Debbie Bolla
Executive Editor
It seems so fitting that we kick off the first issue of the New Year with our Baker’s Dozen for Talent Management Technology. Managing talent is arguably the most important piece of the HR puzzle. Not a day goes by that there isn’t new research about talent: statistics circling the importance of attracting, engaging, and retaining the workforce. It has become a C-Suite issue. In fact, 60 percent of CEOs surveyed by PwC in 2014 say they’re concerned about not having enough talent. But technology is stepping in to help.
Talent acquisition platforms have come a long way since the early days when applicant tracking systems (ATSs) were born out of necessity to replace printed resumes. In our cover story, Powerful Talent Engines, I had the opportunity to dive deep into the changing nature of these ever- important candidate management tools. Dwaine Maltais, executive vice president of Technomedia, sums it up nicely: “An ATS provides companies with a means of managing open positions and building a repository of talent for current and future hiring needs.”
What’s key in Maltais’s definition is building a repository of talent. That is what organizations should be focusing on. How? Companies can rely on these candidate platforms to:
• Build talent pools of active and passive candidates
• Improve the mobile searching and application process through optimization
• Create a social network of referrals
• Integrate with assessments to deliver candidate fit capabilities
• Leverage data analytics to help predict where the best candidates are coming from, who are likely to leave, and who will be most successful.
These functionalities are a far cry from early platforms that were basic workflow systems -and these high-level capabilities matter. Eighty-eight percent of senior management either almost always or sometimes sees the connection between investing in talent management and its business impact, according to Right Management. Plus, Aberdeen Group finds that organizations that have a best-in-class approach to talent acquisition reach twice as many organizational goals over the course of a year.
Find out more on page 8, and be sure to check out which tech provider tops the Baker’s Dozen list on page 13.
Full speed ahead!
