Adopting a Corporate Learning and Development Strategy

A Learning and Development (L&D) strategy is a structured approach used to identify, design, and provide employee development activities that align with business needs. The purpose is to enhance employee knowledge, skills, and abilities so that the organization’s business objectives are met or exceeded, and so that employee growth, engagement, and retention are maximized.

Organizations of any size can benefit from a formal learning and development (L&D) strategy. It doesn’t have to be extensive and involved, but there has to be enough purpose and clarity that everyone in the organization understands it.

Basic Elements

Basic elements of a L&D strategy should:

• Specify business needs and requirements (for related information see Instructional Design Element 1: Analysis)
• Identify current employee skills and skill gaps, and how new or different employee skills can meet business needs. And, if employees are involved in assessing both business and employee needs then the employees have “skin in the game.” They’ve been consulted and involved as respected and valued partners rather than as “subjects.”
• Define employee learning objectives by establishing clear, measurable goals for employee development. Note that we’re not necessarily talking about “courses” or “training.” We’re talking about “development” in its broadest sense.
• Create learning and development opportunities once objectives have been established. These can be a mix of on-the-job training, assignments to “stretch” projects, mentoring, expert coaching, peer coaching, instructor-led classroom or electronic events, and self-directed learning such as readings and electronic courses (asynchronous courses).

Benefits to employees and the business

Every employee wants to learn, grow, and thrive. And every business wants to succeed. A L&D program can help employees develop essential skills for their current jobs, and also the jobs they’d like to have in the future. The organization then has the staff skillsets to meet current and future business opportunities.

According to a Gallup study:

• 57% of U.S. workers would like to update their current skills, and…
• 48% would consider leaving their current company to do it
• 71% said learning and development increased their job satisfaction
• 61% said increasing their skills is an important reason to stay at their current company

Benefits of a structured program

The real benefit of a formal L&D program is that it eliminates uncertainty; it matches business needs to employee needs. In the absence of a formal program, the employee and HR or Training departments are essentially left to their own devices. HR/Training tries to figure out what employees want, and employees are hoping their chosen learning efforts will meet their needs and those of the business.

Another benefit is that a formal L&D strategy can pay close attention to more than the “what.” It can concentrate on the “how.” It gets away from a top-down, management-directed effort in defining needs and requirements, and allows employees to choose how they can best meet business needs and their professional development goals. For example, rather than providing only traditional training (classroom; real-time; instructor-led; text-based), it can give employees the opportunity to self-direct their learning. Digital delivery allows any time/anywhere learning.

Other benefits include:

• Attracting and retaining talent, and reducing turnover
• Increasing opportunities for employee growth and career progression
• Workers who are more skilled, more engaged, and more satisfied with the organization and their part in it
• Enhanced leadership development
• Compliance and risk mitigation
• And, corporate productivity and ROI

How to Align Learning Strategy with Business Goals

A McKinsey article found that, “Only 40 percent of companies say that their learning strategy is aligned with business goals. For 60 percent, then, learning has no explicit connection to the company’s strategic objectives. L&D functions may be out of sync with the business because of outdated approaches or because budgets have been based on priorities from previous years rather than today’s imperatives, such as a digital transformation.”

If that’s the case, then what are the steps organizations can take to make sure the alignment takes place? A crucial step is to engage all stakeholders in the process, which includes learners, management, and senior leaders.

Rather than a top-down approach dictated by the organization, learners can (and should be) involved in discovering their personal and professional needs for L&D.

Managers/supervisors must be involved because they’re the essential element in making sure that whatever takes place is reinforced and supported. As we noted in a previous post, managers, not trainers, must be held accountable for on-the-job performance. As noted in that post, Robert Mager maintains that “……although trainers can provide skills and self-confidence, only you (the manager) can provide the opportunity to perform, and only you can provide an environment that encourages and supports performance…” In addition, managers should also be included as part of the learner population so that they also develop new skills.

Senior leaders must be the champions of the effort. Without direction and continuous support, any L&D effort is bound to fail.

These three L&D stakeholders’ input helps create what Peter Senge and colleagues call “The Learning Organization.”

Essential Considerations

Before launching into a new L&D strategy, there are numerous elements that should be considered. Among them:

• What’s the high-level purpose of the strategy? What “problems” or “opportunities” are you trying to address? New products or customers? A new business line? Reduced scrap, rework, and warranty claims? And, of course, what is the enhanced performance you’re trying to address?
• What is the ultimate outcome? How will you know you’ve succeeded? These elements must be defined clearly.
• What is the timeframe? Rushing through the process will guarantee problems.
• Do you have the budget that the strategy will require?
• How will learners access the materials? Do you have the digital support needed (Learning Management System, access to courses, tracking student progress, etc.)?
• Can your existing team implement the strategy or will you need new team members? Who will develop or curate the learning materials to make sure they’re meeting your needs?
• Will your new systems be able to meet the demands placed on them? I once led a huge learning initiative that had so much student demand that we had to drastically increase the server capacity—something we hadn’t planned for and that severely strained our budget.
• How will you integrate the L&D strategy into your existing operations?
• Are there elements of your current L&D operations that can be maintained or will you start from scratch?

Final Thoughts

There’s always the concern from senior leaders that an employee might leave after the organization has invested heavily in their training. There’s always that risk. However, your investment in their learning is generally far outweighed by an under-skilled employee.

A quote attributed to Henry Ford states “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”  Richard Branson, CEO of the Virgin Group said, “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”

If you and your team spend the time and effort to craft a L&D strategy, you’re almost certain to reap the rewards we’ve discussed.