Talent Strategy and Management - Marketing and Communicating TD Strategies

Question 1

What is a marketing strategy?

Answer 1

a set of strategies, tactics, systems, and processes that identify offerings; communicate key messages about them to help potential users select what they need; and enable customers to easily find and obtain them.

Question 2

Where do you begin with a marketing strategy?

Answer 2

The end - what is the ultimate result?

Aligning to org goals and stating how TD helps achieve them (a marketing plan can help to align TD with the org, its vision, and its goals)

Question 3

What are 2 types of TD marketing efforts?

Answer 3

• Creating an overall learning culture: begin by building relationships with leaders; their most important marketing charge
• ensuring that the entire org understands the products and services TD offers, such as learning platforms, learning experiences, courses, tools, and resources; each target audience experiences these services in different ways

Question 4

What questions must be asked to clarify the TD marketing strategy purpose?

Answer 4

• How strong are the TD offerings?
• Who are the customers?
• How is TD and its value perceived by customers?
• What are the customer’s perceptions of their own need?
• How are TD’s offerings positioned in the marketplace? What are the costs versus benefits (value)?
• How should talent development be branded? Valued?

Question 5

What can the marketing strategy be based on, if previously developed?

Answer 5

The TD strategy

Question 6

The key is to focus on marketing the value of the ____________ ___________.

Answer 6

learning culture

Question 7

Does the marketing strategy target a broad audience (all associates) or a targeted audience (for a specific service or program)?

Answer 7

Both

Question 8

What are the 4 steps in developing a marketing strategy?

Answer 8

• Define the target audience
• Develop effective messaging
• Identify objectives
• Establish a clear and memorable message

Question 9

Why is it important to have a well-defined target audience when marketing efforts are not focused on the entire organization?

Answer 9

It helps direct them to the people who are most likely to use their offerings

Question 10

What are 5 questions to ask when assessing a target audience for a unique offering?

Answer 10

• Who are the current customers?
• What are the talent segments that TD is supporting?
• Are there specific audiences for whom this offering benefits?
• Are there specific demographic commonalities for this offering? (e.g., diversity programs, location-based ILT, certain types or years of experience)
• Is TD responsible for external audiences like customers, contingent employees, or seasonal workers?

Question 11

Why should TD professionals establish objectives for their marketing strategy?

Answer 11

To support TD goals and establish the criteria for measuring marketing effectiveness

Question 12

How can TD professionals create marketing objectives?

Answer 12

Using Mager’s ABCD method:
- Audience: the who
- Behavior: the performance; what the audience will be expected to do
- Conditions: the context under which the objectives must be met, including tools or assistance provided
- Degree: the degree to which the objectives must be met successfully, such as under certain time limits, & accuracy, quality

Question 13

When are marketing measures developed?

Answer 13

At the same time as the goals

Question 14

How can a TD professional evaluate the effectiveness of different forms of communications, what’s working, what isn’t working, and why?

Answer 14

The 6 C’s of Communication

Question 15

What are the 6 C’s of Communication?

Answer 15

• Clear: audience-appropriate words that are descriptive
• Correct: accurate words, correct grammar, avoiding using the wrong words
• Complete: comprehensive messages that include all the relevant details
• Concise: Choosing short, specific sentences and phrases
• Coherent: maintaining consistency, simple sentence structures, and presenting info in an easy-to-follow order
• Courteous: using words that are friendly, positive, gender-neutral, and sensitive to form respectful, authentic messages

Question 16

Why is it important to target the right audience and show the message to be credible? (2 examples at 2 different levels)

Answer 16

Employees want to be convinced that there are personal benefits

Management wants to know the strategic value of the initiatives

Question 17

Why are three types of marketing tactics?

Answer 17

• written word (brochures, case studies, direct mail, newsletters, press releases, emails)
• social media (blogs, podcasts, video, forum boards, “ads” on landing pages)
• personal connections through special events, referrals, presentations, crowdsourcing, or testimonials

Question 18

Marketing tactics are how TD professionals deliver messages that result in customer engagement and satisfaction.

