Aligning talent strategy with business goals: a practical framework

Aligning talent management and business strategy is crucial for organizations’ growth and success. However, it’s a complex task. From collaborating with stakeholders to understanding your organization’s strategic objectives, learning professionals face many challenges in driving impactful L&D initiatives.

Drawing insights from our latest Impact Lab that gathered over 50 global L&D professionals and our impact experts Laura Overton and Bo Dury, the article provides practical strategies and tips to overcome your impact challenges and align learning solutions with your organization’s business strategy.

We’ll share a 4-step framework and showcase an example of how an L&D program can be linked to a specific business goal to help you start driving impact within your organization.

The main challenges of aligning talent management to business strategy

When talent management and business strategy are aligned, organizations ensure that their employees have the necessary skills  to drive the overall success of the organization. However, this process comes with its  challenges. We gathered insights from our community members to determine the key challenges keeping them from driving L&D impact. Here is what we learned:

1. Skill-building

One of the main challenges in aligning talent management to business strategy is the need to focus on building skills rather than just delivering courses. While this presents an exciting opportunity, it also poses a significant challenge. What skills are needed?  How to prioritize which skills to help develop? How do we establish skill training at scale? And how do we create and deliver learning solutions that cater to employees at all levels, from senior leaders to operators?

2. Stakeholder engagement

Stakeholder engagement presents challenges in two distinct ways:

2.1. Buy-in

One challenge is gaining buy-in from stakeholders who are eager to see immediate results. As L&D professionals, we may have a well-defined talent strategy aligned with the overall business goals, but there can be sudden shifts in direction. Sometimes, despite our well-made plans and strategic alignment, new requests arise that deviate from our original intentions.

2.2. Relevance

Another challenge lies in being as relevant as possible to the business. When it comes to aligning HR strategy with business strategy – how can we position ourselves as strategic contributors rather than constantly firefighting to fulfill various requests? Should we respond to these requests or stay committed to our established plan? Striking the right balance between adaptability and alignment with the business’s objectives is crucial in overcoming this challenge.

“The challenge is the Non-L&D part of the project not understanding impact as well as we do.” Jon Moon, Employee Experience Systems Manager at Sodexo

3. Measurement

Determining how to measure the impact of training once it has been completed is a significant challenge and involves demonstrating the connection between learning outcomes and business objectives. In addition to quantifiable metrics, it is also important to showcase the value of training in non-measurable aspects such as learner feedback.

When it comes to measurement, it is worthwhile to reevaluate our thinking habits and recognize any obstacles that hold us back. If our ultimate goal is solely focused on measurement, it can hinder our progress as we constantly try to prove ourselves instead of improving the skill training.

“I’m the only L&D person and measuring impact from L&D is new where I am so getting people on board to measure impact is a challenge, but people love to see the data once we have it.” Ellen Melhuish, Senior L&D Specialist at Impression

How to start linking talent management to business strategy?

Here are the core principles and practices that will help you start aligning talent management to business strategy:

1. Avoid self-sabotage

First,  it’s important to recognize the ways in which we can sabotage our L&D impact. One common pitfall is jumping to something because the stakeholders want immediate results. Hasty implementation of programs, courses, or e-learning without thoroughly understanding the desired outcomes can hinder our impact journey because we don’t explore what we’re trying to achieve. We need to know what we’re trying to shift and avoid rushing into solutions that may impede progress.

2. Align with stakeholders

Driving impact in an organization requires collaboration and connections, rather than sole reliance on our own efforts. While we may be responsible for delivering learning initiatives, it is crucial to acknowledge that various activities and projects are already taking place throughout the organization. These may include analytical work, important meetings, crucial decision-making processes, or client pitches. To design effective learning solutions, we must consider the existing priorities and demonstrate value within that context.

This involves mapping out the connections between business goals and learning outcomes, understanding the goals of other individuals in the organization, and fostering collaboration.

“A couple of years ago, we had no idea of the skills picture within the organization and needed to resolve this. So we set out on a bit of a journey to identify that capability, by providing a self-assessment tool for staff. The data we’re starting to extract from that self assessment tool is now starting to influence not just L&D but lots of other initiatives around talent management, demand management, all of that stuff. So really showing business performance and business value through L&D.” Malcolm Taylor, Senior People Development Manager at Met Office

3. Understand the business goals

To effectively work with internal stakeholders, it is essential to gain a clear understanding of their existing business goals. Whether at the organizational or team level, these goals provide valuable insights for L&D managers. For example, CEOs might  focus on revenue generation, productivity improvement, and commercial growth. By aligning learning with these business objectives, L&D professionals can contribute to organizational success.

