Talent management strategy: A framework for developing your dream team

While good talent management strategies measure recruitment, performance, and retention outcomes, great ones make learning and development a focal point. When an organization’s talent management strategy also includes skill-building programs, team members are five times more likely to have a fulfilling employee experience. Conversely, companies that overlook skill building are 72% more likely to find their employees don’t want to stay a year later.*

HR leaders should design talent management strategies not only to expand the workforce but also to help existing employees do their best work.

This task is easier said than done. Obstacles like managers who don’t know how to translate regular performance into new goals and poor visibility into employee development plans stand in the way. This guide explores ways to problem-solve by building a talent management strategy that attracts, develops, and retains top talent to drive your company’s best performance yet.

* O.C. Tanner, 2023

What’s a talent management strategy?

In HR, talent management strategies combine tools for talent acquisition, learning and development, and succession planning with organizational goals. A successful strategy attracts new talent, then gives them the support they need to reach their full potential at your organization.

These talent management systems give HR teams a structured path for reducing turnover costs and developing future leaders for a high-performing, future-proof workforce.

Why most talent management strategies fall short

“HR has operations and tactics, yes, but those tactics must tie to the overall goal — that’s what makes people strategy business strategy.”
— Luck Dookchitra, former VP of People & Culture at Leapsome

Here are some of the most common missteps small and mid-size organizations make that keep their talent management strategies from sticking.

Treating hiring as the finish line

Talent management isn’t over when a new hire signs their contract, and even the most experienced team members aren’t going to do their jobs perfectly every day. A recent report found that a thoughtful development plan builds on strengths and addresses weaknesses to help employees at all levels grow alongside your organization.

Without a growth plan, employees may feel like they’re stuck in place, which can push them to look for more fulfilling opportunities elsewhere. Meanwhile, data from SHRM revealed that 76% of employees report they’re more likely to stay at companies that support their growth through continuous training.

Siloed performance reviews without a follow-up plan

Performance reviews analyze the past and identify areas where the employee needs more support. However, these reviews also need to point the way forward by connecting feedback with actionable next steps.

Suppose a manager flags that their direct report struggles to clearly communicate project status updates with collaborating team members in other departments. If the manager doesn’t also lay out a clear roadmap for addressing the issue, like requiring updates on specific days every week, the employee is left with unclear expectations and no measurable improvement goals. The problem is likely to turn up again in their next performance review — and the one after that, until they have a game plan they can execute.

“When you share results quickly, involve leaders in decisions, and clearly communicate the actions being taken, employees can see their input creating real change. That visible follow-through is what builds lasting credibility.”
— Monica Sarkar, Co-Founder, at Purple Umbrella

Invisible skill gaps

Understanding where your team’s skills are strong and where they’re lacking is the starting point for workforce planning and employee development. Without this knowledge, you’re making recruitment and development decisions based on instinct, not evidence.

One of the most common scenarios that leads to poor skill gap visibility for HR teams is when information lives in managers’ heads instead of a centralized recording system. Organizations need to use a talent management platform to record the data permanently and analyze it for actionable insights and trends. 

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💪Turn hunch-based skill assessment into formal development strategies
Leapsome helps organizations easily store skill data for each employee and create personalized development plans for continuous growth using AI to uncover hidden gaps.
👉 Learn more

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Untangling the talent acquisition cycle

Talent acquisition brings good candidates on board so your learning and development system can turn them into great ones. Each stage of the process builds on the last:

• Planning: Align workforce priorities and business objectives. Review the latest workforce data and discuss talent needs with managers to determine the most important roles and current skill gaps.

• Attracting: Define the ideal candidates to fill the roles. Target potential candidates with similar skill sets and those who can grow into them with the right training.

• Selecting: Evaluate applicants by examining their skill sets and culture fit. Prioritize long-term organizational growth by focusing on those most likely to make a lasting impact and stick around.

• Onboarding: Set new hires up for success by providing a structured, customized onboarding program. Clearly lay out expectations and share learning and mentorship resources early.

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🚀 Get new hires ready for a smooth takeoff
Leapsome Onboarding helps you prepare incoming talent with easy access to pre-boarding essentials and personalized onboarding journeys that make the most of automated reminders and task management tools.
👉 Learn more

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• Retaining: Reduce turnover potential with tactics like outlining motivational career trajectories and recognizing employees for their outstanding contributions.

