How to Create a Reliable Talent Development Strategy

It takes more than competitive pay to keep top talent. Employees want to know they are valued and that their employer is prepared to invest in them.

According to Mckinsey & Company research, the most common reason people quit their jobs between April 2021 and April 2022 was a lack of career development and progression. As a result, a solid talent development strategy is critical for staff retention.  

To upskill people and create an empowered, unstoppable workforce, talent development integrates individualized learning tools such as career mapping, coaching, and mentoring to establish a company culture centered on continuous learning.

What is talent development?

Talent development is supporting and nurturing employees’ skills throughout their time with your organization. It’s a term you’re most likely familiar with, but it’s easy to confuse with talent management.  

Talent development vs. talent management

Talent management is an organizational system that recruits and hires from the best talent pool. An example of this is having an external recruiter on your staff. This person develops a system for navigating LinkedIn and other networking websites to research, contact, and build relationships with potential future employees. On the other hand, talent development goes even further and supports existing employees throughout their entire lifecycle, so your workers feel supported even after onboarding ends.  

Not only does a talent development strategy nurture your workers, but it also protects your bottom line. Employees who find their work meaningful tend to have improved performance by as much as 33 percent. These employees are also more loyal to their organization and less likely to leave.  

An effective talent development strategy offers tremendous money-saving opportunities when you consider the cost of replacing one employee ranges from one-half to double that employee’s salary. So, the added cost of replacing an employee who makes $60,000 a year can be anywhere from $30,000 to $120,000.  

What does a talent development strategy look like?

To get your talent development strategy off the ground, take stock of the programs and systems you already have to upskill and reskill your workforce. This could include webinars, website subscriptions, professional development stipends, and mentoring opportunities.  

Get employee feedback on the initiatives you already have in place, and ask if there are any additional opportunities they want to pursue. You can use an anonymous online form to ask employees to rank existing programs in order of importance.

Analyze the results and look for programs that can be removed from your strategy. Look for new programs or systems that are mentioned frequently. If 90 percent of respondents say they want a mentoring program, that’s a system you should consider developing.  

5 tactics to build your talent development strategy

An iron-clad talent development strategy requires a holistic approach that engages your employees at all stages of their careers. Whether your workers are entry-level or senior-level, everyone can benefit from resources and training programs to gain new skills, grow their existing competencies, and learn to communicate better among colleagues.  

We’ve compiled a list of the most effective talent development tactics—including career mapping, mentoring, L&D, and leadership development.  

These tactics can be effective on their own, but the real magic happens when you combine them for a full-fledged talent development strategy. That’s when your team will start to see long-term improvements that lead to employee engagement, high levels of retention, and a skilled workforce.  

Career mapping or growth plans

Career mapping, sometimes called a growth plan or a career path happens when an employee and their supervisor work together to establish goals and the steps a person needs to take to achieve them.  

The primary purpose of a career map is to create a clear-cut path for growth in their current role and beyond. Because career goals are personal, no two employees will have the same path. That’s why it’s important to bake this process into every employee/supervisor relationship.  

The easiest way to get started is to encourage managers to integrate career-based conversations into their one-on-one meetings. For example, managers can talk with individual team members about their goals, organize them into lists, and share resources to help their teams achieve their goals.  

For example, if a high-potential employee wants to be a manager by the end of the year, their career map might be a list of skills they need to be promoted. These can be hard skills, like knowing how to use Microsoft Excel to build spreadsheets, or soft skills, like decision-making and communication. The manager can share resources and opportunities, like webinars and conferences, to help the employee build these skills.  

Mentorship and coaching

Coaching and mentorship are similar in that they are relationship-based: an employee gains skills and becomes an empowered worker by learning from another person’s experience.  While they’re both highly effective tactics for any talent development strategy, they look slightly different in practice.  

Coaching gives employees direct instructions on how to do something, like a manager walking an employee through a new reporting software.  Mentoring, on the other hand, is less formal and less structured. It usually looks like a manager or company leader meeting with an employee regularly to share advice about a specific topic, like negotiating a pay raise or navigating a difficult situation with a peer.    

Learning and development programs

Learning and development (L&D) plays a vital role in your talent development strategy because it’s an area that directly influences what and how your employees learn.  

It also directly ties into employee motivation levels, particularly younger generations like Millennials and Gen Z. These workers choose what organization they want to work for based on these kinds of L&D opportunities. As a result, it helps them to be more effective in their roles, allowing them to be more productive.  

Leadership development

Talent development can help you give personalized support to your top-achieving employees; your organization’s future leaders.  

Investing in your top talent rather than hiring makes sense, and your existing staff knows your organization well. Plus, promoting internally can save you money in the long run by lowering your cost-per-hire.  

Think about the employees who consistently meet or exceed their goals, seek additional professional development opportunities, and work well with their colleagues. They are the obvious choices for your future leadership.

Ask these employees about their interest in learning from existing leaders to gain a deeper perspective of the roles and responsibilities and grasp the softer skillsets they’ll need to cultivate to be successful leaders — like conflict management, negotiation, and public speaking skills.  

From there, be sure to consistently provide learning opportunities to these workers that hit on the areas they will benefit from the most.  

Employee feedback

Talent development plans only work if they’re helpful for everyone. That’s why regularly asking for feedback is the best way to manage employee expectations and refine the employee experience over time.  

Find ways to get feedback regularly, monthly, quarterly, or semi-annually. For example, send out an anonymous survey via Slack or email.

Collect the feedback and analyze the results for any significant trends, like a program that isn’t effective or an in-demand skillshare session that needs to be repeated.  

Similarly, managers can talk with their employees during regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings to gather feedback about what’s working or not working for them.  

The most important thing to remember when building your talent development strategy is to ensure it aligns with the wants and needs of your workforce.  

Maintain open and honest communication with your employees. Because talent development is personalized for every employee, it’s a simple fix if an opportunity isn’t the right fit for someone.  

For example, a person whose goal is to gain stronger Photoshop skills isn’t going to benefit from a webinar on public speaking. Instead, let them know it’s OK to disagree with the systems in place and that there is always room to adjust if a particular tactic is not working.