In the dynamic world of Talent & People Success technology, 2023 has proven to be a year of resilience and growth despite economic headwinds. The Fosway Group’s 9-Grid for Talent & People Success reveals 10 market trends that shed light on the industry’s trajectory, challenges, and emerging opportunities.
1. Skills intelligence on the rise
Traditional talent management practices are stagnating as leading employers seek more human-centred, inclusive, equitable, intelligent, and agile approaches. According to Fosway’s latest report, skills intelligence and talent marketplaces are gaining traction for their ability to provide transparency and flexibility, empowering individuals within organisations.
2. The pivotal role of personalisation
Personalisation is a central pillar in transforming talent management into Talent & People Success. AI is enabling a new level of innovation in the people experience by analysing sentiment through natural language processing. This innovation accelerates conversations between teams, individuals, and leaders at scale, emphasising the need for further personalisation to address both strategic HR issues and individual/team-level support.
3. AI is transformational
Despite the hype, AI is proving to be transformational for key people experiences, including skills, engagement, careers, learning, and internal mobility. AI’s ability to infer skills, connect people to mentors, link individuals to projects or gigs, and respond to career aspirations is changing the game for both employee experiences and HR productivity.
4. Embedding talent processes into workplace tools
The expectation for HR solutions to embed talent processes into everyday tools and workspaces, such as Microsoft Teams and Slack, is now standard. This ‘headless’ integration has become a baseline requirement for buyers, enhancing performance support, talent mobility, skills development, and employee engagement.
5. The emergence of copilots
With Microsoft launching Copilot for Microsoft Office 365, the introduction of co-piloting features in everyday software is expected to drive demand for co-piloting HR features. How employees respond to embedded AI support in work applications will likely become a defining moment, particularly for touch-points in the employee experience.
6. Strategic workforce decision-making as a key component
While the focus often falls on employee enablement in Talent & People Success solutions, the relationship between talent and people success, workforce intelligence, and strategic organisational decisions is critical. Total workforce intelligence holds the key to HR gaining a seat at the executive leadership table, enabling the shaping of business strategy and aligning the workforce’s capabilities to support it.
7. Challenges of data connectivity
Despite advances in analytics within best-of-breed solutions, the lack of data connectivity across HR silos remains a significant challenge. Until resolved, the full value of having comprehensive data insights may not be realised, posing a risk for organisations.
8. Growing importance of ‘Explainable AI’
As regulations around AI mature, the need for transparency and explainability becomes paramount. The growth of AI and embedded intelligence requires proof of unbiased and transparent operations, especially with the increasing proactive stance of governments in the UK, Europe, and the US towards regulation.
9. Energising engagement (and rewards)
In the aftermath of the pandemic and the shift to hybrid and remote working, organisations are rethinking employee engagement and performance. Talent solutions are playing a crucial role in enabling continuous performance and optimising relationships and engagement within teams. The changing demographics and expectations of a new generation of employees further emphasise the need for innovative solutions.
10. Proving HR’s value-add
Integrating data and workflows across the talent and HR ecosystem remains challenging, with the alignment of business intelligence to people intelligence being the missing link. As economic conditions worsen, the spotlight on HR’s investment and strategies intensifies. Demonstrating real business impact on the bottom line is a significant challenge, and connecting people intelligence and workforce intelligence to business outcomes becomes crucial for HR to secure a seat at the executive table.
