There’s no doubt that a talent management platform – or, in today’s climate, it’s more of a ‘talent retention’ platform – can make or break the delivery of your talent strategy.
Maybe you’ve seen for yourself an HR tech or software system that is simply not being used thereby failing to support an organisation's people strategy.
And, while you know that using it would not just be useful but invaluable to the line manager, the employee, the senior leadership team and your colleagues in the HR team, it is, nonetheless, not being used.
Perhaps you see that log ins are not accessed from one year to the next – and only then when you’ve chased people to update! Or you've heard that the on-screen pages, instructions and the end ‘results’ are so difficult to navigate and understand – and so people forget what they need to do each time they log on.
Perhaps you've had feedback from managers and team members that the system adds no real value and is seen as merely a tick box exercise? Or you thought your brilliant new system would be more customisable or configurable by you and your team than it is in reality – and you’ve been left with a clunky and not-quite-right-for-your-organisation platform. And, when you need support or answers to questions from suppliers, you find generic replies to your very specific queries.
Regardless, the result is the same. You haven’t been able to use the talent information as expected. You see that all the time, resources and budget to get up and running have just not delivered the expected shift in engaging and empowering employees across the organisation.
However, not all talent software systems are like this.
There are crucial questions you need to ask of any provider. They may not be the ones that prospective partners want to answer, but they are fundamental to the success and value of the platform once deployed.
If you have a 360, performance management or succession planning software system that seems to be working against (rather than supporting) your plans, is this the year you take action and get to where you want to be with talent information?
If so, work with a new partner and transfer across.
We’ve been helping organisations do this, so let’s have a conversation and see if we could be right for you.
To help in your initial thinking, we have pulled together the fundamental questions to ask of any potential platform provider.