It’s also important to recognize that various individuals and teams within the organization are working towards these goals, including talent management, recruitment, and succession planning. Open communication and sharing of goals among stakeholders and aligning learning design with these organizational goals ensures a solid foundation for driving impact.

Some examples of goals that our Impact Lab participants are working towards are:

“Career pathway development for all of our professions is underway. We’re creating several personas to support development of new to career, mid-career and established career colleagues, and how we can link these to wider organization’s goals.”  Malcolm Taylor, Senior People Development Manager at Met Office

“Getting new graduates in a consultancy up to speed as quickly as possible so that they can add value to the business as soon as possible.” Diane Law, Director of Peppermill

“Increase product adoption, encourage a more mature use of our product.” Helena Nacinovic, L&D professional in technology field

What’s intriguing is that some of these individual L&D goals have now become prominent on the agenda of top executives and emerged as significant strategic priorities for the business. This means L&D managers need a thoughtful approach to how they collaborate, connect, and engage with others, as well as how they incorporate these considerations into the learning design.

Align talent to business strategy with this 4-step Impact framework

To drive tangible business impact with your learning initiatives, use this practical framework that guides the alignment of business goals and performance outcomes.

People leaders need to discuss the key components of this framework with relevant stakeholders, including budget holders, department heads, learners, managers, and HR business partners.

Follow this practical Impact framework and lay a solid foundation for effective talent strategies that drive meaningful business results.

Get your Impact framework

Step 1: Define business goals

The first step involves engaging stakeholders in a discussion about the organization’s business goals. It prompts crucial questions about the wider industry context, awareness of external factors, and the specific objectives the organization aims to achieve within the next 12 to 18 months. This step encourages a deep understanding of the business’s overarching purpose and sets the foundation for aligning learning and development initiatives with strategic goals.

Step 2: Identify performance outcomes

Step 2 focuses on assessing performance outcomes. Here, we delve into what is going well, where momentum exists, and what areas require improvement or change. By identifying the initiatives already driving progress, organizations can leverage existing momentum and build upon successful endeavors. In this step, it’s crucial to make the business goals as concrete as possible. Think about – what are the targets that have been set for the quarter or year?

Step 3: Discover the moment of truth

The “moment of truth” uncovers critical moments where behaviors significantly impact performance outcomes. By carefully considering what behaviors contribute to success and what behaviors hinder progress, organizations can identify pivotal moments that shape the path towards desired outcomes. This is the lynchpin between organization and learning: getting this right means you’ll be driving the behavior change needed to add value to your organization.

Step 4: Learning outcomes

The final step centers around the target group—the individuals who must achieve specific learning outcomes to contribute effectively to the business goals. This step means you need to understand the skills, attitudes, and behaviors required for success. By identifying the necessary competencies, organizations can design tailored learning experiences that equip the target group with the abilities needed to excel when it matters most.

Example: Empowering Leaders Program

In this example, we explore how a learning program, such as the Empowering Leaders Program, can be linked to a specific business goal and demonstrate its impact on performance outcomes.

Business Goal: A key business goal in this scenario is to improve employee retention rates by developing strong leadership within the organization. Retaining talented employees is a top priority for the business, as it directly contributes to long-term success and stability.

Performance Outcomes: To influence and improve employee retention rates, a crucial performance outcome to measure is the Employee Net Promoter Score (NPS). The satisfaction level of employees significantly impacts their likelihood to stay or leave the organization.

Moments of Truth: To achieve a higher NPS, certain key moments of truth can be identified. These moments can include monthly feedback discussions with managers or individual development plans. These concrete moments create opportunities for increased NPS scores.

Learning Outcomes: Specific learning outcomes for the Empowering Leaders Program would encompass skills such as active listening, demonstrating empathy, building trust, providing effective feedback, and conducting performance conversations. These skills are essential for young managers to enhance their leadership capabilities and positively impact employee retention rates.

This example illustrates how a learning program can be intricately connected to a specific business goal. By focusing on the identified learning outcomes, organizations can develop the necessary skills and competencies in their leaders to address retention challenges and foster a culture of growth and development.

If you’re interested in exploring further what impact means for your organization, go ahead and book a conversation with us!