For those of us who have been working in learning and development for a number of years and have observed the cycles of business and the economy we can all predict the reaction to the current economic situation. Organisations will be looking at ways to cut costs and they will take their magnifying glasses to look at any aspect of what they do that does not generate immediate results – whether that be financial results or achievement of other key performance indicators.
In the past this scrutiny has often led to learning and development budgets being cut and in some circumstances redundancies of whole learning and development teams. This is, of course, an option and may be an appropriate step. However, the decision about what to do should not be one taken lightly; it should be considered in the light of the business strategy and goals – both short-term (survival goals) and medium to long-term (development goals).
In its 2009 Learning and Development Survey the CIPD comments “almost two-thirds [of respondents] (65%) anticipate that learning and development activity will become more closely integrated with business strategy and 60% feel that there will be a greater emphasis on the evaluation of training effectiveness.”
The authors of this article believe that this is the route to success and recommend that organisations implement the following steps to review their learning and development provision:
1. Look at the current situation:
a. Identify what learning and development activity is currently taking place. How are people in the organisation learning the skills, knowledge and behaviours that they need to achieve their individual and team objectives?
b. What documented learning and development plans exist? How do these relate to the activities that are taking place? How do these relate to the overall business plans?
c. What evaluation of training and learning activities takes place? What are the measures of success for any L&D activity?
2. Look at the short-term business goals and what will be needed to achieve them:
a. What skills, knowledge and behaviours (let’s call these competencies) will the business need to survive?
b. To what extent do the right individuals have these competencies?
c. Where are the gaps in the competencies?
d. What resources are available to plug the gaps? How can these resources be used most effectively?
3. Look at the medium and long-term business goals and what will be needed to achieve them:
a. What competencies will the business need in the medium and long-term?
b. To what extent do the right individuals have these competencies?
c. Where are the gaps in the competencies?
d. What resources are available to plug the gaps? How can these resources be used most effectively?
4. Formulate a practical learning and development strategy with a time-framed action plan that can be achieved using the resources available. Within the action plan include clear measures of success.
Senior managers in organisations are well aware of these steps and are generally clear on strategic processes; however they may struggle to think about what options are available to them in terms of developing the competencies required in order to survive and thrive. This is where good learning and development advice comes in and here are some tips to help support the generation of options:
1. Consider whether the required competencies exist anywhere in the organisation.
It is often the case that someone somewhere will have the competencies needed. Will it be possible for this person to transfer the competencies to where they are needed? Perhaps they could be seconded to another area or perhaps the individual could train others in the area of the organisation where their competencies are needed.
If the competencies don’t exist in the organisation, consider cost-effective ways of developing them which may involve training, but may involve a range of other activities such as implementing action learning sets or setting up job exchange programmes with other organisations.
2. Consider the type of competency required.
Is the gap a skills gap, a knowledge gap or a behaviour gap?
Training is great for filling skills gaps, but it doesn’t have to be a full-blown external training course. Using on-job training, delivered in-house, can be an extremely effective way of filling skills gaps. Job shadowing / observation can sometimes be enough to refresh the skills of someone who is a bit rusty in a particular task.
To fill a knowledge gap, reading a professional journal or other reference material can often be sufficient. Finding an expert in the field and having a telephone conversation or meeting could be the answer.
To change behaviours, good line management or coaching can be an extremely effective way of supporting individuals and teams to change the way the work.
3. Consider how to make individuals aware of their competency gaps.
On many occasions, learning and development activities fail because the individuals with the learning needs are not clear that they have the learning needs! Line managers often fall at the first hurdles in the performance management process i.e. deciding what they want the person to do and identifying the competencies required to do it, then communicating these requirements to the individual involved. Even if they clear this hurdle, there is often lack of feedback, so that if the individual is not performing to the required standard, they are not told about it and even if they are sent to “be trained” they are not sure why they are there. If line managers only do one thing to support the learning and development process, it should be to ensure that their team members are completely clear of why they are being asked to develop their skills or knowledge or change their behaviours.
It is 150 years since Charles Darwin published ‘On the Origin of Species’ where he identified that evolution is driven by natural selection – “survival of the fittest”. If organisations are going to survive, they need to “get fit”; continuing to learn and develop is one of the ways in which they can achieve this. By continuing to invest wisely in learning and development activities organisations will be able to develop what they need to ensure that they benefit from natural selection and do not become one of 2009’s dodos!
