Want to hire a great employee? Need to upskill your current team? Time to roll out a performance review process? If you answered yes to any (or all) of these questions, you could probably use a talent management tool.
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To make your search for the right talent management software as easy as possible, we vetted the best tools on the market, narrowing the options down to just 10 standout solutions. See which providers rose to the top and learn what stood out about each one in our research.
We receive compensation from our partners for Featured Offer placements, which impacts how and where their offer is displayed.
Featured Offers
Gusto
Monthly pricing
From $40 plus $6 per employee
Free trial
Not offered
Paychex
Monthly pricing
From $35 plus $6 per employee
Free trial
30 days
SurePayroll
Monthly pricing
From $29.99 plus $5 per employee
Free trial
6 Months
Paycor
Monthly pricing
From $99 plus $5 per employee
Free trial
14 days
Methodology
To help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) choose the best talent management software, we evaluated 27 solutions and 53 distinct plans using over 1,400 data points to develop a ranked list. We assessed each talent management software vendor’s pricing information, offered features, reviews, and services and support. We then assigned our Editors’ Score to the top 10 options from our ranked list. Read our full methodology here.
Show summary
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Rippling
: Best for all-in-one HR management
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UKG
: Best for mobile learning
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monday.com
: Best customizable talent management solution
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Paycom
: Best for workforce planning
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Paylocity
: Best for hands-on HR guidance
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Workday
: Best for skills management
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Paycor
: Best for succession planning
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TriNet
: Best for day-to-day employee management
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isolved
: Best configurable talent management solution
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Dayforce
: Best for recruiting
Rippling
Best for all-in-one HR management
Starting price
$8 per month per user
Performance management features
180-degree and 360-degree feedback, goal tracking and compensation reviews
LMS available
Yes
4.9/5
Our rating considers features, pricing transparency, customer support, popularity and ease of use. Ratings are assigned exclusively by our editorial team.
From participating partners
Why we picked it
Rippling is a comprehensive HR software tool with payroll, recruiting, benefits administration and performance management features. In addition to topping this list, Rippling earned a spot on our roundup of the best payroll software. Rippling is built with a high level of automation and features that support every stage of the employee lifecycle, which is why we’ve deemed it the best talent management tool for all-in-one HR management.
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Rippling has a few talent management features worth calling attention to. For starters, it’s got an applicant tracking system (ATS) that allows you to build and use custom candidate pipeline templates. There’s also a performance management system that has goal-setting and tracking functionalities, as well as the ability to set up and run a custom review cycle and create development plans. Headcount planning and compensation bands (used to determine the minimum and maximum amount your company will pay someone at a specific job level) are also part of Rippling’s HR Cloud.
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Further, Rippling has a learning management system (LMS) that offers the option to upload and assign custom e-learning courses or take advantage of the platform’s compliance training. Alternatively, you can purchase courses from Go1, a company that creates learning courses that seamlessly integrate with Rippling’s LMS. Either way, Rippling’s LMS provides an easy way to provide development opportunities that employees can take advantage of on their own time.
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See how Rippling stacks up to Gusto: Rippling vs. Gusto: Which is best in 2024 | CNN Underscored Money
Pros
- Payroll and benefits administration available
- Global teams supported
- Highly customizable and configurable
Cons
- Minimal pricing information
- No support or sales phone numbers listed publicly
- Reviewers complain about a lack of customer support
Who should use it
Rippling offers a lot of features with its HR Cloud — many outside of its HR Cloud, too, as the company also has finance and IT solutions. Considering this, it’s probably best for medium-sized businesses wanting a scalable talent management platform that consolidates all their HR processes. Further, if your business operates in the tech, financial services, retail, marketing and advertising, manufacturing, restaurants, healthcare or nonprofit industries, then Rippling might be a good fit for you.
UKG
Best for mobile learning
Starting price
Not listed
Performance management features
Flexible performance review workflows, gap analysis and scenario planning
LMS available
Yes
4.8/5
Our rating considers features, pricing transparency, customer support, popularity and ease of use. Ratings are assigned exclusively by our editorial team.
