This article will help you quickly compare and evaluate the best talent management systems and other talent software services. As any talent manager knows, there are many tools required to ensure successful talent management within an organization. For example, implementing talent management systems can define the characteristics, authenticity, and resilience across your team. It will help form the recruitment process for the learning and development of employees to the overall management thereafter.
The Best Talent Management Systems
Here’s a shortlist of each talent management program chosen:
- Hellotalent
- ADP workforce now
- SAP SuccessFactors
- Recruitee
- Hiretual
- PeopleStreme
- Bullseye Engagement
- Oleeo
- Pathgather
- MightyRecruiter
Talent Mgmt Software FAQ
Have some questions before moving on? This FAQ is a great place to start.
What is a talent management system?
Talent management is often defined as the following four pillars. These pillars are; recruitment, performance management, learning and development, and compensation management. All four pillars play a very important role within a business strategy
Why is talent management important to HR?
The importance of talent management is vital to HR as it plays a major role in the overall business strategy of the company. It is the commitment to hire, manage, develop and retain employees. This allows businesses to retain and recognize top talent within their employees that will in turn help manage organizational success.
TMS System Comparison Criteria
What are we looking for when we select talent management companies for review? Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria:
- User Interface (UI): Is it clean and attractive?
- Usability: Is it easy to learn and master? Does the company offer good tech support, user support, tutorials, and training?
- Features & Functionality:
- Feedback System – Can employers or hiring managers to rank and report on candidates and team members? Can employees voice concerns and compliments? Is this data then organized and deployed in a useful way?
- AI/automation for sorting – Can CVs and candidate data be ranked with comprehensive AL/automation software? Does it have a solid rating system?
- Onboarding Help – Does the tool offer any solutions for onboarding new talent and providing them with the information, documents, and accounts they may need?
- Document Management and Storage – Is there a way to upload, track, sort, and search relevant candidate documents (like CV, portfolio, certificates, etc.).
- Integrations: Is it easy to connect with other tools? Any pre-built integrations? Does it connect with pre-existing job boards and professional sites like LinkedIn?
- Value for $: How appropriate is the price for the features, capabilities, and use case? Is pricing clear, transparent and flexible?
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Overviews of the Talent Management Software
Here’s a brief description of each of the talent software services that are featured on this top 10 list.
1. Hellotalent – Add position profiles from anywhere and enrich candidate conversations with personalized outreach and agile communication.
Hellotalent’s parent company is Talentsoft, a European leader in cloud-based talent management and learning software. This TMS provides automated social media aggregation, email, CV parsing, job opportunity promotion, and collaboration with comments and mentions.
Many basic features of this tool are available for free, like tags and ratings, access through the mobile app, and 1 document per candidate. A free talent management system, of course, scores quite highly on the Value for Cost section of our evaluation system.
One con to note is that mail campaigns don’t seem to be as feature-rich as they could/should, which is something others on this list touch upon better.
Hellotalent starts at $63.50/month and has a freemium version of the software.
2. ADP workforce now – Platform for payroll, HR, time, and benefits with talent solutions like background screening and review templates.
ADP, a workforce solution for almost 70 years, was named on FORTUNE Magazine’s “World’s Most Admired Companies” list for 12 consecutive years. Features include the ability to monitor and track compensation, mobile-optimized job postings, and self-service management.
Something ADP workforce now maintains a system that is easy to use and despite the fact that it covers quite an extensive amount of HR functions. A subscription is near limitlessly customizable, too, with users being allowed to add and remove functions to suit their needs.
Even their professional website has a Usability issue, with endless menuing blocking easy access to information and frequent dead ends for basic info. This problem carries through to their software, which lost them marks in the evaluation consideration for Usability.
ADP Workforce Now starts at $17.50/user/month with a minimum of 1000 users and has a free demo.
3. SAP SuccessFactors – Tools to hire the best candidates, connect and guide new hires, and optimize workforce performance and engagement.
SAP stands for “Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing” and was founded in 1972 in Walldorf, Germany. Originally specializing in enterprise resource planning, they now do TMS as well, including robust features for global talent sourcing and team goal management.
SAP has a variety of tools that can integrate with its talent solutions. For example, they have connections for common document authoring, document management, and identity management systems. This scored them well in the Integrations segment of the evaluation.
A few cons to note is A) the cost of the software can really add up if you need various services/packages and B) reporting could be more intuitive and automated and, as it stands currently, requires significant manual intervention.
SAP SuccessFactors has solutions that start at $2.18/user and has software packages starting from $1000+/package and has a free trial.
4. Recruitee – A career site editor, sourcing extension, applicant tracking, automated scheduling, and other tools designed for Talent Management.
Used by Starbuck, Toyota, and VICE, Recruitee is designed to help attract talent and automate recruiting tasks. Features include advanced CSS and media options for your customized career site and the ability to post to over 10 free job boards worldwide.
Their open API allows you to integrate Recruitee directly with your pre-existing software and platforms. Therefore, you can add-on tools for chat, project management, or CMS. This scored them highly in the Integrations section of the evaluation outline.
A critique of this tool is that it suffers from some interface issues when it comes to integrating and parsing external documents like PDF CVs, for example, which navigate poorly and require magnification.
Recruitee starts at $79/month and has a free 18-day trial and a free demo.
5. Hiretual – AI-powered recruiting platform for recruiters and sources with additional CRM benefits to engage and nurture potential candidates.
Hiretual is used by recruiting professionals at Intel, Hilton, IBM, and Wander Bros. Designed for talent sources and agencies, this platform features machine learning for candidate selection, robust infrastructure with scalable server clusters, and contact information sourcing.
