According to Manpower Group’s 2023 Global Talent Shortage report, 77% of employers worldwide shared the struggle to find the right skilled talent, which increased by half that of the post-pandemic.
Faced with this challenge, many HR leaders turn to leveling up existing team members for new critical roles, with 71% planning to invest in upskilling and reskilling the current workforce.
As adapting to skills gaps and aligning employees’ potential with organizational needs has never been more critical, this calls for a specialized HR tool—just like the innovations of ATS software or EOR services for external hiring.
And that’s the Talent Marketplace.
This solution prioritizes internal mobility, offering employees a unique space for career pathing, mentorships, and access to a variety of roles within their current organization.
Unlike other HR technologies, talent marketplaces cater to the fluid nature of today's job market, providing on-demand access to a pool of qualified candidates ready to meet emerging challenges head-on.
This enhances training opportunities and closes skills gaps through a skills-based organizational approach.]As we dive deeper into this article, I’ll uncover how implementing an internal talent marketplace can transform your talent intelligence strategies, offering unprecedented benefits for both employers and employees. But first,...
As we dive deeper into this article, I’ll uncover how implementing an internal talent marketplace can transform your talent intelligence strategies, offering unprecedented benefits for both employers and employees. But first,...
What is a Talent Marketplace?
A Talent Marketplace is a dynamic digital platform that facilitates the matching of individuals' skills, experiences, and career aspirations with internal opportunities within an organization, such as projects, gigs, full-time roles, and mentorships.
It operates on the principles of transparency, accessibility, and efficiency, aiming to optimize the workforce for both the employees' career development and the organization's strategic goals.
Starting as a simple form of career planning site with job matching algorithms, talent marketplaces have expanded into holistic tools for employee development.
HR expert Josh Bersin has a great summary table to help you understand the evolution of the talent marketplace:
Typically, tasks are assigned based on job roles and assumed relevancy, which doesn't necessarily consider an individual's full range of skills, interests, or potential for growth.
This approach can overlook better-suited team members who may be eager to contribute or develop in new areas but are not considered because they fall outside the typical parameters of their job descriptions.
The talent marketplace redefines this approach by broadening the criteria for task assignment to include not just immediate job relevance but also personal interests, qualifications, and developmental goals.
This not only helps in finding the best match for a task but also promotes a more dynamic, engaged, and ultimately more competent workforce. It aligns projects with people who are not only capable but also motivated to work on them, which can lead to higher productivity and job satisfaction.
How Talent Marketplaces Operate
Talent marketplaces can be thought of as internal ecosystems that connect employees with opportunities.
This connection is facilitated through a user-friendly digital platform, often described as an “internal LinkedIn,” where both the current skills of employees and the needs of the business are clearly displayed and matched in real-time.
This system handles the discovery and application processes.
Also, it manages onboarding and transitions as employees move from one role to another within the company.
By integrating these features, talent marketplaces not only streamline talent acquisition but also enhance the overall efficiency and effectiveness of talent management within organizations.
They provide a robust solution for companies looking to foster an adaptable, skilled, and satisfied workforce.
Key Features of Talent Marketplace Platforms
As you have a sense of what is a talent marketplace, let’s dive deeper into key features that make a talent marketplace platform a powerful solution for workforce development and internal hiring:
Comprehensive Employee Profiles
Talent marketplace platforms are equipped with comprehensive employee profiles that detail individuals' skills and experiences, career aspirations, and learning progress. This feature enables a deeper understanding of the workforce, facilitating tailored career development opportunities.
AI-Driven Smart Matching
Utilizing advanced AI algorithms, these platforms offer smart-matching capabilities that align employees with suitable projects and roles based on their skills, interests, and career goals. This enhances job satisfaction and optimizes the utilization of talent within the organization.
Dynamic Career Pathing and Succession Planning
Career pathing tools within talent marketplaces help employees visualize and plan their career trajectories within the organization aligned with business needs. Succession planning features further ensure that critical roles are identified and that there are actionable plans in place to cultivate or attract talent to fill these roles when needed.
Robust Data Reporting and Analytics
With robust data reporting and analytics, organizations can gain insights into the skills distribution across their workforce, identify skills gaps, and measure the effectiveness of talent development initiatives. This data-driven approach supports strategic decision-making in talent management.
Support for Diversity and Inclusion
Talent marketplaces promote diversity and inclusion by providing transparent access to opportunities for all employees. This helps in creating a more inclusive work environment where everyone has the chance to grow and succeed based on merit.
Integration with Existing HR Systems
Most talent marketplace platforms are designed to seamlessly integrate with existing HR systems, ensuring that all employee data is synchronized and that the talent management process is efficient and effective.
The Benefits of Implementing a Talent Marketplace
A talent marketplace is crucial for modern organizations as it facilitates the dynamic alignment of workforce capabilities with evolving business needs. Here key benefits of having a talent marketplace for your business and your teams:
Enhancing Organizational Agility and Flexibility
Organizations implementing talent marketplaces experience a significant boost in agility and flexibility. By seamlessly matching employees to new roles based on real-time business needs, companies can rapidly respond to market changes. This dynamic capability helps in managing workforce capacity and supports continuous employee development and career pathing, ensuring that talent is always aligned with evolving organizational goals.
