Talent optimization through the talent marketplace.

According to Gartner research, the most significant emerging HR technologies for 2023 are skills management (51%), learning experience platforms (41%), and internal talent marketplaces (32%). Skills-based HR initiatives seem to be the bellwether, and cognoscenti suggest that the talent marketplace fits the bill to jump on the bandwagon. As per Gloat's report, essentially, it's a gateway to skills-based strategies to thread the needle between skills and opportunities. A Gartner report prognosticates that by 2025, 30% of large companies will implement a talent marketplace for optimizing talent. 

Implementing a talent marketplace offers a convenient option for companies of consequential size working from numerous locations to proffer internal opportunities (gigs, projects, assignments, etc.) to their employees. Concurrently it also facilitates employees to reskill and upskill themselves to stay ahead of the curve with felicitous mentoring and career pathways through the talent marketplace. It offers better agency choices to employees and prevails upon them to follow a bespoke career path devised by AI recommendation. And offer numerous skills-based options compared to the traditional ladder-type progression based on the pecking order within the company.  

This concept came down the pike around 2017-2018, first materializing in the 2018 Gartner hype curve for Human Capital Management Software. According to experts, in the formative period, few start-ups were experimenting with a minimum viable product, MVP, a concept from the scrum. It was a product with abecedarian features, markedly improved with feedback. The collective development of this project took place under the aegis of forward-thinking companies like Unilever, Schneider, and others. Subsequently, it led towards scaling up in various stages culminating in metamorphosing into the talent marketplace. Please note that this concept burgeoned amid the circumstances in the preceding three years. Since it worked well during the testing times, HR Tech analysts expect it to flourish in the days ahead. 

The leading HR Tech analyst Josh Bersin opines in his succinctly well-wrought article during May 2023 that the talent marketplace segment is around $300-400 million in size and is growing at 5-times the rate. He further elaborates that even ServiceNow is launching Employee Growth and Development (EGD), a new offering in this segment. The following table enumerates purveyors and their products according to the '2023 Gartner - Market Guide for internal talent marketplaces.' (Link to Reviews and Ratings)

Vendor - Product Name

365Talents - 365Talents

Beamery - Talent Marketplace

Ceridian - Ideal Talent Marketplace

Cornerstone  - Cornerstone Talent Experience Platform

Degreed - Degreed LXP+

Eightfold - Eightfold Talent Management

Fuel50 - AI Talent Marketplace

Gloat - Gloat

Jitjatjo - Network by Jitjatjo

Neobrain - Talent Marketplace

Oracle - Oracle Talent Management

Phenom - Phenom Employee Experience

ProFinda - Opportunity Marketplace

Reejig - Reejig

SAP - SAP SuccessFactors Opportunity Marketplace

SeekOut - SeekOut Grow

Whoz - Whoz Talent Cloud

Workday - Workday Talent Optimization

Gartner's report spells out vendor product offerings differentiation based on their skills taxonomy, AI capabilities, internal & external data sources, and user experience. According to their recommendation, companies that intend to implement a talent marketplace may prefer to compare vendors based on these parameters. 

According to the Gloat report, usually, it takes well-nigh 13-15 weeks for implementation. Implementing a talent marketplace can be one of the first steps toward embracing a skills-based approach. To get our ducks in a row, we can develop a scrum team of various stakeholders to strengthen our implementation. We must form this team before the selection of the vendors. The team could include process leaders, change leaders, business leaders, IT experts, and COE leaders. Getting stakeholders' buy-in and commitment and involving them before commencement is crucial for collaboratively achieving our objectives. 

"Be sure to involve people who will be engaged in implementing change initiatives and whose acceptance is necessary for ensuring a successful change effort."

— K S Cameron 

There are numerous use cases for value creation through the talent marketplace. Similar to a multitool that we can repurpose according to our specific requirements. Essentially every company is different, e.g., industries, businesses, geographies, workforce demographics, etc. Hence their requirements differ considerably, including value-creating initiatives, e.g., attrition, reskilling, upskilling, or creating compelling employee experience. Nevertheless, it is essential to identify our three chief value-creating initiatives. Especially those initiatives that easily benefit most from our implementation to bring home the bacon. Concurrently we must select the pockets within our company for the pilot, for example, HR and a few high-value departments. Then we can develop our assiduously crafted implementation strategy. 

Fortuitously, we do not need to figure out our internal skills data or job architecture to put a stake in the ground. We need to let the system work for us. Providentially these systems create prodigious data in the process. They also map pertinent skills to roles and update them instantaneously. It automatically imports existing employee data, e.g., job title, function, and level, from our HR system. Simultaneously it can parse employee data from resumes or LinkedIn profile uploads. Also, employees can manually add or emend data to correctly manifest their capabilities and skills.

