Executive Briefing:

Technology: An Enabler of Integrated

Talent Management

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“Companies with good information consistently outperform
companies without good information in the competition for talent.
Companies with excellent employment administrative systems,
practices, and discipline invariably have the best information. Even
the best recruiter is at a severe competitive disadvantage without
excellent information. The manager of an employment function
simply can’t manage without it – period!”1

Professor Mike Boyd, Bentley College, Cambridge, MA.

1 Please see: Automating Employment Management: TRM, the New Generation

by H.Michael Boyd, Ph.D, http://www.aoep.com/articles/articles.html

Sponsored by
Executive Briefing July, 2004

By Allan Schweyer

Technology: An Enabler of Integrated Talent Management

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Technology: An Enabler of Integrated Talent Management
Key Points: As a term, “Talent Management” has
1. Integrated Talent Management (TM) is a real initiative, led from gained significant use among the
the top, and underway in many of the leading firms in North analyst, consultant and HR vendor
America; communities over the past few years.
2. TM technology is not a driver of talent management initiatives, it This isn’t surprising; thought leaders
is an enabler; constantly seek new ways to express
3. TM technologies lag behind corporate desire to initiate integrated ideas and vendors to differentiate their
TM in most cases, however, corporations themselves are often not offerings. The real test for a new term
aligned to take advantage of integrated TM platforms. or idea is whether early adopters in the
practitioner community accept it and
then how it is implemented. Morton’s
Talent management, particularly integrated talent management, study reveals that talent management is
is complex and difficult, calling for the aid of today’s talent a real set of initiatives in the majority of
management technologies. Despite its complexity, more organizations the 75 firms she surveyed. Moreover, the
than ever are striving to build integrated talent management study shows that these firms are taking
capacities. A groundbreaking recent study by Lynne Morton (Principal a holistic view of talent management to
of Performance Improvement Solutions) for the Conference Board, include both the components of talent
involving 75 large companies, revealed that “boards of directors are acquisition and those of talent retention
taking a direct interest in TM integration, and senior leadership teams (see figure 1).
are involved. TM is now more than a human resources issue; it is
becoming an integral part of corporate plans and actions.”2

2 Lynne Morton, Integrated and Integrative Talent Management, 2004 The Conference Board, p.4

Technology: An Enabler of Integrated Talent Management

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 Figure 1: The Talent Management Continuum

In the diagram below, talent management is represented

as an ongoing exercise that is both integrated in terms of
human capital performance drivers (broad acquisition and
retention elements) and with the driving elements of the
organization itself including corporate culture, vision and
business objectives. The Human Capital Results represent those
competencies on which the organization feels it can best
compete and differentiate itself from the competition. Normally,
an organization might concentrate on three or four human
capital results areas and then align its corporate identity and
talent management initiatives (performance drivers) toward the
achievement of real competitive advantage in those areas.3

3 Please see Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood’s article “Capitalizing on Capabilities”, June 2004, Harvard Business Review

Technology: An Enabler of Integrated Talent Management

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THE CURRENT STATE OF TALENT MANAGEMENT
Despite the promising findings of Morton’s Conference Board
report, the average organization has not taken efforts to
integrate its currently “siloed” talent management initiatives.
In fact, in practical terms, “talent management” is still a
phrase used largely to describe the talent acquisition phase
of the continuum diagrammed above, when speaking about
technology, and perhaps to describe leadership development or
succession planning otherwise. In most organizations, talent
management technology means a somewhat advanced applicant
tracking system tied to a corporate career site front end with
integration to limited sourcing and screening tools. Normally
there are no analytics tools for planning, no comprehensive
means to recruit for the entire workforce and certainly no
links to the talent retention, employee development or
performance management components of the continuum. For
most organizations, cutting edge, technology-enabled talent
management looks like figure two.
Figure 2: Current State of The Art
Technology-Enabled Talent Management
Few organizations are capable of integrated talent acquisition,
analytics and talent relationship management (TRM) to the
degree represented above, yet the diagram represents only a
Technology: An Enabler of Integrated Talent Management
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very small portion of an integrated
talent management platform. In this
diagram, technology is used to integrate
the sourcing efforts of the corporate
career site, passive candidate mining
and efforts to reach ex-employees. It
also assumes a technology enabled
and integrated employee referral
program. The technology is then used
to automatically screen applicants and
place them into virtual pools of top,
average and below average prospects for
TRM, recruiting and analysis purposes.
Based on the organization’s minimum
qualifications, the tools can also be used
to reject some applicants outright. This
rather uninspiring level of automation
and integration though, is still a fantasy
for the majority of organizations.
ADVANCED TALENT MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS understood and established process
FOR ACQUISITION in many of America’s most respected
organizations. Specifically, more than
half of the firms surveyed for this report
identified themselves as having “talent
management” initiatives underway in
which strategic workforce activities,
including recruitment, leadership
development, succession planning,
performance management and retention
were in various stages of being integrated
into a talent management process.4