From participating partners
Why we picked it
UKG is an HCM software provider that offers several different solutions, one of which is a talent management platform called Ready Talent, described as a “flexible, mobile-friendly talent solution.” UKG Ready Learning, an LMS included with Ready Talent, has a drag-and-drop course creation tool that allows you to upload content from any source. You can also take advantage of Ready Learning’s built-in course marketplace, discussion forums, company news feeds and gamification features (such as leaderboards, course completion badges and peer achievements). Employees can access all of these features on any device at any time, which is why we’ve deemed UKG the best talent management system for mobile learning.
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In addition to the LMS, UKG Ready Talent has recruiting, performance management, succession planning and compensation management features. UKG Ready Recruiting has everything you need to attract and hire talent, including job posting, applicant tracking and a customizable career site you can tailor to reflect your employer brand. Plus, it’s simple to create an employee profile from applicant information once you’ve made a hire.
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Another notable element of UKG Ready Talent is Ready Performance. As you’ve probably guessed, Ready Performance is the company’s performance management tool. It boasts flexible, automated workflows for running performance review cycles. You can set goals and track employees’ progress toward them, and it also has gap analysis and scenario planning tools, both of which help you understand how employees’ performance impacts business goals.
Pros
- Comprehensive resource library organized by business size and industry
- HR services available
- Access to benchmarking data through the UKG Great Place to Work Hub
Cons
- No public pricing information
- No access to chat, email or phone support through website
- Complex system; reviewers say there’s a learning curve
Who should use it
If you need to upskill your workforce, UKG’s performance and learning management systems could be of great help to you. Both of these platforms are designed with analytics tools that can be used to measure employees’ performance and development progress over time. If you have a mobile workforce, UKG could work well for you as it enables employees to share knowledge and complete compliance and learning courses at any time and from any device.
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It’s worth noting that UKG might be overkill for smaller businesses; organizations that have between 100 and 250 employees represent its largest customer segment.
monday.com
Best customizable talent management solution
Starting price
Free for up to two users
Performance management features
Feedback templates and tracking
LMS available
No
4.5/5
Our rating considers features, pricing transparency, customer support, popularity and ease of use. Ratings are assigned exclusively by our editorial team.
From participating partners
Why we picked it
monday.com is a software provider that makes project management, customer relationship management and work management tools. monday.com is an open platform; you can create your own workflows using the solution’s building blocks (which include templates, boards, charts, views and integrations). It’s designed so that users can tailor the solution to fit their team’s needs, which is why we’ve deemed it the best customizable talent management solution.
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One of monday.com’s use cases is as HR management software. The platform has a variety of templates that make it effective for this application. For example, there’s a recruitment pipeline template designed to track applicants’ progress through the hiring process. It’s programmed so that when an applicant’s status is changed, they will be automatically moved to the next stage in the pipeline. Of course, you can customize this template by adding or removing stages.
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Another relevant talent management template offered by monday.com is the feedback tracker. This template groups employees by hire date and team and sets up reminders to deliver feedback on a regular cadence. The standard setting is one-, three- and six-month check-ins with an HR team member and a team lead, but you can adjust this to reflect your preferred feedback cycle.
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Other HR-related templates include attendance and vacation trackers, as well as an employee information management and an employee engagement template that can be used as a calendar for events.
Pros
- Free version available
- 14-day free trial available
- Highly customizable
Cons
- No formal HR product
- No learning or development features
- Requires some tech savviness to use
Who should use it
If you already use monday.com for task management or customer relationship management, you could easily expand your use of the system and start running some talent management initiatives with it.
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Small teams with unique processes would also benefit from using monday.com, as it offers a lot of flexibility and customization options. Plus, teams of two can use the free version of monday.com indefinitely, so if you’re on a budget and don’t have many employees, this tool could be a great option.
Paycom
Best for workforce planning
Starting price
Not listed
Performance management features
360-degree feedback, goal tracking and performance analytics
LMS available
Yes
Why we picked it
Paycom is an HR solutions provider specializing in payroll and HR management. Paycom’s talent management features are designed to support the full employee lifecycle from hiring to retirement. One unique feature of Paycom — position management — helps businesses create a taxonomy for roles within their organization through consistent naming conventions and salary grades. This feature also provides a visual overview of positions and how they fit within the organizational structure, which is why we’ve crowned Paycom the best talent management tool for workforce planning.
