Talent development

Talent development, part of human resource development, is the process of changing an organization, its employees, its stakeholders, and groups of people within it, using planned and unplanned learning, in order to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage for the organization. Rothwell notes that the name may well be a term in search of a meaning, like so much in management, and suggests that it be thought of as selective attention paid to the top 10% of employees, either by potential or performance.

While talent development is reserved for the top management it is becoming increasingly clear that career development is necessary for the retention of any employee, no matter what their level in the company. Research has shown that some type of career path is necessary for job satisfaction and hence job retention. Perhaps organizations need to include this area in their overview of employee satisfaction.

The term talent development is becoming increasingly popular in several organizations, as companies are now moving from the traditional term training and development. Talent development encompasses a variety of components such as training, career development, career management, and organizational development, and training and development. It is expected that during the 21st century more companies will begin to use more integrated terms such as talent development.

Washington Group International, in their paper "The Nuclear Renaissance, A Life Cycle Perspective" defined two logical laws of talent development:

• First law of talent development: "The beginnings of any technology-rich business are all characterized by a shortage of large numbers of technically trained people needed to support ultimate growth"
• Second law of talent development: "The resources will come when the business becomes attractive to the best-and brightest who adapt skills to become part of an exciting opportunity"

Talent development refers to an organization's ability to align strategic training and career opportunities for employees.

Further reading

• Cohn JM, Khurana R, and Reeves L (October 2005). "Growing talent as if your business depended on it". Harvard Business Review. 83 (10): 62–70. PMID 16250625.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Michael M. Lombardo and Robert W. Eichinger (1998-12-06). "HR's role in building competitive edge leaders". Human Resource Management. 36 (1). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: 141–146. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-050X(199721)36:1<141::AID-HRM22>3.0.CO;2-D. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
• Gregory C. Kesler (2002). "Why the leadership bench never gets deeper: Ten insights about executive talent development" (PDF). HR Planning Society Journal. 25 (1).

External links

• Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD)
• American Society for Training and Development (ASTD)
• International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI)
• Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
• Organization Development Network (ODN)
• The Consortium of Strategic High Potential Accelerated Leadership Development (COSHPALD)
• Free online HR Forum (ASKFORHRD)