CHAPTER 28

Initiating a Talent Development Effort

David Macon

Initiating a talent development effort is a challenging and gratifying endeavor. Navigating all the twists, turns, and obstacles can be daunting. This chapter includes practical guidance to help TD professionals prepare for this exciting journey and traverse difficulties along the way.

Have you been asked to start a talent development program or department in your organization? Are you wondering where to begin? This chapter explores the five factors of an effective launch: purpose, planning, people, procurement, and production.

Purpose: Understand Your Organization’s Vision

Organizations are diverse, unique, and constantly changing. Even organizations within the same sector or industry can have vastly different cultures, strategies, and processes. With so many intricacies to consider, it is critically important to kick off any talent development effort with a strong focus on the organization’s purpose. If this is not already clearly outlined in a vision statement or some other company ethos, TD professionals will need to uncover, identify, and crystallize it themselves. By understanding the purpose of the organization, TD professionals can better understand how they contribute to that overall vision.

TD professionals should also identify strategic organizational objectives during this discovery process. By understanding both purpose and strategy, TD professionals should be able to recognize how they are expected to fit into the big picture. If an organization does not have explicit strategic objectives, it may be necessary to interview senior leaders and ask a few simple questions, such as:

•  Why did they approve the launch of this talent development initiative?

•  Why now?

•  What impact are they expecting this launch to have on organizational performance?

•  How will success of the launch be measured?

By clearly understanding both purpose and objectives, TD professionals can begin focusing on other factors that may affect the launch of their talent development effort. An effective talent development strategy focuses on why in addition to what and how. These core elements must remain at the vanguard during planning and execution. This is essential to developing an effective learning culture.

Management consultant and author Peter Drucker brilliantly and famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” This is absolutely true when evaluating learning within an organization. Organizations with a strong learning culture understand the importance of ongoing learning and the impact this has on human capital. An effective talent development strategy must address learning culture, and an effective learning culture stems from a deep understanding of the learners and their needs. It’s important to note, however, that TD professionals may focus too heavily on the brain (neuroscience and cognitive psychology) and perhaps not enough on the heart (values, desires, dreams). This is why many organizations struggle to create or maintain a learning culture—they focus too heavily on delivering information and too little on meeting needs.

Learning happens continually within individuals and organizations, and it often goes unnoticed. However, by not recognizing the impact of ongoing learning, it is challenging to appreciate the effect it has on an organization. Unrecognized and underappreciated aspects of an organization seldom make their way into the cultural consciousness of leaders and employees. This is precisely why cultivating a culture of learning is so challenging. To combat these challenges, TD professionals must align the purpose and objectives for all three entities: the organization, department, and individual (Figure 28-1).

By weaving a thread of shared purpose, TD professionals can highlight the ways in which ongoing learning benefits employees individually and the organization overall. By framing learning as the catalyst for fulfilling purpose and accomplishing objectives, it is more likely to be elevated within the organization’s cultural consciousness.

Planning: Begin Crafting for the Long and Short Term

Having carefully considered the core elements of their organization’s purpose, objectives, and learning culture, TD professionals should begin crafting a long-term strategic plan and a launch plan. Long-range planning is useful for shaping the core elements of how the TD department will operate. A launch plan is useful in establishing the short-term strategy and objectives that can be quickly executed within the first 30 to 90 days. Aligning a carefully structured long-term strategy with a well-thought-out launch strategy drastically increases the likelihood of success.

The foremost focus of a long-term TD strategy should be to support the organization’s strategy. Failing to support the organization’s strategic objectives is a recipe for conflict or even disaster. Beyond this primary concern, an effective TD strategy should address these basic questions:

•  How will the department improve the organization? (Vision)

•  How is the department going to operate? (Mission, values, and culture)

•  What will the department accomplish? (Objectives)

•  How will progress toward the objectives be measured? (Benchmarks)

•  What specific outcomes must be achieved? (Milestones)

The questions are simple, but their answers may take significant time and thought. The initial creation of a long-term strategy is just a starting point. It is normal, even healthy, for objectives to evolve and change over time. Whenever possible, it is recommended to include TD personnel and stakeholders in the strategy development process. Inclusion and diversity of thought not only improve the outcome but also increase buy-in to the plan.

With a long-term strategic plan drafted, TD leaders should shift their focus to the first 30 to 90 days. Think of space explorers: Mapping the trajectory of a rocket from Earth’s atmosphere to the surface of Mars is a clear goal, but it is just a plan if they cannot get the rocket off the ground. This is analogous to the relationship of the long-term strategy and the launch strategy for a TD effort. Creating and executing a detailed 90-day plan will create momentum.