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Other elements of Paycom’s talent management tools include compensation budgeting, performance management and learning features. You can run 360-degree feedback cycles with Paycom’s performance management tool, and there’s an employee self-service app that your team can use to set their own goals and log progress toward them. Additionally, there’s an analytics dashboard that summarizes performance data over time and brings attention to action items that need to be addressed.
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The compensation budgeting feature offers the ability to build merit matrices (which are tools businesses use to plan salary adjustments based on employee performance). This strategy can help you deliver raises and bonuses that are both within your budget and connected to your team members’ performance.
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Paycom’s learning management system (Paycom Learning) functions as both an employee development tool and a compliance system. You can upload company-wide resources to the system’s knowledge base or invest in one of the tool’s industry-specific course subscriptions, which include compliance and management training for employees in the safety, healthcare, construction, manufacturing, transportation and hospitality industries. Plus, Paycom Learning can be used to create custom learning courses with video content and quizzes.
Pros
- Payroll and benefits administration available
- Mobile app for employee learning and goal setting
- Prebuilt learning and compliance courses
Cons
- No public pricing information
- Recruiting features aren’t included in the talent management tool
- No access to chat, email or phone support through website
Who should use it
Paycom advertises that it works for businesses of all sizes, small to enterprise. However, certain features (such as the position management feature and the compensation budgeting tool) are more valuable for businesses with a significant number of employees and roles to keep track of. For that reason, we’d recommend it for medium-sized businesses looking for a tool that supports workforce planning efforts.
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Further, Paycom calls out a few industries on its website, including the healthcare, hospitality, tech, retail and nonprofit sectors. Considering that Paycom has industry-specific course subscriptions for businesses in the healthcare and hospitality industries, we also think it would work well for organizations that operate in those areas.
Paylocity
Best for hands-on HR guidance
Starting price
Not listed
Performance management features
Customizable feedback forms, nine-box talent assessments and Journals (a self-reflection feature for employees)
LMS available
Yes
4.5/5
Our rating considers features, pricing transparency, customer support, popularity and ease of use. Ratings are assigned exclusively by our editorial team.
From participating partners
Why we picked it
Paylocity is an HR software and service company that makes tools for payroll, benefits administration, time and attendance tracking, employee engagement and talent management. Paylocity offers an all-in-one small business payroll and HR solution with an optional HR consulting add-on called HR Edge. With HR Edge, you can ask an HR expert for advice on things like crafting a compelling careers page, developing compensation grades and creating employee handbooks. All of these activities are a part of talent management, which is why we’ve given Paylocity the title of best talent management software for hands-on HR guidance.
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Paylocity’s talent management system is designed to assist with five key activities: recruiting, onboarding, performance management, compensation management, and learning and development. The recruiting part of the system has a handful of features that help you hire the right people quickly, including automated job posting, candidate texting and generative AI-written job descriptions.
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Paylocity’s performance management system has a unique feature called Journals. Employees can write or record video entries in Journals, giving them an informal way to document their performance progress throughout the year. You can facilitate transparent conversations between supervisors and employees using Paylocity’s industry pay data and benchmarks. Customizable feedback forms are available to use by anyone at any time, as well as nine-box talent assessment templates for succession planning.
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Lastly, Paylocity’s LMS is also a part of its talent management system. With this LMS, you can import or create your own courses or take advantage of hundreds of prebuilt offerings from Paylocity and its customers (there’s a social collaboration hub within the LMS called Community where subject matter experts share courses they’ve made). You can establish a training frequency for individual employees or teams and bulk assign courses, and the system’s tracking capabilities make it easy to understand employees’ progress and completion rates.
Pros
- HR consulting services offered
- 600+ prebuilt learning courses
- Templates available for succession planning, performance reviews and more
Cons
- No public pricing information
- Reviewers mention experiencing difficulties during implementation
- Users report inconsistent customer support
Who should use it
Paylocity’s website promotes its products to small and medium-sized businesses as well as enterprises, and mentioned a few key supported industries: education, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, nonprofits and churches. Of course, this encompasses a wide range of business sizes and operation types.
