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The way we work has changed in the last few years — and AI has put gas on that fire. The launch of ChatGPT in the fall of 2022 left organizations scrambling to make sure their employees have the right skills for the future.
Talent intelligence can help, but as with all technology initiatives, there are hurdles.
What Is Talent Intelligence?
Talent intelligence pulls from a range of technologies to gather, analyze and implement workforce data to drive talent strategies.
“We need to understand what’s happening today with people in a much more holistic fashion than we have in the past,” said Stacia Garr, co-founder and principal analyst at RedThread Research. “And, then, be able to model out how those types of technologies and ways of working will change over time.”
Though talent intelligence isn't new, the term has evolved. "[It’s] starting to move towards having a singular definition: the analysis of internal and external data, people data, to understand what's happening both inside and outside the organization when it comes to people,” Garr said.
Talent intelligence “connects the dots” when it comes to talent acquisition and retention, explained Luck Dookchitra, vice president of people at Leapsome, a performance and engagement software provider. Talent intelligence brings together hiring, performance and other types of insights, which allow organizations to examine employees’ skills and how they align with the individual’s current role and career path.
This, Dookchitra said, helps engage employees and ensure that workers are in the best positions to benefit a company. “It’s like creating an organizational neural network of information.”
Companies also use talent intelligence to understand the labor market of a specific area, such as when they’re selecting a new site, said Lisa Simon, chief economist at Revelio Labs, a workforce intelligence company. It can identify talent needs, competitive pay rates in the market and common skills among local employees.
“It’s an outward view on labor markets for strategic decision-making on talent sourcing,” she said, adding that doing talent intelligence well depends on having solid data and using advanced analytics.
Talent intelligence can encompass a variety of technologies including labor market intelligence, strategic workforce planning tools, human capital management data, training systems, compensation data and performance management, as AI plays an increasingly significant role in the mix, Dookchitra added.
Related Article: Talent Trouble Ahead: How Workforce Planning Can Save You
Why Talent Intelligence Is So Important Right Now
Many companies are still grappling with low retention rates, labor shortages and recruiting the right employee for the job.
“A data-driven approach to figuring out where the talent is in the first place and what's a realistic goal in terms of talent acquisition is going to become more and more important,” Simon said.
Talent intelligence gives companies the ability to understand the workforce today — the skills needed for the future and the ways jobs are done now compared to the future — and the role technology will play in all of this, Garr said. It helps organizations make predictions and plan for their workforce needs, ensuring they’re staffed appropriately to thrive.
“There’s more nuance to what’s going to be needed to achieve these productivity gains that people are hoping for, and this type of technology enables you to get to that level of nuance and to make data-driven decisions,” Garr explained.
Companies that use talent intelligence well have a strong understanding of their current workforce and can envision how to make adjustments that enable them to execute their business strategy.
Related Article: Times When Your Job Architecture Will Need an Update
Know Before You Dive Into Talent Intelligence
The most important step to getting started with talent intelligence — and any workforce planning strategy for that matter — is ensuring the company has quality data. “It’s a walk-before-you-can-run type of thing where you need to get your data situation in order first before doing anything super fancy with it,” Simon said.
That’s challenging for many organizations, Garr noted. “The data doesn’t have to be perfect, but you need to have decent data, aligned definitions and to be able to bring those data into the same place and use data engineering.”
Another crucial component is understanding and refining the organization’s job architecture — or its roles and hierarchy.
“If you can't say that these are the types of skills that a person who's in this level needs versus the types of skills of somebody who's one level up — if you don't know the difference between level A and B, that data doesn't actually help you,” Garr said.
Dookchitra said talent intelligence forces companies to rethink hiring and the most necessary skills employees need. “It’s a shift in the HR world because it's not about the human anymore, it's about the underlying engineering framework that we have to think about to give people the insights that they need to grow their career.”
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Along with collecting data, companies need to be able to handle and analyze that data and ask the right questions to get usable metrics, Simon said. While technology is a key component of talent intelligence, organizations still need people to do much of the analysis and strategizing.
Talent intelligence is “not something that you turn on, and it’s going to work,” Garr noted. “It’s something that needs continual work and refinement. It’s also about changing the culture and the way the organization makes decisions.”
