Best Talent Management Systems for 2024 and When to Choose Each

Talent management is always built on top of a complex team: Different employees naturally have different jobs to be done.

Whether we're talking about requiring a top-notch onboarding process to get up to speed with their duties or simply wanting more insights into their performance, a sound talent management system will help you cover all that.

But let's face it: No matter how similar talent management tools seem, there are always a couple of core functionalities and benefits you'll be missing.

We're covering eight solutions you should test out to help you choose the best talent management system software for your and your team's needs.

💻 The best talent management software shortlist

Check out these eight options for the best talent management systems, their core functionalities, and extra details that will help you choose the right tool.

Zavvy

Zavvy is not your standard HR tool, as it's powered by AI and helps bridge the gap between feedback, skills, and performance improvement.

Growth plans and their training library are just two core benefits of relying on Zavvy for employee development and performance tracking.

Its AI capabilities come in to make linking these pillars and help you set up career paths in five seconds, run performance reviews in just 11 clicks, create courses in 15 seconds, and much more.

👀 Core functionalities:

• preboarding and onboarding;
• performance reviews and 360 (180/90) degree feedback;
• skills development;
• competency models and career paths;
• learning and training management; 
• one-on-one meetings;
• engagement surveys; 
• connection programs;
• AI coach.

🪢 Integrations:

• HR management and applicant tracking tools like Greenhouse and Workday;
• collaboration apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams;
• content creation apps such as Typeform or Loom.

🔎 Reviewer insights:

With a 4.8/5 rating (G2), users like:

• the anonymous feedback capabilities;
• the variety of customizable automation options;
• a fast and always available customer support team;
• the platforms' intuitive UX and design;
• the wide range of customizable and ready-made templates for surveys, onboarding, learning, and development;
• AI recommendations.

💸 Pricing: Subscriptions start at 4€ per employee/month. You can adjust the cost as you go, as you'll strictly pay for the modules you want.

You can try Zavvy for free. First, you'd have to book a booking a call to understand your needs, and then our experts will set up a custom trial account for your needs.

Leapsome 

👀 Core functionalities:

• reviews, feedback, and goal tracking;
• personalized learning and development plans;
• employee compensation;
• meeting organization;
• competency framework development.

🪢 Integrations:

• ADP, Zavvy, Rippling, Active Directory, Okta, Jira, Lucca, Slack, and more

🔎 Reviewer insights:

With a 4.8/5 rating (G2), users specifically enjoy:

• How easy it is to set up the platform.
• The ability to constantly monitor employee development.
• The option to carry over notes from onemeeting to another.
• Their performance management tool.

💸 Pricing: Plans start at 8€ per employee/month and scale with each extra feature you add. There's also a 14-day free trial to test out the app.

Lattice

👀 Core functionalities:

• performance management capabilities;
• OKR and goal tracking;
• engagement surveys;
• employee compensation;
• career tracks and individual development plans.

🪢 Integrations:

• OneLogin, Salesforce, TriNet, Zenefits, Namely, Jumpcloud, etc.

🔎 Reviewer insights: 

Standing at a 4.7/5 rating (G2), users choose Lattice because of:

• How intuitive the platform is.
• The admin experience.
• How easy it is to organize meetings.
• The reviews functionality.
• The ability to keep up with personal goals and career path follow-ups.

💸 Pricing: With Lattice, you pay for each module you want as follows. For instance, the Engagement plan starts at $4 per employee/month, while the Performance module starts at $4 for every person. 

No free trial is available.

Culture Amp

👀 Core functionalities:

• employee engagement;
• performance monitoring;
• employee development;

🪢 Integrations:

• Workday, Gusto, Namely, Slack, and more

🔎 Reviewer insights:

With a 4.6/5 rating (G2), users picked Culture Amp because of:

• the clarity of the data they get;
• growth and career progression capabilities;
• the excellent customer support;
• the extra resources and webinars the company offers.

💸 Pricing: Their pricing isn't publicly available; you must request a demo first. You'll pay based on the size of your team and the functionalities you need. 

No trial is available.

Personio

👀 Core functionalities:

• time tracking;
• absence management;
• HR helpdesk;
• onboarding and offboarding;
• applicant sourcing and tracking;
• payroll;
• performance and training management.

