Evaluate these seven factors to meet employee development needs.

In its 2023 Talent Health Index: Your Holistic Guide to Talent Success, Cornerstone OnDemand delves into seven facets of organizational talent health: culture and technology; skills strategy; L&D; content strategy; performance management; talent mobility; and talent reporting, data, and analytics. When examining data from around the world, Cornerstone found a pervasive gap in how employees think they need to develop versus how much support they receive from their employers. The study characterized the maturity levels of organizational talent efforts as foundational, administrative, sophisticated, and transformative, with most companies performing at the administrative level.

Regardless of location, there was a stark difference in how high-performing organizations fared versus other companies because HPOs invest in all seven talent areas. Although HPOs are investing broadly, "they are investing more in personalized and in-the-flow-of-work learning technology (85 percent), they are creating a culture with the space/time to learn new skills (96 percent), and they are building external and internal knowledge networks so their employees can maximize opportunities to grow both inside and outside the org (89 percent)," shares Mike Bollinger, global vice president of strategic initiatives at Cornerstone, in an interview with TD magazine.

On average, India topped the talent health scores, with nearly 93 out of a possible 112 points, which falls into the "sophisticated" maturity level. Additionally, Bollinger says, India's somewhat higher strength areas were skills strategy and content strategy, consistent with HPOs.

Bollinger notes that the US also scored slightly better than the global average score of 88, coming in at 91 points, adding that "globally, all organizations landed right near the border between Administrative and Sophisticated, and any slight differences among regions \[were\] nominal."

Cornerstone People Research Lab, which conducted the research, asked employees whether they believed their employers were lacking in their talent initiatives, and, if so, what needed to change. Employees in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region reported a lack of employee development and strongly believed that additional skills development would significantly improve business performance. EMEA employees also said business performance would improve with greater career guidance and more mentoring opportunities.

Bollinger recommends a holistic and comprehensive approach to talent health, including L&D, talent mobility, and talent reporting and analytics. He says HPOs are on their way to the transformative state.