A Buyer’s Checklist to Talent Intelligence Platforms

A tight labor market, economic volatility, and a persistent skills shortage are pushing organizations to re-think how they hire and retain top talent—and talent intelligence platforms are key to ensuring a holistic, data-driven strategy. To remain competitive and resilient for years to come, businesses need a platform that helps make sense of the wealth of talent data available today to inform both their short- and long-term business goals.

As you research talent intelligence platforms, this checklist will help keep you organized. You'll discover impactful features to look for and what questions to ask providers along the way.

Essential features in a talent intelligence solution

Talent intelligence solutions have skyrocketed in popularity. With so many options in the market, how do you decide which solution is the best for you?

System capabilities overview

Ease of implementation and integration

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) platforms are core components of any talent intelligence solution. Data from these sources generate talent insights to achieve hiring and business goals. Also, solutions that integrate with your existing tech stack are easy to implement and sustain.

Flexibility and scalability

Your goals and needs change with time and it’s not always possible to find a new solution to match them. Sustainable solutions are agile and suitable for quick change management over time, especially when you decide to scale up.

Reporting

A comprehensive solution is essential to provide an overview of all talent data to drive data-driven decision making. In addition, having robust reporting helps you find relevant information in one place, instead of navigating multiple systems.

Accuracy and reliability

Artificial Intelligence has significantly improved hiring, but it is important to assess for accuracy and reliability of the solution. Since the ultimate goal is to hire candidates who will stay on, it’s crucial to ensure that your tech solutions are producing reliable results.

Questions to ask about system capabilities

• Does the solution support integration with existing ATS and CRM tools?

• Can you migrate data from existing systems?

• How does the implementation process work?

• Can you share a sample plan?

• What resources will be required from our team to complete implementation?

• What’s the estimated timeframe for implementation?

• What type of customer support is available during and after implementation?

• How does your AI solution help augment human decision-making instead of automating decisions?

• How do software updates work for customers?

• Is your solution regularly updated with new features?

• Do the dashboards provide a 360 degree view of operational and business performance?

• Does the solution have built-in business friendly reports?

• Does it align with the cloud model, e.g. SaaS?

• If not, how are product changes deployed?

• Is the solution scalable?

• What does that look like in action?

• Is it possible to get insight into the competition?

• Does it support comparative and predictive analysis to ensure validity?

Talent management

A talent intelligence platform allows you to recruit qualified candidates and empower them throughout their employee lifecycle. Assess a potential solution for its ability to boost recruitment, perform strategic workforce planning and enable internal mobility for current employees. Here’s what to ask:

Questions to ask about recruitment

• How does the system automate and enhance candidate engagement?

• How does it perform candidate profiling to match the right candidate to the right role?

• Does the system "clone" your best performers?

• How does it target candidates for hard to fill roles? Does it have advanced filters?

Questions to ask about strategic workforce planning

• Does the solution identify labor market trends?

• Does it provide insights about talent trends within the organization?

• What kind of reports does the solution generate?

• Can it perform talent mapping?

Questions to ask about internal talent mobility

• Does the solution provide an overview of current employees?

• Can it uncover patterns and gaps across organization?

• Does the solution match current candidates with relevant transfer and promotion opportunities?

Diversity hiring

Diversity continues to be a priority for organizations. While AI is ‘technically’ free from human bias, it requires active steps to ensure that it remains inclusive. You must ask service providers how they address bias:

Questions to ask about diversity

• How is the data sourced and stored?

• Do they use bias-reducing techniques i.e., removing identifiable information?

• Does the system evaluate candidates based on job-relevant information?

• Does it support sourcing for underrepresented candidates?

• Can it provide insights regarding diversity representation within the organization?

Security measures

Growing data privacy concerns have prompted the government and service providers alike to enforce security measures to protect data. Before you finalize your Al solution, ensure that it complies with and remains updated with the local data privacy laws. An ethical service provider will readily answer these questions and will have established data management systems. Some questions to consider:

Questions to ask about security

• How do they ensure data security?

• How do you protect the data obtained from potential candidates?

• Is your solution GDPR compliant? Or with the local and national legal standards?

• How do you handle a data breach/security attack?

• Can you share your privacy policy, security statement and service level agreements?

• Where and for how long is the data stored for your solution?

• Is your AI model transparent and validated?

• Do you perform adverse impact analysis to vet for bias and train data models?

Assessing business outcomes and return on investment (ROI)

The primary goal of using talent intelligence is to use talent insights to drive business outcomes. Asking about ROI will help you assess the efficacy of the solution. Some questions you can ask:

Questions to ask about business outcomes and ROI

• Can you share case studies or success stories from other clients?

• How does this help reduce hiring costs?

• How does the solution help achieve talent acquisition targets i.e. decreased time to hire, sourcing technical candidates?

• How can the solution help us improve conversion rates?

• How can the solution ensure a better experience for both candidates and recruiting teams?

• Can you provide any data to demonstrate the positive impact of talent intelligence on business?

Make sure that you are doing your research. Yes, businesses are using insights from talent intelligence solutions to inform their talent acquisition, retention, and management strategies. But, it can be tricky to choose the right solution that meets your goals and needs.