Talent drives our global economy—the skills people bring to their daily work can help businesses thrive. That’s why companies and organizations have grown increasingly focused on talent development. Assisting employees to maximize their potential can benefit individuals, their employers, and the economy. This article explores the talent development field, illustrates its value, and shares best practices while offering advice to help you develop your team members’ talent.
What is talent development?
Talent development refers to workplace training and learning that expands employee effectiveness. Providing opportunities for talent development can give people the skills, knowledge, and confidence they need to perform productively and achieve greater success within your organization.
Offering development opportunities can have a high return on investment for organizations as theyupskilltheir workers, grow future leaders, and show employees that the business cares about their career path.
Empower teams with access to world-class content from 350+ top companies and universitiesLearn more
Empower teams with access to world-class content from 350+ top companies and universities
Why is talent development important?
Developing your talent offers several benefits, including a competitive advantage for your business and overall economic development. This section will consider the value of developing talent for the individual, the business, and the global economy.
Individual
Business
Here are some ways talent development translates to gains for your business:
Improves business attraction
Drives competitive advantage
Counters employee turnover
Builds a more people-centric culture
Fills skill shortages
Enables talent redeployment
Increases customer satisfaction
Stronger labor-management relationships
Global economy
By developing talent, an organization contributes to a more robust regional, national, and even global economy. The availability of skilled workers can transform business innovation and growth when a city or state has a pool of skilled talent, recruiting, and economic development benefits.
Make talent your competitive advantageSee what it could look like to train your team.Learn more
Make talent your competitive advantage
See what it could look like to train your team.
Types of talent development
Talent development can take several shapes and should be customized to suit your business objectives and individual employee needs. Try one or a combination of the following.
Apprenticeships/internships
Common across many industries, apprenticeships and internships help develop new talent early in a person’s career. By working to recruit apprentices or interns and training them in workplace skills, you help create new streams of talent with experience and interest in your industry area.
Internal development programs
As you identify employees for management roles, you can also offer leadership development programs. And don’t forget to provide managerial skills training for new leaders, those who have held their leadership positions for a while, and those who will be moving up to oversee more people.
Mentorships
Mentors can offer professional guidance to employees and help them prepare for more senior positions.Mentor relationshipshelp the mentee gain insight into senior roles or different career paths and how to achieve their goals. At the same time, your mentors develop their communication and motivational skills while enjoying a fresh perspective on various areas of the company.
Coaching
Coaching helps develop an individual’s potential through provocative questions and creative problem-solving. While mentors generally tend to instruct, coaches guide individuals to create personal and professional development goals. Coaches are often external consultants hired for their coaching expertise, regularly meeting with employees to help them improve in targeted areas.
Industry conferences
Inviting employees to get out, meet people in their field, and learn the latest in the industry can help them develop professionally. This type of offsite training opportunity can also boost employee engagement and incentivize individuals who view the travel and time away from their day-to-day routine as a reward and recognition of their hard work.
Coursework
Employers can also support their employees’ continued learning and development through coursework. For instance, an individual might return to school toearn an MBA. Or they could elect to take acourse in public speakingto build their presentation skills.
Master of Business Administration (iMBA)University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignLearn more
Master of Business Administration (iMBA)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Stretch assignments
Calling employees to work outside their comfort zone can help them gain new skills and experience. An on-the-job project, especially a cross-functional one, that encourages individuals to challenge themselves in new ways and work with new teams can broaden their perspective and improve their confidence.
Talent development best practices
Given the importance of talent development, you’ll find many suggestions on prioritizing your team members’ development, with the most successful approaches involving flexibility and regular evaluation. This section summarizes some top strategies for training and developing your employees to empower and engage them in their work.
Personalize development
Every individual has their own needs when it comes to effective development. One person may benefit from a formal, in-person training course, while another employee might thrive with an assigned mentor. Understanding what each value and where they want to grow can help with motivation and drive development success that will benefit your company.
Align talent development with organizational goals.
To foster the skills your business lacks, fill your staff shortages, and build your future leaders, it’s essential to establish organizational goals and align training and development accordingly. If your business needs more people with sales acumen, identify the employees who already show potential and train them to excel in this area.
Provide flexible learning
Using technology in your training also supports flexible learning and helps you provide personalized learning paths.
Measure talent development outcomes.
Measuring actual, business-related outcomes related to your training and development efforts will help you iterate and improve your offerings. Using metrics to determine the efficacy of your learning strategies can help you allocate resources more effectively and ensure you’re always providing current, beneficial development opportunities.
Where to start your talent development plan
Success in talent development often starts with strengthening skills like communication (e.g., business writing and public speaking), emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, coaching and mentoring, delivering constructive feedback, teamwork and team building, and workplace diversity.
Those in managerial and other leadership positions and people involved in human resources all play a role in developing talent. Trainers, training specialists, and coordinators also support employee growth and skills development.
Get started on Coursera.
Effective talent development begins as early as onboarding. You can start out strong in this field with a course inRecruiting, Hiring, and Onboarding Employeesfrom the University of Minnesota on Coursera. You might also learn how to change your perspective—or help others shift theirs—in McMaster University’s offeringMindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potentialon Coursera.
Develop leaders from within your workforceLet’s work together to build lasting leadership skills for your organization.Learn more
Develop leaders from within your workforce
Let’s work together to build lasting leadership skills for your organization.
This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.
