Siloed Data Is Inhibiting Talent Management

Siloed Data Is Inhibiting Talent Management

As workforce composition becomes more complex, organisations need to adopt increasingly sophisticated people management practices, including Total Talent Management. Competition for in-demand talent is intense. But data-driven planning gives organisations the competitive edge they need to secure the right type of worker, at the right time, and at the right cost.

However, most organisations don’t have effective workforce analytics. They continue to rely on transactional-level data, which focus on what has happened in the past. But little time is spent predicting what might happen in the future, so organisations lack the deep insights that are required for truly meaningful decision making. As a result, in the long-term, they will struggle to adopt more sophisticated people practices.

Lack of Technology Alignment

Part of the reason why organisations aren’t using workforce data more effectively is because it’s collected and managed in silos. Contingent workforce data is managed in a VMS; permanent recruitment and RPO data is held in an ATS; and neither the two shall meet. These technologies are growing and overlapping, yet there is habitually little alignment between them. In fact, according to our research, 94% of organisations lack alignment between their technology platforms, and 52% have made no active steps towards rectifying this.

Lack of Technology Alignment

If organisations can streamline the millions of data points involved in talent procurement, they will be better able to predict future demand, challenges and opportunities. If your future growth is likely to lie in an area where you have limited skills availability, you’ll know it’s time to act to fill that void. Equally, if a certain business area is likely to constrict in the years ahead, and you already have an abundance of talent here, you’ll be able to look at ways to redeploy this talent into new positions elsewhere in the organisation. Since skill requirements are constantly changing, having a complete view of talent and resources will be invaluable in the future of work.

Collaborating on the Total Talent Management Journey

To break down the barriers that exist between data sources, strong collaboration will be required between the two departments that are responsible for talent acquisition: HR and procurement. Conflicting priorities, differing reporting lines and internal politics often prevent these teams from working as closely as they may want. As a result, they operate across different hiring technologies, so their talent analysis is only based on the proportion of the workforce that they are responsible for. This dilutes the relevancy of their conclusions.

To promote greater collaboration between HR and procurement, 65% of senior HR leaders said the two departments need to work towards the same objectives. While this may be an appropriate solution in some organisations, joint protect teams may prove to be a more realistic and efficient option in others. Whichever way HR and Procurement choose to collaborate, it’s important that they are aligned to a clear and comprehensive workforce strategy – led from the top.

Through greater collaboration, organisations can streamline how they collect and manage their data. This means they will be better positioned to embrace sophisticated people management practices, such as Total Talent Management. They’ll be able to map the skills and availability of internal resources, alongside external resources such as gig workers, contingent workers and statements of work. They’ll also forecast how these skills and talent availability will change in the years ahead. This means they will engage an appropriately skilled workforce to can drive competitive success.

To learn more about the benefits of uniting the workforce in a fully comprehensive talent management programme, we invite you to download our latest ManpowerGroup Solutions whitepaper Breaking Down Barriers: Total Talent Management Comes Of Age.

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