Setting employee goals, assessing competencies, creating development plans and providing feedback are all part of an organization’s day-to-day work. But these processes don’t have to be complicated. CGI’s Talent Grow helps organizations manage them more simply and consistently. CGI Lithuania experts Raminta and Laimonas, who work with the product, talk about how Talent Grow came about, who it’s for, what it can do and why clients value its simplicity.
How did Talent Grow get started? Where did it all begin?
Laimonas: Talent Grow was launched more than ten years ago. Interestingly, it began as a project for colleagues who were between assignments: they had finished one project and hadn’t yet started another. Talent Grow has always been a relatively small product, and it has never had a large team behind it. But the solution itself is far from simple. The processes it supports are quite complex, as we’re seeing again now as we update the product.
How has the solution and clients’ expectations changed over time?
Laimonas: Technology platforms age, users’ expectations of how a system looks and feels change, and new features become necessary. That’s why, over roughly the past six months, we’ve stepped up our investment in updating the product. Our capacity is limited because team members also work on other projects, but we’re making steady progress.
Raminta: We have clients who have worked with us for many years. That tells us they’re using Talent Grow successfully and are happy with it. We continue to support the product and stay in regular contact with our clients. Talent Grow may not have as long a history as some of our other products, but it has built a stable client base and a track record of long-term partnerships.
What is Talent Grow, and what kinds of organizations is it best suited to?
Laimonas: Talent Grow is a standalone solution for managing employee performance reviews. One of its advantages is that it’s relatively easy to implement. It doesn’t require complex infrastructure or a large-scale installation in the client’s environment. It can also be delivered as a cloud service, so clients don’t need to maintain additional technical infrastructure.
Larger organizations often already have performance review features in place. Not every system offers them, but they’re fairly common in larger HR management platforms. Talent Grow is therefore particularly relevant to organizations looking for a separate, straightforward solution for managing employee reviews. That’s where we see its potential: it can offer a more convenient alternative to an existing system that’s difficult to use, or help digitize a process that still relies on separate documents. Moving performance reviews into one system makes the process easier to manage, more consistent and more transparent.
What features does Talent Grow offer, and how might it differ from other HR solutions?
Raminta: Talent Grow includes the core features needed to manage employee performance reviews. These include setting goals and evaluating progress against them. Competency management is another key part of the system: employees can be assigned the competencies required for their role, and the system can help identify areas where they may need to develop. It also lets organizations create employee development plans and record training needs. These features help connect performance reviews with employees’ ongoing development.
Another useful feature is that the system is available in English. This is helpful for international organizations and companies with English-speaking employees, as it allows everyone to take part in the same performance review process.
Talent Grow also sends reminders to help keep reviews on track and ensure employees don’t forget their assigned tasks. The system manages the process, so an employee won’t simply be left out if they don’t enter information on time. Reminders also encourage them to complete their part. We’ve designed the system to be easy to use and provide guides for HR specialists, managers and employees. In practice, users tend to get to grips with it quickly and start using it independently.
We’re also seeing performance review processes change within organizations. In conversations with clients, we’re hearing about new and different assessment models. We look closely at these needs and, where possible, adapt and develop Talent Grow to meet them.
Does company size matter? Is Talent Grow mainly for smaller businesses, or can larger organizations use it too?
Raminta: We work with clients of all sizes. Talent Grow can be used by a company with around 200 employees or fewer, as well as by an organization with 600 or more. In the past, mid-sized companies were more likely to look for a standalone tool like this, but we’re now seeing interest from larger organizations too. There’s no single company size we focus on- our clients’ needs and employee numbers vary widely.
What sets Talent Grow apart, and what do clients notice?
Raminta: From our conversations with clients and product demonstrations, we can see that one of Talent Grow’s main strengths is its simplicity. Clients value the fact that the system isn’t complicated, and that it’s easy to implement and start using. We’re continuing to develop and update the product so it better meets the needs of both existing and prospective clients. That work is already underway, and our goal is to keep supporting and improving Talent Grow so it continues to serve organizations well in the years ahead.
Laimonas: I think it’s also worth mentioning that we didn’t just offer Talent Grow to clients - we used it ourselves to manage our employees’ performance reviews. That shows it worked in the day-to-day processes of our own organization. As our internal systems and processes changed, we eventually moved to a global solution, but Talent Grow was a tool we used ourselves for a long time. That gave us the chance to see the product not only as its developers, but also from the perspective of real users.
What does the future hold for Talent Grow?
We see Talent Grow’s future in steadily developing the product, preserving the simplicity clients value and adapting to organizations’ changing needs. We’re currently working on updates and further development, using modern technologies to make the system even more convenient for users and give it a strong foundation for future growth. Our development plans and priorities will be guided by client needs and their experience of using the system. Our ambition is to build a modern, reliable talent management solution that delivers long-term value to organizations.