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Considering Paylocity’s HR Edge offering and the company’s commitment to service (evidenced by its implementation consultants, personalized service and on-demand support), we think this talent management software would be best for businesses that need an HR partner (not just a product).
Workday
Best for skills management
Starting price
Not listed
Performance management features
Not included — offered with Workday’s Employee Experience platform
LMS available
Yes
4.3/5
Our rating considers features, pricing transparency, customer support, popularity and ease of use. Ratings are assigned exclusively by our editorial team.
From participating partners
Why we picked it
Workday makes HR, finance, workforce planning and supply chain solutions. Workday’s talent management tool is built with features that help businesses hire and develop talent. Most notably, Workday’s platform has an AI-driven skills intelligence foundation that helps you identify competencies your workforce needs to strengthen or gain. Once you’ve identified reskilling opportunities, Workday’s learning management system will automatically recommend related courses to employees. This seamless, data-powered approach to employee development is why we’ve identified Workday as the best talent management software for skills management.
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Workday also includes recruiting features in its talent management platform. You can create a career site that reflects your employer brand to appeal to talent. There’s a centralized hub that organizes recruiters’ action items and makes it easy to manage the flow of candidates through the recruitment pipeline. Plus, your hiring team can create job requisitions on mobile or provide feedback on applicants in Microsoft Teams and Slack (both of which integrate with Workday). Also, the system is built with AI and machine learning (ML) functionalities that match candidates with job opportunities based on their resumes.
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A few features related to talent management — including onboarding and performance management capabilities — aren’t included in Workday’s talent management system. Instead, these features are a part of the company’s Employee Experience platform. Another thing worth mentioning is that Workday doesn’t provide pricing information for any of its products — you have to contact the company’s sales department to get those details. On top of that, it’s unclear what the options are for combining different Workday tools together; the company doesn’t advertise packages or suites that consolidate its HR offerings.
Pros
- Access to external talent data through the Skills Cloud
- Product training available
- Over 600 integrations supported
Cons
- No public pricing information
- Onboarding and performance management features are in a different system
- Offers more functionality than small businesses likely need
Who should use it
In addition to Workday’s AI-powered skills intelligence foundation, the company also offers a tool called the Skills Cloud. The Skills Cloud is embedded with machine learning and uses information from external data sources to help you understand where your workforce’s skills fall among the competition.
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The heavy emphasis that Workday’s solutions put on employee reskilling and upskilling indicates that organizations that operate in industries with rapidly evolving skill sets (such as engineering, manufacturing and technology) would benefit the most from the company’s solutions.
Paycor
Best for succession planning
Starting price
Not listed
Performance management features
Automated performance review process and goal management
LMS available
Yes
4.1/5
Our rating considers features, pricing transparency, customer support, popularity and ease of use. Ratings are assigned exclusively by our editorial team.
On Paycor’s Website
Why we picked it
Paycor is an HR software provider with over 30 years of experience in the industry. Paycor’s human capital management (HCM) solution made our list of the best HR software tools, but in this roundup, we’re referencing the company’s talent management system. Paycor’s talent management system is mostly built to help businesses measure employee performance and provide development opportunities. One unique addition to the platform is Paycor’s career management software, a tool that helps companies create development plans for employees based on their career aspirations. It’s also built to identify employees who are turnover risks and conduct role-based performance reviews; plus, it has templates and checklists that help you execute a succession strategy. All of this is why we’ve given Paycor the title of best talent management software for succession planning.
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Paycor’s talent management solution is built to streamline the performance review process. The system has automated workflows that guide employees through the process via prompts, tasks and notifications. Managers can review their feedback with an AI-powered sentiment analysis feature to ensure that it’s positive and constructive ahead of sharing it with their team. Also, Paycor integrates with Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar to make it easy to schedule one-on-ones and review conversations with direct reports.