However, the problem of enabling

Figure 3: Total workforce Acquisition
technology remains unanswered. So much
so that very few respondents to Morton’s
Most organizations that have spent time and money on
surveys felt that technology had a high
recruitment technologies have first acquired a recruiting system
impact on successful talent management
for the permanent or salaried worker. Some have then purchased
initiatives, prompting Morton to
or built specialized systems for hourly and contingent workers.
comment:
To date, very few have integrated these solutions into one total
workforce acquisition system capable of handling all types of
“HR technology is somewhat of a surprise
workers (including internal candidates) on a global basis.
on the low-impact side, especially
since several companies interviewed
Few HR software vendors even provide integrated platforms for
are viewing it as important at the start.
all types of workforce acquisition (let alone integrated talent
Companies hold out high hopes for
management systems). In fact, the term “talent management”
the potential of HR technology to help
has been co-opted by some to describe discreet components
them cut across and integrate initiatives,
of talent acquisition (which is itself only part of what can be
but it isn’t happening just yet. Perhaps
called talent management). With so many different suppliers
HR technology is being viewed now
calling their tools “talent management systems” and so many
solely as an enabler, not a driver of TM
conflicting and competing definitions, it is sometimes difficult
integration.”5
to convey a precise meaning of the term.

On a positive note, emerging research, surveys and studies into

best practice, such as the Conference Board’s 2004 report cited
above, provide clear insight into the real world of successful
talent management and from this we can draw on examples
of best practice. The report not only dispels any notion that
the term talent management is simply semantic, it goes
much further, proving that talent management is a distinct,

4 Lynne Morton, Integrated and Integrative Talent Management, 2004 The Conference Board, p.10
5 Ibid, p.14

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 Clearly one bridge to effective talent management is technology, that say talent management mean
however, the Conference Board report reveals technology to be a talent acquisition - getting people in. It
weak link in the talent management value chain. As we’ve seen above, doesn’t yet mean succession planning,
this is most likely due to the failure both on the demand side of the development, performance management,
equation (organizations are not ready and/or are not aligned to take etc., and those driving it, those with the
advantage of integrated talent management technology) and the word “talent” in their titles are really on
supply side (vendors confuse the marketplace by referring the recruiting end.”8
to enhanced applicant tracking systems as talent management
systems).6 Part of the problem according to
HCI’s TM panel and others, is the
way organizations are structured.
WHY TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED TALENT For example, to integrate workforce
MANAGEMENT LAGS acquisition, procurement specialists
(often responsible for contingent
As above, there exists no fully integrated software to facilitate
workforce acquisition) would have to
comprehensive talent acquisition (contract, temporary, diversity, full-
come together with human resources
time, hourly, etc.) let alone the retention, performance management,
and recruiting specialists (responsible
development and planning side of the equation.
for salaried hiring). The problem is that
these groups are worlds apart in their
According to the Human Capital Institute’s thought leader panel on
objectives and incentives. To integrate
Talent Management Technologies, the most advanced integrated
acquisition with retention efforts might
platforms are currently offered by enterprise resource planning
present an even greater organizational
software (ERP) providers such as PeopleSoft, Oracle and SAP. However,
hurdle.
these systems still tend to fall down on robustness when compared
to “point” solutions providers’ products (i.e. recruitment systems) and
“We’ve talked about the importance
because the ERP solutions are normally inflexible in terms of adding
of retention in talent management
third party components to their platforms.
technology and nothing has been
done about it except for facilitating an
Another area of promise is in outsourcing all or some components
internal labour market – (an intranet
of talent management technology to ASPs and HR Business Process
site for job advertisements). It’s still on
Outsourcers, such as Exult/Hewitt. In the case of Exult, a semi-
the horizon and not driving purchase
complete TM platform has been constructed by partial integration
decisions now. It’s not an objective
of several “best of breed” solutions (i.e. recruitment, learning, vendor
seriously sought after. The ability to turn
and performance management systems). The results for customers to
retention and recruitment into a full
date, however, have been decidedly mixed.7
lifecycle approach is challenged by the
problem of ownership in organizations
Some “best of breed” TM technology providers are making headway
– recruiters don’t own retention,
but the main problem, according to HCI’s TM technologies Thought
just recruitment. Until we reform the
Leader Panel, is that organizations themselves aren’t ready for end-
organization we won’t drive those
to-end talent management system platforms, “Most organizations
results.” 9

