I plan on making a few posts on the topic of "talent management system provisioning." I want to cover the topic at a high-level before focusing on integration of competency content and other details.

Here, I'm using "talent management system" to refer to integrated TM suites as well as discrete TM components, such as performance management, compensation, learning management systems, succession planning, etc. "Provisioning" broadly describes processes for providing systems the data they require before they can be used productively. This data can be thought of as the "inputs" to talent management processes.

There is great variation in requirements around TM system provisioning. Requirements vary based on the particular TM components that an employer has deployed, the degree of built-in integration among components, and the sophistication of the particular employer's TM programs. However, the major categories of data of concern in TM system provisioning are:

• Organizational structures. This includes information describing an organization's sub-entities or "organization units", relationships among organization units and between organizational units and parent entities, the positions within each organizational unit, reporting relationships among positions, and the sometimes identifiers referencing position incumbents.
• Position profiles. A position profile (or sometimes "position competency model") associates a collection of competency and process accountability information with a position. A position profile includes references to individual competencies and to groups of competencies that are associated with a position. For each competency group and individual competency, proficiency levels (required or desired proficiencies) and weightings among competencies/groups can be specified.