To kick off the development of a 90-day plan, it is wise to begin the planning process with a stakeholder meeting. This can be useful because you’ll review and select the most immediate needs for the organization, which may or may not align with the organization’s strategic objectives. For example, improving the organization’s net promoter score may be an urgent strategic objective, but launching a learning management system may be the most immediate need within the first 30 to 90 days. By involving stakeholders in the prioritization and planning process, they will be more invested in the initial effort and more understanding if high-priority objectives are delayed.

A formal needs assessment and learner evaluation can also help direct the initial effort. Unlike the stakeholder meeting (a top-down approach), a needs assessment and learner assessment can identify less visible needs within the organization (a bottom-up approach). Accounting for the needs, challenges, and experiences of learners can lead to more impactful learning solutions, which is critical in the development of a learning culture. Combining insights from stakeholders and learners will help narrow the TD effort’s 90-day focus. Visit the handbook website (ATDHandbook3.org) to download a template for developing your 90-day plan.

As a general guideline, avoid tackling more than one major milestone per month when developing a 90-day plan. Major milestones are generally cost, labor, or change intensive, and they may span multiple months. A change-intensive milestone could be a specific outcome that requires learners to behave in a manner that is significantly different from how they are currently operating. Rolling out a new sales process, launching a new software platform, or changing a manufacturing process would all be examples of a change intensive milestone. Major milestones should be evaluated critically to ensure timelines are realistic.

Minor milestones should be limited to three per month. The delineation between minor and major milestones is dependent on cost, labor, and change intensity. If it seems like three is not enough, chances are the milestones are too small and should be reclassified as projects or tasks. Milestones may involve three or more projects; however, remain cautious to avoid overcommitting. A task is a specific, measurable outcome assigned to a person or group, while a project is a collection of three or more tasks. An example of a task could be: “Raja will contact the LMS vendor and set up a meeting to review pricing before the end of next week.” In contrast, a project might be: “Group A will identify the top three LMS vendors and develop a comparison matrix by the 15th.”

Armed with a prioritized list of key outcomes based on stakeholder and learner insights, TD professionals should work backward to develop the 90-day plan. This is accomplished by deconstructing outcomes into milestones, then milestones into projects, and projects into tasks. In practice, this is often done with a whiteboard, a flipchart, or brainstorming software. It may seem daunting, but many complex challenges can be solved with a group of people, a stack of sticky notes, and a couple pizzas. Technology even allows for this process to be completed remotely through virtual workspaces. It may take several sessions to develop and refine the 90-day plan, but the time and effort invested should expedite and enhance execution of the plan later on.

During the process of deconstructing milestones (and subsequently projects and tasks), the key is specificity. A plan without details is an idea. Critically evaluate each step to determine if it could be more specific or concise. Once a plan is developed, each team member should have a specific list of tasks that need to be accomplished with clear deadlines and outcomes. It should also be clear what resources and approvals are needed for completion of the task, project, or milestone. This creates immediate accountability and prevents ambiguity paralysis. It is also recommended to keep a list of resource needs that can be discussed and evaluated with stakeholders and leaders that is independent of the task list.

When drafting a launch strategy, pragmatism is key. A common pitfall many TD leaders make is drafting an overly ambitious plan because they don’t realize they have set unrealistic expectations until it is seemingly too late to modify them. At this point they often make the even bigger mistake of doubling-down instead of adjusting their plan. The pursuit of unrealistic goals often leads to burnout, inadequate work product, and poor communication. Additionally, the first 90 days sets the tone of your organization’s TD function. If the department produces substandard training, it negatively influences the department’s reputation and hurts the organization’s learning culture.

In fairness, it is possible to execute a highly ambitious launch plan. The question is, at what cost? If TD leaders aren’t careful, they can quickly burn through their resources in the first 90 days, leaving the department lean for the remaining nine months of the year. Also consider the ramifications of driving team members to operate at maximum effort to deliver unreasonable outcomes. Unreasonable outcomes can spring from a healthy focus such as striving to demonstrate value or ROI. In some cases they are heaped upon the new department by senior leaders, stakeholders, learners, or supervisors. Unreasonable expectations can detrimentally affect mental and physical health and set an unhealthy standard. Senior leaders and executives may expect the department to continue operating at an unsustainable pace, for example. The first 90 days will set the precedent for how others expect the TD department to function after launch.

