Workforce Management
Build A Talent Framework That Drives Business Growth
To close skills gaps and boost performance, you need a talent road map that links development to business goals. Here’s how to create one.
July 24, 2025
How to Design an Effective Talent Development Framework
Skill development is a top priority for CHROs, Korn Ferry’s 2025 CHRO survey reveals. Yet, many still lack a clear plan to deliver it.
Two-thirds of HR leaders know what skills their business needs to grow. But fewer than half feel confident they can build them—through hiring, reskilling, or other strategies.
This gap is a growing risk. How do you build a workforce that can perform today and pivot for tomorrow?
Without a clear talent framework that links skills, roles, and development to business goals, even the best efforts will fall flat. You risk investing in programs that don’t stick or building skills that don’t align with your business strategy.
That’s why you need a framework that brings clarity and precision to your talent strategy—one proven to target the right roles, close critical skill gaps, and accelerate your business goals.
Here’s how to create one.
Step 1: Start with Your Business Objectives
“Understanding the business goals and how your people strategy fits into that will shape your talent strategy,” says Jerry Collier of Korn Ferry. “You should always start with the business objectives.”
For example, a fast-moving consumer goods company shifting toward premium products will need a very different people strategy than one focused on a full digital transformation.
To ensure business alignment when developing your talent road map, you should:
- Identify your organization’s key business goals
- Define how your people supports these objectives
- Anchor your talent development framework to business outcomes
Step 2: Identify Critical Roles to Achieve the Objectives
The next step is to identify who will help drive the company toward its goals.
“Talent can mean different things to different businesses, so you have to identify what you mean by talent within your organization,” says Collier.
Determine whether you’ll focus on a small group with specific capabilities or adopt a “talent is everywhere” approach to develop the entire workforce.
When budgets are tight, put your resources where they’ll make the biggest difference based on your business objectives, he advises. That starts with knowing which roles matter most.
To understand this, consider three key things:
- How closely the role supports your strategic priorities
- How much of a difference a high performer can make in that role
- How hard the role is to replace if someone leaves
This helps leaders see beyond job titles and team size and focus instead on where talent investment will have the biggest impact. It’s a method Korn Ferry refers to as the Critical Role Index.
Step 3: Assess Your Skills and Identify Gaps
Once you know the roles you need, assess whether you have the right skills and talent in-house.
Use skills assessments to map required competencies, such as technical skills, leadership traits, and experience, against your current talent.
In Korn Ferry’s 2025 TA Trends survey, 24 percent of talent leaders said that identifying the right skills is one of their top challenges. Many organizations talk about skills-based hiring but struggle to fully implement it. That’s where a strong assessment framework becomes a game-changer.
Want to know where the skills gaps are—and how to close them? Explore our new guide How to Build an Effective Skills Assessment Framework.
"You need a baseline of where your talent stands today," says Collier. “This helps you prioritize development actions and is the most effective approach for leadership development and succession planning.”
Case Study: How One Tech Firm Scaled Talent Assessments
The Business Challenge
A global tech company struggled with inconsistent talent evaluation across teams and regions, making it hard to identify future leaders and plan their development.
The Korn Ferry Solution
With Korn Ferry’s support, the company introduced a streamlined, enterprise-wide assessment program that created clarity and consistency in measuring potential and performance.
Leaders gained visibility into where strengths lay and where development was needed. This simplified evaluation and established a common language for talent.
The Measurable Results
With this new data, which was both more robust and easier to understand, leaders could focus on developing the right people and planning for the future.
By standardizing assessments and reducing reliance on multiple, redundant evaluation tools, the company cut administrative costs and boosted efficiency. It also improved accuracy in identifying high-potential talent.
Most importantly, this new system helped the business grow by unlocking leadership potential and encouraging fresh ideas and innovation.
Step 4: Decide on Skill Development and Training Programs
Once you have a clear picture of your starting point when it comes to skill gaps, you can now plan the route you want to take. Who will you upskill or reskill? Which gaps need outside hires?
Will you prioritize a select group in critical roles—or take a “talent is everywhere” approach and invest in development across the board?
“Scale your ambition to the energy and the assets that you have,” says Collier. “You’ve got finite resources, finite energy, finite dollars. Do you spread it across everyone and every area? Or do you target it in certain areas to move the dial?”
To develop leadership competencies in your senior leaders, specialist experts, and high-potential employees, you need personalized support like one-on-one coaching.
For broader workforce learning, self-paced development programs powered by AI-driven learning platforms can provide continuous learning and tailored development at scale.
These systems adapt content to each individual’s role and learning style, making development more effective and engaging.
Step 5: Make Communications Part of the Plan
Your talent road map needs a communication plan—for employees and leadership alike. Without it, even great programs can fail to deliver an impactful outcome.
Communication is crucial, not only to help with change management, but also to make sure your employees feel valued. “You need to show people that you believe in their development and will support them,” says Collier.
He points out that many companies mistakenly focus only on processes, like sharing links to online learning courses.
What's arguably more important is showing that you’re committed to your future leaders and want them to benefit fully from their learning. “That will impact engagement, but also retention,” he says.
Likewise, communication is key to getting leadership buy-in.
“It’s critical that you’re able to link your talent development program to business objectives and clearly convey its value,” he adds.
Step 6: Measure Results and Gather Feedback
Finally, close the loop by tracking outcomes and reviewing feedback. It’s essential to regularly check whether your efforts are making the impact you intended.
“Is your talent development action working, and how might you improve it?” asks Collier. “Are you seeing the business results you were hoping for? Are your people responding favorably to the learning and development?”
Use both qualitative feedback and quantitative metrics to assess this.
For example, if premiumization is your objective, look at key performance indicators, such as brand equity scores and market share, to confirm that your people are driving the desired change. If your goal is to improve retention, look at employee engagement surveys and turnover rates.
Leadership & Professional Assessments
Assess the talent you have to find the talent you need
Building a Talent Development Strategy That Delivers
A clear talent road map sets the direction, but real impact comes from how you bring it to life. That means building the right skills, in the right roles, that are fully aligned with your organizational goals.
With a focused, forward-looking strategy, you can close critical skills gaps and equip leaders to tackle tomorrow’s challenges.
Want to learn more about what an effective leadership assessment should measure?
Download our guide and transform your framework into a powerful development strategy that drives real change in your organization.
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