Talent management: how to manage talent with eLearning

Managing talent is a strategic process that takes place in several stages, from acquisition to handover at the end of each employee's career. The goal is to attract and develop the best talent while keeping in mind the long-term business goals. In this sense, training plays a central role, but how does it fit in with each individual's natural talent? Let's take a detailed look at what is meant by talent management and what talent is in the strict sense of the word, to better understand what role eLearning training can play.

What is talent management?

The talent management process takes place in several stages, based on a precise strategy that has the dual task of increasing productivity and efficiency, while keeping employee motivation high.

Here are the stages of talent management and the role eLearning can play:

1. Planning and attracting new talent

It all starts with a business needs analysis to understand what skills need to be covered to achieve those goals. The first question is whether these skills can be found internally or externally. If a company has already invested in eLearning and has an LMS platform, it can use the statistics on the courses of each employee to understand what the internal performance is and if the required skills cannot be found internally, it gives precise indications on the profile to look for.

2. Select personnel

At this stage, eLearning can be used as a tool to administer quizzes and assessment tests to pre-selected candidates. In this way, further screening of candidates takes place on the basis of specific skills. The quiz can be organized realistically, reflecting as closely as possible the work the potential new hire will be doing at the company.

3. Developing and retaining talent

This is where eLearning can make the biggest contribution, because with an initial investment it can automate and reduce the costs of continuing education. Old and new talent can find a training culture in the company that helps them develop their skills, acquire new responsibilities and positions.

4. Accompaniment

If talent management has been done with a long-term goal in mind, at the end of their career an employee will not be considered "obsolete," but will have acquired a wealth of experience and a constant updating of skills that will make them the most important resource a company can employ to support new employees to whom they will pass the baton.

What is talent?

Throughout this process, if you only keep business productivity in mind, you still run the risk of failing to retain talent. Promotions and development offers won't hold up if there is a lack of motivation and shared business goals.

The talent development process should keep in mind the natural definition of talent: a skill or attitude that we can perform almost effortlessly. Talent is discovered, in everyday life, when we are exposed to different activities, such as music or sports, and we can figure out what the preferences are. The next step is to practice and develop that talent.

eLearning is all about discovering one's talents, providing access to a range of courses to enhance and practice them. These can be soft skills, such as effective communication, or hard skills.

Allowing everyone to practice self-training by choosing their own continuous development process, eLearning strengthens talent management.

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