Did you know that the lack of qualified candidates to fill open positions is one of the biggest challenges for companies in North America?
With talent shortages on the rise, we have to look beyond traditional hiring methods. Sometimes the best solution is to source and develop talent internally because investing in existing employees reduces hiring costs and boosts employee retention.
That's where talent management tools come in. From recruitment and onboarding to learning, development, and employee management, these tools help you attract, retain, and develop your workforce.
In this article, we'll explore the best talent management systems that will help you stay ahead in talent acquisition.
What are talent management tools?
Talent management tools are software that help companies and HR teams attract, develop, and retain talents in their organizations. They can be used throughout the whole employee lifecycle, from sourcing and hiring new talents, through helping them grow and develop, to planning succession.
There are different types of talent management tools, from applicant tracking systems to employee engagement tools, but here are the key features to look for:
- Workforce planning: This feature helps you analyze your current workforce, forecast future needs, and plan the hiring process. It's also useful for identifying skill gaps and optimizing workforce allocation.
- Performance tracking: This feature serves to set objectives, monitor employee progress, and identify areas for improvement.
- Succession planning: This feature helps you identify and develop future leaders by assessing their potential and how they’ll manage the role potentially.
- Talent assessment: This feature serves to evaluate candidates' and employees' skills and competencies through tests and surveys and to identify training needs.
Some talent management solutions also have built-in performance management frameworks, while others can be strengthened by integrating performance management software alongside them.
This combination allows you to not only attract talent but also continuously track employee progress and provide structured feedback.
Performance management tools complement talent management tools by providing continuous insights into employee performance and engagement through employee surveys, performance reviews, evaluations, and multi-source feedback.
They help you identify high-potential employees who are suitable for leadership roles while also recognizing those who may need additional support to reach their full potential.
Benefits of talent management systems
If you're reading this, you probably already understand the importance of talent management systems, but here are some benefits that you may not have considered:
- Enhanced employee engagement and retention: A good talent management system keeps employees motivated by providing clear career development paths, regular feedback, and recognition. It's no secret that engaged and motivated employees are more likely to stay, which can help you reduce turnover.
- Streamlined recruitment and onboarding processes: Talent management systems provide a structured approach to the recruiting process and help you automate onboarding workflows. This helps both your HR professionals and new hires by reducing hiring time and ensuring a smooth transition and team alignment for the new employees.
- Improved decision-making through data analytics: Talent management tools help you analyze and manage employee data in one place. This valuable understanding helps HR teams make informed decisions about promotions, training, and workforce planning.
- Aligning employee performance with organizational goals: These tools help you align your employees' efforts with your business objectives to make sure everyone is on the same page. They help employees stay focused on key priorities while driving overall business success.
- Identifying high-potential employees: Many talent management tools come with tests and surveys that can be used for employee skills assessment and evaluating their competencies and leadership potential. Look for tools that have features like cognitive ability tests, behavioural assessments, and 360-degree feedback.
Best talent management software in 2025
After carefully analyzing features and customer reviews on platforms like G2, Capterra, and Trustpilot, here's our list of the best talent management software on the market.
Effy AI
Effy AI is an easy-to-use, AI-powered talent management platform specializing in automating employee reviews and 360-degree feedback.
It stands out as the best performance management software for small and medium-sized businesses that want to speed up performance evaluations, boost engagement, and support talent development – all without needing extensive HR resources.
Pros:
- Intuitive interface: The platform is easy to set up, and you can run your first performance reviews in minutes, even if it’s your first time on the platform.
- Customizable templates: It comes with a lot of ready-to-use templates for different types of surveys, forms, performance reviews, and 360 feedback examples. You can also use AI to generate custom forms based on your needs by answering a few quick questions.
- AI-powered insights: Effy AI analyzes large volumes of employee data, helping you spot trends and patterns and providing your employees with personalized feedback and actionable tips for further career development. Click here to check out some of the best employee development plan examples.
- Affordable pricing: We made our pricing with small businesses in mind. If you have up to five employees, you can start using Effy AI for free, you can create unlimited reviews and access all our paid features.
Cons:
- Specialized focus: Effy AI focuses more on performance management and feedback, with limited features in broader talent management areas like recruiting or learning.
Eightfold Talent Intelligence Platform
Eightfold is an AI-driven platform that focuses on talent acquisition and management. It promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) by using AI to reduce unconscious bias in hiring.
Pros:
- Advanced AI capabilities: Eightfold uses AI to automate the hiring process with features like AI candidate matching that suggests candidates who are the best fit for a particular position based on a thorough analysis.
- Comprehensive talent insights: Its analytics provides you with insights like a candidate's potential for growth and suggestions for their potential future career paths.
- Diversity-driven approach: The tool uses AI to anonymize candidate profiles and hide all information that could lead to unconscious bias (such as gender or ethnicity) ensuring a fair and skills-based hiring process.
Cons:
- AI precision issues: HR managers complained about this feature, as it often needs too many adjustments.
- Integration challenges: There's room for improvement when it comes to integration with other workforce management software.
PageUp People
PageUp People is an enterprise talent management platform that stands out for its modular approach allowing you to create a talent management system tailored to your needs.
