First of all – What is Learning & Development?
A Learning and Development (L&D) Strategy refers to any process a company has in place to enhance their employees’ skills, knowledge, and ability to improve their performance at work in order to ensure the success and sustainability of an organisation.
The importance of Learning and Development
Over the past few years specifically, L&D has continually changed to adapt to the shift in organisational needs; L&D is an essential factor in the success of organisations across all industries and sectors. Despite this, many organisations still hesitate to commit financially to employee development without extensive justification.
Not only do L&D strategies strengthen employees, it also greatly benefits leadership across all levels of an organisation; more efficient employees result in a more efficient team, thus the team leaders have the trust in their teams that tasks can and will always be completed to a more than sufficient standard.
Applying employee beneficial solutions at all levels with specific goals in mind increases confidence and performance, and for employees in managerial roles such solutions provide them with a sturdy support system which, again, will increase their confidence and performance.
Further to this, an L&D strategy creates positive outcomes for employees before they even begin their role. Induction orientation and training is now more noticeably important than it has been previously. Specifically, during COVID, many companies have faced the challenge of introducing new staff purely remotely.
Although the use of an online approach to induction loses the personal touch and can occasionally bring about a sense of isolation in new recruits, the ease of the process for both employees and employers reaps great benefits.
The online approach is easily replicable, flexible and can provide L&D experiences that guide future hiring. An online approach can also be applied to further professional development, and, again, is greatly beneficially in that it is more accessible, convenient, and well-situated.
Benefits
Learning and Development is essential to organisational success, and it is greatly advantageous:
- Increasing employee engagement and motivation:
When there is a sense of opportunity for employees, they are more motivated in their work. Poor employee engagement is financially detrimental to a business; it results in reduced productivity leading to less drive towards business goals, a higher likelihood of staff turnover as employees themselves are unsatisfied and when employees are unmotivated and disengaged, subsequently, your client satisfaction will suffer.
- Counteracting specific skill gaps:
When skills gaps are addressed through collaboration and development strategies, the gap – obviously – lessens. An L&D strategy ensures targets are not only set and understood by all involved but ensures the work towards meeting such goals is in place.
- Attracting and retaining talented employees:
When employee development is valued, employees certainly notice; in an ever-growing market where employers are continuously in contact with your employees across many platforms, it is critical to retain talented staff. When employees feel valued, there is no reason for them to feel tempted by another company offering the same role, regardless of their loyalty to their employer. Providing performance support and employer engagement through use of L&D makes your employees feel valued and important to the company, as well as feeling like they’re furthering themselves professionally.
- Staying ‘up-to-date’ with industry trends:
To put it bluntly, organisations that do not put the effort into developing their employees will simply be less successful than the organisations that do. A key element in success is creating a culture of support and encouragement towards personal development as well as offering resources that help employees develop themselves.
- Developing and reaching long-term goals:
Programs and processes that are geared towards development set an organisation for success are vital and mustn’t be overlooked. When needs are sufficiently targeted, and a continuous learning environment is instilled in a company, knowledge and efficiency will become continue to grow.
There is no 'one-size-fits-all' approach to L&D - there's various objectives, budgets, resources etc., but there is a clear universal upshot: encouraging a culture of development to strengthen an organisation.
