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What is talent management?

Learn how talent management helps organizations bring people and performance together. It connects skills, goals, and growth so teams stay motivated, adaptable, and ready to meet what’s next.

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Talent management is a lot like assembling a championship sports team – it's not enough to just scout star players. True success comes from combining individual strengths, putting players in positions where they excel, and creating an environment where everyone feels motivated to give their best, game after game. Just as coaches strategically nurture talent to win games, effective talent management means that your organization has skilled people who thrive together, season after season.

Talent management definition

Talent management can be defined as the component of human capital management (HCM) that focuses on finding, acquiring, developing, and retaining skilled workers.

What are the benefits of talent management solutions?

Highly skilled employees who are motivated and engaged in their work are among the most powerful assets your business has. Good talent management strategies and solutions can bring a number of benefits including:

Improved organizational performance and productivity

When people are in roles that match their strengths – and they’re supported with clear goals and meaningful feedback – they do better work. Teams operate more smoothly, projects move faster, and outcomes improve.

Enhanced retention and institutional stability

Your best employees have specific proprietary knowledge of your specific business, products, and procedures. Good retention and engagement help maintain that solid core of institutional knowledge that cannot be easily replaced.

Stronger employer brand and talent attraction

A well-run talent strategy shows up in your reputation. Organizations that invest in development and create pathways for advancement are more attractive to high-quality candidates – especially in competitive job markets.

Support for innovation and agility

As your business evolves, so should your people. Talent management provides the structure for cross-training, skills upgrades, and pivoting with market changes. As you people progress, your company grows more competitive.

Aligned with business objectives

Talent management connects workforce strategy to business strategy. By tying roles, goals, and development paths to company priorities, it ensures that the organization is always building the capabilities it needs most.

What does an effective talent management strategy look like?

A strong talent management strategy doesn't just check boxes; it builds momentum. It brings clarity to how workforce decisions get made and how employee growth is nurtured over time. While every organization's needs are different, most successful strategies include these core elements:

Workforce planning

Before hiring or promoting, it's essential to understand what skills the organization has and what it needs. Workforce planning looks at talent gaps, succession risks, and business goals to forecast the roles that will be most in demand.

Talent recruiting

Acquiring the right people involves shaping a compelling employer brand, sourcing diverse candidates, and using consistent, data-informed processes to evaluate and select the best fits for both the role and the culture.

Learning and development

Talent strategies work best when development paths are personalized built around an individual's role, aspirations, and real-time performance data. This includes formal training, informal learning, and on-the-job experiences.

Performance management

Effective performance management sets clear goals, supports regular check-ins, and encourages meaningful conversations about progress. It gives both employees and managers the tools to align, adjust, and grow.

Succession planning

Preparing for the future means identifying high-potential talent early and giving them the support they need. It should be part of a broader effort to build bench strength and minimize gaps of institutional knowledge at every level.

Compensation and rewards

Of course, good, competitive wages are essential to attracting talent. But increasingly, retirement benefits, health and wellbeing support and training opportunities can contribute to competing for, retaining and rewarding talent.

Employee engagement

Engagement is a central outcome of good talent management. Especially as automation and AI-powered solutions evolve, it's essential to create a workplace culture where employees are listened to and feedback is acted upon.

What is the talent management process?

Talent management is more of a cycle than a linear process. Each stage informs the next, and together, they create a feedback loop that helps both the organization and its people thrive.

Attract

Start by making your organization a place people want to work. That means communicating a compelling employer brand, designing inclusive hiring practices, and sourcing candidates whose values and skills align with your goals.

Identify

Once candidates are in the pipeline or already part of the team, the next step is identifying who has the potential to grow, lead, or contribute in new ways. This involves structured assessments, performance data, peer feedback, and often, a good communication strategy.

Develop

Development is where talent strategies come to life. Personalized learning paths, mentoring programs, cross-functional projects, and on-demand training. This helps employees gain the skills they need today and build the ones they’ll need tomorrow.

