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Research Report

Full Research Reports

2024 State of the Industry: Talent Development Benchmarks and Trends

Bridging the TD Skills Gap: Preparing for the Future

Leadership Skills: Unlocking Your Abilities to Face Tomorrow’s Challenges

AI in Learning and Talent Development: A Closer Look Into Its Future Potential in the Workplace

The Science of Learning: Embracing the Science Behind TD

Blended Learning: Leverage Flexibility to Maximize Results

Making Learning Assessments Successful: Using Performance and Tests to Measure Knowledge and Skills Learned in Training

 Informal Learning: Measuring Success Outside the Classroom draws on a sample of 297 talent development professionals to answer key questions around informal learning and highlight best practices.

Informal Learning: Measuring Success Outside the Classroom

In today’s fast-paced business environment, instructional designers are tasked with creating learning experiences that meet employees’ informational needs while also considering learning needs, time constraints, and budget factors. This means that instructional designers need to understand learning models, have skills in developing content, and understand the business. Instructional Design in Practice: The Essential Skills and Resources examines the skills and resources necessary for the instructional design role, as described by 339 talent development professionals. The report found three key findings:Instructional designers are highly educated, experienced professionals with many high-quality workplace skills. Instructional designers are busy professionals who said they are OK at project management. More than half of instructional designers are using AI in their role, and of those who are using it, most are satisfied with it. 

Instructional Design in Practice: The Essential Skills and Resources

Businesses create solutions to solve problems and fulfill the needs of their customers. However, having a good product or solution isn’t enough for a successful business strategy. Organizations must also employ talented sales professionals to sell the products. And these sales professionals need to be supported by an effective sales enablement team.Drawing on a sample of 262 talent development professionals, this report investigates key questions to provide benchmark data and highlight best practices about sales enablement. ATD Research also took a closer look at sales enablement departments and the tools they use.Key findings from the report include: 90 percent of respondents said sales enablement was very or somewhat important to their organization.65 percent of respondents had an established sales enablement department.In the 35 percent of organizations that did not have a dedicated sales enablement function, sales leaders or the marketing department were most likely to take responsibility for sales enablement tasks. However, at 29 percent of these organizations, no one was responsible for sales enablement.More than 90 percent of respondents measured the success of their sales enablement efforts; the most common methods of doing so were via sales success statistics, such as wins and conversion rates (53 percent) and sales revenue (42 percent).More than 80 percent of respondents used sales enablement tools, whether developed within their organization or purchased from a third-party vendor. Two-thirds rated their sales training tools as good or very good.

Tapping the Potential of Sales Enablement

Onboarding programs are a crucial piece connecting a new employee to an organization. These programs should provide new hires with an opportunity to buy in to the organization’s mission by imparting knowledge about its history and culture and giving them the skills they need to succeed in their new roles. New Employee Onboarding: Setting the Stage for Success draws on a sample of 768 talent development professionals to investigate key questions around new employee onboarding, provide benchmarking data, and highlight best practices. To add context to the findings and make these results more actionable, this report provides examples and insights from other organizations and professionals. 

New Employee Onboarding: Setting the Stage for Success

For an organization to succeed, it needs to invest in its talent. However, with staff shortages and budget constraints, talent development professionals may struggle to convince their organizations that investing in staff is the right decision. So, ATD Research collaborated with CTDO Next to create a series of case studies to help TD professionals understand how high-performing organizations are making the case for funding TD projects.These case studies feature small, medium, and large organizations (based on the number of employees) from various industries, including nonprofit professional membership organizations, retail trade, information, financial and insurance, transportation and warehousing, and manufacturing.As we began collecting the case studies, we noticed a theme starting to appear: TD professionals must dedicate time to many different activities to make the case for investing in talent development. Successful TD professionals: Are curious—they ask questions and listen when creating new learning projects. Have a good reputation—their co-workers see them as credible, trustworthy, and reliable. Take time to prepare—they understand the amount of pre-planning involved in making the case for why a project is essential. Collaborate—they see the importance of building relationships when trying to fund a new project. Learn the business strategy—they are able to link each learning project to a business objective, which helps leaders see its importance.