Benefits of a talent management system

Organising your talent management according to a system can improve both attraction and retention of talented candidates. That’s because it takes into consideration all aspects of the talent pipeline, from selecting the right candidates, all the way down to motivating employees, keeping them happy, and prioritising diversity and inclusion. It also helps you to predict when you might need to hire for a new role, or how to respond to and identify a talent gap within your workforce.

What does a talent management system do

There are many software tools to help you organise your talent management systems (TMS). They’re usually cloud-based, and they can be used to store employee and candidate data securely in order to make key decisions about development, satisfaction and performance. TMS tools keep track of all aspects of the talent pipeline, such as:

• recruiting;
• onboarding;
• managing employee growth;
• designing rewards/compensation models for top employee performance;
• retention strategies.

Now, let’s look at some of the TMS tools that are available and can help you tackle the above stages effectively.

1. Recruitment software

As the first stage of your talent management plan is the recruitment process, let’s look at how recruitment software can help make this faster and more effective. You can break the different types of available recruitment software down into packages such as:

• employee referral software;
• job board software
• pre-employment screening tools;
• interview scheduling/management tools;
• video screening tools.

Depending on how extensive your recruitment process is, you may need just one or several of these tools. For example, if you’re hiring remotely, video screening tools will be a top priority to you. If you’re organising interviews on an ongoing basis – for temporary or zero-hours jobs, for example – having interview scheduling and management tools may help to free up additional time.

2. Onboarding systems

This type of software can help manage all of the processes in your employee onboarding: especially useful if you’re managing a team of remote workers. Onboarding systems also eliminate the need for HR teams to create an onboarding package for each employee. Instead, this system automates the process, freeing up valuable time. This can involve getting new hires to fill in the right forms electronically, and provide e-signatures. They can also help to build onboarding checklists.

3. eLearning tools

There are also different eLearning tools available depending on your employee’s needs. You might simply use an online learning platform, where users are able to gain access to video presentations, slideshows, quizzes and personalised objectives. Other options available include:

• Corporate learning management systems;
• Mentoring software;
• Microlearning tools;
• Training management systems.

Corporate learning management systems are equipped to help you handle every aspect of an employee’s learning/training process. This includes delivering learning, as well as measuring the success of the training and personalising it for each employee. What’s particularly useful about these systems is that they can be delivered remotely and flexibly to each employee.

Many eLearning tools incorporate gamification into their lessons, particularly microlearning tools which build lessons around an employee’s ability to grasp small amounts of knowledge in short sessions – usually 10 minutes long. This can help you track the incremental progress of your individual employees, identifying their strengths and weaknesses. By doing so, you can better tailor their learning to what they need to improve, as well as reward them for their progress. Managing your employee’s learning in this way also helps you to structure their learning around their work schedules more effectively.

3. Employee recognition systems/software

You can also automate some aspects of your employee recognition systems. You can use this technology to better select candidates for rewards and recognition, potentially removing any favouritism or human bias from the process. This means that employees may be rewarded more fairly for their efforts. Examples of employee recognition systems include:

• Bucketlist Rewards: helps you provide length-of-service rewards
• Lattice: helps you connect praise with performance
• Bonusly: easily donate to a charity of the recognised employee’s choice
• among many others

4. Competency models

If you’re looking to map the key competencies required for a role, then competency model software could help you here. By being able to identify the skills and qualifications right for a role, you can better target the right candidates and improve your recruitment process. Not only is this useful early on during the recruitment process, but it can also help you to keep track of how roles in your company might change over time, and the skills required to accommodate this. These types of tools may also be used to assess whether you have any skills gaps that need closing, as well as managing talent pools across different business locations.

5. Employee motivation system

You might want to research tools on the market which help you to create an employee motivation plan. Using data collected from your employees, this can help you find out what motivates your employees, and why. You can collect data via surveys or performance reviews, for example. This means that you’re able to more efficiently target what matters to your employees, and what keeps them coming into work every day to do a great job.

6. Talent succession system

If you want to keep real-time track of your talent succession plans, then using software that deals with this could help. Talent succession software can also help you build a talent pool of candidates, identifying who is right for particular roles before it becomes available. This makes it very useful if you’re often hiring internally. Such a system can also identify whether each candidate can be trusted for the role, their current consistency within the team, and how their skills and qualifications match the role.

7. Offboarding software

As offboarding is often just as important as the onboarding process, you can also benefit from offboarding software which makes this part of the talent management journey more successful. This type of software can help to arrange dates for exit interviews, as well as provide employees with the right forms and documentation for leaving.

Offboarding software can also help you to manage a checklist of items that employees are expected to return upon leaving, such as company phones or laptops. Not only does offboarding software help you to keep track of the bureaucracy surrounding an employee’s leave, it also frees up your HR team’s time which can be better allocated to more urgent tasks.

There are plenty of different talent management systems on the market which can help you identify talent during the recruitment process itself, all the way through to talent succession programmes. By streamlining your talent pipeline, you’re much more likely to attract and retain top talent in your industry.