Talent management systems
- Cost of filling every role without a ready-now successor from outside
- $175,000
- Bench strength today: roles covered ready-now, percent
- 42
- Roles covered within two years, percent
- 75
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs entered, by the method stated below it. Ninebix publishes no rating rule, no pay benchmark, no replacement-cost rate and no time-to-fill figure: the counts and the assumptions are yours, and the defaults are a worked example to replace with your own figures.
A talent management system is what a company calls the software once the review, the succession plan and the development plans live in one place rather than in three spreadsheets and a manager's memory. For an enterprise the system is a module of the HR platform, bought per seat, with a competency library, a learning catalogue and a compensation cycle bolted on. For a small HR team the system is the record: who was placed where at each review, which critical roles have a successor and how ready each one is, and what it would cost to fill a role from outside if the plan failed. This guide explains what a system holds, how it differs from a review tool and a spreadsheet, and what a small team needs from one; the free succession plan worksheet on this site works bench strength, the roles exposed and the cost of the external fills with no account.
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The record a system holds: people, roles, slates, cycles
Four things, kept against each other. People with a placement per review cycle; critical roles with a successor slate; each successor's readiness, dated and confirmed by someone; and the cycle the placement was made in, so the movement from one review to the next is visible. A spreadsheet holds the first and loses the rest by the third cycle.
System, review tool or spreadsheet: what each does and does not do
A review tool collects ratings and shows a grid for one cycle. A spreadsheet holds anything and keeps nothing straight. A system keeps the placements, the slates and the readiness dated across cycles and answers the board's question, who is ready for the finance director's role today, with a sheet rather than a recollection. Ninebix Pro is the system; the worksheets are the arithmetic it keeps.
What a small team needs from the system, and what it can leave to the suite
The small team needs the record and the arithmetic: bench strength as a share of critical roles, the roles exposed, the exposure in days and dollars, the three-year gap. It can leave learning catalogues, competency frameworks and compensation cycles to a suite bought when the team is large enough to use them. The worksheet takes the fill cost and the fill days as the reader's own figures and publishes no benchmark.
Talent management systems: common questions
What is the difference between a talent management system and talent management software?
Nothing in the software and everything in what is kept. Software that shows a grid for one cycle is a review tool; a system keeps people, critical roles, successor slates and readiness dated across cycles. The worksheets on this site work the numbers either way; Ninebix Pro is the system that keeps them.
What is bench strength?
The share of critical roles with a successor ready now. Twelve critical roles with five ready-now successors is bench strength of 42%; counting the successors ready within two years lifts it to 75%. The succession plan worksheet works both from your own counts and publishes no target.
Does a small company need a talent management system?
A company with critical roles and more than one review cycle behind it needs the record, whatever it is called. Whether that record is a paid system or a well-kept sheet depends on how many roles and cycles there are; the free worksheets do the arithmetic without an account, and Pro keeps the record when a sheet stops being enough.
Will it do what you need for Talent management systems?
Tell us what your talent review needs and we will tell you straight whether Ninebix Pro does it today, whether it is coming, or whether you need a consultant instead. A person reads these and replies.