Impending declines in talent availability, continued growth by acquisition, and ongoing globalization are among the major forces reshaping the way organizations obtain and manage talent resources. While some forces, such as globalization, have already led firms to rethink their approach to recruiting and talent management, others are just beginning to be recognized.
In parallel with these changes, our economy is growing increasingly knowledge-based, with more of an organization's key assets – its knowledge and skills – residing in its people. Therefore, managing talent today is effectively managing what has generally become the firm's most valuable asset. The ongoing trend to move unskilled and semi-skilled jobs offshore is also expediting the nation's shift toward a largely knowledge-based economy.
These changes place new urgency on the need to manage talent strategically. To compete effectively and thrive companies will need to attract and retain a highly talented workforce, not only to meet short-term business needs, but those of the future, as well. New business and marketing strategies will succeed only if the organization has, or can readily obtain, talent that possesses the experience, knowledge, and skills necessary to execute its strategic plans effectively. Doing so, however, has often been a major challenge due, in part, to the limitations of HRIS technology. Companies have lacked the sophisticated tools they need to amass, archive, access, and analyze a wide range of HR data and develop useful and timely workforce intelligence.
Finally, effective Integrated Talent Management initiatives are managed by clear measurement of enhanced or predictable productivity. Meaning the business of integrated talent management has clear objectives and results beyond the traditional transactional focus of many HR initiatives. For example, instead of the focus being placed on implementing an automated process that provides a solution for streamlining merit cycles and completing them on time, more effective talent management initiatives would enable cycle reductions and would additionally leverage the accompanying performance data for succession planning and learning initiatives. The strategic difference is that productivity improvements are measured and data is captured to achieve real business benefits.
The focus areas of these productivity improvements vary widely. Vertical industries face different challenges, and also have different opportunities. Some businesses are focused on organizational resource transparency to optimize use of talent already within the organization. As a result, retention numbers, retention risk, succession and development metrics are key productivity indicators. Another organization in a different industry might focus on optimization of hiring sources – by monitoring top performers and their key indicators, their attributes and their competencies – and then tune the hiring process to best align with proven results from the quality of hire metrics.
Now, organizations such as Authoria offer highly integrated software solutions to greatly enhance a company's ability to manage its increasingly valuable talent. These new broad, integrated platforms are powerful tools designed to give management instant access to the detailed workforce intelligence it needs to succeed in a fast changing environment.
Many businesses are choosing to expedite their Integrated Talent Management initiatives by deploying best-of-breed solutions using on-demand software. This approach has allowed businesses to jump-start mission critical projects and reduce the cost of entry often associated with large hardware purchase decisions. At Authoria, Integrated Talent Management on-demand supports global deployments, with expertise and extended online support resources ensuring quick and measurable success. Authoria on-demand support engineers and system administrators are trained in not only talent management applications, but also best practices, industry technologies and partner platforms. By utilizing industry-leading system and application monitoring/alert tools, Authoria personnel take a proactive approach to ensuring business objectives are achieved and customer satisfaction, as determined by clients, is earned every day by providing fast, effective solutions.
