Does Your Talent Management System Help You Make Better Talent Decisions?

By Posted in - Talent Management on March 19th, 2012 0 Comments

Current talent management software providers simply do not deliver on the promise to enable better talent management decisions.

To date talent management software providers have focused on automating those processes that were seen as being at the core of HR talent management. While these solution platforms have contributed substantial effeciciency gains through process automation, they have made limited impact on increasing talent management effectiveness.

The concentration on process automation has neglected generating the talent measurements needed for effective talent decision-making. The big problem with talent management applications today is the data. Companies do not have the content or data to make effective talent decisions.

Here are a couple of examples:

  • Applicant tracking systems automate the administration of the selection process but do not tell you who the best candidate is for a given job.
  • Succession planning automates the generation of a talent profile but the profile contains only descriptive information not predictive information.

The Aberdeen Group conducted research on talent assessment strategies in over 400 organizations. Their research highlighted the importance of talent measurements in making talent decisions and showed a clear connection between use of talent measurements and best in class organizational performance. The type of talent measurements they found that enabled best-in-class performance were:

  • Behavioral-based personality assessments
  • Skill-based assessments
  • Cognitive ability assessments
  • Multi-rater assessments
  • Competency model libraries
  • Competency gap analysis tools
  • Test building software tools

Talent Management Informs Talent Decisions

Talent measurement informs a number of different types of talent decisions:

  1. Deployment Decisions (selection, promotions, building teams) – The key here is matching talent to roles using proven predictors of job success; you need a comprehensive job requirement profile and a comprehensive talent profile that use measurements that truly matter for job performance. The summary measurement needed is a predictive index quantifying the degree of fit between the two profiles with a clear view of where there are matches and non-matches.
  2. Development Decisions – The key decision here is where to focus individual and group development efforts to maximize return on those efforts. The information needed are reliable skill and experience gap profiles. Competency gaps for individuals and groups are often generated through a multi-rater process (see my white paper on a superior approach to multi-rater processes). A key to effective competency measurement is a well-defined competency model that includes clear performance standards for making accurate behavioral ratings. Norm-based experience inventories provide insight into experience gaps.
  3. Workforce Planning Decisions – These decisions involve aligning employee skills, behaviors, knowledge, experience, and other key attributes with what the business needs to succeed in the future. Key components of workforce planning include identifying high potentials and succession planning. A number of measures are useful here including cognitive ability testing, personality assessment, experience inventories, competency gap profiles and performance measures. In this case, the comprehensive talent profile is compared to “future” talent requirements and the degree of match is quantified.

You would think that talent measurement would already be a major part of talent management technology. However, the relationship between talent management technology providers and talent measurement providers has been limited. They are certainly not married today and are barely dating. Most technology providers will have measurement partners as an optional service but the measurements are not an embedded part of the application nor are they fully leveraged throughout the employee life cycle.

Hopefully this is changing. The future of talent management technology is to integrate talent measurements into core talent management processes and provide the analytics needed to make better talent decisions. OMNIview is attempting to lead this trend and have a number of key talent measurements already embedded in its talent management offering (see graphic below).

If you are interested in learning how OMNIview can assist you in making effective talent management decisions, please call us at 877.426.6222.

Patrick Hauenstein, Ph.D.

About Patrick Hauenstein, Ph.D.

Patrick Hauenstein is the President and Chief Science Officer for OMNIview. During his free time Pat likes to cook. He is particularly fond of traditional southern cuisine. Pat is also an animal lover ...
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