A small department's skilled personnel (6)
I believe the answer is:
adepts
'a small department's skilled personnel' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'a small department's' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'a' is within the answer.
'small' could be 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size) and 's' is found within the answer.
'department' could be 'dept' and 'dept' is found in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for adepts that I've seen before include "Those completely skilled in their work" , "People with talent" , "Very skilled persons" , "Pasted in by very skilful people" , "Virtuosos, hotshots" .)