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A feature called objectives allows you to define organizational, departmental and personal goals and track progress toward them. Goals can be set up in an OKR (objectives and key results) or SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based) format, and data related to goals is factored into employee reviews to ensure an unbiased evaluation.
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Paycor’s learning management system brings together virtual, classroom, mobile and social learning capabilities all on one platform, enabling your team to learn however they learn best. You can upload documents, PDFs and videos to the LMS and incorporate them into custom courses, or you can choose from Paycor’s library of professionally developed training courses. These prebuilt courses cover generic topics like personal development, health and safety and security.
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Paycor doesn’t share pricing information on its website, but it does list plan information. For an overview of Paycor’s plans, see our write-up of the best HR software. Spoiler alert: Only Paycor Complete, the highest-tier plan, includes the company’s talent management software.
Pros
- Automated performance review process
- Over 250 integrations supported
- Phone support available: (855) 565-3285
Cons
- No public pricing information
- Recruiting features are in a separate system
- Inconsistent customer support according to some users
Who should use it
If you need to identify and develop future leaders within your business, Paycor is a good option based on the capabilities of its career management software, as well as a soft skill training and leadership development offering called Paycor Paths.
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Further, Paycor advertises that it offers tailored solutions for the following industries: healthcare, manufacturing, professional services, tech and restaurants. If your business operates in one of these areas, it’s safe to assume that Paycor would work well for you, but we suggest contacting the company first to understand exactly how its solutions are tailored to your specific industry’s needs.
TriNet
Best for day-to-day employee management
Starting price
$10 per employee per month
Performance management features
360-degree feedback
LMS available
Yes
4.1/5
Our rating considers features, pricing transparency, customer support, popularity and ease of use. Ratings are assigned exclusively by our editorial team.
From participating partners
Why we picked it
TriNet is an HR solution and service provider that was founded in 1988. TriNet’s HR platform — which is also featured on our list of best HR software tools — has three plans: Essentials, Growth and Zen. The primary purpose of the platform is to assist with day-to-day employee management; for instance, it’s built to serve as an employee system of record, complete with company directories and org charts. It also has time-off tracking and shift scheduling capabilities.
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In terms of advanced talent management features, TriNet offers a few starting with its Growth plan. With this plan, you get access to compensation and performance management tools, as well as a people analytics platform powered by Visier. This platform allows you to dig into workforce insights using internal and external data (the latter of which helps with benchmarking), create data visualizations and charts and export reports to share with your team.
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TriNet’s compensation management feature helps you establish competitive pay grades based on aggregated, anonymized salary data from hundreds of thousands of TriNet users. The company’s performance management system is designed to streamline the review process; it comes with templates for 360-degree, peer and self-reviews, as well as a shared agenda feature for one-on-ones that helps you stay on track during evaluation conversations. For convenience, employees can complete reviews from their mobile devices.
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With TriNet Zen, a couple of key additions to the platform become available. First, there’s the ability to run employee engagement surveys. TriNet has prepopulated templates you can use for this, or you can create completely custom surveys unique to your workplace. The results can be anonymized to help employees provide candid feedback, and there’s a dashboard that summarizes the findings once surveys are completed. The other notable feature included with Zen is People Hub, TriNet’s take on a company intranet that works like a real-time content feed.
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Lastly, TriNet’s HR platform has a five-employee minimum, so if you have fewer than five employees, you’ll still be charged as if you do.
Pros
- Payroll included (with Zen)
- Onboarding and employee management features included
- Transparent pricing
Cons
- Five-employee minimum
- LMS not included in platform (offered as a service)
- Recruiting features only available as an add-on
Who should use it
If you’re looking for a platform that can consolidate day-to-day employee data and talent management tasks, TriNet is a good fit for you. Further, TriNet’s Zen plan includes payroll processing, and add-ons for benefits administration, recruiting and HR advisory services are available, suggesting that TriNet’s HR platform could serve as a single solution for small business HR management.
isolved
Best configurable talent management solution
Starting price
Not listed
Performance management features
360-degree feedback, goal management and employee recognition
LMS available
Yes
4/5
Our rating considers features, pricing transparency, customer support, popularity and ease of use. Ratings are assigned exclusively by our editorial team.
