Effective technology decision making must be a top priority for TD executives. HR technology is becoming more varied, complex, and innovative. Along with commonly used HR information systems, human capital management systems, and learning management systems, there are many areas where innovation is enhancing HR and talent development’s value to the enterprise. Artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies are elevating recruitment and selection processes. Data visualization tools are helping ensure diversity and inclusion in talent and leadership pipelines...

Michael Dorsey ensures that every Department of Human Services employee has the training they need to serve Maryland residents. When Maryland residents experience a crisis, they can turn to the Department of Human Services, the state’s primary social service provider, for help and guidance. DHS assists more than 1 million people annually, although that number is likely to rise in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The department, through its 24 local administrations—covering areas such as child protective services, supplemental food assistance, and other...

Learn to effectively manage your daily demands for positive outcomes. Many individuals now working remotely because of stay-at-home orders have quickly realized the need for effective time-management strategies. But learning the art of time management yields a positive impact in any environment. The obvious benefits are improved task management, higher productivity, decreased stress levels, and better work-life balance. Conversely, when we struggle to balance our time, priorities, and distractions, we miss deadlines, produce poor quality work, and experience...

Board-level discussions and a structured talent development department lead to high levels of business alignment. Only about four in 10 talent development professionals believe their organization’s talent development and business strategies are aligned to a high or very high extent, according to the new ATD Research report Strategic Alignment: Orchestrating Organizational Success. But the report identifies some practices associated with positive, statistically significant connections to higher levels of alignment—and they are practices that any organization can...

As companies integrate more digital technologies, they’re also expanding the ways employees learn. There’s no denying that COVID-19 has been a catalyst for personal, social, and business change. At nearly every organization, disruption from the virus has underscored the role of technology and the need to accelerate digital transformation efforts. According to data from McKinsey, even before the pandemic, 92 percent of companies thought their business models would need to change to respond to digitization. For instance, the top five hard skills listed in LinkedIn...

Chief People Officer Marissa Andrada is leading cultural transformation at Chipotle. From sustainably sourced, real ingredients to hand-prepared foods to forming partnerships with farmers to offering employees no-cost mental healthcare and debt-free college degrees, Chipotle is on a mission to cultivate a better world. The fast-casual restaurant infuses this mission in everything it does, and that is a driving element of its talent development initiatives. "It really does capture what we stand for, which is this whole food culture and movement that Steve Ells,...

What will 2020 look like for talent development leaders? Do they anticipate being able to meet their organizations' needs, to have an impact on corporate performance? How do they expect other leaders' views of talent development to change? How many resources do they think they'll have at their disposal? To answer those questions, in December 2019, the Association for Talent Development conducted an online poll of 116 talent development leaders. ATD distributes this Talent Development Executive Confidence Index (TDXCI) survey every quarter, using participants'...

Scenario planning and talent forecasting can help talent development professionals brace—and prepare—for future disruption. Learning and talent development budgets have grown rapidly during the robust bull market of the past 11 years. As a result, some talent development professionals haven't needed to pay attention to deep profit and loss analysis for our units. While the TD function has often been viewed as a cost center, the 2010s saw it emerge as a critical driver of recruiting, employee engagement, brand building, and growth. Yet, the COVID-19 pandemic—and...

Track short sims to better understand your learners. Most organizations in the education industry live and die by learner metrics. Those that use short sims—quick, engaging, "learning to do" online learning content—get better metrics than those that use traditional content alone or full games. How? Traditional online learning today is linear. The transcript for each learner consists only of starts and stops and perhaps how they did on some multiple-choice questions. In contrast, when used, game-like computer learning experiences produce too much data. Even after...

Don't tap tech just because it's new—identify the need and build a case for it. When implementing new learning technology such as learning experience portals, gamification apps, microlearning platforms, artificial intelligence–driven and machine learning–driven guided support tools, inner mobility platforms, and virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), you may find yourself with a learning technology but looking for a problem to solve rather than with a technology solution that's addressing a real business need. Too often well-meaning stakeholders ask...

