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Learning & Development

Published June 2009

Learning’s Role in a Talent Management Strategy

  Don Duquette

In every market segment, in every country, in every economy, companies are searching for talent. In 2008, the Adecco Institute surveyed more than 5,000 HR executives on topics including skill shortages, career management, knowledge management and lifelong learning. The research concluded that talent management will be the single most important focus of HR and learning and development moving forward.

Wikipedia defines talent management as "the process of developing and fostering new workers through on-boarding, developing and keeping current workers and attracting highly skilled workers at other companies to come to work for your company. Companies that are engaged in talent management (human capital management) are strategic and deliberate in how they source, attract, select, train, develop, promote and move employees through the organization."

By this definition, talent management can encompass a wide range of responsibilities, and learning plays a key role. An effective talent management strategy will consider exactly what that role will be, but first talent leaders must determine what value learning will play in the organization, and how in conjunction with talent management, it will be defined and handled.

Typically, ownership falls to the vice president of HR or the CLO. However, some companies are combining the roles and creating a vice president of talent management.

A Strong Foundation
An effective learning strategy will depend on a strong foundation of technology in support of enterprise- or department-wide talent management programs. To begin, make an inventory of existing software solutions.

In most cases, organizations approach this technology phase in one of two ways. They may have ERP applications that handle all talent management components, but may not be best-in-class in all areas. Or they may have an ERP outfitted with separate best-in-class applications to handle specialized components such as learning management and competency management.

In either case, the goal is the same. Make sure all the applications "talk to each other" and that the user interface is clean and simple. The best way to streamline the user interface is to use a portal that enables access to and interaction with all files, applications, content and people relevant to learning and talent management efforts.

Portals deliver highly personalized experiences that deliver talent management information to the end user based on applications, roles, workflows and other security permissions upon logging in. This single sign-on design prevents the user from having to log in to each application separately and delivers all functionalities in one standard interface.

Of the eight components that typically compose talent management — workforce planning, workforce acquisition, performance management, career development, succession planning, competency management, learning management and compensation management — learning plays a part in five — performance management, career development, succession planning, competency management and learning management.

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