For the full impact of Talentrio, it is important that certain information is maintained accurately While we give users power to manage who they report to, their groups, and assessors, many users may not update that information in timely manner.


It helps if Admins periodically, review information and update it as needed:

  • When adding new users as they join the company, use single Add user functionality as it is more refined. There you can type their full name, choose their manager and groups and the user is all set from the get go
  • check which users DO NOT have managers
  • check which users are not part of any group
  • filter by various groups (right hand side above tree) and see if the memberships make sense. You may find that a particular group has too few members. Then you can work with the group head to make the data accurate
  • check the Invitation pending list and resend invites – often emails get lost, and users don’t sign up immediately


Navigating Tabs:

When navigating tabs it’s best to work with one Group at a time, you can do that by applying the group filter above the content area. This filter stays applied as you move across tabs – making working with group information easy for you.


Competencies:

Competency Tags are broad skill labels such as “Client Communication”, “Coding”, “Modeling”, “Planning”, “Detail Orientation” that help us collect feedback for over a period of time. This way we can see areas where a person is strong and where they can improve. Tags can be more specific like “C++ skills” if needed.

Ideally tags should cover functional skills, knowledge, and role specific interaction skills like “Customer Partnering” for Account Managers.


Try not to create too many different tags for similar skills like Customer Focus, Customer Orientation etc. As you type a tag you will be able to see the existing ones in the list that have similar names.

  • As much as possible, reuse competencies across groups and not create new competencies for everything
  • Ensure that, competencies are mapped to some role – or else they are effectively not in use as they would not move to groups and to individuals
  • Name competencies using TWO keywords as much as possible -e.g. Client Communication, this make finding and using relevant competencies easy
  • try to limit competencies for a role to no more than 10 to avoid complexity
  • put good description for competency that explains its use well


Roles:

Roles are defined in Talentrio system to help users understand the competency requirements of a position in the company. It also helps users map their progress against a desired role.


As such, there is no connection created between the user and the roles – i.e. we do not track role and position of the user. Talentrio simply allows users to map their skill portfolio (from feedback) against the requirements of any role in their groups much like feature by feature car comparison.


A role is a set of competencies and the desired level of that competency. Talentrio’s is fully functional without the definition of the roles. And if need be, roles can be defined organically over time and the application works perfectly in the mapping process.

  • Limit number of roles to where there are functional differences and not just grade difference. So don’t make roles for say Junior Developer, Developer, Senior Developer. But make roles such as Developer, Team Lead, Technical Architect – such that the functional differences are clear between role
  • You can create specialized roles such as Mentor, Leader etc also, which cut across functions to show and track common qualities needed. So not all roles are business card titles – they can be informal roles too.


Groups:

Groups notion is primarily created in Talentrio to help organize Assignment Templates and Roles. Groups are not necessarily a direct match with a companies departments but could be close to those. Essentially, groups are created around users who “perform similar functions” and hence get to see only certain templates that are assigned to their group(s).


A user can be a member of multiple groups and a template may also be shared in multiple groups, if needed. Roles are also connected to groups.

To allow for a template to be seen by all users, there is a uneditable group in the system called EVERYONE. All new users automatically become members of this group.

If a template is assigned to this group, everyone can see and use the template. Groups are necessary and as such do not hamper any functionality of the application. It just helps organize information better.


Assignment Templates:

An Assignment is simply a unit of work after which it is apt to provide timely feedback.

Assignment Templates are created for work units that are repeated often in the company. For example, for a website design firm, “Concept Design” could be an assignment template, such that after a new design is made, feedback can be provided around various aspects or expectations around the design. So here’s an example of a template:


Website New Concept Design {Template Name} 

Expectations [Competency Tag] 

‐ Create Wireframe with ease of information flow [Wireframing] 

‐ High Impact Visual Language creation [Visual Design] 

‐ Effective use of Brand colors and guidelines [Visual Design] 

‐ Clean, crisp and consistent design across elements [Visual Design] 

‐ HIgh Impact and appropriate use of Images [Innovativeness] 

‐ Overall innovativeness and new approaches to interaction [Innovativeness]


Now when a design assignment is completed a manager or assessor can give feedback (Thumbs up, Ok, Strike) on each of these expectations. The competency tags helps us all understand how the person develops the various competencies over time.


You can create these competency tags by simply typing the tag you want (existing or new) against the expectations.