In April, we were asked to help a large oil and gas firm with the selection of a talent management vendor. We quickly lined up our team of analysts to talk to the client and discover their true opportunities. They told us they were very unhappy with their current Performance Management Vendor and Learning Management Vendor and wanted to add full talent management to their base SAP platform. We asked if they had any of their needs documented so we could be prioritizing their time. When we received their RFP-like document they were clearly speaking in talent management terms, but were only looking for a plan to help their high end HIPO´s with advanced succession planning and some performance management. There was no mention of learning, no mention of talent acquisition and no mention of compensation at all. We set them up with a few vendors who had great systems for Performance Management and Succession Planning, but none of the vendors fit their current needs. It turns out they were really talking about workforce planning ... a classic case of everyone talking the same lingo but meaning different things. So we ask,  as an industry, how do we fix this?

We have been very busy helping HR suppliers align their strategy to offer a full Talent Management suite ... so what exactly is this term "Talent Management?" It seems to mean so many things for so many people yet not all definitions are the same.

So let´s talk about what Talent Management is not:

It is not Learning Management,

It is not Talent Acquisition, and

It is not assessments and testing.

Here is how I define the marketplace.

Talent Acquisition = All aspects of recruitment up to the time of offer including: Sourcing, Employment Branding, Posting/ Recruitment Advertising, Assessments, Interviewing, Checking (background, references, skills), etc....

Talent Management = All aspects of managing the people side of your business throughout their career, except transactional processing. This does include Talent Acquisition, Learning Management Systems, Leadership Development, Performance Management Systems, Compensation Systems, On boarding and Succession Planning.

Human Capital Management = Talent Management + Talent Acquisition + The traditional aspects of HR Administration including Payroll, Time and Attendance, record keeping, benefits administration, plan design, employee self service and manager self service.

Wouldn´t it be nice if we as HR professionals and HR Vendors all talked the same lingo so we could really understand each other´s needs?

Talent Management sure seemed to be the talk to the exhibit floor at last week´s HR Tech Conference.  The majority of the vendors were promoting their Talent Management offerings yet very few have a comprehensive offering. How many vendors are promoting full talent management, yet only a few have a comprehensive solution? In fact, no one has it all. YET!