Driving Employee Engagement and Retention
Another key advantage of talent marketplaces is their profound impact on employee engagement and retention.
Employees are given the freedom to explore various internal work and training opportunities, allowing them to engage in new experiences, collaborate with different teams, and improve their desired skill sets.
This not only enhances job satisfaction but also fosters a sense of belonging and loyalty to the organization.
In fact, according to INTOO’s 2023 survey on 1,600 U.S. employees, over 80% of employees say learning and development opportunities are what they look for in a job and could impact their decision to stay or leave a company.
Future-Proofing Through Upskilling and Reskilling
Talent marketplaces are pivotal in addressing the urgent need for upskilling and reskilling in today’s ever-changing world.
As Megan Bickle, a prominent talent management expert, agrees:“
This tech [talent marketplace] is a huge unlock for both employees AND managers who crave clarity on what skills and capabilities are needed to advance not only the company but also a critical map to help employees and their leaders navigate career development.”
By connecting employees with projects and mentorships that match their skills and career aspirations, these platforms facilitate hands-on learning and professional development.
This approach not only helps in closing the skills gap but also prepares the workforce for future challenges and opportunities, making the organization more resilient and competitive.
Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Implementing a talent marketplace can significantly advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within an organization.
These platforms ensure fair access to opportunities for all employees, helping to eliminate biases in career advancement and create a more inclusive workplace culture. The use of AI-driven tools to match skills and opportunities further supports objective, data-driven decision-making, enhancing transparency and fairness in employee development.
Streamlining Talent Management and Operational Efficiency
Talent marketplaces optimize talent management processes by providing a comprehensive view of the skills available within the organization. This visibility allows for better resource planning and deployment, reducing duplication of efforts and enhancing operational efficiency.
Additionally, the integration of talent marketplaces with existing HR systems ensures that employee data is synchronized across platforms, further streamlining management practices and supporting strategic decision-making.
Fostering a Culture of Innovation and Collaboration
The adoption of a talent marketplace encourages a culture of innovation and collaboration. By breaking down silos and enabling easier networking, employees can share knowledge and ideas more freely, sparking creativity and innovation.
This collaborative environment not only boosts productivity but also enhances the organization's ability to solve complex problems and adapt to new market conditions.
Economic Benefits: Cost Savings and Productivity Gains
Talent marketplaces contribute to the bottom line by driving cost savings and enhancing productivity. By efficiently aligning talent with organizational needs, these platforms reduce the costs associated with talent acquisition and turnover.
Every HR manager knows the importance of retaining people, but not everyone fully grasps the true cost of employee attrition.While the direct expenses related to recruiting and onboarding new hires, such as advertising and training costs, are well-recognized, numerous hidden costs can have an even more significant impact on a company's bottom line.
At GoFIGR, we used Deloitte's cost of churn methodology to model this and found that the average cost saved per retained employee is at least USD$50k when normalized for white and blue-collar roles.
However, this figure spikes significantly for harder-to-fill positions, such as software development or sales.Remember, the bulk of the true cost is hidden in the P&L—it's the sales you aren't making or the effort that goes into getting your new hire up to productivity.
Moreover, increased employee engagement and satisfaction lead to higher productivity levels, directly impacting the organization's profitability and growth.
By leveraging people analytics, companies can gain valuable insights into the relationship between employee tenure and revenue generation. Adam McKinnon, the People Data and Analytics Leader at Reece, shared with us that he has been able to use data to correlate tenure with revenue. This has prompted Reece to partner with us and embark on a journey to bring together all the incredible ways their employees can develop their careers into a single, seamless view.
You can get inspired by data and develop a streamlined solution like Adam, or choose to stay ahead and invest in your own talent marketplace to gain a competitive advantage in the rapidly changing business landscape! Book a free consultation with us here.
Success Stories: Real-world Examples of Talent Marketplace Impact
While big organizations often lead the way in adopting innovative solutions to address critical challenges related to employee growth, retention, and internal mobility, SMEs are also recognizing the value of talent marketplaces in optimizing their workforce and applying it in many different forms. Here are some examples that demonstrate the impact of talent marketplaces within organizations of various sizes:
SMEs: The Motley Fool's Journey to Non-Traditional Career Paths
The Motley Fool, a financial advice company, implemented a talent marketplace to bring together their exceptional internal coaching program and project opportunities. By providing employees with visibility into diverse roles and skill development options, they have fostered a culture of growth and adaptability.
The platform has enabled employees to pursue horizontal career growth and embrace opportunities for their hidden talents. They have copywriters who are now developers, for example.This approach has not only boosted employee engagement and retention but has also allowed The Motley Fool to effectively utilize their internal talent pool to meet evolving business needs.
]NASA: Leveraging Talent Marketplaces for Mission-Critical Staffing
As part of their Future of Work initiative and their ambitious goals to send people to Mars and back to the Moon, NASA has developed a dedicated internal talent marketplace. By providing more valuable, right-matching opportunities, NASA can better support their high-quality team members in achieving greater achievements for humans!
