Who's Making Your Talent Decisions?

Talent management software promises efficiency and objectivity, but in practice it can limit company-specific talent strategies.

- By Sharna Wiblen

Once we have the right people in place to execute our strategic plans?” That perennial question for organizational leaders has spurred the adoption of practices and systems designed to identify and develop valuable individuals within workforces. But amid the proliferation of digital solutions to this problem, a new question has emerged: Who’s making decisions about your people — your most promising employees and future leaders? For many large companies, the answer may not be internal stakeholders who are keenly attuned to the organization’s strategic needs but rather an industry-standard one-size-fits-all piece of commercial software.

Cloud-based software services have wrought a profound transformation in the HR technology landscape, reshaping how larger organizations approach talent management. Gone are the days when internal executives were responsible for working with IT on bespoke systems, crafting and overseeing talent frameworks, and managing talent data, given that vendors now offer those services for a subscription fee.

HR leaders’ inclination to rent predesigned talent solutions appears to be unwavering, despite concerns about the value derived from such technology: In a 2024 Gartner survey, only 35% of HR leaders said they are confident that their current approach to technology is helping to achieve business objectives. Nonetheless, in a different survey, Gartner found that technology was the top spending priority for HR leaders in 2024.¹