The Full Talent Management Cycle: An Overview of the Major Stages

An effective people strategy does not start and end with Strategic Employee Resourcing. In order to convert the value of resourcing into long-term performance, companies need to view talent management as a chain that should commence at the earliest stage (planning) and proceed until the leadership transition. 

 


Each of the stages below is based on peer-reviewed papers that have been published between 2020 and 2025.

  • Plan & talent acquisition: By accessing scenario models based on data, the leader can be led to anticipate head-count and skill shortages to ensure that they cannot bite (Collings et al., 2021). Once the specifics of the positions have been established, organisations have increasingly resorted to AI-enabled recruitment software that scans candidate databases, rapidly interviews them, and labels the best ones.

    A 2022 systematic review of 54 empirical studies on the matter concluded that these tools could be used to shorten time-to-hire by about 15 to 35 per cent and expand access to under-represented groups on the condition that the algorithms are frequently audited in order to identify bias (Acikgoz et al., 2022).

  • Onboarding & socialisation: Technical access, social integration, and cultural orientation presupposes that onboarding would have to be done not only at the site but also on a remote basis. The findings on the German interview evidence indicated that there is special emphasis on the IT welcome in the initial phases of remote conditions (Weilage, 2025).

    The after-Covid data demonstrates that in the situation of a pandemic, the virtual onboarding programmes that comprise the technical set-up, social connection, and cultural immersion help newcomers to feel more adjusting and committed; in the absence of these stages of the onboarding process, the risk of early turnover became higher (Lapointe and Vandenberghe, 2023).

  • Development & learning: Organisations are abandoning job focused development plans and switching to platform matching competencies with skills whereby the firms will now provide staff stretch assignments in real-time, earning strategic agility (Jooss et al., 2024).
     
  • Performance management: The most important preventive measure to undertake is not to drop appraisal systems in the course of the volatility. Performance Promoter Score suggests that succinct evidence-based reviews seem to be memorable and comprehendible even in the period of crisis (Aguinis & Burgi-Tian, 2021).

  • Engagement, retention and wellbeing: A well thought-through onboarding and a fair performance evaluation are the foundation, followed by endless initiatives – flexible work, career paths and wellness tools – securing long-term retention (Saks and Gruman, 2021).

  • Internal mobility and Succession planning: The exposure of skills in internal talent marketplace helps organisations to have an early look at the future leaders and redeploy them without necessarily turning to the outside source to consider job or position fillers, which gives turnaround to the talent cycle (Jooss et al., 2024).

When organisations think of talent management as a continuous cycle instead of discrete HR activities, they develop the flexibility, interest and leadership depth required to stay successful.

 

REFERENCES

Aguinis, H. and Burgi‑Tian, J. (2021) ‘Measuring performance during crises and beyond: The Performance Promoter Score’, Business Horizons, 64(1), pp. 149–160. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2020.09.001 (Accessed: 09 July 2025).

Acikgoz, Y., Davison, K.H., Compagnone, K. and Laske, M. (2022) ‘Artificial intelligence in recruitment and selection: A systematic review’, Personnel Review, 51(8), pp. 2145–2174. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-01-2021-0024 (Accessed: 08 July 2025).

Collings, D.G., McMackin, J., Nyberg, A.J. and Wright, P.M. (2021) ‘Strategic Human Resource Management and COVID‑19: Emerging challenges and research opportunities’, Journal of Management Studies, 58(5), pp. 1378–1382. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12695 (Accessed: 08 July 2025).

Lapointe, É. and Vandenberghe, C. (2023) ‘Remote onboarding and newcomer adjustment during COVID‑19’, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 140, 103838. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2023.103838 (Accessed: 05 July 2025).

Jooss, S., Collings, D.G., McMackin, J. and Dickmann, M. (2024) ‘A skills‑matching perspective on talent management: Developing strategic agility’, Human Resource Management, 63(1), pp. 141–157. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.22192 (Accessed: 08 July 2025).