From participating partners
Why we picked it
isolved is an HR solution provider founded in 1986. The company’s nearly 40 years of experience in the industry explains why more than 168,000 businesses use its platform today. isolved’s talent management solutions include tools for recruiting, performance management, employee engagement and development, compensation management and more. The company’s pricing page (which doesn’t actually provide pricing information) implies that you can select features and tools a la carte, which is why we’ve given isolved the title of best configurable talent management solution.
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isolved’s Share & Perform tool (one of the company’s talent management solutions) is designed to help you roll out employee rewards and recognition programs. It has a social feed and gamification features to encourage team participation. Share & Perform can also be used as a goal management platform, and it’s built to support 360-degree feedback processes, too.
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Learn & Grow is another one of isolved’s talent management solutions. As the name suggests, Learn & Grow is a learning management system. It comes with a library of 85,000 prebuilt courses that you can use to create personalized learner paths for your team, and it has a reporting tool that can be used to summarize course completion rates and learner progress.
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isolved’s compensation management tool helps you stay organized when it comes to delivering merit increases, bonuses and other one-time payments. It comes with compensation analytics features that help you make data-driven decisions by providing insights into industry benchmarks and the ability to model decision outcomes. If you add payroll to your plan or opt in to the People Cloud (isolved’s most comprehensive suite), data from the compensation management tool will automatically flow into your payroll system.
Pros
- Fast support response
- Configurable solution
- Access to 85,000 LMS courses
Cons
- No public pricing information
- Relatively low ease of use scores from some users
- Reviewers mention logging in can be a struggle
Who should use it
If you want a highly scalable solution, isolved’s a-la-carte-style configurability offers that. Further, isolved lists the healthcare, professional services and financial sectors as key industries it serves on its website. isolved says it offers industry-specific solutions for these business areas; for example, it offers comprehensive OSHA tracking and ACA reporting for healthcare providers. All this to say, if you operate in the healthcare, finance or professional services industries, isolved could work well as your talent management software.
Dayforce
Best for recruiting
Starting price
Not listed
Performance management features
Flexible performance review cycles, goal tracking and development plans
LMS available
Yes
4/5
Our rating considers features, pricing transparency, customer support, popularity and ease of use. Ratings are assigned exclusively by our editorial team.
From participating partners
Why we picked it
Dayforce (formerly Ceridian) is an HCM solution provider that makes payroll, workforce management and talent tools for businesses of all sizes. The company’s talent solution is built to help businesses recruit, retain and reskill employees, and at the core of the platform is the Dayforce Skills Engine, an AI-powered feature that screens and matches candidates to roles. Skills Engine also removes personal information from applicants’ resumes to reduce the chance of making a biased hiring decision. Plus, it automates time-consuming parts of the recruitment process such as scheduling interviews, running background checks and sending assessments to candidates, making it the best talent management software for recruiting.
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Another noteworthy aspect of Dayforce’s talent platform is Career Explorer, an AI and machine learning-powered upskilling feature that delivers personalized career recommendations and development plans to your team. Career Explorer also matches employees with open opportunities based on their skills and aspirations, empowering your team to continue building their careers at your business.
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Performance management and engagement features — including surveys, goal tracking and learning management — are also a part of Dayforce’s talent solution. As far as surveys go, Dayforce allows you to run pulse checks, engagement surveys, and onboarding and exit surveys. Results can be anonymized, plus Dayforce has heat map and segment analysis features that help you uncover trends and patterns among survey results. Dayforce’s LMS allows you to deliver compliance training, assign coaching roles and create custom course catalogs and learner paths. Notably, employees can also create their own learner paths that help them pursue their career goals.
Pros
- Payroll available
- AI-powered candidate matching
- Survey questions library
Cons
- No public pricing information
- Implementation support isn’t free
- Reviewers mention the reporting feature is difficult to use
Who should use it
If recruiting is a priority for your business, Dayforce is a good option. The platform boasts automated interview scheduling, AI-powered candidate matching and bias-reducing features that will help you find and hire the best talent possible.