🪢 Integrations:

• Zavvy, Leapsome, Indeed, Papershift, TravelPerk, CodeSubmit, Cobee, and more

🔎 Reviewer insights:

Personio stands at a 4.3/5 rating (G2), and users who pick this tool for talent management like it thanks to its:

• versatility;
• user-friendly design; 
• ability to centralize employee data;
• use case for eliminating manual payroll;
• dashboard reminders on the actions required;
• helpful tutorial videos and documentation.

💸 Pricing: You'll need to book a demo to get an estimate of how much the right Personio plan will cost for your team's size and needs. A 14-day trial is also available after the demo call.

Rippling 

‍👀 Core functionalities:

• policy management;
• workforce analytics;
• PEO services;
• talent and learning management;
• IT Cloud features - app and device management;
• finance Cloud features: Expense management, Corporate cards, US and global payroll.

🪢 Integrations:

• Rippling has limited integrations with apps like Jira, Zendesk, and 15Five

🔎 Reviewer insights:

Rippling boasts at a 4.8/5 rating (G2) thanks to:

• How user-friendly it is.
• The easy setup and great customer service.
• How fast it is to register employees for health insurance and offer other benefits.
• How it helps keep legal aspects in order.

💸 Pricing: You'll need to schedule a 1:1 call with their team to get a quote, but expect to pay based on team size and modules required. No free trial is available.

BambooHR 

👀 Core functionalities:

• hiring and applicant tracking;
• onboarding and offboarding;
• time tracking;
• performance management;
• benefits tracking;
• employee database;
• reporting and analytics.

🪢 Integrations:

• Zavvy, Checkr, Deputy, WorkTango, Gifted, Truework, etc.

🔎 Reviewer insights: 

Among BambooHR’s 4.6/5 rating (G2) we highlight:

• its customization capabilities;
• the user-friendly platform design;
• the wide range of data available for each employee;
• its diversity of available integration with third-party tools.

💸 Pricing:  While a short 7-day trial is possible with no prior calls, you'll need to request a quote separately as pricing isn't publicly available.

Remember that must-have add-ons like payroll, time tracking, and performance management come at an extra cost.

🆚 8 Best talent management software: Feature comparison table

🔍 Key features to look out for in talent management software systems

The perfect talent management solution is only complete when you've got a full suite of features to cater to your diverse needs. 

That's because even smaller organizations will scale in time and require more advanced (often overlooked) features like succession planning.

Next, we cover every feature and why it matters within your next talent management platform. 

Recruitment and onboarding

Tracking applicants, rating their performance, and even communicating and scheduling calls or follow-ups are all necessary. 

Bonus additions would be creating a career website or sourcing talent across multiple platforms.

Once you've hired someone, employee onboarding features ensure they integrate smoothly into your company culture and can start to work with all the right resources. Being able to send essential documents and information automatically and let employees complete onboarding tasks are among the must-have functionalities here.

Important note: Hiring is another essential part of this feature. Many talent management systems don't support organizations that are looking to work with employees across the entire globe. So if you're planning on hiring or working with freelancers internationally, be mindful of this.

Learning and development

When first picking the best talent management system for them, learning and development (L&D) isn't a priority for many people. But we strongly feel this is a missed opportunity. 

The best L&D tools will help you create a culture of continuous learning where employees can feel that their skills are constantly improving. Managers should also be able to assign online or in-person learning paths or resources and track progress. 

Add L&D features into your onboarding experience, and you're set with a learning process for every stage of the employee life cycle. 

These features should also let you identify skill gaps and better examine what skills may be lacking in specific roles.

Performance management

We're always promoting the value of taking your performance management system to the next level. Still, if you're planning on keeping it a part of a talent management suite, you should be able to:

• Monitor employee productivity and engagement besides just performance. 
• Set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound) goals.
• Get visibility into how individuals (or teams) are progressing toward goals.
• Organize check-ins and feedback sessions like one-on-one meetings.
• Build, send, and track 360 performance reviews. 
• Create reports based on metrics you've set to give leadership better visibility into employee performance.

👉 Got 13 extra minutes today? Read more on how you can integrate performance management with talent management.

Compensation management

You'll have to pay your employees. It's as simple as that. But everything is faster and stays compliant with the right tool. 

Plus, you'll need a platform supporting you if you have to pay employees internationally.

