To better understand how organizations are structuring and aligning talent development, the Association for Talent Development (ATD) and Rothwell & Associates partnered to identify the areas organizations most often use to build a talent development structure for meeting current and future competency needs in a world in which talent has become the engine of business.
To determine the primary functions of talent development in a broad spectrum of organizations, the study asked more than 300 managers, directors, and executives to rate centrality of 39 functions, which were based on the ATD Competency Study and input from the ATD Forum, to their talent development structures.
Using these data, ATD created a graphic depicting the relationship of the 39 functions in a broad general framework. These functions are arranged into two categories based on how central they are to a talent development structure, according to the data.
The 15 red functions in the center of the image reflect those identified by the majority of respondents to be primary for a talent development structure: change management, coaching, compliance, employee engagement, evaluating learning impact, executive development, instructional design, leadership development, learning technologies, managing learning programs, needs assessment, onboarding, performance improvement, performance management, and training delivery.
The remaining 24 functions are secondary. Because of the fluidity of talent development, these may be primary for some organizations based on their industry or unique needs.
Together, the data in Building a Talent Development Structure Without Borders provide insight to industry professionals and senior leaders who are building talent development structures for their organizations.
Read more from CTDO magazine: Essential talent development content for C-suite leaders.
