What Is Talent Management? All You Need To Know

Talent management is a key component of a holistic business strategy, as people are vital to any organization’s success. An important lesson HR leaders have learned in recent years—given challenges such as the global pandemic and the Great Resignation—is that an organization’s approach to talent management needs to be agile and flexible.

As remote and hybrid work have become more accepted, many talent management functions such as hiring, onboarding, team collaboration, and learning and development have moved completely online. And as more workers rethink their careers, organizations have to quickly identify new ways to engage and retain talent.

No matter the latest workforce challenges or trends, an organization’s talent management goals and overall process largely remain the same, with room to evolve and adapt specific tactics as needed.

Table of contents

• Talent management 101
• The importance of talent management
• The talent management process model
• How to build a talent management strategy

Talent management 101

Talent management is an ongoing, strategic process that involves attracting, onboarding, developing, and retaining workers to drive positive business outcomes. Talent management can have a significant impact on an organization’s overall success, including team member motivation, customer satisfaction, and revenue, among other factors.
HR leaders are always looking to improve their talent management strategy. According to research from The Hackett Group, 62% of HR executives rank advancing critical talent management capabilities, including strategic workforce planning, learning, and performance management, as a top priority in 2022.

Talent management is also top-of-mind for business executives, with talent availability, recruiting, retention, and upskilling being the top priorities CEOs have for CHROs, based on research from Chief Executive and the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM).

Key elements of successful talent management include, but are not limited to:

• Workforce planning
• Recruitment
• Hiring
• Onboarding
• Training and development
• Performance management
• Collecting and sharing feedback
• Data and analytics

The importance of talent management

The right approach to talent management can help a company motivate team members, drive engagement, support customer satisfaction, meet company goals, and continue to evolve and scale as business needs shift.

Building and maintaining a high-performing team doesn’t happen overnight and requires an ongoing, strategic talent management strategy.

Some top benefits of talent management include:

• Strengthened company culture. A vital piece of talent management is building a team of individuals who align with your company values and are driven by your mission and overall goals. Research from McKinsey shows that 70% of workers strongly believe their sense of purpose is defined by their work, meaning individuals want to work for companies with values and a mission they believe in. By attracting and engaging team members who are motivated by shared goals, you can strengthen your overall company culture.
  
  
• Enhanced ability to attract and retain quality workers. Successful talent management includes strong employer branding and a streamlined, standardized hiring process to attract quality workers. Once individuals join the team, other aspects of talent management—such as onboarding, learning and development, and an ongoing feedback loop—can be refined to ensure they are value-adding and engaging, and help your organization retain top performers.
  
  
• Increased productivity. When team members are engaged and aligned with your values and mission, their overall productivity increases. On the other hand, without the right talent management processes in place, team members might get disengaged, which can cause productivity to decline.
  
  
• Improved business outcomes. Quality workers drive positive outcomes and help your organization reach overall business goals. When you have processes in place to attract, onboard, and develop team members, your company is likely to see an improvement in organizational performance. In fact, research from Gartner found that companies in the top quartile for worker engagement have 23% higher profitability than companies in the bottom quartile.

The talent management process model

Every organization’s approach to talent management differs, depending on company goals, size, industry, and other factors. However, most companies focus on many of the same talent management process steps.

1. Planning

Planning involves aligning your talent management strategy to overall company goals and strategy. This includes understanding any skills you will need across departments in the short- and long-term, and identifying skill gaps.

When you’re in the planning phase of the talent management process, consider which roles are the right fit for full-time, in-house workers, and which might be better for project-based work with independent professionals. Tapping into independent talent can help you fill skills gaps quickly and cost effectively, and give your team more flexibility to scale up and down as needed.

Also consider remote work, as it has become more widely accepted in recent years and nearly half of businesses plan to maintain some form of remote work over the next five years. Between independent talent and remote workers, you’ll have access to a much larger talent pool of potential team members.

Related: How Global Enterprises Are Reducing Risk Through Innovative Talent Strategies

2. Attracting

Attracting the right talent is largely dependent on your employer brand. Through your careers page on your website, social media, employee review sites, and other channels, you want to build an employer brand that excites prospective team members about joining your organization.

To attract qualified, skilled talent, build a strong employer brand that includes the following components:

• Dedicated careers page on your website
• Company mission and vision
• Core values
• Clear, engaging job descriptions
• Overview of company benefits
• List of workplace awards
• Team member testimonials
• Consistent social media presence

Related: How To Build a Successful Employer Branding Strategy

3. Onboarding

Once you attract the right workers, a structured onboarding process can help new team members quickly acclimate to your company culture, resources, and processes. Onboarding helps set individuals up for success so they can feel a sense of belonging, understand their role, and start driving positive outcomes for the company soon after joining.

While implementing a standardized onboarding process drives efficiency, leave room to adapt the steps based on the worker and their role—such as in-house teams versus independent professionals or individuals from different teams at your organization.

Onboarding steps can include:

• Completing required paperwork
• Receiving equipment and gaining access to systems from IT
• Joining scheduled ramp up sessions
• Completing initial assignments
• Taking time for self-guided learning
  

Related: Manager’s Guide to Onboarding Remote Workers

4. Developing

Onboarding is a first step your organization can take in an ongoing effort to develop team members. Throughout their time with the company, your team can also offer development resources such as an overview of career paths across the organization, on-demand courses, stipends for professional development events, and performance reviews or coaching sessions.

Keep in mind, performance reviews are intended for in-house team members, while independent professionals receive feedback based on their completed projects and outcomes.

Related: Why Companies Should Develop a Remote Workplace Learning Strategy Now

5. Engaging and retaining

The Great Resignation and widespread adoption of remote work have presented challenges when it comes to team member retention, meaning organizations need to be proactive about worker engagement.

