Align Talent Development to Your Business Strategy

For a company to succeed in today's market, they need an adaptable strategy and talented people to execute it. Companies focus on meeting their goals and adapting to changes in the market. However, the most successful firms also establish a people strategy to engage the right talent to achieve their goals. So today, we'll discuss tips on aligning talent with your business strategy.

Engage the Entire Organization in Development

You can engage the entire organization in skills development through a partnership with your CEO, CHRO, CLO, and Chief Transformation Officer (if you have one).

Bob Bradway, CEO of Amgen, talks about his experience becoming a CTO in a 2021 SHRM People + Strategy Journal article. In a nutshell, Bradway defines a three-step strategy for creating an organization-wide learning culture:

1. Setting clear roles and accountabilities, managed by a Results Delivery Office and led by the entire leadership team.
2. To succeed in change, leaders must understand how people deal with it and be willing to overcome resistance, even if it means replacing those who resist.
3. Co-creation drives change through participatory development and social learning.

The CLO's role is about more than just training. It's now about transforming organizational capabilities and culture. The aim is to cultivate broader capabilities, including strong leadership, digital literacy, and a growth mindset.

Learning no longer relies on traditional classroom methods, but uses personalized approaches. Using those methods, L&D can become leaner, more agile, and more strategic by:

• curating valuable external content,
• encouraging peer teaching,
• measuring the impact of training, and
• providing tools to tailor learning plans to individuals.

Create Your Talent Strategy

Once you understand your business strategy's needs and identify the skill gaps in your workforce, you can create a talent strategy. Consider these factors in developing your plan:

1. The specific talent and skills you need.
2. Skill availability in your current workforce and in the talent market.
3. Whether you can develop existing potential in time to have talent ready when it's needed. Be sure to assess employees with adjacent skills who can develop faster.
4. Which positions will require outside talent.
5. How you will motivate and retain employees.

Align Technology to Talent Development and Performance

The right technology enables efficient and effective workforce development, fosters and encourages self-development, and measures employee performance.

You will need a skill inventory tool based on employee self-assessment and the results of your AI skill assessments. An internal talent marketplace is a powerful tool you can integrate with your skill inventory to encourage mobility and employee retention. That tool enables you to keep valuable talent by offering them ways to expand their skills. Without that flexibility, people stay with a company for only about four years. How much better off will your company and employees be when they move to a new role within your firm?

Offering professional development opportunities is a successful way to motivate and retain employees. Professional development can include on-the-job training, attending conferences, and online courses. As you create opportunities, focus on developing the skills that align with your business strategy.

Track and Measure Progress

Finally, it's essential to measure the effectiveness of your talent management strategy regularly. Tracking and measuring progress allows you to identify areas that need improvement and adjust your strategy. Monitoring progress can also provide critical insights into the impact of your talent strategy on your business objectives.

Conclusion

The principle behind aligning talent with your business strategy is simple: to execute your strategy, you need the right people in the right roles to make it happen. Getting it done can be challenging, but it's essential to achieving results—and it will set your firm up for long-term success.

We encourage you to embrace these methods and principles and embed them in your culture and the way you work.

Let's talk about your goals.

Phenom eCloud can help you develop a talent management strategy that aligns with your business goals. Contact us today to learn how we can support your talent evolution.

Phenom eCloud is a comprehensive technology solutions provider committed to empowering businesses to overcome challenges, enhance their workforce capabilities, and achieve superior outcomes.