It’s easy to spot the signs of a broken talent system. Managers don’t know who to ask about their needs. Employees get lost between development and promotion tracks, and candidates feel lost in a big black hole.
Having worked in recruitment and HR for over 20 years, I know the biggest problem in HR: the fragmentation of talent strategies. This gap is widening between what organizations need and expect from HR and what most HR departments can provide.
A 2025 McKinsey report confirms that workforce development remains highly fragmented. Only about a third of key roles are supported by succession planning, and 26% of employees report not receiving feedback in the past year. This same report notes how complex recruiting has become.
To drive a new era of growth, organizations must fundamentally transform their recruiting functions.
Recruitment issues
Managers often share their frustrations with me as a people leader. Specifically, they do not know who to consult with regarding their various human resources needs. If you’re considering hiring internally, you might consider talking to your HR business partner. If you are outside the company, this will be the hiring manager. But when it comes to talent development, you need to address both HR and learning and development.
This is not just an administrative issue. These handoffs and silos rob companies of opportunities and resources, frustrate managers, and prevent them from hiring or promoting top talent.
This anecdotal complaint is a systemic problem reflected in organizational data. According to the iCIMS 2025 State of the CHRO Report, the contribution of talent recruitment to business success remains undervalued.
Our research shows that one-third of HR leaders say their organization considers HR to be a core strategic function. Another third see HR as a support function, and another third see HR as a transactional process. This lack of a unified talent strategy just adds to the confusion and fragmentation of the manager’s experience.
HR’s new role as talent portfolio manager
The tide is turning. According to the iCIMS August 2025 Workforce Report, 59% of employers report that their recruitment automation and AI tools are “very valuable” and describe them as key to improving performance.
AI is connecting previously disconnected talent processes. This is how talent acquisition, internal mobility, and learning systems work together, rather than simply working in parallel.
Together, these features give recruiters and business leaders back valuable time. Recruiter time savings are reinvested in candidate relationships, onboarding, and ongoing talent development.
As AI takes over more process work, recruiters and HR leaders can focus on what really matters: growing, developing, and managing an integrated talent portfolio.
Therefore, HR organizations need a new role: the talent portfolio manager. This is not a new role for Recruiter, but it is a higher level position that integrates recruiting, development, and learning all into one workflow.
The Talent Portfolio Manager designs and executes a business unit’s complete talent strategy, managing both external and internal talent to ensure the skills, capabilities, and leadership needed to maintain a competitive edge.
Externally, the Talent Portfolio Manager leads recruitment and maintains a pipeline of qualified candidates for rapid hiring. Internally, we foster development and retention through learning programs, apprenticeships and leadership initiatives, creating a targeted curriculum to prepare high-potential employees for future roles.
As a single point of contact for all your talent needs, we integrate talent recruitment, development, and talent planning while anticipating workforce needs, closing talent gaps, and maintaining your market advantage.
As I look back on my career in the talent industry, I realize that HR managers have been asking for this model for years. Unfortunately, before the current era, we didn’t have the ability to do that.
Achievements in influence, integration and execution
What does this look like in practice? Imagine a future state where every hiring meeting with a manager includes an AI agent, giving talent portfolio managers a deep understanding of their department’s needs. In addition to writing down interview requests, we can also help you co-create a workforce plan.
Once the talent portfolio manager approves the plan, AI can begin sourcing internal and external candidates. The growth trajectory of all internal employees becomes visible and actionable. This reduces churn and unlocks hidden capabilities across your organization.
Throughout the recruitment and development lifecycle, embedded AI allows portfolio managers to focus on the human side: building relationships, anticipating needs, and creating real-time business value.
Portfolio managers maximize organizational value by leveraging their time and focus to provide more consulting to internal customers. AI provides up-to-date information on candidate and employee progress, schedules check-ins, flags skill gaps, and accurately predicts employee trends.
The future of new employees
Organizations can use their existing tools, integrate models, and move to talent portfolio managers with the desire to improve and strengthen their skills.
Be prepared to take on this role in your organization.
- Evaluate and improve: How is your organization currently leveraging AI? Plan what only humans can do and what AI can do better, and build a responsible framework before doing so.
- Let’s start small:By piloting the approach with one team or department and scaling it up, we empower HR leaders to level up as they transform.
- Keep repeating:Build on your organization’s evolving needs.
As AI continues to shape workforce strategy, organizations need to rethink not only the timing and tactics of their talent strategy, but also ownership.
Real change starts with rethinking who drives talent and taking the first steps to eliminate responsibility and accountability. Break down silos and build a cohesive, effective talent organization by empowering talent portfolio managers to coordinate recruiting, learning, and strategic talent planning and execution.
Companies that boldly invest in this approach today will be in a position to lead, adapt, and grow tomorrow.
Trent Cotton is the Director of Talent Acquisition Insights and Analyst Relations at iCIMS.
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