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Interestingly, Dayforce doesn’t advertise its platform to companies with fewer than 100 employees; the smallest segment listed on its website is organizations with between 100 and 1,000 employees. Considering this, Dayforce is probably best for small businesses that have grown to the medium-sized end of the SMB spectrum.
Compare top talent management software
| Company | Star rating | Starting price | Performance management features | LMS available? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Rippling | 4.9 | $8/user/month | 180-degree and 360-degree feedback, goal tracking and compensation reviews | Yes |
UKG | 4.8 | Not listed | Flexible performance review workflows, gap analysis and scenario planning | Yes |
monday.com | 4.5 | Free plan available; paid plans start at $9/user/month (three-seat minimum) | Feedback templates and tracking | No |
Paycom | 4.5 | Not listed | 360-degree feedback, goal tracking and performance analytics | Yes |
Paylocity | 4.5 | Not listed | Customizable feedback forms, nine-box talent assessments and Journals (a feature employees use to self-reflect) | Yes |
Workday | 4.3 | Not listed | Not included — offered with Workday’s Employee Experience platform | Yes |
Paycor | 4.1 | Not listed | Automated performance review process and goal management | Yes |
TriNet | 4.1 | $10/user/month | 360-degree feedback | Yes |
isolved | 4.0 | Not listed | 360-degree feedback, goal management and employee recognition | Yes |
Dayforce | 4.0 | Not listed | Flexible performance review cycles, goal tracking and development plans | Yes |
What is talent management software?
Talent management software is a type of HR solution designed to support every stage of the employee lifecycle. Talent management tools are built with features that support ongoing recruiting, development and retention efforts.
Benefits of talent management software
You can sum up why talent management software makes a difference for businesses in one simple sentence: It enables you to better manage the employee lifecycle at your organization. Sure, you could bootstrap your recruiting and talent development strategies, but why would you when there are tools specifically designed to help with both?
Specific, benefits include:
- More effective recruiting: Most talent management tools are built with features that help hiring teams attract, source and recruit talent. For example, Rippling has a candidate referral system that can encourage employees to refer qualified individuals they know. Syndicated job posting is another example of a feature that saves recruiters time and improves their effectiveness; with this feature, you can post open positions on multiple job boards from your talent management platform with just a few clicks.
- Streamlined interview and onboarding processes: Talent management tools often have features such as automated interview scheduling and screening assessments that help move candidates through your recruitment pipeline at a reasonable speed. These tools are also built to onboard new hires as well, so you can move a candidate from the “offer accepted” stage to the “onboarding and training” phase in one platform.
- Better understanding of skill gaps: Skills management is a priority for today’s HR leaders. Even still, the majority (56%) of HR leaders are only just starting to develop strategic workforce plans that quantify skill gaps in addition to headcount needs. Between employee profiles, skill matrices and headcount planning tools, talent management software has features that help HR leaders with the tedious task of conducting a skills gap analysis.
- Access to employee development resources: Learning management systems are often included in talent management tools. Generally, these systems come with a library of prebuilt courses (from compliance training to soft skills development) that employees can take advantage of. For example, Dayforce mentions that it has department-specific course catalogs.
Essential talent management features
The features included in talent management software vary widely depending on the provider. The most comprehensive systems include features that support recruiting, onboarding, employee development and engagement, performance management, compensation management and succession planning.
With that in mind, here’s what to look for in a talent management system:
- Recruiting features such as candidate sourcing, syndicated job posting, interview scheduling and screening assessments
- Onboarding support, including the ability to run background checks, create offer letters and accept e-signatures
- Learning and development resources, including access to a learning management system
- Performance management features such as goal tracking, nine-box grids and the ability for employees to give peer and self-reviews
- Employee engagement and recognition tools like employee satisfaction surveys and the ability to publicly praise coworkers for their contributions
- Workforce planning tools like labor forecasting, compensation management and skills tracking features
How much does talent management software cost?
The cost of talent management software varies depending on a few factors. Most vendors follow a “per user, per month” pricing structure, so the size of your workforce will impact your price. The solution’s comprehensiveness and the length of your contract will also impact the price.