Note: Plan ahead by ensuring your talent management system has employee benefits and rewards capabilities.

Succession planning

Don't leave your projects or departments hanging just because you lost a team member.

Think of these:

• Can you identify critical roles in your company and prepare career frameworks to help current employees reach that level?
• What happens once an employee leaves unexpectedly?
• Can a past employee coach or instruct new hires as they hand over their role?
• How strong is your knowledge retention game?
• How can you replace any unique or highly specialized competencies within your teams?

These are all challenges your talent management tool should help with.

Workforce planning

This is a pretty complex feature, so most of the time, talent management systems won't include all of them. Look over the following functionalities and prioritize the ones that will help with your most pressing challenges when picking a solution:

• Forecasting planning and talent availability.
• Employee scheduling.
• Shift management.
• Addressing workforce supply and demand.
• Identifying gaps.
• Measuring existing talent.
• Managing risks.

💡 Expert advice to help you select the best talent management system

With so many factors to keep an eye on, we've talked to a couple of HR and People Ops experts to get their best tips for choosing the right talent management system for your needs.

Cassi Knight, Head of People + Talent (Global) at Kharon, says she's learned that, above all else, customizability and robust data analytics should be front of mind when reviewing talent management tools:

"It's always best practice to consider 'How will this tool help us today and in the future?'. This is why customizability has become the most important element of any platform for me. 

Our team and its processes have to evolve as the company grows. If we don't have a platform that can evolve with us and continue to support our evolving needs, we just start to get in our way. Combined with strong data analytics, you're able to make data-informed decisions and be supported by your talent management platform as opposed to being restricted by it."

Caroline Reidy, Managing Director at The HR Suite, advises on considering the HR resources and tools you already have, like your payroll and learning management systems:

"It's important to make sure the talent management system you choose can communicate with all the systems you already have without any problems. Failing to do so will add to your workload by causing data duplication, longer processes, and difficult data exchange across platforms." 

Caroline also says you should establish exactly what you're actually looking for:

"Writing out your aims and objectives before putting a talent management system in place will help you stay on track with the system you need. 

Think about things like increasing productivity, boosting employee satisfaction, enabling data-driven decision-making, streamlining procedures, or assisting talent development programs. You can better match your selection criteria with your organizational goals by having everything clearly outlined."

On a similar note, Panagiota Hatzis, Founder + CEO of Kati Kalo Consulting, says she is most concerned about specific features:

"I'm most concerned about reporting. How is that data pulled and how is it displayed? In order to be the best people partner I can be, the best talent management system for me needs to easily provide me with insights to track trends from various views. For example: Can I cut the data by demographics, departments, month over month, quarter over quarter, and year over year with just a few clicks?"

➡️ Discover next generation talent management solutions: Zavvy, AI-powered 360° growth system

There are loads of talent management solutions on the market. It's all a matter of identifying your core needs and the features that will help you address them. 

Next-generation tools are already adopting AI for a boost of speed and efficiency. 

Zavvy's AI-based talent growth tool will allow you to:

• Create meaningful career frameworks using unbiased data to move people from A to B.
• Maintain a continuous development cycle within your team and keep track of goals.
• Run best-in-class performance reviews and get more insights into how your employees perform than ever before.
• Access 10,000s courses from dozens of platforms to bridge the gap between employee development targets and concrete resources.

All under one single subscription.

📅 Book a demo of Zavvy to see how it can help you cover all aspects of talent management, from onboarding to training, employee engagement, and performance reviews.

❓ FAQs

What are talent management technologies?

Talent management technologies are tools that help you manage employees' skills, performance, and career development. 

They help organizations attract, develop, and retain talented workers to improve business performance. 

Such tools include applicant tracking systems, performance management platforms, and workforce analytics.

How is HCM different from talent management? 

Human capital management (HCM) is a broader concept incorporating talent management among its key components. 

That said, talent management is a smaller part of HCM, focusing on attracting, developing, and retaining key employees. 

HCM also encompasses other HR functions like compensation, performance management, and succession planning. 

What is a talent platform?

A talent platform is an online directory or marketplace that connects businesses with employees or independent contractors who offer various skills and services. 

Talent platforms make it easy and fast for companies to find and hire the right people for specific projects. 

Notable features of talent platforms include standardized profiles, communication systems, and even payment processing to help you pay these workers.