Artificial intelligence is transforming internal talent processes by enabling the creation of “talent marketplace” platforms that use AI-based tools to catalog skills and match workers to jobs and projects. But as more and more companies invest in these platforms, the challenge will be to figure out how to deliver a distinctive talent experience and remain an employer of choice in a highly competitive labor market.

AI-based talent platforms are evolving fast and can undoubtedly help firms get ahead in a tight labor market. These platforms offer workers a highly attractive proposition—to be alerted to internal vacancies and temporary projects that match their interests and aspirations, receive information and suggestions about potential career paths across the business, and access tailored learning opportunities to prepare them for their next career step.

Selecting the right talent marketplace

• Carefully investigate the claims of vendors before investing in a talent marketplace platform. Some platforms are much more advanced in their use of AI, using machine learning and natural language processing to harness structured and unstructured data to infer or validate employee skills profiles. They may also have more sophisticated skills taxonomies, leading to a more precise matching of employees to work opportunities.
• Look for multiple functionalities in learning, development, and work opportunities. The range of talent processes these platforms offer may also vary. For example, some platforms may simply alert employees to internal vacancies, while other systems match (and recommend) individuals to a range of opportunities, such as temporary projects, secondments, and stretch assignments. They might also extend to developmental opportunities such as mentoring and coaching, and link individual career paths to learning systems.
• Balance versatility with interoperability. Companies must decide on the right balance between looking to large established vendors for a variety of solutions or opting for small niche players. The latter may offer more innovative products but could be less capable of scaling these for a large global business or lack the maturity to partner with the business to design bespoke software. The degree of interoperability of these platforms with other key processes and systems (especially learning platforms) is a vital and tough challenge, requiring close collaboration with other key functions such as IT and finance.
• Create strong governance to guide investment decisions going forward, recognizing that technology will keep changing. For example, a global pharmaceuticals company has created a cross-enterprise council of senior business leaders to set the skills agenda and agree on a set of principles to guide investment decisions. These include having only one data lake in the HR profit-and-overhead organization; creating intuitive and user-friendly design; not aiming for perfection but prioritizing consistency, seamless connections, and end-to-end experience; and ensuring solutions tackle common needs across learning, talent management, talent acquisition, and pay and rewards.
• Keep humans (line managers and employees) at the heart of the talent experience. Intentional leadership, governance, and messaging will ensure talent platforms are perceived as part of a human-centric and ethical system that aligns employees’ personal and career aspirations with work opportunities in the business. This human intervention reduces the chance that employees will perceive the way work gets parceled out or even sent out externally as a purely mechanistic process, determined by opaque algorithms, in which the personal information in an employee skills profile is simply a series of useful data points.
• Ensure that any decisions about technology-based solutions align with the organization’s talent values and strategy, and the experience the organization wants to provide to employees. As large firms widely adopt AI-enabled talent marketplaces (as seems highly likely), companies will need to consider how to differentiate themselves in other ways, such as ensuring their own platforms enable or amplify important cultural values or employee experiences. For example, coaching and mentoring may be important developmental experiences, cross-functional collaboration may be highly valued, or specific culture-based behaviors such as curiosity may be favored. A talent marketplace can therefore be adapted to hone rather than dull a company's distinctive talent proposition.
• Monitor and align with regulation on data protection and privacy. Regulation of the use of AI in business is evolving around the globe. Perceptions of privacy also vary in different regions and cultures. Talent marketplaces use powerful search and prediction algorithms to match people with tasks and projects, so the issues of transparency and fairness and the degree of human decision-making are likely to be of strong concern to employees, social partners (works councils and trade unions), and regulators alike.

For further information, see: Navigating to a Skills-Based Approach to Talent Development