Abstract
This article explores an overall framework with specific recommendations as to how to develop critical talent within an organization. In the today’s business environment that is characterized by VUCA, it is imperative that Talent development not only supports business strategy but helps to forge the future by anticipating and developing future competencies that would create profitable and sustainable businesses.
The Talent development framework borrows ideas from various management streams viz marketing, branding, strategic and investment management and sets the context for further development to build in the necessary robustness and flexibility.
This framework would help L&D Leaders to organize their efforts and derive better mileage from their existing efforts with a clear goal of supporting and sustaining business growth.
Organizing Talent Development
In any organization, across industries it is key that Talent development is synched with the Organizational strategy to ensure that it supports the current plans and proactively address the required future competencies that would enable growth and sustainability.
To organize talent development, we must first clearly define the scope that the team would handle. In many organizations, talent development happens across functions like process training, managerial and leadership development, digital learning, etc. So, it is imperative that its scope is clearly defined, as well as the levels (organizational hierarchy) across which it would be implemented. This scope definition enables the Talent Development leader to then set goals accordingly, create an environment for achieving the same and construct a governance model around it.
The process of goal setting for organizational talent development needs to be done in an agile, scalable and a robust fashion, taking full consideration of the strategic direction being taken by the organization. Needless to say, Talent Development goals have to partner organizational growth and future sustainability.
Another key area is to strategize as to how the organization plans to deliver the Talent development goals. In today's environment, it is crucial that the Talent development leader considers leveraging not just internal capability, but also successfully networks with external partners and industry cahoots to deliver best-in-class developmental interventions for the targeted employees. Furthermore, with the fast developing phygital (Physical+Digital) environment, it is important to consider blended solutions which bring in the best of online self-paced learning and classroom interaction (virtual/physical) supported by the new age tech like AI, AR and VR. In the delivery of the development initiatives, it is also important to ponder over the formats that could range from simple WBTs or classroom training, to fully immersive simulations, assessment centres, and executive coaching. The following are the three age-old considerations when planning methodologies-
1. Content
2. Target Audience
3. Intervention goals
The correct definition of these methodologies can support Talent Development taking a non-linear path where the number of people involved in Talent Development is not necessarily proportional to the population they service. It is now time, that the earlier principles of people: trainer ratio, cost of training per employee etc. need to be analyzed and revisited to suit the current business dynamics.
Having understood the scope and the delivery mechanism, the leader now must consider how to sequence the series of interventions. This is often neglected and causes hiccups during implementation. Like in any strategic planning process, it is important for the Talent development leader to have a clear vision of their function in the short, medium and long term. It could be 1, 3 and 5 years but would have to be fashioned as per the industry and business context. This sequencing helps in budgeting, resource optimization, planning of efficacy studies, impact analysis and course corrections.
Perhaps the step that is missed the most is having a deep understanding of the business value add through a systematic reporting of efficiency and effectiveness measures which encompass analysis of day-to-day activities to measuring business impact of strategic talent development. These measurements need to be customized as per the talent development targets and the overarching organizational goals. It is also important to take a top-down and holistic approach while defining the metrics and its reporting, to ensure alignment. Very often, L& D could entangle itself in a web of large data and measures, which adds little or no value. It is critical to take a hard look at what really matters. Having a sharp view of the returns on investments made in Talent Development adjusted for the time value is important. As a leader, the suggestion is to look at only critical few measures! The Kirkpatrick Model is a good starting point but evolving the metric framework to provide key business insights is the magic sauce.
Communicate! Communicate! Communicate! I guess the business world had woken up to the value of communication decades ago, but it is missed very often. Talent development initiatives needs branding to effectively communicate its value to all stakeholders. From the learner to the business leaders, each employee needs to know the value Talent Development adds to the individual and the business. The talent development initiatives must also communicate beyond the organizational boundaries. In doing so, this acts as a powerful agent in building organizational brand as an "employer of choice".
Lessons of marketing and branding should not be forgotten here!
A critical underlying tenet that needs to be designed and implemented across all the above aspects is the culture of innovation. Benchmarking, innovation fests, intrapreneurship, brainstorming, continuous process Improvements, etc. need to be systematically defined, deployed, measured, analyzed and actioned, to drive business results.
This framework, defined through the lens of scope, delivery, sequence, value add and branding, supported ably by the systematic deployment of innovation processes needs to be implemented in a context-sensitive manner with robustness, scalability and agility built within.