Engagement refers to how connected workers feel to their organizations and colleagues. And engaged team members are more likely to be satisfied and motivated by their jobs, which is both good for their well-being and can positively contribute to overall business results.

Disengaged workers can show a decline in productivity that can also spread to other team members. Additionally, research from Gallup shows that disengaged teams see turnover increase by 18% to 43% compared to engaged teams.

Some steps you can take to improve the overall worker experience, which also contribute to engagement and retention, include:

• Collect and address team member feedback
• Check in with individuals about their workloads
• Provide training and coaching opportunities
• Offer flexible work arrangements (such as remote work and flexible hours)
• Decrease meeting times and encourage asynchronous communication
• Recognize team members for their contributions

‍Related: Employee Engagement: What It Is and Why It’s Important

6. Transitioning

Today’s workers rarely stay with the same company, let alone the same role, for their entire careers. Transitions can include moving to a different team, getting promoted, converting from independent talent to an in-house team member, or leaving their company. An effective talent management process includes proactive steps to navigate team member transitions.

To support successful transitions, your organization should provide training or resources for employees as they move internally within the company. And, when workers move internally or leave the company, also have a plan in place to quickly backfill roles.

Without a proactive plan in place, when transitions take place, other team members end up picking up more responsibilities, which can lead to burnout, turnover, and costly mistakes.

How to build an effective talent management strategy

Implementing a talent management process is only the first step in an effective talent management strategy. Having an understanding of what’s working, what’s not, and areas for improvement is also key to making your strategy as impactful as possible.

1. Study and improve your company’s hiring and onboarding processes

In today’s competitive hiring market, your hiring process can significantly impact your ability to build a great team. If the process takes too long or is disorganized, you might lose prospective team members to other opportunities. And once hired, onboarding can help your organization get team members up to speed as quickly and efficiently as possible.

When assessing your hiring and onboarding processes, consider asking the following questions:

• Is the careers page conveying the right message to prospective team members?
• How long does the hiring process take?
• Can certain steps be eliminated or automated to speed up hiring?
• How can candidate communication be improved?
• Have candidates dropped out during the hiring process? If so, at which stage?
• What feedback have new team members shared about the hiring process?
• Do new team members receive all the resources they need to succeed during onboarding?
• How can onboarding be more efficient?

2. Track and analyze performance

Since talent management encompasses a wide range of processes to ensure you have the right people in place to drive business results, tracking and analyzing performance across the board is critical to success. By regularly tracking metrics, your team can replicate any processes that are working and identify ways to improve metrics that aren’t on track with your goals.

Some performance metrics you can track include:

• Total number of applicants and quality applicants
• Time to hire
• Cost per hire
• ROI from recruitment channels (such as ads and job boards)
• ROI from talent management technology (including applicant tracking systems, learning software, and payroll and benefits providers)
• Time spent onboarding
• Turnover and retention rates
• Worker satisfaction and engagement
• Individual team member performance metrics
• Overall team and company performance based on business goals

3. Provide and receive feedback

At any organization, feedback should be a two-way street. Managers and peers can share feedback with workers to drive improved outcomes over time. For in-house team members, this feedback can also help individuals understand their strengths and areas for improvement if they’re striving for a promotion.

Collecting feedback from team members is also important. Team members can meet with their managers to talk about aspects of their roles that are going well and where they’re facing challenges. They can also discuss opportunities to work on more projects that better align with their skills or passions.

Another channel for feedback is engagement surveys. Through these surveys, workers can share anonymous feedback about what motivates them and offer recommendations for the company to improve the employee experience.

Related: How To Give Professional Feedback

4. Focus on worker motivation

Based on team member feedback, individual managers and the company as a whole can identify ways to improve worker motivation while avoiding burnout and related challenges. This might involve offering more flexible scheduling or assigning individuals new projects that excite them.

According to Liz Wiseman, CEO of leadership research and development firm the Wiseman Group, “Burnout isn’t necessarily a function of too much work; burnout is more often the result of too little impact.” If a team member is tied up with a long list of tasks and doesn’t have time to focus on larger, more strategic work that motivates them, your company can also consider bringing in independent talent to take on day-to-day tasks.

By showing team members that the company values and reacts to feedback, this will help team members continue to deliver strong outcomes.

Related: How To Successfully Identify, Develop, and Retain Talent

5. Define clear career development plans

To stay engaged, top performing workers want a clear understanding of what’s required to succeed in their roles. In fact, annual research from Work Institute shows that lack of career development was the top reason workers quit their jobs every year between 2010 and 2020.

When working with independent talent, one way to achieve this is by having a succinct project description and well-defined project milestones in place. For in-house team members, a career development plan can include an overview of career paths for specific roles, along with quantifiable goals to grow in their roles and reach the next level—or leverage transferable skills to move to another team within the organization.

Related: Sample Goals for Employees: Measure Success and Accountability

6. Recognize team member performance

Acknowledging members for successful performance can boost motivation and engagement. And as more organizations embrace hybrid and remote work environments, data from Human Resource Executive shows that 64% of workers say recognition and appreciation is more important while working from home.

Recognition can be as simple as thanking the individual in front of others in a team meeting or in a company messaging app, or recognizing a team member for embodying core values through company awards. On a larger scale, this recognition also includes making sure workers are fairly compensated for their work.

Get a professional perspective

Talent management will always be a top priority for HR leaders because people power business success. Understanding the full scope of talent management, and evolving and improving your approach over time, will help your organization attract, engage, develop, and retain top talent.

Skilled talent management professionals are available on Upwork to help you make the most impact with your strategy. Leading businesses tap into independent talent on Upwork to fill skills gaps, support workforce agility, and reduce operational costs.