What is total talent management?
Total talent management, also known as total workforce management, is the practice of managing permanent employees and external workers under the same umbrella – from full- and part-time employees to service providers and contingent staff.
In the wake of the pandemic and socio-economic headwinds, companies increasingly rely on more contingent workers and service providers to augment their core employee base – and gain the flexibility to ride the ups and downs of shifting conditions. What people want from their employers is also changing. Today many people value greater flexibility at work but still crave security, causing companies to employ more strategic workforce planning tactics to attract and retain these workers.
Recent research shows that 50% of organisations are sourcing the talent they need by increasing their use of the external workforce. And 28.2% of execs say they are prioritising changing their operating models, including balancing their full-time workforce with external workers.
To help them adapt to these new realities, HR and procurement teams need to work closer together to create a complete picture of their company’s total workforce – and a seamless experience for everyone. That’s where total talent management comes in.
Total talent management defined
Total talent management is a consistent strategy and experience for the entire workforce – covering planning, staffing, onboarding, and payment for various types of labour in their organisation, including contingent workers, service providers, and permanent employees. Also known as total workforce management, the framework involves combining organisational strategy with technology to tightly integrate the human capital management (HCM) systems used to manage permanent employees with the vendor management systems (VMS) typically used to manage contingent workers and service providers.
The benefits of a total talent strategy
With visibility into your entire workforce, you can make sure you always have the right talent and skills to fit your workforce plan. Here are some other key advantages that can help the chief human resource officer and chief procurement officer do their jobs more effectively in a constantly changing landscape:
Greater visibility into all available talent thanks to system integration and tighter orchestration between HR and procurement teams.
Smarter workforce decision-making with a clear view of all available skillsets and roles.
More strategic talent acquisition by hiring based on an accurate inventory of current skills and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, and tapping into external talent to suit fluctuating needs.
Optimal use of available skills with accurate tracking and monitoring across permanent and external talent pools.
Lower costs and greater agility by scaling up to meet shifting demands with external workers rather than resource-intensive permanent employees, workforce costs can be kept lean while avoiding duplicated roles and efforts.
Tighter alignment with business strategy through visibility into all segments and company goals.
Reduction in compliance complexity using intelligent automation to manage regulatory requirements across markets and your entire workforce, from navigating local labour and tax laws to ensuring payment aligns with work performed.
Total talent management implementation challenges
As we already touched on, total talent management involves organisational and technology alignment – and both sides of this equation bring their own implementation challenges. Many organisations, for example, struggle with the following:
Organisational silos particularly between HR and procurement. Without shared data from integrated systems, a successful total talent strategy will be very difficult to carry out.
Limited communication between teams without easy ways to collaborate and act on shared data.
Lack of aggregated, meaningful data for advanced and actionable intelligence about total organisational talent.
Disparate systems that don’t communicate with each other, forcing teams to rely on slow, manual, and potentially error-prone data-sharing methods.
Lack of insight into the external workforce by only having an HCM solution that doesn’t offer the depth of information available with integration to a VMS.
Thankfully, there are software tools and strategies that can help organisations jump over these hurdles.
Support your total talent management strategy with the right technology
To help all teams excel at a successful total talent management strategy, there are a variety of technology solutions to choose from, but not all of them are created equal. At a minimum, here are key features to look for:
Seamless integration between VMS and HCM/HRIS systems. This is priority one, allowing everyone to act on shared, standardised data and intelligence.
Collaboration features for HR, procurement teams, and other stakeholders such as shared document management, reporting, and a consistent UX so that all teams act in concert.
Support for the entire talent life cycle across all external labour, including freelancers, gig workers, service providers, and consultants. This allows businesses to source and manage their external workers throughout the process of acquiring, onboarding and offboarding, managing, training, and paying them.
AI and automation tools that can dramatically speed up processes, eliminate repetition, automate compliance, and more.
Reporting and dashboards for sharing important insights and analytics to help shape a total workforce management strategy and carry out business strategy faster.
One consistent UX for all types of workers.
Compliance features such as tenure policy notifications, access audits, pay parity reports, and workers’ council approvals.
Creating and executing a winning total talent management strategy does require some legwork, but the advantages it promises – including being able to survive and thrive in a world in flux – are well worth the effort. And the right tools and modern software solutions can help ease this transition.
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