Good marketing tactics use _____________ resources to maximize the effective promotion of __________ and ______________.

Answer 18

Financial; products and services

Question 19

What are important steps in creating a marketing budget?

Answer 19

• Understand how TD is funded and how budgets are established.
• Know all costs associated with TD and its operations.
• Review trend data such as marketing spend rate for the past few years.
• Set a marketing budget based on TD goals and objectives.
• Consider plans for growth.

Question 20

Why is a marketing budget important for TD?

Answer 20

A detailed budget of expected marketing expenses helps TD professionals resource the plan appropriately.

It may be listed as a line item in the overall TD budget, but marketing goals and objectives can include estimated costs and priorities.

Question 21

What is the potential external impact of a TD marketing plan?

Answer 21

improving the org’s reputation for supporting a learning culture and developing its people; this can lead to improved recruitment efforts for a talented workforce

Question 22

What is the purpose of a communications strategy?

Answer 22

A comm plan helps TD professionals market TD, its offerings, new initiatives, and other relevant L&D information to the target audiences

helps keep learning visible and accessible to stakeholders

Question 23

What are the 6 overall steps to developing a communications strategy?

Answer 23

• Determine critical information and data
• determine the audience
• identify methods available
• identify a timeline
• Create a communications plan
• Engage stakeholder review

Question 24

What are inputs into the communication strategy?

Answer 24

the organization’s objectives, TD objectives, activities, and results, as well as the marketing strategy

Question 25

What are some considerations when determining critical information and data for a comm strategy?

Answer 25

• TD professionals craft key messages by determining what info needs to be communicated
• When new org initiatives arise, TD professionals will need to clearly identify and communicate learning initiatives associated with them
• A comm plan keeps the messages consistent with established TD brand, which helps learners recognize where the comm originates

Question 26

Is there one audience or multiple audiences for key messages when building a comm plan?

Answer 26

There may be more than one audience, and specific elements of the message should be targeted to each audience’s needs or interests

For example, key stakeholders and executives have different communication needs than all other employees, but they still need to hear the same key message.

Question 27

Understanding how to communicate to the C-suite will help determine how to address executives. What are some considerations to keep in mind?

Answer 27

• Understand the business strategy and each operating function
• Understand how org success is measured
• “Sort the significant from the trivial” - occasionally setting aside TD priorities to focus on the big picture - the entire org
• learn and practice accurate terminology

Question 28

Should messages in a comm plan be sent once or multiple times?

Answer 28

The TD communication timeline should include redundancy—key messages should be sent several times using several different methods to ensure they are received.

A message sent once is not sufficient to garner attention or comprehension.

Question 29

How can TD sync their comm timeline with the org timeline?

Answer 29

• Consider org rhythms, such as heavy PTO months or busy seasons
• Utilize an org-wide calendar if there is one
• Use the org timeline to consider when to release TD results (for example, if this happens across BUs at the end of a planning cycle, use the same timeline)
• schedule meetings and reports with executives well in advance

Question 30

What are the primary 3 things included in a TD comm plan?

Answer 30

• Audience analysis
• Key messages
• Timeline

Question 31

What are additional details included in a TD comm plan? (7)

Answer 31

• dates
• target audiences
• key messages or events
• methods or media
• responsible staff members
• any other notes that staff should be aware of
• other TD (or otherwise) activities that coincide with the timeline

Question 32

What is audience analysis?

Answer 32

Audience analysis is conducted to gather data about a target population, demographics, and other relevant information prior to job analysis, training, or other solutions.

Question 33

Examples of how to gather feedback on the comm plan

Answer 33

• counting page clicks online
• asking for feedback after a presentation
• conducting online surveys
• holding focus groups

Question 34

What are two best practices to consider when gathering feedback on the comm plan?