Theodore Roosevelt said, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” This simple thought embodies the mindset needed to successfully launch a TD effort. Adapting these famous words can provide a pragmatic framework for developing a launch plan: “What can I accomplish in the next 90 days, with the personnel and resources available, to achieve maximum strategic impact?” By focusing the launch plan on strategic impact, TD professionals set themselves up for a quick victory. This builds momentum, fosters goodwill, and demonstrates value. To achieve that impact, leaders need to carefully assess the people and resources available. Ideally, they will be able to negotiate headcounts, skill sets, and budgets, but that isn’t always the case. Whatever the circumstances, TD professionals must maximize every asset and operate within their constraints. Finally, leaders must set realistic objectives, benchmarks, and milestones to guide all activities in the first 90 days.

Once the long-term strategic plan and launch plan are drafted, it is important to get feedback on each one. It is also wise to bounce ideas off trusted advisors within the organization throughout the process, and it is absolutely essential to do so at the end of the process. Specifically, TD professionals should seek the counsel of someone who can provide objective and analytical feedback. This can be anyone who is not directly involved in the TD effort and can be trusted to think critically, ask questions, and provide honest feedback. Consider leaders or peers in other departments, mentors, or an outside consultant. Even if the plan is solid, their feedback may help the TD professional prepare for questions and concerns that they may encounter from other leaders within the organization. It can be challenging to hear critical feedback, but if it prevents costly mistakes or improves outcomes, the feedback is worth hearing.

Once the plans have been reviewed and revamped, it is time to communicate the plan. In her book Starting a Talent Development Program, Elaine Biech creates a compelling case for the importance of this step: “This strategy is a tool that allows you to be proactive in your approach to starting your organization’s talent development program.” She also notes that “it leads to buy in, prepares you to make better decisions, and ensures that you will get better results.” Transparency and effective communication are essential to a thriving learning culture. Sharing and discussing long-term plans and the launch plan can be a catalyst for ongoing talent development conversations within the organization.

People: Surround Yourself With the Right Team

Of all the factors that affect the success or failure of a new initiative, people have the most disproportionate influence. A great leader and a great team can prevail against inconceivable challenges. Conversely, inept leaders and ineffective teams can easily squander the ripest of opportunities. Some individuals may decide to bypass assistance altogether and adopt a lone-wolf mentality, often succumbing to burnout in the process. An old proverb provides a noteworthy caution against this: “If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.” Surrounding yourself with the right team will determine how fast and far your initiative progresses. In general, there are three broad people-growth strategies to consider when assembling a team: build, buy, or borrow (Ulrich 2009). Assessing each strategy is important and your preferred strategy may change as your department grows.

•  The build strategy refers to developing talent internally. This can be highly effective when deep organizational knowledge is required. For example, if an organization uses a highly complex and proprietary software for customer relationship management and order fulfillment, it may make sense to develop the talents of a tenured employee who has significant experience with the software. This is because it may take less time and money to teach someone how to train than it does to teach an experienced facilitator how to use the software. The build strategy is also popular in organizations with a strong focus on workplace culture and values. Many of these organizations fear that external hires might dilute the company’s culture; this is especially true if the new employee is responsible for the organization’s learning function.

•  The buy strategy refers to hiring skilled employees from outside the organization. Organizations that follow this strategy often do so to hire people with greater experience or specialization, or because it requires less employee development time. To secure more experienced and specialized employees, organizations should be prepared to spend more to acquire talent. Buying talent often leads to the infusion of fresh ideas into the organization, accelerating the growth of the TD department.

•  The borrow strategy refers to leveraging freelancers, contractors, or consultants. Many organizations choose this strategy on a short-term basis, and it can prove very beneficial at the start of a TD initiative to create rapid momentum. It is also common for long-term partnerships to form with contractors and consultants, especially those with specialized skills. If the perceived benefit outweighs the cost, “borrowing” talent can be highly advantageous.

When selecting the talent strategy that best aligns with your initiative, consider these four factors: time, resources, specialization, and evidence. Once the TD effort has been initiated, the clock is ticking, and leaders within the organization will be expecting rapid progress and results. As such, factoring time into your talent selection is critical. Ideally, the organization may already have people with a TD skill set that could easily transition into a new role. If not, consider the time required to interview, train, coach, and develop an employee. If it appears that building talent will take months instead of weeks, TD professionals may want to assess other options.

