Leadership Foundation

Imperial College London

Imperial College London sets out the mission statement for its talent development strategy as a framework and mechanism for investment in staff and the building of a culture of learning and high performance; also as a contribution to managing diversity and to the college’s branding agenda and employer-of-choice status.

The aims of the strategy are to:

• Provide a talent development framework for Imperial College London staff;
• Support Imperial’s mission, values and strategic plan;
• Build on existing learning and development provision and complement college policies and procedures, particularly the personal review and development planning process;
• Place a clear responsibility on senior managers across Imperial for the identification and support of talented staff at all levels;
• Contribute to the succession management agenda;
• Involve individual staff more explicitly in the planning, monitoring and evaluation of their own development.

The strategy currently encompasses two talent development frameworks, the goals of which are:

• To identify those staff with the potential to fill key leadership roles in the future;
• To demonstrate to participants that the college values them and is committed to developing them over the long term;
• To broaden the experience, awareness and aspirations of participants;
• To help participants both to increase the value they are adding in their current roles and to develop their leadership and management capability for future roles;
• To see graduates of the scheme applying for and moving into more senior roles;
• To retain individuals who have participated in the programme;
• To create an active and supportive cohort of programme alumni.

Managers regard the programmes run under the strategy as critical to the identification, development and retention of talented staff. Although participation in the programmes does not guarantee promotion, it does provide opportunities for professional development.