, performance, and feedback. This also helps them align personal performance targets with organizational goals to maximize employee engagement and improve recognition for their hard work.Applicants: Applicants caneasily search for job posts on career websites, apply for relevant positions, and interact in the candidate portal to schedule interviews and get job offers.
  • Human Resources: Coordinate all talent management duties and leverage dynamic data analytics to facilitate more informed decisionsCreate thorough reports to communicate statuses and outcomes, easily demonstrate compliance with governmental and industry standards, and build  compensation schemes with greater visibility.
  • Employees: Allows users to access activities and information, including learning paths related to individual career objectives, rewards, performance reviews, compensation and benefits information, and more. Employees can recognize colleagues, receive rewards, and enjoy additional advantages for exemplary performance and outcomes.

Key Features of a Talent Management System

Here’s a look at some key features for end-to-end talent management systems:

Career Development: Increase employee skill sets to increase business performance and identify strong leaders for continuous growth in the future.

Employee Retention: Assist employees in growing their careers, increase employee retention, and boost engagement across the board.

Candidate Recruitment: Recruit and hire top-tier candidates  to boost overall productivity and strength across the entire workforce.

A talent management solution can also provide efficient personnel management solutions that leverage a centralized approach for planning, data exchange, and other activities. For increased backend efficiency, digital workflows take the role of manual and offline operations, freeing up HR staff to concentrate on higher-value tasks.

Personal and private information is generated and stored in a secure database within the talent management system. Strong analytics and reporting tools also support strategic planning to ensure the company meets both its short- and long-term talent management goals.

With an efficient talent management system, companies can plan, scale, and communicate the outcomes of the talent pool and its total worth across the organization. 

Examples of Talent Management Systems

Here are examples of talent management software solutions from a few different providers:

SAP SuccessFactors

This is a cloud-based talent management system that gives employees, HR professionals, and managers the resources they need to succeed, no matter when or where they work. 

The SAP SuccessFactors solution allows organizations to leverage efficient talent management tools and mobile self-service resources to hire the best talent, increase employee engagement, develop skills, and make sure all employees are valued and rewarded.

Features:

  • Recruiting
  • Onboarding
  • Performance Management
  • Compensation Management
  • Learning
  • Succession and Development
  • Opportunity Marketplace

UKG

UKG Pro provides a cloud-based talent management system that attracts and maintains the right talent for any organization. With UKG, companies are enabled  to develop employees with intuitive tools for collaboration, effective goal-setting, and continuous learning.

Features:

  • Recruiting
  • Onboarding
  • Learning
  • Feedback
  • Succession Planning
  • Sentiment Analysis
  • User-friendly Platform

Workday

Workday produces a cloud-based talent management system that offers flexible management strategies to provide instant insights and improve  talent decisions. Workday leverages business, people, and talent data in a centralized system to provide the accuracy and agility needed to maintain an efficient workforce.

Features:

  • Goal Management
  • Performance Management
  • Continuous Feedback
  • Survey Campaigns
  • Dynamic Analytics
  • Talent and Performance Reviews
  • Calibration
  • Succession Planning
  • Career Planning
  • Mobile Access

Infor

Infor provides a cloud-based talent management system that helps businesses achieve new heights with learning, collaborations, productivity, and innovation. With advanced talent insights, companies can better serve their customers, improve employee engagement, and more.

Features:

  • Talent Acquisition
  • Performance Management
  • Goal Management
  • Succession Planning
  • On-the-job Validation and lLearning
  • Growth Plans
  • Targeted Content Delivery
  • Employee Record Updates

How Can We Help?

No matter which system provider you choose, Surety Systems is here to help!

We have a team of expert SAP, UKG, Workday, and Infor consultants dedicated to helping you successfully implement the right technology for your needs. So, whether you need help implementing a talent management system or just an extra hand deciding which solution fits your needs, our team is here to help you.

Our senior-level consultants have the experience and relevant skills needed to help you successfully implement talent management systems, manage complex system integrations, and optimize your most important business processes.

Contact Us

Ready to learn more about talent management systems and how Surety Systems can help you? Contact us today!