• Transitioning: Have a structured offboarding procedure in place for departing employees. Use structured exit interviews to gather feedback and keep important unwritten knowledge from slipping through the cracks.

How to create a strong talent management strategy in five steps

Following a clear procedure simplifies the talent management process and leaves nothing to chance. Here are five steps to get yours started.

1. Sync talent priorities and business objectives

Not having clear goals for your talent initiatives turns them into expensive distractions. Without a way to connect people strategy to direct business outcomes, your efforts may not make much of an impact on your company’s growth.

Start by mapping out organizational goals and identifying the roles and skill sets most relevant to achieving them, then decide which metrics are most relevant for tracking progress. For example, you may want to develop AI competence through efficient prompt training for software engineers. To see how the engineers are doing with that goal, you can run periodic skill assessments and track productivity gains through lead time.

“HR often gets forgotten when it comes to strategic objectives, yet we’re just as critical to the business outcomes as any other function. The first step is defining exactly what we want to achieve with our people strategy, then everything else should ladder up to those measurable goals. When you do that, your initiatives start to hold real weight at the leadership table.” 
— Monica Sarkar, co-founder at Purple Umbrella

2. Bridge hiring, performance management, and development

When the employee lifecycle is broken into isolated segments, it’s much harder to put each piece in conversation to create a cohesive and strategic talent management strategy. The simplest way to close the gaps is by using an HRIS that puts all your data in one place.

With research from McKinsey showing that only about 20% of companies effectively connect performance management to talent development programs, getting this right can give you a real competitive advantage.

3. Equip managers with the right knowledge and tools to develop talent

Managers are the first people to see skill gaps and regular progress that ultimately drive employee development. Give them everything they need to succeed, including access to critical employee data and training for conducting productive 1:1s and providing structured feedback. This way, it’s easier for them to spot room for growth and guide their direct report accordingly.

4. Define structured development and career progression pathways

Give employees personalized frameworks to address their weak points based on past performance data and career progression milestones. Generic or unstructured learning programs are both ineffective and hard for employees to follow, so structured career development plans can help them upskill efficiently.

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🧑‍🏫 Help employees become model students
Leapsome Learning has many tools employees can use to sharpen their skills and support business objectives with an expert-curated content library and unified learning and performance data.
👉 Explore Learning 

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5. Monitor talent outcomes for continuous improvement

Quantitative performance metrics, like internal promotion rate and time to productivity, put your talent management process on firm footing. Tracking this data over time allows you to adapt your talent strategy on the fly to ensure it keeps pace with evolving organizational needs.

Turn talent management into a daily practice with Leapsome

Talent management strategies fail for many reasons. Neglecting to factor in learning and development programs is a common culprit, but isolated systems and disjointed data are just as damaging.

Leapsome provides the infrastructure HR leaders need to design and operationalize a talent management framework that’s based on hard data instead of intuition. Our centralized platform combines HRIS and talent management to turn disconnected HR processes into a strategy that’s cohesive and coherent. By tying everything together, you can use evidence-backed strategies to create meaningful links between your employees’ current skills and your operational goals.

“Know your outcome goal, measure progress, and keep a dashboard — it keeps people teams focused on strategy, not just daily noise.” – Luck Dookchitra, VP People & Culture at Leapsome

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👷 Build your own custom talent management strategy command center
With Leapsome, you can put all your recruitment, learning and development, and employee retention efforts in the same place, complete with AI-driven coaching and automated HR functions.
👉 Request a demo

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FAQ

What are the benefits of using talent management software?

There are a lot of upsides to talent management software. Some of the most important benefits include:

• Replacing manual processes with streamlined automated workflows
• Bringing disjointed performance and employee data under the same roof
• Linking learning and development programs directly to performance
• Providing real-time visibility into top performers and turnover risks

What software is available for talent management?

We’re confident that Leapsome is the best choice for talent management software. When you partner with us, you get deep insights into a fully interconnected employee lifecycle with AI-powered tools for better people and employee engagement management. Plus, it’s easy to implement with migration support that moves all your data quickly, so you can start helping your employees improve right away.