Four features good talent management software must have

Talent management involves more than just managing employees, and good talent management software will help you to reach the next level of creating value for your organization while engaging employees. Whether you use an integrated module in your HRMS or have separate talent management software, here are four functionalities that you cannot afford to miss.

1. Empowering recruitment through open channels and connectivity

In the war for talent your best candidate is one click away from applying to a competitor, especially if your recruitment system does not support their browser or mobile device. and Technology frustration turns them away with a negative opinion of your company.  

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Your recruitment application needs to be flexible with an ability to integrate to other systems as needed, such as a core HCM to receive organization and job details along with downstream data receivers like specialized job boards. Are you making it as easy as possible to apply to your company through importing resume text into a candidate template, or does an applicant need to manually enter all details?

2. Comprehensive goal setting

Goal setting should not be a standalone activity done by individual managers designing and deciding goals. Instead, this important success measure should come from the top down. A number of companies have handled this process in a manual way for many years. Today’s talent management software allows you to push or pull goals down the management hierarchy so that an employee’s goals are in line with the overall company goals and expectations for the year, creating transparency and improving performance.

3. Ability to track on-going performance management activities

Performance management should not be a standalone process that occurs once a year under instruction from the HR team. It should be a continual and regular process where employees are recognized for solid performance through feedback from project teams and indirect managers. Your talent system should drive feedback requests through the data in your system such as the change from an old to new manager or the completion of an assignment. Self-evaluations should be completed on a timely basis, and if an employee is not completing them then there needs to be automatic system reminders rather than manual HR efforts.

4. Link roles and employees to support succession planning

Succession planning should not be guesswork, based on chance or an extensive exercise involving hours of brain power and index cards. A strong talent management suite will identify employees who are ready to move up in the organization as well as future leaders. Your application should provide the foundation for these activities through base tables ready for your data and configuration. Then, it should have built in features that provide insight and facilitate the design of your current and future state organizations through minimal effort.