Hi everyone. My first ever post and quite a meaty topic so I'm looking to all you gurus for some pointers.
How do you go about writing / structuring the very first L&D strategy? What kinds of things should be addressed? What if it's not necessarily recognised as being needed in the first place?
Currently L&D is done at a functional level with managers being responsible for L&D in their own areas with limited budgets (there is no L&D function). I am convinced some kind of central approach (and as all the academics say) in line with the company strategy could contribute to business performance, effectiveness, success and all those good things but how do you justify it in the first place and how can you quantify it? Ultimately, like everything else it needs to demonstrate contribution to the bottom line.
Turning the words of books and articles firstly into a proposal for buy in and then into a reality is my challenge.
Any help, advice, case studies, examples etc would be greatly appreciated. Thank you DPG Community :-)
Amanda
Replies
Hi Amanda,
Great topic! I'll probably ask more questions and waffle than anything else but it seems that there may be two things in here:
1) Do you need to create a business case to support moving to a central operating model for L&D? If so how would you present this in terms of structure, headcount and what would be the required budget to do this and maintain it? If line managers are responsible for L&D and have limited budgets already this may be a big stumbling block being able to articulate the benefits of moving to a central model which may be more expensive without being able to provide accurate returns on this.
Irrelevant of what the academics say how do you think a central approach to L&D would work in your organisation - what would it look like and where would the focus be contribute to business performance, effectiveness and bottom line performance? To provide a credible proposal you need to understand what isn't happening at the moment and how this isn't supporting the business objectives. If it isn't a problem then the likelihood to get buy-in for a different model will be hard but if you can demonstrate that this isn't an effective approach and provide a case that supports this change then your chances are much improved.
I know you have said L&D sits with the line managers - so what do they do in terms of L&D activity, do they coach, do they identify gaps in performance and then do they identify external training courses or does anyone create content internally. Who does induction training? Does anyone track training and the business impact of any training?
2) So this is a little chicken and egg I know but assuming there is a business case for this change what will you present as a L&D model? There are so many different roles that can make up a L&D team you can shape and flex depending on what the business needs are and ensure whatever you're putting in place is going to meet the need. If costs are an issue then creating a model full of face to face trainers who specialise in classroom training is going to be expensive both in terms of time and resource plus time away from the job. Likewise you don't want to only offer elearning via an LMS and have no face to face training at all.
There has to be a blend of different approaches that is right for your organisation and ensure the skills that sit within L&D are what is absolutely necessary. The world has moved on greatly from L&D being training specialists who purely focus on the training cycle but this is still a key part of our role in understanding learning needs and improving performance.
Take a look at the modern L&D professional roles as described by Jane Hart - Jane is a leading light what the modern (and future) L&D teams and what roles we are seeing in organisations to help improve performance and workplace learning.
It might be that a central model isn't required but your organisation does need new L&D roles that help your organisation work smarter and more effectively and help others around them improve performance.
Emerging roles for L&D (2012)
Two roles for L&D (2014)
I like this thinking and feel it can influence and inform any workplace learning strategy. The other thing that is worth doing is completing the below document from your organisation perspective. It's called the 5 stages of workplace learning and is a useful exercise to complete to see where your training / learning is happening and more important where it isn't.
5 stages of workplace learning - just name all the things happening in each of the stages in your organisation and who does it.
You can also check out the CIPD fact sheet on L&D strategy here
Anyway hope this helps in some way - keep us posted how you progress :)
Hi Amanda
We use a strategy model called Grants resource model, this focuses on building up from the organisations key objectives, to how the L&D/HR Department support achieving these, it incorporates a SWOT analysis as well as a form of pestle to identify any external influences. Measures are key - we do this through business balanced scorecard - to track progress, review priorities and ultimately ensure we are meeting our targets and adding value.
I cant see to attach on here, so have copied rough example in, will bring completed one with me on Thursday,
Hope this helps, Nicola
Hi Amanda,
I presume you don't have a site training matrix, any training curricula or a competency framework for any of the job roles? Do you have job descriptions for all the roles? Are there compliance training requirements for the business or is it just role competencies and individual development you are considering? Does the company have a policy regarding further education etc?
It would be nice for you to have a transparent approach to L&D that can be consistently applied to ensure that the available budget is used to best effect, rather than on an ad hoc basis.
In the absence of all the above, I would start with compiling a list of all the training that has been delivered over the past 5 years or so, and if possible the learning objectives for each training intervention. Also get a feel for the budget used each year across the business (if possible get exact figures from each department).
I would also want to know how the managers currently decide what training to provide, and on what basis they prioritise interventions. I would also want to know what training the managers would have liked to have been provided and why.
I would meet with the senior leadership team to discuss with them what they saw as skills gaps or training priorities for the business in order to ensure the business was keeping up with the times.
When I started I wrote a vision, identified the values to be worked with, then drafted a mission and a communications plan. My circumstances are different as I was brought in to lead a small training team. I work in a factory environment. (I don't know what sort of business you work in?) I am happy to talk you through the steps we went through. If you think this would help, send me a message and I'll give you my phone number.
Alison :)
Hello Alison (and Amanda)
Thanks for your insight. I'm not sure I can help with Amanda's question but want to emphasise how important getting that L and D strategy right is. The prompts from Alison should help greatly. I find myself in an L and D team that has grown rapidly and delivers a lot of training but seems to run around a little and doesn't have that strategic focus at times. The training is greatly received by staff and well delivered but when it comes to quantifying an ROI etc it has proven difficult because of the lack on initial direction. My experience says that the time spent now getting it right will be well rewarded in the future.
Adam