L&D practitioners need to bridge their own skills gap to drive organisational performance
To prepare organisations for technological growth, globalisation and an uncertain economic outlook, the L&D function needs a much broader blend of skills than ever before. New research, however, reveals a significant gap between the skills and capabilities L&D practitioners know they need and what they actually have in-house.
The CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, and Towards Maturity, provider of the latest benchmark research on effective practices for modern learning approaches, have today launched a new report, L&D: Evolving roles, enhancing skills. It follows CIPD research published at the end of 2014 which explored how changes in the external context are influencing the L&D profession. Now, through benchmarking data from 600 L&D leaders and organisational case studies, this new research identifies the extent to which the profession is evolving, what the developments mean practically for L&D practitioners, and considers those organisations successfully responding and adapting to key drivers of change in the external environment.
The research shows that although the L&D community is more ambitious than ever before, many practitioners don’t have the capabilities in-house to drive the organisational change they’d like to. For example, 87% think that business planning is a priority for L&D professionals, but only 47% think they currently have the skills in-house; similarly, 96% see supporting learners online as important, but just 36% have the capabilities to offer these services.
However, these figures aren’t so surprising, given that a high proportion of firms are not actively investing in building their L&D capability. Over 50% of organisations surveyed said they are not planning on changing role focus towards instructional design, content development, technology, performance consulting and data analytics. This also filters down to the L&D function itself – despite 9 out of 10 L&D professionals looking to improve performance, productivity and sharing of good practice, only 53% agree that there are more options than just ‘the course’ for building skills and performance.
Ruth Stuart, Research Adviser at the CIPD, commented: “It’s very interesting how, as L&D professionals, we constantly champion the importance of staying ahead of the game in terms of skills and capabilities, but don’t take our own advice. In this volatile work environment we need to be agile, adaptive and ambidextrous to drive performance and stay relevant, aligning our work to the wider business.
“In order to do this, we need to ensure that the correct L&D resources, roles and capabilities are in place. Evaluating your team’s current skill base, starting to build on capability gaps, and then making continuous professional development (CPD) an everyday reality are the first steps. We’ve seen that although practitioners seem to understand the importance of alignment between L&D activity and organisational performance, many are struggling to achieve this in practice. A clear line of sight is therefore key, as is being clear on vision and purpose and ensuring all resources are deployed innovatively and effectively.”
The research also highlights a noticeable shift in the L&D role from pure training delivery to a performance consulting model. This means L&D professionals must both diagnose and solve problems, partnering with the business to identify opportunities to enhance performance. The shift also moves L&D provision significantly beyond ‘the course’, and means that L&D professionals will increasingly need to be versatile experts. McDonald’s has already put measures in place to accommodate these broader roles, with the introduction of a new development programme designed to build performance consulting skills across the business.
Laura Overton, Managing Director of Towards Maturity, said: “It’s clear that L&D professionals have higher expectations than ever before, aligning themselves with wider business needs and accumulating more responsibility. However, this makes it imperative that we stop and reflect on our own L&D first if we are to adapt and evolve to the changing contexts of work, and the way we support individual and organisational performance.
“The challenge is how to focus our roles and shape our own professional development to make sure we are future-ready. We need to first identify all internal and external factors influencing L&D roles, and consider what’s driving change. We then need to self-reflect and assess whether there is a healthy mix of roles in the L&D function, before deciding which changes we need to make to drive performance in our individual organisations.”
The CIPD’s qualitative case study research found that the following organisations have been successfully implementing new initiatives and processes to enhance the impact of L&D:
- Barnardo’s – the IT L&D team at the UK’s largest children’s charity have developed an adaptable way of working which means they can respond quickly to business needs while continually keeping their own skills up to date.
- Mattel – the American toy manufacturer has shifted learning evaluation from inputs to outputs, to focus on business impact
- McDonald’s – the food service retailer has encouraged a shift from training delivery to performance consultancy with the introduction of a new development programme designed to build performance consulting skills across the business
- Ministry of Defence – the College of Communications and Information Systems at the MoD has actively focused on achieving business and customer alignment with a full appreciation of the purpose of L&D through an innovation cell
- PwC – the professional services firm is encouraging evidence-based decisions using data and has established a digital learning academy, focusing on building confidence in learning technologies and having great conversations with business leaders
- University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust – the trust has established an L&D structure which clearly connects to organisational needs, so investment can be directed where it’s most needed
More information on each of the case studies can be found in the full report.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
- Ruth Stuart, Research Adviser for the CIPD, and Laura Overton, Managing Director at Towards Maturity, are available for interview.
- L&D: Evolving Roles, Enhancing Skills is available for download at: http://towardsmaturity.org/article/2015/04/14/ld-evolving-roles-and-enhancing-skills
- Ruth Stuart (CIPD), Laura Overton (Towards Maturity) and Lisa Johnson (Barnardo’s) will be speaking at the CIPD’s annual L&D Show from 13 – 14 May 2015 at London Olympia. More information and the full conference programme is available here.
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- The CIPD is the professional body for HR and people development. The not for profit organisation champions better work and working lives and has been setting the benchmark for excellence in people and organisation development for more than 100 years. It has more than 135,000 members across the world, provides thought leadership through independent research on the world of work, and offers professional training and accreditation for those working in HR and learning and development.