6 Author interview with Lynne Morton, July, 2004

7 As evidenced by early adopters partial dissatisfaction with their HR BPO experience (i.e. Motorola). Talent Management Technologies Panel
Session, HCI, July 13, 2004
8 Elaine Orler, Talent Management Technologies Panel Session, HCI, July 13, 2004
9 Ibid

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It would seem then that organizations have a great deal to do since 1994, when he pioneered e-
before software vendors might invest the time and expense to build recruitment solutions for Human
integrated TM platforms. At this stage the vendors appear to have Resources Development Canada. In
adopted a strategy to support “thought leadership” in TM and to 1999, he co-founded the Online
push their technologies forward very gradually, even mislabeling them Recruiters’ Association of Canada.
“Talent Management Systems” – perhaps in order to move the market In 2000 and 2001, he worked with
to greener pastures for all concerned. Reed Business Information in Boston
to build information portals for
technical professions while attending
CONCLUSION graduate school at Harvard University.
Most recently, Schweyer was a senior
Though nearly every large (Global 2000) organization uses talent researcher, analyst and consultant with
management technologies, the current state of the art is mostly HR.com and the editor of HR.com’s
limited to purpose specific solutions that do not integrate with each staffing vertical. His first book, Talent
other. For example, a recruitment management system that is unable Management Systems, was published by
to leverage information from a competency system, or a learning John Wiley & Sons this past February.
management system that does not inform nor is informed by a Allan writes a weekly article on talent
performance management system. management for Inc.com

The advances many organizations are making in integrated talent

management and the evidence that these initiatives are being driven ABOUT THE HUMAN CAPITAL
by corporate priorities – from the top –is welcome news. However, INSTITUTE
these initiatives will remain largely discrete in practice until the
enabling piece – technology – catches up, even if that means in- The Human Capital Institute is a
house development for some organizations. catalyst for innovative new thinking in
talent acquisition, development and
deployment. Through research and
collaboration, our programs collect
About the Author original, creative ideas from a field
of top executives and the brightest
thought leaders in strategic HR and
talent management. Those ideas are
then transformed into measurable, real-
world strategies that help our members
attract and retain the best talent, build a
diverse, inclusive workplace, and leverage
individual and team performance
throughout the enterprise.

Allan Schweyer is the executive director of the Human Capital

Institute, a membership organization, think tank, and educational
resource for professionals in recruiting and talent management,
based in Washington, D.C. Schweyer, who is based in Montreal,
Quebec, has been at the forefront of human resources technologies

Technology: An Enabler of Integrated Talent Management

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Acknowledgements:

This Executive Briefing is made possible by Recruitmax, sponsor of

HCI’s Talent Management Technologies Learning Track

ABOUT RECRUITMAX:

Recruitmax is all about the people. Our passion is to build software

and provide services that ensure you get the right people in the
right jobs at the right time. Our products are easy to use yet robust
enough to meet the needs of complex enterprise organizations. Over
500 companies in more than 40 countries use Recruitmax because:
passion is in everything we do, ease of use and flexibility guide our
software and we have consistently been recognized as a leader in
innovation and customer service.

The Human Capital Institute gratefully acknowledges the financial

and volunteer contributions of our founding partners. They include:

– AIRS
– The Association of Executive Search Consultants
– BrassRing
– The Center for Talent Retention
– HRsmart
– Monster.com
– Peopleclick
– Taleo
– TruStar Solutions
– Unicru
- Webhire
– Monster Government Solutions
– Kenexa
– Talentology
– Eliyon

Technology: An Enabler of Integrated Talent Management

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