We do not need to have skills taxonomy to launch our talent marketplace. According to HR Tech analysts, we can develop our core skills taxonomy. They further assert that there isn't any need to be too detailed about it. We can utilize the inferred data. The vendor's report suggests that the systems augment and fill the lacuna in our data. Invariably they are championed by AI with self-evolving skills data. It allows us to define and measure connections between employees, jobs, and skills. Unlike manual processes, they instantaneously identify and ingest fresh data. It also obviate our worries about configuration, updates, or cleansing activities. 

However, Josh Bersin suggests that skills taxonomy is a tad convoluted matter. According to his recent article, there are off-the-shelf taxonomies available. However, developing our skill taxonomy may not be a viable option because it is time-consuming. Alternatively, he suggests to start with identifying problem areas and then developing part of the taxonomy. And develop suitable procedures for governance and design and ascertain the tools that work well for us. In his recent podcast, he provides a heads-up about vendors' proclivity about touting the implementation as an easy process. As stated by Louis Gerstner, "Often a root cause of inadequate competitive analysis is asking the innkeeper how good the inn is." It is better to proceed advisedly with proper deliberations with HR Tech analysts. 

Leadership support goes a long way to underpin our implementation. They can effectively communicate 'why' does the company investing in the talent marketplace and 'what' is expected from employees. As suggested by Cameron & Robert, when people know why the change is necessary, most of their resistance subsides. Indubitably the enabling culture would provide the necessary tailwind for effectual implementation. And successfully address the momentous concern expressed by mavens about talent sharing by line leaders. Eloquent leadership communication plays a vital role in setting expectations. It must edify line leaders about the benefits and incentives of internal mobility. Concurrently we should encourage our inquiring employees to intrepidly express their interest in new opportunities without worrying about ramifications from their managers. 

We can identify key result areas for effective implementation as part of our streamlining efforts. We need to identify areas of improvement while monitoring our progress. And immediately address those areas with corrective actions. We should assiduously scale up the system throughout the company with diligent teamwork. At the same time, we must celebrate our quick wins to develop momentum. With indefatigable efforts, we ought to disseminate every success story to coax our employees and line managers to give it a whirl. 

Benefits:

● Implementing a talent marketplace improves our efficiency and also enhances our employee experience. Essentially it is a win-win solution that addresses mutually beneficial concerns for employers and employees. It also serves as a skills insight and information engine.  

● While developing a nimble workforce, we can portray it as a robust employee value proposition of the employment brand. It can help us to attract scarce talent and passive candidates by alluring them with a glimpse of numerous jobs and opportunities in addition to the position they are applying for in our company. 

● To effectively face the testing times talent marketplace provides on-demand access to qualified talent we can deploy instantaneously for gigs, projects, and assignments. It will pave the way to facilitate meticulous workforce planning and succession management. We can deftly track the demand and supply of requisite validated skills. And figure out the lacuna in existing skills and then initiate our buy vs. develop approach based on the analysis. 

● It is a remarkable tool for engaging our employees and retaining them. Especially by offering them development assignments with befitting on-the-job learning opportunities. Mainly through learning recommendations, including projects, micro-learning content, macro-learning courses, credentials, etc. The bespoke recommendations can help employees gain perspicacious insights about available career paths beyond their team, department, or unit. These insights recommendations consider employee skills, adjacent skills, interests, and preferences. To improve their employability, employees can enhance their attainments with upskilling and reskilling through bespoke recommendations in the flow of work. 

● An appreciable benefit of implementing a talent marketplace is fostering a culture of inclusion and parity. We can get bias-free and AI-driven talent insights to create a proper mix of employees. We can assuage the otherwise prevalent bias and discrimination with inclusive hiring practices and equal access to training & development opportunities as part of our DEIB initiatives. 

Conclusion:

As suggested by various HR Tech experts, successfully implementing talent marketplace platforms will incontestably improve skills-based talent management. As highly intelligent platforms, they capitalize on complex AI-matching algorithms to connect employees to opportunities and democratize mobility and access to development prospects. Employees receive bespoke recommendations as per their unique skills, experiences, and aspirations. Internal talent marketplaces offer numerous opportunities, e.g., gigs, projects, assignments, reskilling, upskilling, mentoring, and even full-time roles. Remarkable insights gained in the process become the cornerstone of developing a talent strategy to achieve the goals and objectives of our business while fostering a culture of inclusion. It also facilitates the development of sturdy workforce planning and succession management to improve our overall efficiency and talent optimization. The benefits of implementation for employees and companies cover a vast array of talent management across the organization. We can conclude with the following quote:

"In a world where it’s harder than ever to find external candidates, the marketplace becomes essential. I firmly believe that an internal talent marketplace is becoming one of the most important systems that should exist in a business."

— Josh Bersin