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CDR-U

A Science Based Solution to the Daunting Talent Challenges of 2023 and Beyond!

The talent challenges facing organizations in 2023 and beyond are daunting. Organizations were already struggling with the increase in demand for development from the Millennial and Gen Z generations when Covid hit, then the economy changed, adding new challenges. Human resources and talent development professionals have been battling retention and engagement for years without a viable solution. Some have invested endless dollars in online and in-person learning solutions that show little investment return. Why? Because the foundation of effective learning — self-awareness — has been largely ignored.

While retaining top talent, investing in career development, improving employee engagement, upskilling, deploying effective learning technologies for talent development, and getting people decisions right, are top on the list for most organizations, the inability to get it right continues. Albert Einstein said, ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.’ Study after study shows no real improvement in outcomes and the challenges may be worsening.

Susan Tohyama, CHRO at Ceridian, a Minneapolis-based HR technology firm was interviewed by HCA Mag.com in a recent article. She said that “according to a Pulse of Talent survey conducted by Ceridian of its 8,800 workers across the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom, nearly 90% of employees have felt stuck in their role over the past year, and 70% are now a flight risk. In fact, more than half (51%) of respondents said a new career path within the company or working on new projects or with different teams (46%) would make them want to stay with their current employer.”[i]

These trends, unfortunately, are across industries and nations and are not unique to Ceridian. For example, a LinkedIn Workforce study found that 94% of employees would stay if companies invested in long term learning.[ii] In a Forbes article it was reported that, “Upskilling is a priority for 62% of CEOs surveyed recently by LinkedIn. Educating, training, and developing your workforce personally and professionally has two main objectives. First, it shows your employees you value them and want to retain them. Secondly, keeping them relevant keeps the company relevant. Improved performance is improved growth.[iii]

There are two more critical issues to think about in getting it right when it comes to people. A crux of the talent challenge is that most people are not naturally self-aware. A HBR study of 5,000 people by Tasha Eurich revealed that only 10-15% actually are self-aware.[iv] The foundation to effective leader, professional and career development is self-awareness. Yet, helping employees gain a keen sense of self-awareness is generally ignored by most organizations and talent development practitioners skip right onto generic, one-size-fits all or just-in-time offerings.

How can organizations start getting talent development and people decisions right? They do this by:

  1. Helping all employees become more self-aware to drive their careers, engagement and performance in the best direction aligned with their inherent talent and needs
  2. Offering accurate and personalized leadership and employee development opportunities
  3. Focusing on measurable performance improvement and life-long career development
  4. Accurately identifying hidden or underutilized talent to upskill or reskill
  5. Scaling opportunities for growth to all employees in a way that provides both individual development and uses enterprise-wide scientifically valid, objective data
  6. Deploying accurate analytics to support talent development, people management decisions (promotions, succession, team selections) and investments
  7. Materializing a return on investments in talent initiatives

There is one solution on the market that can stop the inertia, change the trajectory, address all these daunting challenges, and provide the foundation for talent growth and retention in the organization. Our, digital avatar coaching platform, CDR-U Coach, founded on the accuracy and scientifically validated assessment tool, the CDR 3-D Suite provides an unmatched level of self-awareness. CDR-U Coach provides digital avatar coaching debriefs of the CDR 3-D Assessment Suite as well as action planning. Simultaneously, our platform provides enterprise-wide talent data and accurate analytics to upskill, right-fit, develop and promote people effectively. For 25 years, CDR Companies has provided their in-depth scientifically validated assessments to global organizations for executive coaching, team development, succession planning, selection screening and more.

Daunting Talent Challenges (2)


Now, with the International Stevie Award winning CDR-U Coach, the digital avatar personalized coaching, employees can:

  • Participate in confidential one-to-one, in-depth coaching debriefs of the CDR Character Assessment (in-depth Five Factor Model), Risk Assessment, and Drivers and Rewards Assessments. The algorithms are so rich and the feedback is so personalized, no two are the same!
  • Receive feedback from their selected avatar coach which is actually feedback scripted by top global executive coaches, delivered digitally. In this way, they are getting feedback from renowned experts.
  • Build personal Developmental ` Plans, guided by their avatar and video with fillable, online forms that can be updated any time, and are designed to be reviewed with their managers.
  • Review a Career Action Planning (CAP) Module to determine if their career is on the best path or not and to build an accurate career plan. CAP helps each user understand their vocation personality and motivational fitness and strengths that align with various job roles, competencies and work cultures. They may find they have “hidden” or underutilized talent that can be developed. A STEM Fit Review informs users about potential in areas of STEM as an individual contributor or leader.

And, organizations can:

  • Invest in the long-term development for each and every employee as the results on the assessments do not change over one’s career so that the development and growth is sustainable.
  • Upskill with CDR-U Coach results, companies will know where hidden and special talent capabilities of their employees can be found to upskill and reskill employees in the best ways for success.
  • Offer a scalable talent development solution to reach all employees while providing data and analytics critical to making good people decisions and wise investments. Use objective data to make better informed succession planning, promotional, rotational and other key decisions to accurately match profiles with position and business requirements.
  • Provide training needs analysis data to be sure that developmental resources are deployed accurately and customizable to individuals and/or teams and groups rather than in generic, hit-or-miss ways.
  • Offer a way for all employees to revisit their coaching feedback, assessment results and update action plans any time which is particularly important when considering development, promotions, or to reinforce the learning.
  • Provide a rapid base line of essential feedback to enhance self-awareness and then to move onto other “live” coaching or mentoring, team development or custom training or pointing to specific LMS resources.
  • Be the solution companies seek to develop talent with a personalized, offered to all, and digitized so that this can be a budget friendly, fast and valuable way to provide an inclusive learning and development environment. No one is left out!

Our goal is to provide organizations the foundation to stop relying on costly, non-productive talent development initiatives. We help clients recover from the daunting people challenges they face and position the enterprise for the future. You can stay on the same spin cycle or you can accelerate and maximize your talent capabilities, bench strength and performance success.

Written by Nancy Parsons

Nancy Parsons is one of today’s foremost experts in combining the science of assessments with the art of developing people. As CEO & President of CDR Companies, LLC, she sheds new light on personality strengths, inherent risks and motivation and change performance, careers and lives. Nancy and her team developed CDR-U Coach, the first of its kind, Stevie Award winning digital avatar coaching platform so that personalized assessment and coaching feedback and development can now be provided to all levels of employees. She has presented for a variety of conferences, associations, companies and events. A short sampling includes: WGLC Women’s Global Leadership Conference, WBECS, ISPI, SHRM, ATD, Women In Energy, Women on Boards 50/50, MGMA, ACEC, OKCU, ISU, IE.edu and more. She has appeared on a variety of notable podcasts, radio and television interviews and hosts a monthly CDR Live on LinkedIn. She instructs executive coaches’ training and facilitates C-Suite executive team development sessions.

[i] https://www.hcamag.com/us/specialization/leadership/70-of-employees-are-a-flight-risk-heres-how-to-keep-them-at-bay/433333

[ii] https://news.linkedin.com/2018/2/linkedin-workplace-learning-report-2018

[iii] https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2022/06/17/why-upskilling-employees-is-so-important-right-now/?sh=3e13b22626e8

[iv] https://hbr.org/2018/10/working-with-people-who-arent-self-aware