PeopleAdmin’s 2016 Higher Education TalentIndex arms colleges, universities with talent management data to help leaders advance academic missions, business goals
The talent management software company leverages its expertise in education to offer insights, information and guidance on the hiring, development and management of faculty and staff
AUSTIN, Texas — Sept. 26, 2016 — PeopleAdmin, a leader in talent management software for education, today released its 2016 TalentIndex benchmarking report, showing that the state of higher education remains strong, but challenges continue to hinder opportunities for improvements around acquiring, developing and managing top faculty and staff.
Perhaps the most widespread challenge the report found this year is the tracking and reporting of talent management performance metrics, such as diversity hiring, workforce planning and employee development.
Nearly 70 percent of colleges and universities surveyed either did not track performance or could not report results; yet data show significant benefits — including increased resources — went to those who could.
The finding points to the integral role technology, talent management expertise and data have in helping higher education institutions achieve their most important goals.
The 2016 TalentIndex: A Comprehensive Report of Higher Education Benchmarks compiles dozens of data points on higher education growth, benchmarks, trends and challenges from nearly 400 higher education professionals. PeopleAdmin, which serves nearly 700 higher education institutions across the nation, also used some of its own system data.
The 34-page report is available for download at here.
“Talent is what drives success at our colleges and universities,” said Kermit Randa, PeopleAdmin CEO. “The TalentIndex highlights industry benchmarks, trends and challenges. But its purpose is to facilitate strategic conversations among education leaders about talent management strategies that can help advance an institution’s academic mission and business goals.”
Interestingly, the report found there is a connection between tracking key talent metrics and securing funding for additional human resources staff.
Over 90 percent of respondents indicated they’re inadequately staffed to support strategic recruiting initiatives, and 34 percent said they are not staffed well enough to ensure day-to-day operations function smoothly. This may account for their inability to focus on tracking and measuring key metrics, although today’s technology can certainly simplify that process.
Even so, inadequately staffed HR organizations that measure more than one key metric are significantly more likely to expect recruiting staffing increases (50 percent) than those that report nothing (29 percent).
The TalentIndex also found that the onboarding of new hires has become this year’s top priority — after failing to make the top five last year — strongly suggesting institutions are striving to improve employee effectiveness and foster loyalty to increase retention.https://peopleadmin.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Index_laptops_he.png“Where I see using information like the TalentIndex is in conversation … with division heads, deans, and select leaders of our shared governance groups to help them develop a deeper understanding of the value of HR and how much we really can help the institution,” said Tim Danielson, associate vice chancellor & director of HR, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
Randa said this year’s findings really substantiate the need for a more comprehensive talent management strategy among higher education institutions, especially when it comes to combining data, technology and analytics to better understand the people issues behind many of their current challenges.
“Education leaders can start by benchmarking their institution’s own data against the findings presented in the TalentIndex,” Randa said. “They can then use that information to help build consensus and collaboration around initiatives that enable their campuses to accomplish their goals.”
The TalentIndex includes a section on how best to use its data.
“My assessment is is a very valuable piece of information that all colleges should review,” said Ricardo Coronado, associate vice chancellor for human resources, Tarrant County College District.
PeopleAdmin serves more than 5,000 schools, school districts and universities, and has helped acquire, develop and manage 46 percent of all educators and administrators, who in turn impact the lives of more than half of all students in the U.S. and Canada.
About PeopleAdmin
PeopleAdmin is the leading provider of cloud-based talent management solutions for education. Its software enables customers to streamline the hiring process, onboard new employees, efficiently manage positions and employee performance, develop compliant and defensible audit trails, and utilize industry-leading reporting and data-driven predictive analytics. PeopleAdmin’s integrated talent management suite includes applicant tracking, faculty search committee management, position management, onboarding, performance management, PD management and workforce planning, as well as a first-of-its-kind teacher candidate assessment tool created in partnership with a consortium of award-winning scholars, respected universities and research partners. PeopleAdmin solutions are rapidly deployed, easy to use and supported through a world-class customer service organization.