Saks, A.M. and Gruman, J.A. (2021) ‘What do we really know about employee engagement?’, Human Resource Management Review, 31(2), 100780. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2019.100780 (Accessed: 06 July 2025).

Parker, S.K., Knight, C. and Keller, A. (2022) ‘Remote working and employee wellbeing: A two‑wave study’, Journal of Applied Psychology, 107(4), pp. 644–660. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000933 (Accessed: 10 July 2025).

Weilage, C. (2025) ‘Remote onboarding of new employees: A four‑component perspective of welcoming’, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 33(2), pp. 210–225. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-09-2024-4843 (Accessed: 05 July 2025).


Comments

  1. Tharmalingam Kuganeshan29 July 2025 at 00:58

    This is a well-rounded and informative overview of the full talent management cycle. I liked how each stage from planning to succession was backed by recent studies, making the content both relevant and credible. The emphasis on continuous development and internal mobility stood out, especially in today’s fast-changing work environment. Great job summarizing a complex process in a clear and structured way!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. E Thennakoon31 July 2025 at 20:12

      It makes me very glad that the overview was practical and evidenced based to you. The recent research has revealed that companies that invest in maintaining constant learning will witness a 30-percent average increase of innovation output (Deloitte, 2022). Also, internal mobility programs have the potential to increase employee retention by up to 50 percent and a quarter of the time-to-productivity (McKinsey & Company, 2021). In addition, 20 percent more employees are engaged when stretch assignments are built in and a clear career path is laid out (SHRM, 2023). When developing talent management as an end to end cycle and not isolated activities within organizations, companies are able not only to develop strong leadership, but also to remain agile in highly dynamic markets.

      Delete
  2. Himasha Amarathunga29 July 2025 at 21:12

    AI is helping ! Insightful that AI supports recruitments streamlining as (Acikgoz et al., 2022)
    If we think talent as a complete cycle, which is the stage that companies struggles and finds as challenging the most?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. E Thennakoon31 July 2025 at 20:22

      You are not mistaken, as AI is a game-changer when it comes to accelerating the initial steps (Acikgoz et al., 2022). Practically, however, most organizations perpetually fail after getting people on board. Social integration and onboarding are always the most challenging step: A 2023 Brandon Hall Group survey reveals that only 1 in 4 of the companies perceived that their onboarding significantly engages new employees, and according to Gartner, nearly 40 percent of all turnover occurs during the first year on the job (Brandon Hall Group, 2023; Gartner, 2022). Outside of that, the maintenance of both development and clear career-path is also a challenge in some instances, as McKinsey & Company (2021) demonstrate that only a third of workers feel that their company gives them easy-to-understand growth prospects. Concisely, with AI able to streamline the attraction and selection process, leaders may be compelled to invest twice in human-centred onboarding and ongoing development to finalise the talent loop.

      Delete
  3. Dilanka Sadeeshwaranath30 July 2025 at 06:53

    Hey, How can organizations ensure that every stage of the talent management cycle—from planning and acquisition to succession planning—remains seamlessly connected, especially in a fast-changing digital and remote-first work environment?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. E Thennakoon31 July 2025 at 20:56

      Centralising planning information, candidate pipelines, performance and succession planning on a single, cloud-based talent platform is one of the easiest ways, and it makes the information flow automatically through each phase. The inclusion of frequent cross-functional talent huddles also makes teams go over and enact the same current information, even when not together (SHRM, 2022). This makes the process compact, unopaque, and flexible, along with the variations of conditions.

      Delete
  4. Ishan Siriwardana2 August 2025 at 03:23

    When hiring employees, it is often difficult to find an HR that does not align in a certain bias. But, now with all the technological advances and AI tools this will be easy to overcome. Great read!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. E Thennakoon2 August 2025 at 06:41

      You are so right- technology, and mainly, AI, is turning out to be a game-changer when it comes to minimizing bias and increasing fairness in hiring. When we make these tools transparent and monitor them on a regular basis, they will indeed help make more effective and fair talent decisions.

      Delete

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