Insights by Andy: How Talent Management Is Evolving to Serve Employers and Employees Alike

Last time, I talked about the trends we see with our customers when it comes to talent strategy. Organizations have used this unique time to accelerate transformation across their businesses, as needs have changed amid the pandemic. The need for putting our most important assets – our people – at the center has never been greater.

Today, I’ll give a little more perspective on talent management and how the talent management marketplace is evolving.

Interestingly, talent management hasn’t really moved as far forward as talent acquisition solutions have. Where talent acquisition solutions have taken steps focusing on the candidate experience, talent management has remained somewhat traditional. But this is starting to change. Many organizations have replaced their HCM systems over the past few years, but for most organizations, these systems act primarily as a functional system of record.

There are clearly a lot of new technology entrances in this area that look at engagement in different ways. Think about, for example, going down to “talent marketplaces,” rather than traditional career pathing. Most progressive organizations are now starting to look at talent management very differently. The case for a solid framework to drive talent management is quite straightforward: Progressing people within the organization is often a lot more effective than bringing people in.

What we see now is that most organizations that are leading in this area are not seeing their employees as just a number, but rather as individuals. They are increasingly thinking about the wellbeing and personal development of their employees as part of an overall talent management solution.

Two Perspectives on Talent Management

So, from a talent management standpoint, you now have two perspectives. The company is looking at the skills and capabilities of its workforce as a whole, focusing on organizational needs. Meanwhile, the needs of individual employees as they journey and develop through the organization are also becoming a focus.

Fundamentally, both come down to insights about people. Where initially these insights came from large and often expensive consulting engagements, I believe there is a revolution on its way where insights are gathered internally and brought to both the employee and the employer in a very scalable and agile way through the use of technology and science.

Truly Understanding the Workforce

If this period of the pandemic has taught us something, it is that change is constant. And the ability to truly understand the workforce, to pivot and change as circumstances require, is something that senior executives will demand from their organizations going forward. I do believe it’s an opportunity for HR to step up in this area and provide the needed insights to senior leadership teams, to truly understand the workforce, and the individuals in the workforce, providing information to make the best decisions to work towards the best possible business outcomes.

But not only do organizations benefit. The individual employee does as well, developing and managing his or her career and engagement within the organization. Even more revolution in talent management will happen in the coming months and years, and I’m excited to see how our customers will adapt going forward.