Answer 34

• Having a third party conduct the feedback sessions may help enhance the authenticity
• Using open-ended questions that target the key messages helps ensure the feedback is viable and actionable

Question 35

What are 4 ways TD can build a relationship with senior leaders and ask them to engage with the TD function?

Answer 35

Asking them to:
- Serve as mentors and coaches
- Introduce new events
- Speak at and attend learning programs
- Serve on a governance board

Question 36

What does it mean to have a seat at the table, and why is it important?

Answer 36

Being involved in high-level organizational discussions and decisions facilitates communication between TD and the rest of the leadership team.

Question 37

What are 2 ways that a TD professional engages in high-level org discussions and decisions?

Answer 37

TD professionals should actively voice how their efforts can influence the organization and accomplish objectives.

Communicating authentically helps build trust and credibility and provides visibility into talent development’s effectiveness and impact.

Question 38

What are some ways that TD professionals can build relationships with senior leaders?

Answer 38

• getting to know them and their organizations better
• speaking the language of executives and the industry
• having a clear understanding of the organization’s strategic imperatives, goals, and plans to achieve them
• understanding and helping solve their problems
• clearly defining how talent development supports them
• demonstrating collaboration and accountability
• being a systems thinker
• establishing credibility by delivering on time
• having a positive, can-do attitude

Question 39

When a TD professional demonstrates the value of investing in people through L&D, it shifts the perspective of TD activities from one of _______ to __________.

Answer 39

expense to investment

Question 40

What are 3 essential characteristics exist in a high-performance organization’s learning culture?

Answer 40

• sufficient budget to meet learning needs
• a dedicated learning function
• senior-level responsibility for organizational learning

Question 41

What are the advantages to an lifelong learning culture?

Answer 41

• improved employee engagement levels
• improved overall organizational performance
• improved ability to retain talent
• improved ability to meet changing business needs and objectives
• improved competitive ability

Question 42

What should TD professionals do to begin developing a business case for lifelong learning?

Answer 42

partner with leaders to conduct a current state analysis to determine what learning means to the organization: Is it valued? What is the learning philosophy? What do leaders wish the philosophy to be?

This will help TD professionals determine what changes are needed. They can then incorporate the changes into their strategic goals and plans and measure them accordingly.

Question 43

What is the leaders/managers’ role and the TD professionals’ role in creating a learning culture?

Answer 43

It is the leaders’ and manager’s responsibility to develop their employees.

The TD professionals’ role is to serve as the catalyst and support for leaders and managers and provide learning opportunities for them to sharpen their TD skills

Question 44

What is one way to approach those who are content in jobs they have mastered?

Answer 44

Work to make employees accountable for their own development - this may cause their interest and desire to learn to increase.

Use role-based learning journeys to meet the employee’s learning needs and help them map their careers.

Question 45

What is one of the biggest barriers to creating a culture of lifelong learning?

Answer 45

the difficulty of demonstrating measurable impact

Question 46

What are the advantages of lifelong learning for the individual?

Answer 46

• Offer more opportunities to improve quality of life.
• Boost confidence and self-esteem.
• Challenge beliefs and opinions.
• Increase ability to adapt to change.
• Enhance their ability to achieve a more satisfying life.
• Improve personal and professional development.
• Foster the desire to take more risks.
• Lead to a growth mindset.
• Expand career advancement opportunities.

Question 47

What is the relationship between lifelong learning and an organizational talent pipeline?

Answer 47

Organizations want a ready pipeline of talent that ensures the best people are in the right jobs at the right time and at the right costs.

A learning culture prepares employees to assume new or different responsibilities or roles as organizational needs change.

This means that employees have more than a degree - they have the competencies required to perform in their current jobs and future roles.

When organizations provide clear career paths coupled with learning journeys, and employees develop themselves, it creates a clear win-win.

Question 48

What are 7 examples of lifelong learning that can lead to organizational decisions on promotions and mobility?

Answer 48

Degrees
Experience
Performance
Professional credentials
Certifications
Certificates
Potential