Whether you’re new to Talent Management with Microsoft Dynamics 365 or have been using it for years, you’ve probably noticed the platform is constantly evolving. We often say to our customers, the name “Dynamics” says it all: Microsoft’s ERP is constantly moving. It’s a bit like a chameleon, continually changing colors and adapting to new environments.
We know it’s hard to keep up with the latest name changes and additions to the Microsoft business software landscape. That’s why we’re breaking down the latest Talent Management options and features in this article, which gives you an up-to-date overview of how Dynamics 365 can support your HR processes.
Talent Management: How does Dynamics 365 support it?
Dynamics 365 supports Talent Management by providing an excellent basis for managing HR processes like recruitment, performance management, merit increase, employee engagement and more. FourVision expands the native features of Dynamics 365 with our suite of extensions – which make the platform more customizable and easier to use.
As a long-time Microsoft HR solutions partner, FourVision has developed an end-to-end HR approach. We help HR departments get the most out of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform, which has changed forms over the years from Microsoft Dynamics 365 HR, which merged into Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (F&O), and has recently been renamed to Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management (F&SCM).
When it comes to Talent Management with Microsoft Dynamics 365, the four main functions we help our customers to leverage are:
- Workforce Planning & Talent Acquisition
- Employee Development
- Compensation & Merit
- Engagement & Retention
Below, we’ll break down the Microsoft Dynamics 365 features – and the FourVision enhancements – that help you streamline your operations in these four areas.
Workforce Planning and Talent Acquisition in Microsoft Dynamics 365
The great thing about working with Dynamics 365 in combination with FourVision apps is that it enables you to cover all your HR functions, “from hire to retire.” It all begins with Workforce Planning and Talent Acquisition.
How can you use Dynamics 365 for Workforce Planning?
You can use Microsoft Dynamics 365 F&SCM to make workforce planning more efficient. It includes applications like Project Operations (launched in 2023), which enhances workforce planning for project-based work. Despite the name, Project Operations lets you do much more than just project management, because it seamlessly integrates project-related data into your workforce planning, finance and even sales (CRM).
Workforce Planning is all about strategically organizing your workforce. Following Microsoft’s clear Workforce Planning workflow, you define work schedules, calendars and shifts for each department, team and role in your organization to ensure adequate planning and cover all the tasks that need to be done.
FourVision expands the standard Dynamics features with our Workforce Management apps like Timesheets & Expenses, which lets you track hours spent working on projects, and Merit Increase, which lets you plan salary increase budgets, automatically calculate merit-based pay raises and award them based on data-driven decision-making.
Workforce Planning optimizes costs by preventing overstaffing. It also improves productivity, because by defining roles, you determine which skills are needed for a particular job or team. That way, you plan targeted upskilling measures, which in turn boost employee satisfaction and retention. And with a clear overview of your current workforce, you can also identify when it’s time to recruit new talent, which leads us to the next point: Talent Acquisition.
How can you manage Talent Acquisition with Dynamics 365?
The best way to manage Talent Acquisition with Dynamics 365 is to fully integrate your company’s preferred recruitment workflow and software into the platform. FourVision offers streamlined integrations that provide you – and your recruits – with the best possible experience. Here’s how that works.
Recruiting and hiring with Microsoft Dynamics 365
If your organization uses popular recruitment tools like iCIMS Talent Cloud, Dynamics ATS or the native recruiting functionalities in Dynamics 365 , FourVision offers seamless integrations that let you create an end-to-end Recruitment & Hiring Process.
When it’s time to recruit new talent, your HR team simply submits a request to hire via the FourVision HR Request interface in Dynamics 365. Our software, such as our one-of-a-kind HCM Connector for iCIMS and Dynamics 365, transfers the request to your recruitment partner and starts an automated hiring workflow.
All stakeholders – HR, the hiring manager and the candidate – are kept automatically informed and provided with the documents they need throughout the recruitment process. We even offer our customers the option to fully automate the process of creating and submitting hiring requests in Dynamics 365.
