CIPD - Learning and talent development strategy

Learning, training and development

Revised September 2009

This factsheet gives introductory guidance. It:

outlines an approach to identifying the learning culture and strategy that will support organisational success
discusses the questions that need to be asked to ensure that policies and learning activities appropriate to that culture are applied consistently and effectively
includes the CIPD viewpoint.

Recent CIPD research has emphasised the importance of strategic human resource management strategy being closely aligned to the overall business strategy. See our factsheet on strategic HRM for more information on that topic.

Go to our strategic human resource management factsheet

Within the HRM strategy, that for learning and talent development (LTD) needs to articulate the capabilities required by the organisation to sustain competitive advantage and ensure organisational survival. The LTD strategy also covers the means of developing these capabilities to underpin organisational effectiveness.

The question for the HRD professional is to understand the overall strategic goals and to translate into day to day actions and processes. In this way learning will be seen to be supporting strategic aims and the LTD function will be aligned and a valued business partner.

Overall learning and talent development strategy

Each organisation needs to understand their particular situation and develop a LTD strategy that aligns with business imperatives. The starting point for this is to understand the industry, look at the business’ aims and background and the rationale that drives organisational strategy. The factors governing this are many, but some examples might be:

the business’ unique offer and what gives it competitive advantage
the changes predicted in the environment – the rate of growth or decline, the competition and the degree of technological change
the need to change and adapt to economic circumstances
the level of knowledge and professional capability of staff now and that needed in the future
the importance of customer service – what sort of customers are served and the nature of their expectations
the need to reflect the community served.

Some examples of the answers that may come from this thinking might be:

We need to stay at the leading edge of our knowledge and technical expertise, and therefore invest in those staff who will constantly keep ahead of the current state of the art.
We need our staff to be agile and flexible in learning new skills to keep up with the pace of change.
Our customers will be best served by robust processes, staff who understand their needs, attend to detail and follow through.
In the international market in which we compete, we need people who can work across cultures and stay aware of how those markets are evolving.

The answers that significant stakeholders give to these questions will produce a statement of what learning is intended to achieve. This, to whatever level of detail you choose, will be an overall strategy, ideally signed off at senior levels and publicised to staff. It should clearly stated that the organisation sees the development of its people as important. Such a statement provides a vision of learning and investment in development that can increase the level of employee engagement.

This overall strategy also forms a benchmark against which to measure the value of learning and ensure that it leads to valued business improvements. Where the LTD strategy is visibly aligned to organisational goals in this way, the LTD function is positioned as a fundamental contributor to organisational performance.

Our practical tool for CIPD members Value of learning: assessing and reporting on the value of learning to your organisation give more detail on how to assess the alignment of learning to strategic priorities. It covers ways to identify your organisation’s strategic priorities and check the current alignment of LTD.

Go to the Value of learning tool

The culture of learning

As well as reflecting business aims, a LTD strategy should align with cultural beliefs about what learning may achieve and the way it is regarded. These can be many, and again they will be specific to your organisation. Some examples include:

All work is a process of continual learning and improvement – this can be the starting point for creating a ‘learning organisation’.
Learning should be encouraged only where there is measurable benefit to the organisation.
Learning should be targeted on key performance skills.
Learning may cover other aims than just a narrow definition of business benefit – it can support the organisation’s duty to the community or wider social responsibility (so more apprenticeships may be offered than are strictly required to meet future skills demands for example).
Learning is a cost to the business and should be minimised.
Learning and talent development is an investment for the future (so we may train for future skills even in a recession).
Personal career development is critical for retention and engagement and should be supported.

Allocating responsibility for learning

There is a difficult balance between the organisation and the individual in terms of who is responsible for LTD. Only individuals can learn, but organisations cannot abdicate their responsibility to set out the aims and purposes of learning, and to give support via investment in time and resources to allow learning to happen.

If there is a specialist LTD function, or if LTD is one of the activities of an HR function, responsibilities still need to be spelt out as line managers play a significant part in ensuring that learning happens.

Another of our practical tools for CIPD members gives ideas of how this may be put into practice.

Go to our Learning and the line practical tool

Translating the overall strategy into action

An overall LTD strategy may be valid over a long timeframe, though it may need to be revisited regularly as circumstances change. It is an overall statement of intent and needs to be given more detail to give guidance on how it will be implemented and who will translate this intent into practice

The sections below set out some of the questions that need to be asked and the choices that organisations need to make so that LTD practice achieves its strategic aims. Organisations may set these policies as a set of organisational rules, or as guidance and communicate them to managers and staff.

Performance management

LTD activities need to be planned for in the same way as other organisational activities, through the performance management process. Responsibilities will be allocated to line management and HRD specialists, targets set, and individual performance measured against achievement. This applies to the HRD function and to line managers who achieve business targets by, amongst other things, making sure their teams have the right level of capability. Find out more about the performance management process in our factsheet on that topic.