As you can see from the tool screenshot, Hiretual has a clean, intuitive, and modest user interface. The simple list of tools in the menu bar makes it easy to gauge what you need at a glance. This helped them evaluate favorably in both UX and general Usability.
A downside of Hiretual is that paid plans tend to be on the pricey side with no ideal options for the case of having multiple recruiters in a single company.
Hiretual starts at $89/month and has a freemium Lite plan.
6. PeopleStreme – Talent management software that enables the organization to conduct comprehensive talent identification and profiling.
PeopleStreme is an international human capital management and payroll software company, specializing in the development of technology to support human resources initiatives, like employee recognition, incident management, and learning and development.
This tool excels at customizability and, despite that, is easy to use no matter the configuration you settle on. The hyper-attentive support team can clear up any troubleshooting remaining.
Peoplestreme lost some marks in the Value for Cost section of the evaluation criteria simply because they are A) not transparent with pricing options online and B) do not offer any sort of free trial for users before commitment.
PeopleStreme offers pricing upon request and has a free demo.
7. Bullseye Engagement – Talent management with a focus on continuous employee feedback, rewards and recognition, and goals and alignment.
Recognized by Insights Success Magazine as a “Disruptor of the Year,” Bullseye Engagement provides solutions for a 360 employee review and evaluation, engagement and pulse surveys, goals management, compensation planning, and talent matching.
The feedback loop of this tool is easy and satisfying, engaging users with notifications, role-based appraisals, comments and notes, employee history access, organizational chart, a social media wall, direct reports coaching, and communication tracking.
With a dated and clunky user interface, Bullseye Engagement lost some marks in the UX category of the evaluation criteria section. The software looks much older than it is and does nothing to create a seamless, clean experience.
Bullseye Engagement starts at $3-4/user/month and has a free demo.
8. Oleeo – Recruiting enablement platform that leverages data and automation to enable you to pinpoint and expedite top candidates.
Formally called WCM, this platform is specifically designed with diversity-sensitive hiring in mind with modules for a VA talent management system and Intern/Apprentice sourcing. This software hones in on oft-missed recruitment pools, like veterans and college campus populations.
A stand-out quality of this software is that it works well for high-volume ATS, allowing flexibility and scalability to design a solution around your pre-existing process.
Lack of pricing transparency and no free trial offerings lost Oleeo some marks in the Value for Cost section of the evaluation criteria, in which at least one of these two items is highly recommended for a perfect score.
Oleeo offers pricing upon request and has a free demo.
9. Pathgather – Solutions for learning and talent through a consumer-friendly social platform with data visualizations and analytics at its core.
Pathgather was designed to provide a single point of access for an engaging, employee-driven learning experience; in saying this, it should be noted that their primary focus is developing the talent that you do have, not hunting for what you don’t. They stand out for this niche.
With expertise in training/learning, Pathgather carries this knowledge into their own ecosystem with ample resources for onboarding and exploring their software. Videos, tutorials, articles, and more and waiting for the ready learner. They evaluated very well for Usability.
One con to note is that the mobile version of the tool is not nearly as functional and accessible as the browser/desktop version. Some features are even missing altogether.
Pathgather starts at $5/user/month and has a free demo.
10. MightyRecruiter – Free end-to-end applicant tracking and talent management software with unlimited open jobs and resume searching.
MightyRecruiter lets you start sourcing immediately by posting your jobs to 29+ job boards for free. Additionally, they offer automated candidate delivery, easy applicant tracking, and candidate ranking and matching with the ability to integrate with your existing ATS.
Obviously, with a price tag of zero, MightyRecruiter takes the cake for Value for Cost per our evaluation criteria. They scored very well in this regard, making it a great option for small businesses or startups.
Because this is a free tool, they are limited in what job boards they can connect to when it comes to posting and distributing a listing. Additionally, it can take a while for a job posting to start circulating—up to 48 hours.
MightyRecruiter is free to use.
Other Talent Management Systems
Here are a few more that didn’t make the top list. If you need additional suggestions for handy talent management systems, check these out.
- Zoho – An integrated talent management system used for talent acquisition, career development, performance management, succession planning, and recruiting.
- Trakstar – Used by over 1000 companies worldwide for job postings, candidate tracking, performance appraisals, and robust 360-degree employee/candidate reviews.
- Saba – Accelerate hiring, reduce turnover, and increase employee engagement with solutions for onboarding, communication, career planning, and analytics.
- ClearCompany – Full-suite talent management solution designed to unify recruiting, onboarding, performance management, and goal tracking.
- JazzHR – A TMS with tools for candidate sourcing, collaborative hiring, applicant tracking, designing and sending offers, accepting e-signatures, and reporting.
- Blue by Explorance – Talent Management Survey software to gain visibility into the employee experience by gathering feedback along their journey with your organization.
- Vibe HCM – A single platform accessed through any device that offers items like Career Sites, Employer Branding, Applicant Tracking, and Candidate Sourcing.
- Ascentis – Talent management software with real-time feedback and performance metrics, pay-for-performance analysis, and metrics and milestones tracking.
- Glint – Branded as a “people success platform” with AI-for-HR technology, employee engagement tools, and journey plotting from onboarding to exit.
- Qualtrics – Measure employee engagement and sentiment across the entire lifecycle from recruitment to exit with role mapping, surveys, and analytics.
- BreezyHR – TMS solutions to visualize your hiring process, create custom pipelines for different positions, and shorten the hiring cycle by adding in automated communication.
- PeopleFluent – Talent management and learning solutions to help you guide your organizational efforts in recruitment, performance, compensation, and training.
What Do You Think About The Above Talent Database Software?
Have you tried out a TMS/talent management system listed above? Is there any training management system you would add to this list? In your opinion, what is the best talent management software? Let us know in the comments.
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