To support this new, broader concept of talent management, with its explicit focus on enhancing business performance, a new generation of solutions is becoming available. These new solutions are built from a fundamentally different design point than the early generation solutions. While the early systems were focused largely on achieving more efficient HR processes, the new solutions add to that a focus on achieving business goals.

Strategic talent management selection criteria:

• Focus on business goals
• Empower business managers
• Comprehensive functionality
• Integration across functions
• Common data platform
• Single user interface
• Rapid deployment
• Built-in best practices

In evaluating these new talent management solutions and assessing their potential impact on their companies, executives should consider how well the solution implements several design points:

Focus on business goals: An effective strategic talent management solution must be conceived of as a means to help achieve business goals. Though the solution should also improve efficiency, the overall objective is significantly broader. For example, a line of business manager with the task of increasing revenues without adding expensive field sales representatives may need to build a telephone-based, inside sales team. This manager needs a talent management solution that can help achieve this business objective by improving the process of finding and hiring inside sales representatives, quickly training them, and appropriately compensating them. The solution needs to approach the talent management process from this business-focused perspective. A solution that focuses solely on efficiency and "time to hire" is unlikely to meet the manager's needs.

Empower business managers: To help achieve business goals, an effective strategic talent management solution must empower business managers. While a solution must meet the needs of HR specialists who use the solution frequently, it must also be accessible to business managers. The solution must be easy for them to use and provide ready access to vital talent management information. In particular, the solution must accommodate the fact that most business managers may perform certain tasks infrequently, such as performance assessments or compensation reviews. The solution should present information to business managers through an easy to grasp metaphor, such as an organization chart, and allow them to perform tasks directly from that organization chart (see Figure 3). Only in this way will business managers derive value from the solution and take an ownership stake in the talent management process.

Figure 3: Actionable Organization Chart

Comprehensive functionality: An effective solution must address the entire strategic talent management process, including recruiting, performance management, salary & incentive management, employee development & learning, and succession planning. Strategic talent management solutions missing particular functions will have difficulty supporting a process that yields improved business results.

To provide comprehensive functionality, solution providers may choose to supplement their own functionality with solutions from third party providers for certain specialized functions. These functions should, however, be tightly integrated within the overall solution. In this way, the overall talent management solution can benefit from specialized expertise, for example in e-learning or job board posting. The data from these specialized systems should be tightly connected to the overall talent management solution and should be easily accessible from the same interface. In developing an employee career plan, for example, a manager should be able to easily move from the task of assessing an employee's performance and identifying competency gaps, to specifying appropriate training resources to address those gaps. Or during the process of hiring a new employee, a manager should have ready access to relevant competency testing data which may have been provided by a third party.

Integration across functions: An effective talent management solution not only requires comprehensive functionality, but there must be tight integration across the functions. To achieve better business results, the talent management solution should link recruiting to performance in order to assess quality of the hires brought into the company. Links between the performance assessment and compensation management functions are essential to match pay to performance, and close connections among performance assessment, recruiting, employee development, and succession planning are required to ensure that the company has enough people with appropriate skills to meet its needs

To achieve effective integration across functions, the talent management solution should be designed and built with integration as an explicit objective. A disparate collection of individual applications will not be effective (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: Multi-Function Strategic Talent Management Solution

Common data platform: A common data platform should make all relevant data available to all talent management functions as needed. In this environment, for example, a manager developing an employee's career plan should have easy access to all relevant information on the employee's performance assessments and compensation history, descriptions on appropriate potential future positions and the compensation related to those positions. The manager should not need to retrieve the data from several disparate sources.

The common platform should include data related to four areas:

• People data, which includes all information about individual employees and candidates, such as performance ratings, compensation history, skills, and previous work experience
• Position data, which includes all information about each position in the organization, both current and projected, such as detailed descriptions, required competencies, and compensation.
• Corporate hierarchy, which includes all information on who reports to whom within the organization. This is necessary, for example, to provide appropriate access to data and to support automated workflow in the talent management process.
• Company goals, which include all information on corporate objectives, such as growth, profitability, and return on investment targets. Understanding these corporate goals are vital, for example, in developing appropriate performance measures, hiring best-qualified candidates, and implementing effective compensation plans.

Single user interface: The talent management solution should provide access to all functions via a single interface, designed specifically for each type of user. In order to derive value from the talent management solution, a business manager should not need to navigate multiple, inconsistent interfaces to perform a particular task.

To support the needs of the business manager, the user interface should also be designed to be easy to work with for infrequent users. Business managers are likely to assess their employees annually or quarterly, and won't be using the performance management system regularly. In-context help and ease of use are vital to ensure the system is used.

Rapid deployment: To have a positive impact on business goals, it should be possible for an organization to rapidly deploy a strategic talent management solution and to upgrade its capabilities and content easily.

In most cases, the most effective way to achieve this is through an "on-demand" delivery model. Under this model, the software is hosted and maintained by the vendor and delivered as a service. This "software as a service" model is in contrast to many traditional solutions which are hosted "on-premise."

For most companies, on-demand delivery makes it significantly easier, faster, and less expensive to deploy and maintain the solution and the common data model in comparison to an on-premise model. Updating content is also much easier when it's provided as a service.

The on-demand model also offers advantages in flexibility, in that it allows companies to more easily add functions as their requirements expand. For example, an organization can choose to begin the talent management process by automating performance management. When ready, they could then quickly "turn on" recruiting, compensation management, and other functions. And they could be certain that all these functions will work well together in a total talent management solution.

Best practices built into the solution: An effective talent management solution should incorporate best practices. It should build in both content and processes that guide the company toward better talent management. For example, the solution should include expert coaching to help managers successfully perform important tasks, such as specifying relevant goals, preparing clear position descriptions, accurately evaluating performance, and developing a meaningful career path for employees. This coaching is especially critical given increasingly scarce time and budget to train managers.

The solution should also incorporate best practices related to talent management processes. For example, it should provide guidance on how best to move qualified candidates through recruiting and into the company, or how to most effectively route a performance appraisal and compensation recommendation through to approval. In other words, the talent management solution should not just automate existing processes. It should actively promote and support a new and improved process.

Implementing fundamental changes in talent management process represents a major challenge; an effective solution should assist companies to make those changes with as little disruption as possible.

Of course, a talent management solution that incorporates best practices must be based, in part, on the experience of the solution provider. As such, the depth and breadth of their experience should be a key factor in evaluating strategic talent management solutions.