Another important consideration is resources (such as salaries, bonuses, benefits, and other talent costs). Adapting the TD department’s talent strategy to meet budgetary constraints is always wise. Specifically, TD leaders and organizations need to evaluate if they can afford the expertise of a specialist or consultant. Resource considerations might also include hardware and software investments. For example, the cost associated with producing studio-quality training videos in-house may be prohibitive for a startup or cash-strapped organization. Leveraging a videographer instead of purchasing equipment may provide a cost savings in the first year.

Balancing resources and talent specializations can be tricky. Organizations might discover they cannot afford to advance a TD effort without a specialist. For example, in highly regulated industries or highly technical fields, the potential risk of developing inferior or noncompliant training may be too costly a gamble. Additionally, a specialist may be able to produce a specific type of work product in a fraction of the time it would take a less experienced employee. In several scenarios, it may make sense to ask for more resources to secure the right talent.

Regardless of the organization’s or department’s talent strategy, always consider the evidence. What evidence exists to prove the employee, applicant, freelancer, contractor, or consultant can deliver on their commitment to your organization? Calling references, reviewing testimonials, and evaluating portfolios takes time but it is worth it. It is always better to prevent a problem than it is to manage it later. This is especially true when launching a new TD effort that will likely be scrutinized and evaluated. Making a poor talent selection can waste resources, damage your reputation, undermine your new department, and leave a bitter taste with executives.

When considering the impact of people on a TD effort, look outside the TD team as well. All organizations develop invisible networks of relationships, along with formal and informal hierarchies, which combine to form the political landscape. This landscape also functions like a microeconomy in which trust, influence, and goodwill are continually exchanged. Amassing large quantities of political capital is perhaps the most important asset for TD professionals to acquire. Maintaining relationships at all levels throughout an organization helps create buy-in for new training programs and other initiatives. It’s also good to have a few fans and champions in positions of authority who can assist in securing approvals or increasing budgets. However, exercise caution when navigating office politics and always endeavor to give more than you take.

While political capital can help TD professionals accomplish their objectives, it is equally important to develop a network of subject matter experts (SMEs) and critics who can be called upon both formally and informally. SMEs can help ensure your training materials are accurate, relevant, and audience appropriate. Contrarians, on the other hand, can help uncover gaps, challenges, and shortcomings, which will improve TD solutions. This network is particularly helpful when initiating a TD effort because it increases its quality, buy-in, and impact, which is critical for demonstrating early success.

Relationships require a constant investment of time and energy, especially as organizations hire, fire, and restructure. In the whirlwind of emails, meetings, calls, and distractions it is easy to push relationship building to the back burner. However, it is impossible to effectively lead an organization’s talent development function without a sharp emphasis on people. This includes TD personnel, stakeholders, SMEs, learners, supervisors, contractors, and peers. Developing relationships before, during, and after the initiation of a TD effort will open doors and amplify the TD department’s impact.

Procurement: Understand Your Asset Needs

Procuring assets in advance of a launch is critically important. Assets come in all shapes and sizes—from five-story buildings to data-rich hard drives—and can include anything useful or beneficial to the TD effort. Think outside the box. For example, print and digital assets already in circulation within the organization can be quickly and easily leveraged as part of a learning library or be repurposed into an interactive e-learning course. A few hours spent collecting and categorizing could save days of development time.

One of the most important but often overlooked assets is information regarding organizational health and performance. Whenever possible, it is prudent to analyze how well the organization is advancing toward its strategic objectives. It is important to determine which metrics should be measured in addition to those used to evaluate strategic objectives. As they work to collect and analyze data, TD professionals may find complementary metrics that indirectly correlate to strategic objectives. For example, if an organization identifies reducing employee turnover as a strategic objective, a TD professional might find that new employee performance is the largest factor contributing to employee turnover. These insights can inform the direction of the TD effort, so it is wise to cast a wide net and let the data guide you.

Part of the data collection effort should include learner data because understanding the roles and responsibilities of learners is critical. Taking time to comprehend their capabilities, preferences, and constraints is also important, and helps avoid the creation of impractical learning solutions. Consider formal versus informal learning. Mobile learning or PC? Instructor led or self-paced? These are all questions that should be answered as you strive to collect learner data and insights. In some organizations, your learners may even be external (customers, contractors, vendors, or even community groups). Additionally, learner groups, demographics, and needs may change over time and should be evaluated often (quarterly or annually in most organizations).

