In recent years, thanks to an increasingly competitive business landscape, a digital revolution, a need to redefine what constitutes a favourable employee experience and a multi-generational workforce, there has been a growing emphasis on the importance of reskilling and upskilling.
Competitive advantage
Your workforce is one of your organisation’s most valuable assets. That’s why it’s essential to manage the development of your people by improving employees’ knowledge, capabilities, skills, competencies and abilities through corporate training and other educational initiatives. The aim is to provide employees with the necessary skills and tools to perform their jobs to the required standard and thus meeting the needs of the business.
Having a solid learning and development (L&D) strategy will help you as an employer to grow and gain a competitive operational advantage. In addition, it will also:
- Enhance workforce expertise
- Fill skills gaps (futureproof your workforce)
- Increase performance and become more productive
- Improve employee engagement and retention
- Attract top talent
- Become more resilient and be able to adapt to change quickly
- Build your organisation’s reputation
- Nurture an innovative culture
- Reinforce organisational culture
- Enhance customer service
There are also benefits for your employees in the form of greater levels of engagement, collaboration, job security, employability and internal mobility (career development and promotions).
To successfully embed an L&D strategy in your organisation you will need all stakeholders including employees, management and leadership to be involved in its design, implementation and assessment. A strong L&D strategy relies on two factors.
- Strategic direction/business goals
- Operational factors
Learning and development strategy – one size does not fit all!
Every organisation is unique, so a one-size L&D strategy will simply not work. Everyone learns in different ways and at a different pace. You must design something unique that meets not only the budget and employee requirements, but also addresses skills gaps, and can create meaningful yet measurable benefits.
There is also a plethora of ways to deliver L&D opportunities, face to face using external trainers or coaches, or online. Online platforms are becoming extremely popular as they allow employees to learn on their own terms, accessing training material where and when they want to learn. But once again, the key thing here is choice.
Wining learning and development strategy
To make a learning and development strategy 100% effective, buy-in from employees is essential. Training has to be relevant and useful so that workers who may have been thinking of a career change might reconsider. According to recent reports, younger generations of workers value lifelong learning and upskilling more than older generations. By offering better and more varied training, employers can re-engage workers and keep their best talent.
If you’re looking to put a new L&D strategy in place and need any advice or support, please email debby@total-spectrum.com
