What is a Talent Management System (TMS)?

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No modern form of technology has a greater effect on the field of HR and the roles of HR professional than talent management systems. Talent Management Systems, which are commonly referred to as TMS by HR professionals, are a set of software applications that helps an organization:

  • qualify candidates
  • manage talent
  • retain human capital

As the expectations of executives and the roles of the average HR department change in the corporate environment, the need for high-quality and fully integrated TMS grows. Read on, and learn what you need to know about Talent Management Systems.

What is a Talent Management System?

As you might suspect, Talent Management Systems are designed to keep track of talent within an organization. Talent is classified as valuable members of personnel and prospective employment candidates who have applied for open positions. If you plan on working the expanding field of TMS, you will need to learn how to navigate through a TMS system and how to utilize the system as you scope out, qualify and hire talent.

The best TMS is cloud based.   Talent management technology is used today by companies and organizations of all sizes.  Talent management in HRM can support a variety of processes including:


  • Planning
  • Recruitment
  • Onboarding
  • Performance Management
  • Compensation Management
  • Learning and Professional Development/Succession Planning

The talent management program data that the system compiles can then be used for strategic professionals for several different purposes that benefit the organization.

What Are the Benefits of a Talent Management System (TMS)?

The information collected through a human resource talent management system can be used by professionals in a number of different ways.  If you work in HRM, you can integrate your TMS system and your application tracking system so that you can easily sift through applications and organize them. This helps you efficiently identify quality applicants or place others on a wait list for future job postings.

Another benefit of a quality TMS system is that it is a centralized place for all talent management activities.  If an employee moves from one department to another, each department manager can enter their own data. This helps HR assess the employee’s performance to see if they are candidates for a raise or a promotion. By having this system in place, you can retain those who are an asset and discipline those who have not been committed to their job. If there is room for improvement, managers and HR professionals can provide their employees with training materials so that employees can further their skills. By keeping track of the talent in these software systems, only the best applicants are chosen and only the best employees are retained. This eliminates costs and reduces the time it takes to manage human capital.

Assessing an organization’s human capital to ensure that everyone has the right skills is very important. By using a TMS, organizations can eliminate hindering talent gaps that might exist to create a skilled workforce. Today, HR is all about strategy. Using specific metrics and data to assess the quality of the workforce is extremely important to:

  • find and retain the right people
  • manage training and professional development
  • develop strategy and ensure HR efforts are connected to the overall vision of the organization

By working as a team, HR managers, supervisors and departmental managers can all work together to make better organizational talent decisions.  By learning how a TMS can be used in an organization and studying talent management system examples, you can build your understanding.