A recent discussion with a colleague about online training and the need to create a roadmap for Type Practitioners so they can access the experts they need without wasting billable days or time out of the office led me to think about what’s necessary to deliver effective online training.

There is no doubt that professional trainers and consultants have been tasked over the last few years to find ways to do more with less. Professionals (aka Type Practitioners) using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) or some other related instrument or model need to radically adapt to this evolution in economy. Even more so, Type Practitioners understand that the investment in ongoing and up-to-date training is critical to their success. Type Practitioners understand that the application of personality type models is not something you learn in a four-day workshop. They are lifelong learners and know not to keep their head in the clouds. Type practitioners are dedicated to the body of knowledge and community that is constantly growing as well as to the ethical principles that hold them to a higher standard. And in this economic shift, these professionals have looked to online learning to satisfy these critical training needs. Webinars in particular, have become the chosen channel of delivery for the new era of online training.

The use of webinars to deliver online seminars to the business community is changing the face of professional development for type practitioners. Now anyone, anywhere, has the ability to participate in these web-based training seminars at their convenience. Whether for professional development or just for personal interest, type practitioners who take the time to attend online seminars can get the latest information and training that is relevant to their field or practice. While location and cost were the primary determining factors in professional development activities for decades, the availability of new Internet-based courses are opening up opportunities for growth and development to professionals in practically every industry—especially for Type Practitioners—because webinars can bring the learning right to your desktop.

While most practitioners recognize the need to invest in professional development activities to increase their consulting offerings or get that tacit knowledge that can only be learned from experts, the cost can be a limiting factor. If you added up the costs of paying for an all day seminar or multi-day conference, transportation costs, and the loss of time on income producing activities it’s easy to understand why so many professionals and employers are hard-pressed to justify the funds for these activities. A six-hundred dollar conference may end up costing two-thousand dollars. Since online seminars can be taken from any location with a computer and Internet access, the transportation and lodging costs are eliminated. Whether you’re at a local Barnes & Noble or at home in your pajamas you can attend virtually anywhere.

Specific issues will need to be addressed, like offering attendees a private environment to communicate with other attendees, ask questions, and get help when necessary. It will also be critical for these online seminars to be recorded and stored in a private location so attendees can listen to each one at their own convenience. This means complex material like understanding psychological type concepts or application material like leadership or culture can be easily reviewed or a missed session easily revisited. Then no matter what the schedule looks like, even if spread over a two-month period, the online seminars can meet the needs of the type practitioner. With almost all of the benefits of a conference, workshop or a class, if delivered properly online seminars offer an ideal venue for type practitioners to learn from industry experts, gain untapped tactic knowledge from experienced leaders in their field, or learn new skills. With the correct support and set-up, it would simple for type practitioners to attend a twelve-hour program without giving up any billable time or workdays.

So, the next time you consider attending a three- or four-day course, ask yourself what other opportunities are available that eliminate travel costs, provide support to learn from industry experts and an environment to connect with your peers.

Cheers to your success.

In an era of managing costs in order to grow revenue, it’s not surprising that talent management software and other programs are so popular. These tools attempt to make all areas of human resources, from employee assessments to controlling labor hours, more efficient and productive. A problem arises when top management realizes that these quality-management programs lack the buy-in from participants that it had hoped the programs would engender. And that’s where talent development bridges the gap.

Imagine a professional baseball team that attempts to manage its players with a software program for efficiency. No matter how well staffed the team is, if team management ignore the talent aspect and put their best pitcher on first base, the team just won’t play at top capacity. What’s more, the pitcher is going to start looking for a team that lets him pursue his goal of pitching, or worse, he’ll do nothing and be an average or frustrated player. From that perspective, his behavior makes sense. Because they neglect the development of the talents of individual employees, many companies see the same scenario take place every day.

