Talent management and performance management are two relatively new disciplines HR technology firms are staking out for automation. Depending upon your definition talent management encompasses hiring, on-boarding, developing, managing, motivating and promoting your most important asset, people. I prefer to think of it as managing the flow of talent through the organization. Performance management would seem to be a sub-discipline of talent management focused on feedback, coaching and rewarding operational effectiveness of people in the organization.

Clearly these are rapidly assuming a dominant place in strategic HR technology management planning. Industry studies show that almost half of HR technology focus is on talent/performance management system implementation by almost 2:1 over the next two categories, HR process improvement and greater involvement in strategic business-driven issues.

So where might compensation management fit in this management rue? Well not to overcook a metaphor, but think of CM as the stock with which a good chef uses to prepare a tasty rue. Compensation management as we define it means defining the position descriptions necessary to achieve organizational objectives, evaluating them appropriately, assessing their worth relative to the market and developing a philosophy to guide strategic pay policy and decision making.  In other words, just the basic ingredients for a good stock rue:

•       Consistent and comprehensive job descriptions from which to initiate and guide hiring and on-boarding
•       Clear and concise guidelines to frame employee feedback and coaching
•       Equitable and defensible ratings to support developing, managing and motivating talent
•       Reasoned external comparisons that help attract and retain key personnel
•       Organizational management that is aligned and driven by business strategic goals.

Developing and deploying technology that addresses these needs in an integrating solution also lets you redesign some of your basic HR processes in a way that promotes both efficiency and innovation within the HR organization.

So regardless of which management is your priority, make sure you build your rue with the best ingredients possible. DB Squared® has great ingredients; can we help you fix something?

(Inspired by http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/adimComment?id=52796&from=ww_editorial_2611)