ATD Research: Communicating the Value of TD Helps L&D Remain Relevant

New ATD research examines the methods and metrics TD professionals use to communicate the value of talent development.

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Most talent development (TD) functions communicate with senior leaders and executives at least once a quarter, according to a new ATD research report.

They most commonly communicate using oral presentations or written reports, according to Communicating the Value of TD: Insights From TD Professionals and the C-Suite. Increased communication with senior leaders and executives leads to improved partnerships with other departments and greater advocacy from them.

Some key findings in the study include:

• 78 percent of C-suite executives are very interested in knowing content development costs.
• 64 percent of C-suite executives prefer to use employee satisfaction to measure TD's performance.
• 84 percent of TD functions find quantifying the impact of TD to be a challenge when communicating their value to senior leaders and executives.

C-suite executives prefer to use employee satisfaction, productivity improvement, and return on investment to measure talent development performance. They are also interested in content development costs and time to employee readiness or competence.

This report explores the methods and metrics TD professionals use to communicate the value of talent development to senior leaders and executives, and the metrics C-suite executives prefer TD professionals use to measure performance.

ATD is hosting a webinar on the report on March 19 at 2 p.m. ET.

About ATD

The Association for Talent Development (ATD) is the world's largest professional membership organization supporting those who develop the knowledge and skills of employees, improve performance, and help to achieve results for the organizations they serve. Established in 1943, the association was previously known as the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD).

ATD's members come from more than 100 countries and work in public and private organizations in every industry sector. ATD supports talent development professionals who gather locally in volunteer-led US chapters and international member networks, and with international strategic partners.

For more information, visit td.org

SOURCE Association for Talent Development (ATD)