Go to our factsheet on performance management

Individual development needs may be included in appraisal or development reviews when managers define learning goals and build personal development plans for those who report to them. See more in our performance appraisal factsheet.

Go to our factsheet on performance appraisal

Setting learning and talent development priorities

Analysing learning needs and setting priorities will form part of the business planning cycle, translating overall strategy into targets for the next period. Organisations need to decide how often needs should be analysed, and who will set the priorities that form the learning plan for the next period. For more detail on how to analyse needs and those who should be involved in the process see our factsheet on learning needs.

Go to our factsheet on identifying learning and development needs

The talent development plan should identify the pools of talent in whose development the organisation aims to invest. If the organisation does not produce such a plan, decisions still need to be made about identifying who are the priority learners and allocating resources for their development.

The analysis of needs also sets out the areas in which knowledge and skills need to be enhanced, whether it be management development, apprenticeships or customer services. It should make detailed recommendations about the need for new knowledge, or enhancements of existing or new skills and areas where retraining will be required.

Resources for learning and talent development

The business planning process will include decisions about budgets for LTD (which may be expressed as a percentage of payroll costs), whether these will be held by line managers or by a central function, and how much time will be given to learning. Not all of the investment in learning will be managed by HR professionals, some will come from line managers or knowledge management specialists.

Time and resources that aren’t specified in hard budgetary allocations have to be encouraged and recognised in order to happen. In particular line managers need support in carrying out the learning and talent development part of their role. If there is recognition and reward for them, quality time will be given to coaching and work-based learning.

Fairness and equity

The decisions about who receives learning and talent development should be governed by organisational priorities. These should set out the roles or groups of staff who need enhanced skills, but there needs to be a check that no undue discrimination occurs in the way LTD time is allocated between individuals. Some organisations may go further than preventing discrimination in selection for learning opportunities by making provision to offer extra resources to develop the skills of under-represented groups.

What kind of learning processes

Organisational culture about learning is an important factor in day to day decisions about the ways in which learning is delivered – whether this is in the form of courses, e-learning or work related training. For example, is there a tradition of repeating past types of training, or will innovative ways of learning be researched and introduced? Are there certain groups of staff who have strong views on how they should learn?

The choice may be governed by the organisation’s measures of effectiveness – is it about doing things as cheaply as possible or ensuring the maximum value and relevance of the learning?
The choices may be about encouraging formal training interventions, which are popular in some cases because they are easy to cost and provide figures for the amount of activity or days per learner. Alternatively work related learning activities such as coaching by line managers may be seen as an effective way of ensuring that learning is timely and relevant, though the precise level of investment may be less easy to isolate.

The other questions (and these are not exhaustive) that may help to decide on training provision are those such as:

should internal staff deliver interventions or outside vendors
what forms of education – vocational or managerial will be encouraged
what relationship should there be between learning and formal qualifications
should learning be accredited by educational institutions.

Staff representatives may require an input to these discussions.

Choosing evaluation processes

How far is it important to the organisation to ensure that its investment in learning is evaluated and seen to be measured against its aims? Our work on the value of learning shows how organisational culture can determine the processes of evaluating learning and the key measures that are important in different industries.

Visit our Value of learning pages
Go to our factsheet on evaluating learning and development

Setting the organisational learning and talent development strategy

Setting up the overall strategy and practices to make it work is usually too important a role to be left to HR alone. In practice the following stakeholders will want to input or be consulted:

senior management / the board
HR professionals
line managers
individual members of staff
trade unions or staff representatives.

In larger organisations there may be different strategies or processes in divisions or different functions (so, for example, the practice in a marketing function may differ from that in finance).

Investors in People

Many organisations have followed the Investors in People (IIP) process in developing and implementing their LTD strategy. The IIP framework guides organisations through the processes described above, and provides an assessment of organisational commitment to developing the business and their people.

Go to our factsheet on Investors in People

Keeping the strategy aligned

Finally, strategy and policies have to be kept up to date as the business environment changes and information is gathered on the effectiveness of learning strategies – our guide on the value of learning in adversity sets out some of the changes in emphasis that may be appropriate in challenging market situations, and our report on innovative practices includes some case studies of where the recession has resulted in more a flexible approach.

CIPD viewpoint

LTD will increasingly be subject to the ’value for money’ test. With constrained organisational budgets and a need for innovation in the delivery of skills and knowledge LTD professionals need to be prepared for innovation in design, delivery and assessment. As well as following the advice in this factsheet, our report Promoting the value of learning in adversity (see link above) provides a concise set of approaches for developing a value added LTD function. By thinking of these strategic steps at every turn, the challenges and opportunities for LTD can be met with vigour and purpose.

Learning and talent development strategy