Given its diverse set of features, it's a great option for large companies and enterprises, but it may not be the best performance management system for small business that are looking for something simpler and more affordable.
Pros:
- Comprehensive feature set: PageUp People combines multiple HR tools into a single platform. It contains recruiting software, an applicant-tracking system, an onboarding tool, a learning platform, a performance management tool, and many other features.
- User-friendly interface: Although it has a lot of features, users mentioned that the platform is well-structured and easy to use.
- Strong customer support: Their customer support team is always available to help you with setting up and customizing the platform.
Cons:
- Limited integrations: As HR managers are relying on integration options, they are often disappointed with the options at PageUp.
- Basic reporting: Although the tool provides you with workforce analytics, the reports could be deeper and more detailed.
ClearCompany
ClearCompany is a comprehensive people management software with AI-powered tools for recruiting, onboarding, engagement, learning and development.
Pros:
- AI-enhanced ATS: Built-in artificial intelligence helps you analyze large volumes of applications and identify high-potential candidates for every role so you can prioritize them and improve hiring time.
- Learning library: Its course library has nearly 10,000 courses for upskilling and reskilling created by renowned institutions. The learning platform is easy to use, with responsive UI and interactive elements such as quizzes and leaderboards.
- AI insights: Its AI-powered analytics turns talent data into actionable insights and helps you identify patterns such as turnover risks or hiring bottlenecks.
Cons:
- Integration gaps: Although it connects with some tools, users complained about the lack of integration options.
- Limited reporting: Reports and flexibility have also been problematic, as some users say.
Deltek Talent Management
Deltek Talent Management is an HR tool designed for project-based businesses, such as consulting firms and marketing agencies, to name a few.
Pros:
- Comprehensive feature set: Their tool can take on every step of the HR process, from recruiting to performance management and professional development.
- Project-focused recruitment: The platform's talent acquisition system can match specific project requirements such as technical expertise, industry regulations, or budget constraints.
- AI-drafted learning paths: It helps you develop employees by generating personalized learning paths with only a few clicks.
Cons:
- Lack of integrations: As an ERP, Deltek Talent Management is primarily designed to work within the Deltek ecosystem, so it has fewer integrations than other talent management software on our list.
- Limited reporting: Some users mentioned that the reporting could be improved with more detailed insights.
Choosing the right talent management software
As you can tell from this article, there are different types of talent management tools, from simple solutions focused on specific tasks to comprehensive platforms that cover the entire employee lifecycle.
When choosing a talent management software for you, you should focus on your needs and features that are important to you. Here are some other factors that will help you make the right decision:
- Scalability: Choose a tool that's flexible, can grow with your company, and support an increasing number of employees.
- User experience: When choosing an employee experience management software, look for a tool with an intuitive interface that's easy to use for both HR professionals and employees, as that's the best way to increase the adoption rate.
- Integration capabilities: It's important to choose a tool that integrates with the apps you're already using, such as your HR software, performance review software, communication tools, etc.
Cost: Choose an employee management software whose price and payment model fit your budget. Some of the tools have usage-based pricing, some charge per employee, and some of them let you build custom plans based on the features you need. Don't forget to consider long-term expenses such as potential add-ons and similar.
Future trends in talent management tools
As the workforce and workplace continue to evolve, so does talent management software. They're changing and adapting to keep up with the evolving needs of HR departments.
Here are some trends that are already transforming talent management and are expected to play an even bigger role moving forward.
AI and automation
AI is already helping automate and improve almost all HR processes, from hiring to performance tracking and employee development. AI-powered tools can analyze resumes, identify skill gaps, and automate repetitive tasks like scheduling interviews.
They can also help you create personalized learning and development plans based on performance reviews and employee aspirations.
Finally, we shouldn't forget AI chatbots and virtual assistants that provide instant responses to employees, and that can be used in all phases – from onboarding to training and ongoing HR support.
The rise of predictive analytics
Talent assessment software is set to remove the guesswork from the recruitment processes. They'll be relying more and more on AI and machine learning what are the candidate’s chances to succeed in a particular role and assess their leadership potential. This will help HRs identify candidates who are the best fit for hiring and promotion based on data.
Predictive analytics also helps minimize bias in candidate evaluation, ensuring a data-driven approach. It analyzes factors like historical data, performance metrics, and carer progression.
Integrations with broader HR systems
Talent management tools are increasingly integrating with broader HR systems like payroll, benefits management tools, employee development software, and even learning management systems. They create a flow of employee data, reducing administrative workload, simplifying data management, and making sure all HR processes run smoothly.
When a new employee is hired, their information can automatically sync with payroll and benefits systems, meaning that HR won’t need to enter data manually. This can significantly enhance the efficiency of HR teams, especially in large companies with a lot of employees.
Conclusion
We hope that you have a better understanding of different tools that can improve your talent management efforts and overall employee experience.
If you want to improve employee performance and engagement while getting detailed insights backed by AI, we've got you covered.
Effy AI is the platform that will support your organizational growth and employee development while being super intuitive and suitable for small businesses without HR teams.
