Integrated Talent Management (ITM) Market Factors – Part 5, Linkage Between Performance, Learning and Succession

 

So far in our ITM Market Factors series, we have covered the market factors of “Consolidation”, “Marketing”, “Niche and ITM Vendors vs. ERP Vendors”, and “ITM Application Portfolios”.

 

HRchitect believes that a number of other factors will impact the evaluation, selection and implementation of ITM applications over the next 12-36 months. In this blog we will cover the increasing important of the linkage between Performance, Learning and Succession when looking at ITM.

 

 

The linkage between Performance, Learning and Succession is increasing in importance for ITM – Many HRchitect customers have discovered that it is impossible to meet all of their requirements with a single vendor application (see earlier blog), and have instead taken a pragmatic approach of identifying the areas where the process linkage across functions is the strongest. Many of these firms see the interactions between Performance Management, Succession Planning and Learning (e.g., gaps highlighted in performance appraisals drive the establishment of learning events, performance ratings feed talent identification programs, identification of high-potential employees as successors results in multi-year development plans) to be an increasingly critical process “cluster” that is best served by integrated technologies. In contrast, recruiting and compensation, while optimally delivered in an integrated solution, can often be segmented and provided by a niche vendor, since the interactions are often more limited.

 

The emergence of this cluster has some implications for the ITM market; those vendors that began with learning management capabilities and have expanded into performance management and succession planning may have a longer-term advantage due to the depth of integrated functionality. However, many of these firms have historically sold to a number of different audiences for their core learning management offerings, and must adjust to the significant challenge of a different, diverse set of stakeholders to be truly effective in the ITM space.

 

 

Solving a piece of the puzzle… 
Matt Lafata, HRchitect