Employee Behavior Is Not Complex

When employees are not fully engaged in their jobs or careers, they are not willing to give 100 percent. Trying to motivate them with a routine annual assessment or an occasional review (core components of many talent management programs) is not enough. While these program components certainly have a role to play, they do not induce genuine employee engagement.

On the other hand, psychological models like psychological type (e.g., Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®), temperament (e.g., Keirsey Temperament Sorter) and social styles (e.g., DiSC Profiles) are excellent examples of tools that can be used on a daily basis to solve problems, improve communications and create better relationships. These models are simple to teach, easy to learn and are supported by vast amounts of resources for long-term use inside organizations. They allow top management team’s to understand the skills and motivations of its team members so that it can align the team’s efforts with the goals of the company.

Employee Engagement Impacts the Bottom Line

A significant amount of research has been done that draws a strong correlation between employee engagement and its effect on customer behavior, revenue and profitability. In fact, companies with truly engaged employees demonstrate lower costs, higher income and higher revenue growth than those companies whose employees are less engaged. According to a recent Towers Perrin 2007-2008 Global Workforce Study, about 29 percent of employees in the United States are engaged in their jobs. Corporate-level executives should act on these studies that link talent development activities, like opportunities to learn new skills and career growth programs, with a greater number of employees who are willing to go that extra mile.

Talent Development Improves the Businessperson

In order to produce profound business results, executives must make the necessary capital investment in their employees. Developing the innate skills and strengths of a team requires more insight than filling out a form that rates follow-through on a scale of one to five. It requires focusing in on the potential ability of an employee, understanding his or her goals and desires and aligning those with the goals and needs of the company. That’s talent development.

With a diverse and mobile workforce, it’s likely that a staff of 200 employees is going to be comprised of different demographics with vastly different motivations. Keeping those top workers is essential, and losing them and retraining new ones is costly. Given the clear relationships between talent development and employee behavior, and between that behavior and company performance, it is obvious that managing your human resources is not enough. Talent development is required to keep businesses viable and thriving in this changing job climate.

Using talent management software packages to administer employee performance has suddenly become hugely popular. Within this new-found appreciation of the need to better address the management of human capital is the need to develop the actual talent within that resource pool. According to a recent report titled Human Capital Management: The CFO’s Perspective, sponsored by CFO Research Services, 92 percent of those interviewed believe that human capital has a direct effect on customer satisfaction, 82 percent said it has an impact on profitability and 72 percent felt it shows up in innovation and product development.

Don’t Put Talent Development in a Corner

Talent development refers to the process of assessing the innate skills, interests and passions of employees and actively aligning them with a company’s objectives. Frequently, talent development is relegated to a tab in the talent management software system alongside a yearly assessment or a one-day workshop on communication styles. When this happens, upper management misses out on a huge opportunity to fill needs with the available human resources.

Talent development should be of equal or greater importance to talent management. In a highly competitive race to hire and retain the best individuals, ignoring this component of human resources is a costly decision. The nature of people makes development necessary.

Self-Actualization Equals High Performance

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a very simple way to illustrate the need to have a talent development strategy. The theory’s familiar pyramid represents the five human psychological needs. It starts from the most basic, with physiological needs like food and water, and continues with safety, love and belonging, esteem and finally self-actualization. Of course, most employees get the first two levels fulfilled just from a basic paycheck.

In order to encourage people to become high-performing contributors to the organization, their other needs must be met too. This nurturing is often looked at as fuzzy or soft, but these actions can have the most concrete impact of any organizational initiative. In fact, problem-solving skills and creativity are found at the top of the pyramid in self-actualized individuals─the very ones you want to recruit and retain.

Providing the opportunity for individuals to learn about how they communicate, how they become stressed, how they approach working on a team and how they typically meet their psychological needs is not soft. These personal dynamics have a real impact on each employee’s engagement in the organization’s larger purpose. A cohesive program of talent development activities that addresses these needs and is part of a comprehensive plan for the long-term fulfillment of key positions in your company has become a critical aspect of integrating talent development with company vision and success.