Talent management software typically costs between $4 to $20 per user per month. On the low end are tools like 15Five — a standalone performance management solution with a starting price of $4 per user per month. On the higher end of the spectrum, you’ll find options like Lattice, a comprehensive tool that costs up to $25 per user per month for performance management, engagement, employee development and compensation management features.
Methodology
To help you find the best talent management software for your business’s needs, we researched the top providers in the industry using a specific set of desired data points. After collecting this data, we narrowed our list to 15 solutions based on 28 metrics. We then weighted each metric based on what matters most in a talent management platform for small and medium-sized organizations. Once we had the final score for each product, we selected the 10 that rose to the top of the list.
Finally, we assigned each product an Editors’ Score encompassing four key areas before converting the final scores to a star rating out of five. This score doesn’t affect our selection methodology or assessment of key data points for ultimate list inclusion.
Here’s how our methodology breaks down:
Talent management features (45%)
To determine how comprehensive a system is, we considered the talent management features of each tool. Talent management features support the ongoing recruitment, retention and development of your workforce. The talent management software features we factored into our scoring include reporting and analytics, compensation management, performance management, goal setting, hiring and applicant tracking, onboarding, succession planning, training and development, custom review cycles, self-service portals and employee referrals.
General HR features (14%)
When choosing a talent management platform, it’s essential to know whether or not the system has the core features you need to manage a workforce. General HR features include things like employee directories, payroll, PTO management, benefits administration, document storage and automated workflows.
Pricing transparency (12%)
To determine which talent management software tools provide the most value to customers, we considered whether pricing information is publicly available and whether or not a free trial is offered. We also factored in the length of the free trial when available.
Service and support (10%)
How responsive and helpful a software vendor’s support team is can have a big impact on a business’s success with its system. To measure this, we factored in the kinds of channels available to contact support (including live chat, phone and email) and whether or not the company has a self-help knowledge base available for customers.
Customer reviews (9%)
Another aspect we factored into our scores is customer reviews. We pulled information from three reputable aggregator sites (Trustpilot, G2 and Capterra) to see how former and current users rate each system and app reviews from users on Google Play and the App Store.
Editors’ Score (10%)
Our Editors’ Score for the top talent management software tools for small and medium-sized businesses considered four key factors: features, pricing transparency, popularity and ease of use. After initially ranking the top talent management tools using each of the categories above, we evaluated the 15 best products on our ranked list and assigned each an Editors’ Score on a scale from terrible to excellent, with each descriptor associated with a numerical value. The final score (including the Editors’ Score) was then converted into a star rating, with zero stars as the lowest possible score and five stars as the max. We included the best-scoring 10 products on our list.
We receive compensation from our partners for Featured Offer placements, which impacts how and where their offer is displayed.
Featured Offers
Gusto
Monthly pricing
From $40 plus $6 per employee
Free trial
Not offered
Paychex
Monthly pricing
From $35 plus $6 per employee
Free trial
30 days
SurePayroll
Monthly pricing
From $29.99 plus $5 per employee
Free trial
6 Months
Paycor
Monthly pricing
From $99 plus $5 per employee
Free trial
14 days
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Talent management software helps businesses manage the employee lifecycle. Considering the wide range of activities and processes involved, most talent management systems have modules to support different stages of the employee lifecycle. For instance, a system may have a recruiting module (usually in the form of an applicant tracking system), a performance management module and a learning and development module.
Businesses of all sizes in every industry use talent management software to recruit and retain high-quality talent. However, some exceptions exist; for instance, sole proprietorships and contractor-only businesses likely don’t need talent management software. This kind of solution is designed for businesses that need to accomplish things like succession planning and upskilling, and those tasks aren’t as pertinent for single-person operations or businesses supported by contingent workers.
Talent management as a strategy helps you attract and retain talent. Without it, you may struggle to recruit the right people to your business — or keep them there. Providing development opportunities (a large part of talent management) can help your employees feel engaged with their work and therefore more likely to stay at the business.
Talent management software differs from human capital management software in that HCM software generally has a wider range of features — some HCM tools even include a talent management system. Additionally, HCM software usually has a database functionality that businesses use to store and organize employee information.
