How will AI transform talent management? How will it impact talent acquisition?
One of the biggest challenges in talent management today? Enabling our employees to develop within our organizations — helping them grow and learn new skills so they don’t feel the need to opt-out and move on.
In today’s world of work, employees expect companies to provide an opportunity for growth. In fact, a recent study noted in Forbes shows 78 percent of employees surveyed during the pandemic believe employers should help them become better off than they were before.
Many quality organizations, in response to this growing work trend, are more intentionally providing continuous learning opportunities for team members. They are turning to technology to facilitate upskilling and reskilling and to improve internal mobility. And in 2020, that means using AI to first provide actionable insights — and then again leveraging the power of AI when executing the talent management vision.
Our Guest: Brad Sutton from Eightfold.ai
In this week’s episode of #WorkTrends, I am joined by Brad Sutton from the Strategic Accounts team at Eightfold.ai, a talent intelligence platform for enterprises that leverage AI to hire, engage, and nurture talent. Together, we talked about how AI is transforming the talent management game — from recruiting to team building to succession planning. As we learned, AI is also proving to be a powerful ally in retention engagement initiatives as well.
Brad shared an example of a company struggling to change their talent game: “They had 100 people taking inventory of their people’s skills. They spent a lot of time and money, only to learn that once you go through an exercise like this, it’s just one snapshot in time. Those skills expire after two to five years; many are out of date soon after a thorough people skills analysis project is over.”
Brad added: “So, organizations don’t necessarily know what skills each person has mastered today. And, internally, we don’t do a good job of understanding all the things we’re each capable of tomorrow.”
There has to be a better way, right? To provide growth opportunities within an organization, we must know the full potential of each leader and team member. Brad agrees: “If your company’s not telling you, ‘Well here are the opportunities that you have here,’ or if somebody’s not advocating for you, it’s hard to find that next opportunity inside the organization.”
So, people opt-out. They choose to move on. And, during their subsequent job interviews, their skills, capabilities, and potential are thoroughly discussed. Rather than let that happen, Brad says we can rely on Talent Intelligence.
Talent Intelligence = Talent Management
“At its core, Talent intelligence is understanding the skills and capabilities of the people inside your talent network. Your talent network is every employee, everybody within your HRIS, and anybody who’s ever worked for your organization. It also includes alumni, referrals, and candidates. Often, this talent network is 100 to 200 times the size of your organization. AI looks at that huge talent network, then understands the skills and capabilities of each person. It allows us to know who has the potential to do something else, and learn something new.”
I learned from Brad that AI can help us assess, in real-time, who is ready to grow — perhaps even before we realize an opportunity for growth exists.
“That’s what Talent Intelligence does,” Brad says. “It understands what you’ve done, and what you can do.”
Brad and I discussed how AI-driven talent intelligence can make a difference in many other areas, including reskilling and upskilling, retention of top talent, and a topic always near and dear to my heart: diversity and inclusion. Be sure to catch the entire episode. You won’t want to miss a minute!
#WorkTrends Twitter Chat: Wednesday, 10-28
Be sure to take advantage of the opportunity to engage with Brad on our next #WorkTrends Twitter chat, Wednesday, October 28 at 1:30pm Eastern. Brad will help us answer these questions:
- Q1: Why do organizations struggle with talent management?
- Q2. How can leaders make their talent management strategies more effective?
- Q3: What strategies can promote smarter talent management for the future?
See you there!
Find Brad on LinkedIn.
This podcast was sponsored by Eightfold.ai.
Editor’s note: To better meet the needs of our valued community members, the #WorkTrends podcasts and also our Twitter chats have evolved! Check out the new FAQ page and #WorkTrends Podcast page. Then let us know how we’re doing!
