Talent intelligent platforms are becoming the most effective way to leverage data on the workforce to identify top talent, accurately match candidates to roles, and improve employee quality of hire and retention. But what exactly are these platforms, and how can your organization use them for maximized effects?

What Is a Talent Intelligence Platform?

A talent intelligence platform brings all internal and external candidate data sources together to deliver a holistic view of the talent available across the workforce. This includes passive and active talent as well as talent within your own organization. 

A hiring intelligence platform also uses AI, algorithms, automation, and analysis to help parse the information available. This can mean identifying similarities between roles that require the same skill sets and carry the same responsibilities while bearing different job titles. 

It can also help in finding candidates who have the right skill sets to fill such roles, despite previous job titles or positions held within a company. Since there is a large amount of crossover between many roles in today’s increasingly technical workforce, it’s critical to be able to recognize where skillsets in one position can easily translate to ability in another role.

This holistic view of candidate data can help your company to:

• Match internal and external candidates against open roles within your organization
• Understand skills, job demands, and job market trends as they change and evolve
• Perform strategic workforce planning to futureproof your company against skills gaps
• Proactively source candidates in anticipation of your company’s future needs

A talent intelligence platform’s core functionality should be gathering, sorting, and reporting on data about jobs and people, then combining the data with AI or other analytical tools to drive better decisioning around recruitment and talent acquisition. 

[See 6 Ways to Use Talent Intelligence Tools]

What Makes Up a Talent Intelligence Platform?

A talent intelligence platform is like a machine with many different parts that work together. Different parts can include:

ATS and CRM  

Applicant tracking system software provides recruiting and hiring tools that can collect and sort thousands of resumes. Candidate relationship management systems allow hiring professionals to build and maintain relationships with job candidates while managing the recruitment process by treating candidates as if they were customers. 

AI-driven talent intelligence tools

These use artificial intelligence to drive search capabilities, scanning internal and external data sources (such as ATSs, CRMs, and job boards as well as social media sites) to find candidates for open positions.  

Labor market intelligence tools

These focus on understanding the availability of skills in a specific area, where they are working and who for, and what their demographics are.

Internal talent marketplaces

These are designed to help surface what really is required by a job and what skillsets and qualities candidates should have to meet these requirements. This helps uncover potential career paths for rising employees, identify skills gaps in the company, and even run internal “gig” workplaces to reduce dependency on outside contractors.

In the context of the talent acquisition technology stack, talent intelligence platforms are both comprised of and sit on top of core applications like an ATS or CRM, while making these applications and systems more useful.  

What Does a Talent Intelligence Platform Do?

One of the biggest benefits of a talent intelligence platform is the ability to surface candidates who already exist in your ATS or CRM without spending hours searching and applying filters that often screen out top talent instead of identifying it, putting dents in your recruitment budget with nothing to show for it.

Another benefit of a talent intelligence platform is the analytics it can bring to bear on the data you have collected not only on candidates in your existing workforce. These people also exist in your ATS or CRM, and their work performance can be added to the existing files to help provide insights into Quality of Hire.

In many cases, organizations that implement a talent intelligence platform find that they are able to fill many more roles by promoting from within. Since external hires can cost around 18% more than internal hires, this leads to automatic cost savings. In addition, employees promoted from within have greater loyalty to the company. 

Implementing a Talent Intelligence Platform

There are two paths to take when choosing how to implement a talent intelligence platform. 

One option is to buy a complete solution and replace all systems currently in place. This can be extremely cost-prohibitive, disrupt hiring continuity, and force your entire team to learn a new system that may or may not meet all of your organization's needs.

The other option is to integrate your different systems and overlay core platforms - like your existing ATS/CRM - with talent intelligence tools that fill gaps. This can help you leverage what works for your company into a complete talent intelligence platform so you can hire better-quality candidates.

Using Crosschq to Help Create Your Talent Intelligence Platform

Crosschq products can assist you in making your recruitment machine into a fully-fledged talent intelligence platform. 

For example, Crosschq 360 digitizes the reference-checking process, speeding it up and packing your ATS with important information about your top candidates, straight from their former managers, coworkers, and mentors.

Likewise, Crosschq Recruit integrates with your ATS or CRM, connecting your organization with a talent pipeline full of qualified and skilled candidates ready to go to work for you with minimal hassle and the ability to ramp up quickly.

Crosschq Analytics adds that layer of intelligence that takes all of the data from your new hires and works backward to apply it to fresh candidates in your systems. It delivers reporting that helps you identify red flags on quick-to-quit employees and identify other attributes that correlate to key performance indicators for quality of hire. 

Layering Crosschq onto your existing setup rather than completely tearing out your old systems and replacing them can be cost-effective and incredibly beneficial. Our connectors and partners mean you’ll be able to continue using what works for you while boosting its functionality and your ability to make even better-hiring decisions.  

Ready to create your talent intelligence platform? Contact us for a free Crosschq demo today.