Continuing in our series of top 10 HR trends for 2022; today we are looking at talent marketplace.
by Karen Notaro
According to gloat.com, a talent market place is a shift away from the way we managed talent in the past.
Historically, talent management roles were simple but rigid; individuals were hired to do a role and there was a hierarchical order to things were everyone had a manager and a function to fulfil, from the bottom of the organisation to the top.
Talent management tools were built to fulfil a function that was mainly an administrative one.
In the world of work today, HR is required to be much more strategic, and this is where the talent marketplace comes in.
What is a talent marketplace?
As gloat say, an internal talent marketplace is a two-sided platform that uses the power of AI to align people (and more importantly their skills) to roles, projects, gigs etc in the organisation.
We can already see the impact that marketplaces have on our lives; we no longer need phones to just make calls, but to be able to live message, send emails, take pictures, make video calls and search the internet – all at the touch of a button.
We don’t need to call for a cab when we can use Uber to take us where we need to go.
We don’t need to stay in a hotel when we can be in a home from home in an Airbnb.
Talent marketplaces utilize the same model to transform the way we work. As HR professionals, you can get access to qualified people who can be deployed where it matters, to drive forward change as priorities shift.
Benefits of a talent marketplace?
Enable agility – a word that is often banded around. Agility is the ability to think, react and evolve quickly, which many organisations have been able to demonstrate during the recent pandemic. By having visibility of the skills that your people possess, you can ensure that your talent is deployed to the right place at the right time.
Breaking down the hierarchy – Organisations tend to be hierarchical, which leads to people working in silos, with individuals only knowing what is happening in their part of the organisation (or worst-case scenario, in their own teams). People’s skills are then only utilised at a local level and can stop the individual being able to flourish and grow. A talent marketplace can help to break down those barriers, which encourages cross-departmental working, connectivity, and collaboration.
Engagement, productivity & retention – Perhaps some of the biggest advantages; a talent marketplace can enable people to move across the organisation, which is ultimately going to improve their experience at work and therefore their engagement with the organisation. Their productivity will increase as they do work based on their skills and strengths, and they will want to stay working as part of the organisation, thus enabling retention.
Upskilling & reskilling – Talent marketplaces take the traditional L & D initiatives and enable people to put into practice what they know and share with others.
Belonging – Talent marketplaces can enable leaders to create a culture of belonging by removing bias and prejudices and ensure that people can bring their best selves to work.
How to build an internal talent marketplace?
- Map the user journey
- Engage managers in the process
- Encourage people to seek experiences outside of their team or organisation
- Embrace unconventional career pathways to deviate from traditional career progression
Deloitte suggest using an iterative design approach that begins with a minimum viable product and build from there.
They go further to say that in order to advance your iterative talent marketplace it should follow the 4P’s:
- Purpose – define your strategy based on different possible use cases and measurable outcomes
- Plan – determine the iterative steps required to activate the internal talent marketplace
- Programme – define the policies and processes that enable talent and career mobility
- Platform – work towards an integrated technology ecosystem
Finding the right talent marketplace platform for you
Gloat.com in 2022 conducted some research to help. The research sets out the types of questions you should be asking when looking for the right platform for your organisation:
- Has it been successfully implemented elsewhere?
- Does it provide the full range of internal opportunities?
- Is the matching based on more than skills alone?
- Is it recruiters or people focused?
- Does its use of AI actually improve the matching process?
- Is it scalable?
- Is it self-evolving?
- It is user experience driven?
- Is it actionable?
- Can it provide additional insights based on user generated data?
- Does it promote equal opportunity and D&I?
- Does it integrate with your HR ecosystem?
- Is it secure?
- Are change enablement and implementation help included?
Creating an effective internal talent marketplace starts by understanding peoples experience at work; where are the good parts? Where are the barriers? How can they be removed to enable you to more towards a more agile workforce where talent can be moved to where it is needed most to deal with challenges and shifting priorities?
You also need an effective workforce strategy in place to show you where are your gaps that the talent marketplace can fill.
It is not a quick process and may mean a major change in your HR management but by having this in place you are going to be able to enable a greater experience at work for your people and maintain a competitive advantage as an employer of choice.