Know the challenges before you blindly conduct virtual and augmented reality training programs. Learning technology is a term that covers a wide variety of solutions, from learning management and reporting systems to Promethean boards and Apple TVs. Other terms, such as e-learning, gamification, and microlearning, can also constitute learning technologies. Many times, when these and other technologies emerge as popular terms, we, as talent development professionals, are quick to react, whether out of excitement of something new or out of fear of being left behind...

Taking shortcuts will lead to unproductive and likely costly outcomes. When you cheat, you know better. When I was a talent development manager at a public accounting firm, I administered the most disastrous learning event of my career. If I’m truly honest, it was because I cheated. What’s worse, I blamed my supervisor, and she took the hit. What happened in that two-hour session awoke both my integrity and my commitment to the talent development discipline. I was preparing for the annual weeklong audit managers’ continuing education program. One of the new...

Burnout among you and your employees can take a toll on an entire organization. The World Health Organization defines burnout as an "occupational phenomenon." Employees who experience emotional and physical exhaustion, a sense of powerlessness, and frustration may be well on their way to complete burnout. In fact, the 2020 Global Culture Report from O.C. Tanner Institute, a firm specializing in employee recognition and workplace culture, found that 79 percent of employees are suffering from mild, moderate, or severe burnout. The report, a compilation of data from...

This is a crucial characteristic for anyone in the C-suite. Executive presence is an essential trait for anyone aspiring to reach the ranks of the C-suite. Although a detailed definition is murky at best, most experts agree it entails some combination of how one behaves, speaks, and looks. Talent development leaders looking to boost their executive presence should closely watch organizational leaders they respect. What qualities and characteristics do they exhibit? How do they interact with those above them, with their peers, and with their staff? How do they...

Chief Learning Officer Michael Molinaro is ensuring New York Life employees have easy access to intuitive learning options. Leadership isn't a role you inhabit—it's a set of actions. That principle has been a driving force behind the work of Michael Molinaro, chief learning officer for New York Life, the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States, according to Fortune. "People are leaders when they act in a leaderly way," says Molinaro. "We've worked to define the leadership actions that most embody who we are and what we want to be at New York...

Follow these seven steps to effect change. My mandate was to build a leadership pipeline. While I was already familiar with leadership competencies when I joined TELUS International, I didn't know much about the company or why it needed a pipeline and didn't already have one. What were its business objectives and goals? How does it make money? How was the organization structured? How would L&D help the firm achieve its business objectives? What impact would multiple cultures have on a global learning strategy? How would we measure success? I took two years to...

The argument: It's time to retire the Net Promoter Score. According to NetPromoter.com, the Net Promoter Score is a tool for measuring customers' experience and for predicting a business's growth. But beyond a gauge of business success, it also can serve as a form of feedback on L&D training programs and events. While this proven metric has transformed the business world and now provides the core measurement for customer experience management programs around the world, recently, naysayers opine that NPS should be retired as a measurement tool. Are they right? Or...

Use metrics to determine a mentorship program's return on investment. While many executives acknowledge the significant impact mentoring has had on their careers, these same executives often view structured mentorship programs as expensive and ineffective. Senior leaders who have experienced the individual benefit of mentoring relationships hesitate to formalize mentorship within their organizations. Why? The largest obstacle is many practitioners' inability to capture metrics that tell the quantifiable story of success in mentorship programs. Mentorship programs...

Liz Janssen is focused on ensuring ICF employees have the skills and mentoring to support the company's innovation and growth. In 1969, a former Tuskegee Airman and three U.S. Department of Defense analysts founded the Inner City Fund to finance minority-owned businesses in Washington, D.C. Fifty years later, ICF has become a billion-dollar global consulting and digital services firm focused on solving complex problems for their clients in various industries such as energy, environment, public health, economic development, and more. With client partners and...

Learn to find purpose, power, and perspective. It was 1988. Guns N' Roses sang, "In the jungle/ Welcome to the jungle / Watch it bring you to your ... / It's gonna bring you down." The visceral scream echoed around my bedroom walls. It was a time of change: Glam rock was taking the charts by storm; the world's first major computer virus, the infamous Morris (later Internet worm) had reared its head; and what was then the Soviet Union had begun its restructuring and the start of its eventual collapse. Thirty years later, welcome to disruption. It could still...