Why is learning and development (T&D) a topic the company should tackle? Didn’t we hire adults who should be able to lead their own development and grow their skills accordingly to the company's needs? Why even talk about T&D if we only hire talented professionals? Why spend money on sending people to conferences when they come back the same as they left? Why should I promote for my employees to take time out of the workday and spend it not doing the everyday tasks they were hired for? Aren’t they already challenged enough by their everyday tasks and isn’t that already expanding their skillset?

Sounds familiar? Questions you have heard your management members ask? Thoughts you have thought during budget negotiations? Topics you have fought against during performance assessments or meetings? No matter which side you are on (pro learning & development management or against it) you know that is a discussion that will not be taken off the table. We all know the mantra “What If We Train Them & They Leave? What If We Don’t & They Stay?”. But really, why?!

KNOWLEDGE IS A POWERFUL TOOL.

Most of the negative attitude towards T&D comes from the experience where the cost has not provided any value and/or the T&D experience has not been relevant to the role and individual. Is the fault of T&D or has it just not been managed well?

Why #1. What does the company benefit from it?

Attracting and retaining high-performing employees can be very costly if you add up the recruitment, hiring, onboarding, and settling-in costs. On average, it is thought that an employer would need to spend the equivalent of six to nine months worth of an employee’s salary in order to train their replacement. Training is not only vital in ensuring employees feel confident in their job roles; it also ensures that they have the opportunity to progress within their chosen career. Young employees, in particular, want the reassurance that they have a future in their current career or field of work (which does not necessarily mean future in the company), and that their employer has the intention of helping them achieve their goals. In fact, research shows that a full 40% of employees who don’t receive the necessary job training will leave their positions within the first year. All necessary steps to reduce staff turnover rate helps to avoid those costs. Therefore strategically investing money in learning and development programs won’t be more expensive in the end, as they are actually retentions tools.

Showing an active interest in your talented peoples’ career development builds trust, connection, and loyalty between the employees and the organization. By showing your employees that are you actively willing to invest in their education, especially in the early stages, you are allowing them to feel as though they are vital to the future of the company and its success. In a sense, you are helping them to feel as though they are truly part of the company, rather than just a number on a spreadsheet.

Having people who are equipped with relevant knowledge and skill improves their productivity. Feeling empowered and confident in your role will help you perform tasks quicker and be more clever and effective. Letting the mentality of “I don’t care how you do it, just get it done” put down roots in your organization will tangle your company in a way where you are left with unloyalty and processes that have as many faces as there are counterparts in them.

Having a knowledge sharing system helps you in a situation where your team members leave the company and you are on the verge of losing key knowledge that they possess. Growing a culture for learning and promoting collaboration in knowledge-sharing is a strong cornerstone in your work community.

Why #2. How to make it valuable for both sides?

Don’t ever make any steps towards learning and development system without first determining your needs. No, not the wishes of the employees. Not the wishes of the team leads. Concentrate on the actual needs of the organization, role and employee. The next step after that is to add the second dimension: assess who in your team is lacking what skills. And once you have an understanding thanks to the skills analysis, you can move towards deciding the methods to reach the objectives.

Every person who attends learning event should even before signing their name up, agree on what are the learning objectives. When the wished outcome is clear, then learning becomes so much easier. And it also helps to make sure the implemented training is aligned with the end goal and it gives a basis on evaluating the effectiveness of training.

Choosing the right learning methods for the right person is another valuable take away. Some obtain new information by listening, some by doing, some by seeing the topic in a visualized way. Sending people just to sit in a conference room and expand their view on topics is not learning and is not training people. 

Equipe people with knowledge on how to learn and with tools to do it to make the experience valuable for both sides.

Why #3. Is it possible to do it in a cost-effective way?

Days of 8-hour long classroom training are over. People don’t have the ability to concentrate and be efficient learners for a full workday.  Ways of learning are different and as one needs time and space to process new information, the other is already itching to put the new-found knowledge to practice. Therefore we are working in this amazing time where L&D Managers have all the reasons why and all the means of how to make learning & development opportunities innovative and fresh. And for experienced Learning & Development Managers having a green light to compile organization specific educational courses is like giving a painter a canvas and palette and asking them to put their creativity to use. Finding ways to make MOOC’s and online learning platforms work together with out of the box tools, organization-specific topics, and internal training plus complementing them with competence assessments, training objectives, feedback systems and mentoring: what L&D Manager doesn’t get goosebumps and high energy from that?

You surely have talented people in your company. Of course, everyone is good at different topics. Use that expertise and show that you value their knowledge by giving them the tools and the stage to share the wisdom. For one, it is a way to create a tight-knit community in your workplace. In addition to that, it helps to increase deeper engagement in your role. And done well, people leave the session feeling richer – who learned from the experience, others from the knowledge.

LET’S GO OVER THE BASICS:

• Training allows you to strengthen those skills that each employee needs to improve in their current role. Focused on specific knowledge.

• Development brings all employees to a higher level so they all have similar skills and knowledge. This helps reduce any weak links within the company who rely heavily on others to complete basic work tasks. Focused on employee growth and future performance.

Learn more about solutions like Wisboo, Wormhole, and feel free to share other interesting finds with me in the comment section!

Ways to determine training needs. And take a look into examples of what Top Silicon Valley companies are doing in their learning & development department.