How do you align talent management with your L&D strategy?

Address unrecognized skills. Take stock of the current supply of internal skills. Many skills of existing employees are invisible to employers. This hampers organizational agility and is demoralizing for staff when over-looked for internal mobility opportunities. Many people are upskilling outside work L&D programs, have 'side-hustles' (over 50% of Australians!) and their resumes (some many years old) do not reflect the comprehensiveness of their skills profile. Survey current employees regularly. Some good questions: ????Do you possess any skills you feel would be valuable to this company that you are not using yet?????What certifications do you have? ????Have you taken any outside courses? ????What skills do you want to improve on?

We ensure a rigorous talent management process for identification, talent forums, assessment and scenarios. Once we’ve identified our talent segments we ensure our L&D strategy is aligned to address each talent segment differently, bespoke learning, individual and group development and we look at each level to ensure when talent is mobilized we grow the entire pipeline to fill gaps created.

Curiosity is important to embed within workplace culture to foster success in L&D programs. Employees need to be encouraged to explore and/or develop a continuous improvement mindset as core competencies in how they show up to work. This way the investment of L&D programs self-sustain within the organization and employees seek L&D rather than meeting compulsory annual goals as a 'check box' activity.

There’s wisdom in the recommendation to assess the state of talent management, but I wouldn’t agree you have to complete that before getting started on LD/TD. Many L&D functions aren’t structured or staffed to support an integrated talent function. There is a lot of strategy, internal operations, and infrastructure work that can be done to optimize learning as a strategic function in parallel to assessing and optimizing the state of TM. For example, even if you understand the state of TM, you won’t be able to design and implement measurable interventions if L&D operates like a content creation or workshop delivery supply chain. Making the kinds of changes required to operate as a strategic talent development function is a long-play.

The main purpose of L&D in any organization is to cater to the development needs of people so that they can reach their full potential and grow on to take bigger roles as aligned with succession plans. The development needs are identified mainly through talent reviews. The role of L&D starts from there and focuses on breaking these needs into shorterm, medium term and long term at an organization level. Subsequently, L&D team needs to strategize on what the ideal learning mix will be and what is the most effective pedagogy for each need.

The core purpose of learning and development is capability building for both people and organization. Talent reviews are the best source of input for developing a learning strategy. A good talent management framework will allow the organizations to define and agree on both current and future skills required to sustain growth in a VUCA world. Furthermore, individuals are assessed on these skills in talent reviews. The identified skill gaps are what become key focus areas for learning and development.

In addition to clear goals that are aligned with the bigger objectives, it is critical to set a timeline for these goals and be clear about who “owns” them. These questions can help increase the hit rate: 1. What does “done” look like? 2. Why does this matter? 3. Do I have the resources needed (time, money, support) to achieve this goal?

It is very important to align Talent Management with L&D Strategy. For example, the end assessment for reskilling/cross-skilling to test the readiness of trained members for project readiness (internal deployment) should be the same as the one being used for external Talent Acquisition. Employee development as a key value proposition, Incorporating skill development plan in Workforce planning, Skill mapping for various job roles (to prepare the workforce for future roles), Competency definition and assessments, Career Progression (career-linked learning programs), Performance, and Rewards (incentives for the acquisition of new skills) are some examples of how we can align Talent Management with L&D strategy.

While defining L&D vision and objective its highly important to the current talent capacity stats and the organizations expected delivery. It shouldnt be any one off go event, rather structured & progressive learning path (step by step) will always add values to the big picture.

In my experiences L&D can roughly be broken down into the following framework: - 60% on the job learning - 30% learning across cross-functional teams and mentoring - 10% formal/class training Further, bite size learning offerings fit well with today's fast pace world. LinkedIn Learning and getAbstract are fantastic modern day resources.

70% must go rigorous on the job learning where applied coaching method will give most advantage. 20% Can be class room (functional/ gen / role specific) 10% can be self paced digital knowledge acquisition The activities must include multiple assessment, workshop, assignment and rotation.

Innovate your communications strategy. It will make the program implementation seamless. Invest in communication channels - social media, videos, digital walls etc. and avoid setting up emails as the primary communication channel.

Employees want to know what they can look forward to! You never know how your L&D plan may inspire them to come up with innovative ideas your team has not considered yet. Everytime you walk away from a conference, webinar, training session, or a conversation with someone who you admire, don't you get an extra pip in your step to tackle the next big project? If you do, imagine the impact your L&D plan would have on your employees!

From my experiences, it is essential to frame L&D plans as an investment in employees that supports employees' growth AND drives the organization's success vs a punitive or remedial response. Another critical element is clearly articulating desired behaviors post-L&D experience. This can help dispel the notion that L&D's goal is purely knowledge acquisition but a consistent application of knowledge/skill that creates positive workplace habits.

Effective talent management ensures that an organization has the talent to meet current & future demands. This involves identifying individuals with the potential to fill specific roles and developing them through various methods, including job rotations, special assignments, training & coaching. Success is measured by evaluating whether the identified talent successfully assumes the required roles within the specified timeframe. Alignment of talent management and L&D strategy is an ongoing process which requires collaboration among talent management professionals, L&D teams, and organizational leadership. By integrating these, organizations can have a continuous talent pipeline ready to meet the ever-changing needs of the business.

This is the most important step, ironically though which very few organisations do. Very simply you need to research and evaluate what are the talent requirements and gaps of your organisation. These can be classified into 2 buckets - current and future. Your L&D strategy, programs and activities should be aligned to provide the same. Done. Simple

Due to the limited resources, many L&D strategies are reactive and organisations rarely have enough time to scope out what they are hoping to achieve neither are they able to effectively evaluate what works and what doesn't. - Operational impact e.g. has there been a reduction in the number of errors which were previously reported following the L&D intervention? - Financial impact e.g. which financial KPI is the organisation hoping to improve and is this being monitored? - Behavioural impact: Are there resulting changes in behaviour as a result of the learning? The real issue is that organisations often want instant results and often fail to narrow down the specific impact they're hoping to achieve before implementing L&D activities.