Engage

When taking the temperature of your workforce, ask yourself: Do employees feel valued? Do they see a future? Are their strengths being used? Engaged employees are more productive, more collaborative, and more likely to stay. They can be your best recruiters.

Retain

Of course, retention depends upon competitive wages, but that’s only part of it. You must also ensure clear career paths, ongoing feedback, recognition, flexibility, and a culture that supports well-being and purpose. Loyalty comes from a feeling (and being) valued.

How do talent management tools power smarter HR?

Today’s talent management systems leverage sophisticated technologies to help HR teams make smarter, faster, and more strategic decisions. Here’s a closer look at some of the technologies driving modern talent management:

AI and machine learning

  •  Enhances candidate screening and selection by intelligently parsing resumes and predicting candidate success
  • Personalizes learning and development paths by analyzing employee performance, identifying skill gaps, and recommending targeted training
  • Supports succession planning through predictive analytics, identifying high-potential employees and future leaders based on performance and engagement patterns

Robotic process automation (RPA)

  •  Automates repetitive, administrative HR tasks, including onboarding paperwork, payroll data management, and compliance reporting, freeing HR professionals to focus on strategic tasks
  • Ensures accuracy and consistency in routine processes, significantly reducing human errors and improving compliance

Advanced analytics and data visualization

  • Enables real-time insights into workforce trends, such as turnover patterns, skills shortages, and engagement metrics
  • Provides user-friendly dashboards and intuitive data visualizations, allowing HR leaders to quickly interpret and act on complex workforce data

Cloud-based infrastructure and ERP integration

  • Supports seamless integration between talent management platforms and core enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, ensuring smooth, secure, and consistent data flow across the organization
  • Facilitates centralized data management, making accurate, up-to-date employee information instantly accessible for talent management activities, from recruitment to succession planning

Mobile and remote-access platforms

  • Ensures that HR teams and employees have secure, convenient access to critical talent management functions – anytime, anywhere
  • Supports hybrid and remote workforce models, promoting greater employee engagement and agility

Operational vs. strategic talent management

It’s easy to think of talent management as a single process. In reality, it’s a blend of two equally important perspectives: strategic and operational.

Strategic talent management is the big picture. It’s about aligning workforce goals with business objectives, identifying skill gaps, planning for future roles, and investing in the growth of high-potential individuals. Strategic talent management helps ensure the organization has the capabilities it needs to evolve and thrive not just today, but five years from now.

Operational talent management is the equally important day-to-day side of the business. It involves tasks such as managing job data, tracking compensation, handling employee transitions, and overseeing compliance. These foundational HR functions are often managed through a human resources information system (HRIS), and they help to keep the whole system running smoothly.

Measuring success: Talent management metrics and analytics

It’s hard to improve what you can’t measure. That’s where talent analytics come in. The best talent management programs are backed by data, giving HR and business leaders a clear picture of how their people strategy is working and where it can evolve. Here are a few such metrics:

Employee engagement

Pulse surveys, participation rates, and eNPS (employee net promoter score) help quantify how connected and motivated employees feel. Trends in this data can reveal early signs of burnout, manager effectiveness, or issues that need attention.

Turnover and retention

Tracking turnover – especially in key roles – can signal risks to business continuity. Retention analytics also help identify patterns by department, tenure, or demographic group, allowing for more targeted retention strategies.

Time to hire and quality of hire

How long does it take to fill critical roles, and how successful are those hires once they’re in place? This pairing of speed and performance gives insight into both recruiting efficiency and long-term workforce value.

Learning participation and completion rates

Learning analytics go beyond course completions. They can show who’s upskilling, how learning paths align with role requirements, and where learning investments are making the biggest impact.

Succession readiness

A good succession plan is more than a list of names. Metrics can track how many critical roles have identified successors, how prepared those successors are, and where development is needed to close gaps.
Learn how Infor’s talent management solutions are helping today’s businesses compete at their best.
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