What is Total Talent Management?  

The past few years have brought significant change to the world of employment. Much of the top talent in several industries are choosing to work as gig workers, freelancers, and contingent employees rather than full-time, permanent employees. As much as 40% of the total workforce is now contingent, creating challenges for companies as they try to integrate non-permanent workers into their company. Total talent management (TTM) provides a potential solution to this growing problem.

What is Total Talent Management?

Total talent management takes a comprehensive approach to managing an organization’s talent. In this model, rather than delegating full-time employees to the HR department and part-time or contingent talent to the procurement department, the same team handles all workers. This model breaks down some of the barriers between permanent and non-permanent talent and helps the company maintain consistency with all of its people.

Including both Employees and Non-Employees in the Talent Pool

Today’s organizations rely increasingly on freelancers and gig-economy workers to help bring in talent that they don’t necessarily need full-time. Sometimes, aligning this contingent workforce with the business’s strategies and philosophies is challenging when managed separately from the full-time employees.

The goal of TTM is to align the total talent, including these non-employees, with the business strategy and manage all types of labor in the same way. Having a mix of employees and non-employees allows for greater flexibility in resource allocation. Non-employees can be brought in for specific projects or tasks, providing the company with agility to scale up or down based on workload and requirements.

Embracing the Full Talent Cycle

TTM embraces the full talent cycle, including talent acquisition, talent development, performance management, workforce planning, and succession planning. Rather than having one department that brings people into the company and another that works on keeping them productive in their roles, TTM encompasses all of these roles into one talent management model.

Measuring Progress Using Tech and Analytics

A final component of TTM is the use of technology and analytics to measure the progress of the company’s talent. Today, numerous HRIS and VMS’s now offer combined TTM solutions. This component helps ensure everyone is working toward a mutual goal and helps the organization increase performance. By measuring progress and outcomes consistently across all talent, the company can potentially save money and increase profits.

4 Benefits of Total Talent Management

Successfully implementing a total talent management strategy will help your company maximize the effectiveness of each of your workers, regardless of employment status. This brings several distinct benefits, including:

1. Greater Visibility and Control of Workforce

Seeing the people on your team is easier with a TTM approach. Greater visibility means a better understanding of the spending done by the workforce, whether contingent or full-time. A TTM approach keeps top-tier talent easily accessible, even if they are not full-time employees. Using contract or gig workers can also reduce the workload on the full-time talent, which improves productivity across the board. Having greater visibility combined with greater control can help save money by ensuring spending across all workforces is seen and tracked.

2. Flexibility to Adapt to Changing Business Needs and Market Conditions

The TTM approach is agile, which means you can move people as needed to ensure the talent is in the right roles at the right time. Because a brand is not limited to the traditional hiring techniques other companies use, they are able to make strategic decisions about acquiring talent and getting the right people in place as quickly as possible when needs or market conditions change.

3. Focusing on Value, not Status

One of the drawbacks of traditional HR-based hiring models is the focus on the status of the employee as full-time vs. part-time or contingent becomes paramount. With TTM, the focus shifts to the value the individual brings to the company, regardless of their employment status. When people are honored for that value, they are better able to contribute their unique skills and expertise, leading to a more productive and collaborative work environment.

4. Strengthening of the Employer Brand

A non-traditional workforce allows you to produce better products or services for your clients. Not only does this improved product or service strengthen your company’s brand, but being able to integrate both contingent and permanent workforce into your daily operations smoothly shows that your business is an employer of choice in a crowded field. This, in turn, can help you acquire even more top talent because your company will stand out among the workers you want most.

What are the Challenges of Total Talent Management?

Integrating a contingent workforce with traditional, full-time employees is not always a seamless process. Like any hiring or talent management model, TTM does have some challenges.

Difficulty of Implementation

First, implementing TTM is complicated. Companies require specialization to be able to implement a TTM plan well. Many choose to partner with a talent consulting firm to help set up their TTM strategy effectively and utilize the specialized knowledge of the workforce consulting firm.

Need for Strategic Partnerships

For a TTM system to work, the HR and procurement departments must work together closely and build a strong partnership. If the business is benefiting from a managed services provider to assist with contingent talent, they also need to roll that into their TTM. In addition, any stakeholders in the company must be on board with the plan. All parties’ responsibilities must be clearly laid out and followed, or the system will not work.

Requirement of the Right Tech

Finally, TTM requires specific technology to manage and evaluate the various team members, both non-employees and employees. For example, brands may need to use a freelancer management system to keep track of the work of contractors and freelancers. This technology may be different than what is traditionally used by HR departments, so there is a learning curve and an investment involved. Partnering with a managed services provider that knows these technologies and then integrating the MSP into the TTM planning can help.

Working with an MSP Consulting Service Can Help

What is total talent management? For many companies, it is the solution to keep all of their team members unified and pushing for a common goal. Yet it is not always easy to implement. That’s where consultants come in.

 

As companies strive to improve their branding, streamline their hiring processes, and reduce their costs, the need for professional consulting services is clear. Monument Consulting offers Consulting Services to help companies implement, manage, and support contingent labor. Our MSP consulting services can easily tie into a TTM program to bring all of your talent to the same page.

If you are looking for help with TTM, reach out to us to learn more about our MSP consulting service