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June 2007

Shared Responsibility

The buzz words in learning—skills gap, war on talent, succession planning, recruitment, retention, and performance management—all have one thing in common: They form the basis for an even bigger catchphrase, “talent management.”

To most workplace learning and performance (WLP) professionals, talent management refers to the concept of bringing together the functions of recruitment, selection and assessment, learning and development, performance management, workplace planning, and compensation as a strategic function. But as you will see in the recent ASTD/Brandon Hall research on page 36, most WLP professionals believe that many of the responsibilities that make up talent management should be shared between the HR and training departments.

Declining birthrates and the pending retirement of baby boomers are forcing companies to evaluate their workforce and the processes they use for acquiring, developing, and retaining that talent. To prepare for this skills gap, many companies are exploring new ways to optimize the talents of their workforce, develop future leaders, and retain high-potential employees.

Of the 340 survey respondents, 60 percent believe that HR and training operations are converging, and 90 percent of those respondents see this convergence continuing. While there is no clear-cut pattern as to who owns the individual talent management functions in their companies, many respondents agree that some of the individual talent management functions—human performance improvement, performance management, succession planning, coaching and feedback, and career development—should be shared between HR and training.

This collaboration will help WLP professionals become more strategic partners within their organizations, and will change the crux of the industry, according to Bill Kline, president of Kline Consultant and former vice president of human resources and chief learning officer for Delta Airlines.

“I think this is really the decade in which the learning profession moves away traditional thoughts about training to a more holistic view as a performance consultant,” Kline says in the article.

No one knows for sure what this collaboration will bring about in organizations, but one thing is for sure: Establishing a unified approach to talent management will create an interesting dynamic between HR and training over the next few years, one that is sure to add strategic value to both departments.

Paula Ketter
Editor, T+D
pketter@astd.org

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