After procuring all relevant and helpful information, TD professionals should move on to procuring more tangible assets like software, hardware, facilities, supplies, and any other resources they may need to conduct operations within their department. It is advisable to manage resources and spending carefully before, during, and after launch. Many organizations are hypersensitive to resources spent on training, and this is especially true in organizations with fledgling learning cultures. In these organizations, training is often seen as a cost center to be reduced or eliminated. Expect additional scrutiny during the first three years as senior leaders and executives evaluate the efficacy and impact of the new department. Running a lean but highly effective department will provide the greatest opportunity for future growth.

Procuring the right information, software, hardware, facilities, and relationships will streamline the launch of the TD effort. Maintaining each element is important to maintaining momentum. Information and software become outdated. Hardware and facilities require maintenance and updating. Preserving each asset is generally less costly than replacing it; as such, maintaining awareness and addressing issues early on can pay huge dividends in the long run.

Production: Transform Your Ideas Into Learning Solutions

With a clear purpose, carefully crafted plan, the correct people in place, and procurement complete, it is time to start producing results. Delivering learning solutions that improve performance should be the aim of all talent development efforts. However, you don’t need to develop every course. Turn to the handbook website (ATDHandbook3.org) to download a table that will help you make decisions about whether to use internal or external resources to produce and deliver courses.

Performance criteria and measurements vary from organization to organization. At this stage in the process, it should be clear what results the organization is expecting the TD function to deliver in the first 90 days. Producing solutions that deliver tangible results is incredibly important, and failing to do so could cause the TD effort to end as quickly as it began.

The transition from planning to production is where TD departments begin to gain traction by transforming ideas into solutions. While many of the objectives, milestones, and projects that occur within the first 90 days may not directly correlate to learning solutions, it is likely that several will. For example, furnishing a training room or securing a contract with a webinar software provider might be important, but these are administrative priorities, not learning priorities. It is important to zero in on learning solutions and treat them with extra care and attention. After all, producing effective learning solutions is the predominant and unique purpose of an organization’s TD function.

To transform an idea into a learning solution, TD practitioners need to start with clear and concise objectives. However, in this process, the objective is either a program objective or a course objective, based on the length and complexity of the desired solution. Courses can range from half-day workshops to multiple sessions over many months. A program, on the other hand, is a group of multiple courses. Course and program objectives should clearly align with business objectives and desired outcomes. For example: Upon successful completion of this course, learners will be able to resolve the five most common customer billing issues in less than 10 minutes without supervisor assistance, resulting in a 5 percent increase in customer net promoter scores.

With a clearly defined course objective (potentially culminating into a program objective), the next step is to develop terminal objectives. These are the requirements that must be met for learners to successfully complete a course. Terminal objectives should support the course objective; for example: Learners must navigate to the correct billing credit request form and fill out all 10 fields with 100 percent accuracy in less than five minutes when presented with 15 sample billing issues.

Finally, learners will need some prerequisite information or practice before they can accomplish each terminal objective. Enabling objectives should be crafted to support terminal objectives. For example: Once given credentials, a computer, and internet access, learners must successfully log in to the company intranet site and navigate to the billing portal without assistance 10 times.

Enabling objectives are like breadcrumbs, leading learners toward terminal objectives. Terminal objectives allow TD professionals to assess if learners have the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in real-world environments. Course objectives provide measurable outcomes that can be used to determine if the learning solutions are truly improving performance.

The benefit of this process is that it simultaneously outlines the major components of a course or program while also aligning classroom activities and business outcomes. Creating objectives is a major component of learning solution development, but there are other factors to consider as well. In many organizations, learning is seen as an event. However, in an organization with a strong learning culture, learning is viewed as a process. When developing learning solutions, it is important to view learning as a process and consider the learner’s journey, and blended learning can play an important role in this. TD professionals must consider methods of preparing learners for their involvement in a course (such as surveys, pre-work, or self-paced learning). Additionally, it is important to consider how they will be supported after they’ve completed the course material (for example, through evaluations, coaching, or performance reviews). Viewing these elements as part of the learning solution will lead to greater outcomes. The handbook website (ATDHandbook3.org) has a downloadable template to help you develop program, course, terminal, and enabling objectives.

If an organization has not had a formal TD function in the past, leaders may inundate it with requests for instructor-led training, self-paced training, quick reference guides, microlearning, and more. It is critical to balance these requests with the larger strategic objectives of the organization. Developing an intake process for requests can help. In the infancy of a TD department, an intake process may be as simple as an online form that employees are required to fill out when requesting new learning content or instructor-led training. Additionally, a formal review and approval process can aid in request management and prioritization. The formal review process might include a monthly call with senior leaders and select TD personnel to discuss recent requests. Balancing emerging requests and strategic objectives takes thoughtful consideration and practice, so exercise caution to avoid extremes in either direction.

