5 ways to make talent management more transparent

By now, it’s firmly established that transparency is crucial for a great employee experience. After all, who doesn’t value openness within their company culture? But when trying to improve transparency, it can be difficult for HR managers to know where to start. Our suggestion: tackle talent management first. Enhancing the transparency of your talent strategy not only fosters trust, but also increases employee confidence, reduces uncertainty, and helps to leverage each individual’s skills to the fullest. 

Here are five ways to make talent management more transparent at your organisation, starting today. 

Effective talent management relies on transparent communication of policies and procedures. Establish a centralised and easily accessible platform for all employees, where they can find detailed information about performance evaluation methods, promotion criteria, current job postings and more. Regular updates about any policy changes are crucial to keep everyone informed and aligned. It's also a good idea to provide clear documentation and communication of how internal talent is matched with opportunities for project work or role changes within the organisation. This not only ensures that employees are aware of opportunities, but also encourages trust and openness. Ideally, you should work towards building an internal career platform that makes it easy to get an overview of which opportunities are available and how they compare. 

Implement a structured feedback system where employees receive consistent, constructive feedback through regular check-ins, in addition to annual reviews. These discussions should not only focus on current performance, but also on future career paths and potential opportunities within the organisation. Feedback sessions usually help to identify an employee's strengths and areas for improvement, but they can also be an excellent opportunity to understand an employee’s wider skills and hopes for the future, and to help align their career aspirations with organisational goals if possible.

It's vital to clearly articulate the qualifications, achievements and competencies required to achieve promotion or other types of incentive at your business. Such clarity helps employees understand what they need to focus on for career progression and empowers managers by ensuring fairness, as well as providing a structured approach to talent-related decision-making. Speaking of fairness, make sure criteria are applied consistently across the organisation to prevent biases and favouritism. It helps to establish a transparent skill-mapping system, so employees also get a clear view of the skills and strengths of their colleagues, too.

Capture and leverage data on internal mobility to assess talent supply, demand, and movement within the organisation. This aids in identifying skill gaps and areas where talent could be re-routed for greater effectiveness and/or employee satisfaction. Data gathered through feedback mechanisms can also be used to track the effectiveness of talent management strategies, so you can trial adjustments or changes in direction as needed. When backed by objective data, decisions on hiring, promotions and internal mobility are both more transparent and more objective, which makes it easier to get employees on board. 

When creating or reviewing any job description, take the time to map out potential career progression routes that role could offer, while also clearly detailing the competencies required to achieve progression in different directions. Then be sure to communicate regularly about internal opportunities from a new hire's day one, so they can consider their career goals accordingly. You can further support employees in the process by providing learning resources and tools to help them assess and build their skills and competencies against the requirements of different roles.