10 New Year Trends in Talent Management for 2017

Author:  Dr. Nancy L. Zentis

People are an organization’s biggest value proposition, how they develop talent determines the organization’s future and competitive advantage.  Providing continuous learning opportunities and career development will drive organization success.  One of the latest trends in organization learning is to utilize a variety of learning options – individualized learning, online learning, use of mobile phones, social discussion forums, and video learning.

New Trends

1. Online learning is popular worldwide.  The use of mobile learning devices is increasing.
2. Millennials love learning through social media, however, are most likely to become bored and disengaged if not challenged. They  are motivated by intrinsic values such as career development rather than extrinsic values such as pay, benefits, and work environment.
3. Technical Skill development is in demand. Millennials prefer learning new technological skills, and leadership skills to advance into managerial roles.  Generation X prefers to keep up to date with new technology and business skills, was well as personal development skills
4. Mobil Video Learning is rapidly increasing with more than 5 billion users in Asia, Pacific, Africa, and Latin America. Some of the technology used: Mobile Phones, File Sharing, Web Browsing, Software Download, Audio, Social Networking, Video, Online learning technology.
5. Employees expect to be given time at work to learn new skills. More and more organizations are incorporating time for learning into the work day so employees learn advanced skills and maintain a proper work/life balance.  Employees prefer to learn during the middle of the week, or during morning commuting time
6. In the future, Learning and development will be viewed as a strategic business asset and differentiator in achieving competitive advantage. Organizations will keep ahead of competition by acquiring or developing employees with the right skill sets. L&D will have to demonstrate how learning impacts the bottom line.
7. Organizations will have to analyze and measure the outcome of learning and to determine each employee’s ability to demonstrate new skills learned after each training session. Organizations will hold L&D accountable for creating a sustainable learning environment and delivery of outcomes to drive business results.
8. Soft skill training will become increasing valuable in 2017 with organizations needing employees who can shift into different roles for future leadership positions, while developing hard technological skills needed in their current role.
9. Learning will become more individualized to meet the needs of the individual rather than generalized for the entire population. Organizations will empower their workforce to own their learning and take responsibility for their own development by finding the right opportunity and resources.
10. In 2017, HR and L&D will focus on aligning talent management systems such as career development, career paths, internal promotion, high potentials, succession planning, recruitment and onboarding, performance, training and to support the employee self-development to create a sustainable system throughout the organization.

References:

2017 Learning Index Report

Author:

Nancy Zentis, Ph.D is the founder and CEO of Institute of Organization Development offering online certification programs in Organization Development, Talent Management, Leadership Development, and Executive Coaching.  Nancy has over 30 years in the field of OD as a consultant and internal OD Professional.  She recently presented at the IODA conference in Mysore, India on “The Future of OD in the Workplace.”