As the TD effort takes shape, constantly review the performance of all newly formed learning solutions. From exit surveys to impact analysis reports, there are several factors to consider when evaluating learning impact. And if learning solutions are not having the desired impact (improved performance), TD professionals need to reassess every element of the learning solution. It is equally important to avoid hasty reactions. For example, if a new onboarding program is not improving new employee performance immediately after the first month, it probably is not necessary to scrap the program and start fresh. Instead, try a more metered approach that includes fact-finding, interviews, and experimentation.

The never-ending loop of execution and evaluation should allow for high productivity and performance. This is paramount during the first 90 days. When initiating a TD effort, time is the most precious resource. Leveraging agile development practices can maximize both effort and impact, and an iterative approach creates opportunities for minor course corrections early in the process. This approach often saves time and money, which can then be invested into other value-producing initiatives.

Organizations, like living organisms, constantly change, grow, and adapt. Internal and external factors are continuously reshaping organizational priorities. TD professionals must become adept at monitoring these changing conditions and pivoting with the organization to maximize impact. Developing this awareness with an organization can help TD professionals react to changes or even proactively identify changes that need to occur. Taking time to assess the impact at different levels within the organization will help TD leaders determine the most effective way to pivot and support the organization through the change. Failing to change at the right time can create challenges for learners and undermine the learning culture that TD professionals work so hard to foster. Adapting to changes ensures that the TD function continues to produce results and value.

Many organizations are continuing to wrestle with the changing nature of work. Hybrid offices and remote workforces require innovative learning solutions. Talent development leaders also need to keep a pulse on emerging trends in learning, which might include technological enhancements (such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and machine learning) or new research on the science of learning. New research and breakthrough technologies can help all TD practitioners craft more effective and efficient learning solutions. TD professionals should also exemplify a lifelong learning mentality by seeking out new information and insights. One of the most effective means of building a culture of learning is to lead by example. Constantly evaluate, discuss, and share new information with employees throughout the organization and encourage others to do the same. New does not always mean better, but thoughtful experimentation often leads to improved performance.

Final Thoughts

For talent development professionals, few experiences are more difficult or rewarding than initiating a new TD effort within an organization. However, these difficulties can be tempered with a few practical steps:

•  Gain a clear understanding of how the TD function fits into the overall strategic framework of the organization.

•  Align and refine this purpose through sensible planning to create structure and direction.

•  Select the right talent management strategy, assemble a team, and develop relationships to set the plan in motion.

•  Procure the necessary assets and resources to create momentum and push the team into action.

•  Balance strategic and nonstrategic priorities with a relentless focus on performance to continue to propel the TD function closer to its stated vision and purpose.

Tackling this arduous effort step-by-step can provide clarity and a sense of progress. Take the first step on this rewarding journey and keep moving forward. It does not matter if the steps are big or small. Taking the right actions at the right time will advance the new initiative and catapult talent development within the organization to the next level.

About the Author

David Macon, CPTD, is a facilitator, learning designer, and consultant with more than 15 years of experience in the field of talent development. He specializes in launching agile L&D departments that affect organizational objectives. Through his consultancy, David works with clients to develop highly effective learning programs with an emphasis on employee onboarding, sales training, and leadership development. He also helps TD professionals enhance their skills and transform into strategic leaders within their organizations. Learn more at trainleadgrow.com.

References

Biech, E. 2018. Starting a Talent Development Program. Alexandria, VA: ATD Press.

Lauby, S. 2018. “How to Create a Recruiting Strategy: Buy, Build, and Borrow.” SHRM, May 11. shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/how-to-create-a-recruiting-strategy.aspx.

Ulrich, D., J. Allen, W. Brockbank, J. Younger, and M. Nyman. 2009. HR Transformation: Building Human Resources From the Outside In. New York: McGraw Hill.

Recommended Resources

Biech, E. 2018. ATD’s Foundations of Talent Development: Launching, Leveraging, and Leading Your Organization’s TD Effort. Alexandria, VA: ATD Press.

Kirkpatrick, J.D., and W.K. Kirkpatrick. 2016. Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation. Alexandria, VA: ATD Press.

Macon, D. 2021. “Successfully Build an Essential L&D Department.” TD at Work. Alexandria, VA: ATD Press.