The platform aims to expand the agency's understanding of and access to the skills and experiences of their workforce, enabling them to optimize talent allocation for various programs.
By leveraging a graph database to map complex relationships between skills, projects, and team members, NASA can now efficiently match talent to opportunities.This has significantly reduced the time required to identify suitable candidates for specific roles, from hours to mere minutes, ultimately supporting NASA's mission-critical objectives.
]Deutsche Post DHL: Empowering Employees Through a Human-Centered Approach
Deutsche Post DHL (DPDHL), the world's largest logistics company, embarked on a journey to implement a talent marketplace using a human-centered design (HCD) approach. Starting with a proof of concept involving 200 end-users across eight countries, DPDHL gathered valuable feedback and insights.
The positive response from employees, who felt that the platform truly understood their skills and aspirations, validated the company's decision to move forward.
DPDHL is now rolling out the talent marketplace through "pioneers" who act as change champions, encouraging others to engage with the platform. This gradual, employee-centric approach has been critical in building trust, confidence, and competence among the workforce.
]Mastercard, Schneider Electric, L'Oréal, HSBC, and More: Driving Transformation at Scale
Global giants like Mastercard, Schneider Electric, L'Oréal, and HSBC have also reported significant success from implementing talent marketplaces. These platforms have enabled these companies to revolutionize talent mobility, address retention challenges through flexible work opportunities, empower employees to take charge of their career growth, and enhance skills development and accessibility.
The results have been impressive, with increased employee registration rates, productivity gains, cost savings, and improved internal mobility metrics.These success stories, spanning SMEs to large multinationals, demonstrate the transformative power of talent marketplaces in reshaping talent management practices.
By adopting these platforms, organizations of all sizes can effectively align employee aspirations with business objectives, foster a culture of continuous learning and growth, and build a more agile and future-ready workforce.
Talent Marketplace Platforms to Consider
If you’re ready to explore this AI-enabled talent management technology, here are a few top-quality options in the market to consider. Notably, all of them are among the world’s 40 most popular AI HR tools—further underlines the positive signal among forward-thinking leaders.
GoFIGR
GoFIGR excels in seamlessly matching employee skills with available internal opportunities utilizing AI technology, significantly enhancing career development and reducing turnover.
GoFIGR’s talent marketplace solution stands out by offering a proactive approach to career progression, helping your team members align their aspirations with the organizational goals effectively.
With a user-friendly interface, straightforward setup, and a no-frills feature package, GoFIGR is ideal for companies of all sizes to optimize talent resources and reduce recruitment costs.
Gloat
Gloat offers a dynamic talent marketplace aimed at facilitating internal mobility and upskilling within organizations.Its sophisticated algorithm helps in mapping career paths and internal gigs with predictive analytics, catering to companies looking to leverage AI for workforce insights and management.
Eightfold
Eightfold’s AI-driven talent intelligence system is notable for its deep insights into people's potential and commitment to DEI practices. Eightfold promotes integration with other talent ecosystems to improve recruitment efficiency and employee retention through smart data utilization and precise candidate matching.
Workday
Renowned for its comprehensive HR solution and advanced payroll software, Workday supports global operations and offers an adaptive learning management system that personalizes development paths to foster an agile workforce.Workday is a top choice for multinational corporations needing a versatile and extensive talent management platform.
Fuel50
Fuel50 delivers a personalized and ethical AI-driven talent marketplace experience. They use gamification to enhance career development pathways and skill building.Also with robust analytics capabilities, Fuel50 is appealing to organizations that prioritize a supportive and growth-oriented work environment.
The Final Words
Throughout this exploration, we've delved into the transformative power of talent marketplaces, showcasing how they redefine talent acquisition and employee development through AI-driven platforms.
The adoption of such innovative strategies not only bolsters organizational agility and flexibility but also significantly enhances employee engagement and retention.
By offering dynamic career pathing, promoting internal mobility, and advancing diversity and inclusion, talent marketplaces stand at the forefront of modernizing human resource practices, aligning the aspirations of employees with the strategic needs of the organization.
The real-world success stories of leading companies underline the tangible benefits and competitive advantage that come with implementing talent marketplaces.
From global organizations to nimble SMEs, talent marketplace solutions democratize access to opportunities and empower workforce agility across the board.These examples illuminate the pathway for teams of all industries and sizes to foster a culture of continuous learning, facilitate skill development, and propel their workforce toward future challenges with resilience and adaptability.
In embracing talent marketplaces, you’re preparing your business for the evolving demands of the global market and securing your position as a frontrunner in the pursuit of innovation and excellence in talent management.
Contact GoFIGR today to discover how we can help you foster a future-focused workforce using our Internal Talent Marketplace platform.
Helena Turpin spent 20 years in talent and HR innovation where she solved people-related problems using data and technology. She left corporate life to create GoFIGR where she helps mid-sized organizations to develop and retain their people by connecting employee skills and aspirations to internal opportunities like projects, mentorship and learning.
