Preparing for the Talent Practices Inventory

The Talent Practices Inventory includes hundreds of questions about organizational practices designed to create a culture for everyone, and is a key data-source for Surface’s AI and your recommendations. The Talent Practices Inventory includes  a range of topics like attracting and hiring talent, developing and retaining employees, communicating effectively, designing inclusive and fair processes, using data to drive decisions, enabling leaders and employees, fostering a growth mindset culture, and creating a clear purpose and strategy.

While there is no official preparation needed in order to begin the Talent Practices Inventory, some tips for success are as follows:

1. If you are the primary admin for your organization, make sure to give yourself plenty of time to complete the introduction section. This section is critical because the answers you give will inform the rest of the inventory, and your answers cannot be changed without starting over.

2. Let your colleagues know about the Talent Practices Inventory, especially those you expect to call on as collaborators.

3. Set a deadline for collaborators to complete the Talent Practices Inventory , and check in regularly with collaborators to make sure things are on track. Remember that you can track progress within each section directly in the Surface platform.

While each organization is different, Surface clients typically take 2-3 hours to complete the inventory, possibly longer if the assessment is segmented by location or business unit.

Can we complete the Talent Practices Inventory  and not sync our HRIS or upload other sources of data?

In order to move past the onboarding stage, you need to at least complete the HRIS data step and take the Talent Practices Inventory. Once you have completed those steps, you will be able to move past the other onboarding tasks if needed.