Amid talent shortages, take on a strategic and tactical role to move departments from struggling to thriving.There is no doubt that the Great Resignation and a tight labor market have left organizations woefully understaffed. While some industries, such as healthcare and retail, have been hit harder than others, nearly all employers have suffered in some capacity as they’ve watched high-value talent leave. For some companies, a lack of trained staff has been a visible, direct cause of missed earnings, revenue, and growth targets. For example, one of my company's...

With my personal brand at risk, I accepted and used feedback to turn things around.I had just started my dream job as the L&D lead for my company’s sales enablement team after a 13-year run as a field salesperson. My new peers were impressive, with years of experience in various aspects of talent development. They were close with each other, moved fast, talked faster, and used terms I didn’t know. I quickly felt out of my element. Then fear overcame me as I worried that sooner or later someone would find out I was in over my head—a poorly made new hire. Adding to...

The future is sustainability skills and competencies.Sustainability—in recent years, that has become a buzzword and part of everyone’s vocabulary, from corporations to consumers. Sustainability is the idea that society can meet human needs now and in the future while conserving and enhancing the natural environment. In other words, how we live today will affect our future. Often the term is used to refer to environmental impact, but sustainability addresses the need to enable all people—including future generations—to realize their potential and improve their...

Show your humanness—vulnerability, authenticity, and equity are the ways to lead.Confidence. Gravitas. Appearance. Executive presence. That is the archetype of the leader whom people will follow through a storm. How many times have individuals been told to improve those capabilities if they wish to move up in an organization? Stoicism in the face of adversity is sure to inspire the masses, right? Not quite—in fact, not at all.What it means to be a leader today has transformed more in the past five years than in the previous 20. Words like authenticity,...

By some estimates, 80 percent of the US workforce is comprised of deskless employees—workers at factories, retail stores, restaurants, distribution centers, warehouses, hospitals, or construction sites or behind the wheel of freighters and delivery vans. While organizational leaders have been focusing on how to reskill and upskill office workers as they adapt to new technologies and market changes, how have businesses responded to frontline staff’s talent development needs?

As Bojangles expands into a national brand, Chief People Officer Monica Sauls is ensuring the company sustains its values and culture principles.Famous for its southern fried chicken, quick-service restaurant chain Bojangles prides itself on employees making food from scratch. Whether it’s following the 49 individual steps to make biscuits or brewing fresh tea daily, everything is made to order.With approximately 800 locations throughout the southeast US, the restaurant embarked on a journey to grow into a national brand. CEO José Armario created the chief people...

Succession planning is an important aspect of companies being prepared for the future. With the increase in workers leaving companies to pursue other ventures or interests, it's no surprise that more and more employers are making succession planning a vital component of their recruitment and retention process. The upheaval in the labor market has underscored the importance of having a plan in place to ensure business continuity when staff depart. For its report, Succession Planning: Preparing Organizations for the Future, the Association for Talent Development...

To foster diversity, equity, and inclusion, first determine who is responsible for leading that effort. 2020 changed lives and set the stage for examining how closely people's collective experiences are interconnected. In addition to the pandemic forcing individuals to shift and adapt to a new reality, a defining moment for many was the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. That led to multiple protests across the US related to the police and their mistreatment of Black Americans. That was some people's first experience with what it means to be Black in...

Navigate the uncertainty surrounding this expanding technology to tap into it for TD good. Autonomous vehicles, diagnostic medical imaging, financial fraud detection—those are just a few realistic and attainable use cases that recent advances in artificial intelligence have led to. A multitude of AI-driven TD applications are already in the marketplace as well, and many organizations are eager to implement AI to engage employees, identify skills gaps, personalize learning, automate processes, and make better data-informed decisions.  AI has the potential to...

Vice President of Talent Development Laura Heaton and her team are ensuring Penske staff have the skills they need to drive the business forward. Penske Transportation Solutions prides itself on being a company that "moves the things that move the world forward." It is recognized for its bright yellow trucks that crisscross US interstates. The transportation services company also has subsidiaries operating in a variety of industry segments, including retail automotive, truck leasing, transportation logistics, and professional motorsports. But that tagline doesn't...

Align the core drivers of learning—motivation and opportunity—into a balanced system. Building employee capabilities is critical to business success. Leaders at all levels of an organization need to identify the capabilities required to drive the business forward, hire for those capabilities, and continuously develop them in employees. That isn't a new concept—most companies have established L&D teams and corporate universities specifically to address it. But the challenge of truly implementing a capability-based talent approach—and implications from failing to...

By understanding relevant financial factors, you can show the value of learning. Before mentioning the word cost with talent development professionals, prepare for some defensive rebuttals. That is a natural human reaction, because cost carries a negative connotation, implying a loss. Every operational activity falls under one of three types of responsibility centers: profit, cost, and investment. By definition, talent development is a cost center, which means it's an operational activity that incurs expenses and costs but does not generate revenue from selling...

Listen to two executives perspectives on ways to support and hold onto employees. CTDO recently spoke with two talent management experts about ways employers can leverage talent development to address the Great Resignation and what they can do to prevent knowledge loss when retention isnt possible.

TD executive John P. Wiltshire shares that growth may mean stepping back or to the side. But John P. Wiltshire, vice president of talent development at the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, says its a common refrain President and CEO Louis J. DeGennaro says to LLS leaders.

Know the difference between transactional relationships and strategic partnerships. I find it impressiveif not curiousthat my CEO is more easily accessible to a cold call from a training supplier than I am .

Companies should do more to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in hiring and in the workplace. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging has become a priority for organizational leaders in recent years.

Prove the talent development strategys worth with the right data points. A proactive approach to talent development means understanding where you are now in areas such as knowledge and skills development and succession planning and which tools are required to get the job done.

Its time to redesign the talent development system to have a broader reach and more precise skilling. In early 2022, we participated in a San Diego Workforce Partnership-sponsored panel discussion on labor market development at the Burnham Center for Community Advancement at the University of San Diego.

At Chevron, Stacy Eng and her team look beyond the surface for the bigger purpose and needs for training solutions to meet business goals. We cant start out thinking training is the solution. Its only a means to an end, says Stacy Eng, chief learning and talent officer at Chevron.

Black Knight developed learning paths that connect learning and career goals, preparing employees for high-demand roles. Designed to engage learners and build their professional and technical skills, Black Knights custom learning journeys offer employees a structured learning path toward a specific goal while also guiding them in reaching their long-term career aspirations.