Starting in the summer of 2024, you can also use the AI assistant Microsoft Copilot to automatically generate job descriptions and objectively assess candidates.
Employee Development in Microsoft Dynamics 365
If we define ‘talent’ simply as individuals that make a difference in your organization, then Employee Development is about amplifying their existing potential. You can also use Microsoft Dynamics 365 to monitor and manage Employee Development. This includes key tasks like onboarding, succession planning, skills management and various other talent development processes.
How can you use Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Employee Onboarding?
Microsoft Dynamics 365 lets you create customizable onboarding flows to welcome new employees to your organization. Use the onboarding features in Dynamics 365 to create employee records and provide new hires with important resources they need to get started in their new role. These resources are available to the new employee when they log in to their Microsoft Dynamics 365 environment.
To make the onboarding process in Dynamics 365 even more effective, FourVision offers our Boarding app. It lets you create and share job-specific boarding guides based on templates, and offer step-by-step guidance to your new employees.
How can I use Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Succession Planning and Skills Management?
Microsoft Dynamics 365 includes standard Succession Planning and Skills Management features that enable you to map skills, identify key skills and determine succession paths to conduct accurate succession forecasting.
To leverage your HR data and manage these complex processes more effectively, FourVision expands the capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics 365 with our Succession Planning app. It creates talent grids that visually rank team members based on their performance and potential, so you can easily identify high performers and target high-potential team members with the right development activities.
Tracking employee performance is also greatly simplified with the FourVision Performance Management app. It offers automated workflows for setting goals, conducting performance development reviews and collecting 360-degree feedback. We also offer a Questionnaires tool for Dynamics 365, which enables managers to easily collect and track employee feedback as part of the (self-)appraisal process.
The data collected by these Employee Development apps feeds into your Succession Planning and Skills Management apps, giving you the insights you need to make the best decisions for promoting and developing employees.
Compensation and Merit in Microsoft Dynamics 365
Within Microsoft Dynamics 365, you can create compensation plans for all employees within your organization. The standard compensation options enable you to specify all the relevant parameters for how employee compensation is to be handled, including rules for fixed compensation actions, pay frequency, job functions, compensation grids, performance ratings and more.
Managing annual compensation reviews and awarding merit increases to employees is a complex task, even if you’ve set up compensation plans in Microsoft Dynamics 365. To bring all areas within Talent Management together, we have developed Merit Increase, which gives budget managers and line managers an easy-to-use tool that automatically applies salary updates to Dynamics 365’s compensation plans based on your criteria.
Engagement and Retention in Microsoft Dynamics 365
High employee engagement and retention starts with a positive recruitment experience and includes every stage of the employee journey. Enhancing the employee experience was the main goal behind the launch of Microsoft Viva tools. This is a suite of apps designed to help employees access and share information, interact with each other, discover relevant content and track their own time management, just to name a few features.
FourVision’s HR Portal, which is based on SharePoint, incorporates Microsoft Viva apps and makes it even easier for employees to connect and engage with your company all from a single, user-friendly dashboard – even when working remotely.
Microsoft Talent Management software in 2024
As you can see, Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers a wide range of Talent Management features. It also gives you the freedom to compose your own setup, based on your company’s requirements. In addition to using the out-of-the-box features in Dynamics 365, you can also benefit from Microsoft’s Power Platform, which lets you create low-code custom-built apps, websites, automated workflows, business intelligence reports and more.
Dynamics 365 offers a solid, adaptable foundation with basic support for your entire HR process. It also enables you to expand your HR capabilities with apps created by trusted, official Microsoft partners like FourVision. As a result, you can transform Dynamics 365 into an end-to-end HR solution, with all the Talent Management features you need to support a happy, productive workforce.
Want to learn more about our unique end-to-end HR approach for Microsoft Dynamics 365? Contact FourVision today.
