News story

L&D must be responsive to changing business needs

Learning NewsWorld of Learning

At a time of significant and perhaps even unprecedented change post-Brexit, it is more important than ever for L&D to be responsive to fast-evolving business needs.

With a raft of potential changes facing organisations as a result of the UK’s vote to leave the European Union, L&D needs to support the workforce to navigate successfully through this period of changing demands and uncertainty.

Yet, while L&D leaders want to meet the changing needs of business as quickly as possible, according to the most recent findings from L&D research specialists Towards Maturity, the majority don’t feel they are achieving this. 

The 2015-16 Towards Maturity Benchmark Report, which explores the factors that set top performing learning companies apart based on responses from 600 learning professionals, delivers indisputable evidence to support this view.  While 94 per cent of L&D leaders are looking to provide a faster response to changing business conditions, only 22 per cent believe they are achieving it.

Laura Overton, Founder and CEO of Towards Maturity comments, “This is a major challenge for L&D leaders.  For many organisations there is a gulf between what is required at a given time and what is actually being delivered, and this needs to be addressed.  For L&D functions to thrive in the current climate, they need to organise themselves to be agile and responsive.”  

What is holding L&D back?                                   

L&D has more resources than ever at its disposal for managing information and supporting workforce training. With a multitude of platforms and tools available, from Learning Management Systems which support multi-device learning, to a culture which increasingly embraces social and self-driven learning, to the advent of virtual reality to support immersive learning, why do more than three quarters of learning professionals believe that are not able to respond quickly enough to changing business needs? 

The Towards Maturity benchmark report points to two major obstacles for L&D.  Firstly, being wedded to a fixed strategy is a major hindrance to agility. Only 59 per cent of L&D leaders agree that their strategy allows for changing business priorities and just 50 per cent agree their learning initiatives are delivered in time to meet the needs of the business.

The second obstacle highlighted by the report is that there is a clear lack of alignment between what L&D IS delivering verses what the business priorities are. According to the report, only 61 per cent of L&D team activity is fully aligned with the strategic goals of the organisation. 

Who is more agile and responsive and why?

Top Deck organisations (those in the top quartile of the Towards Maturity Index reporting the best results) are four times as likely to agree that they are providing a faster response to business compared to those in bottom quartile of the Towards Maturity Index.

So, what are these organisations doing differently? What is it that is enabling the top deck organisations to respond quickly to changing business needs?  L&D Functions can look to four main areas for potential improvement:

What is holding L&D back?

1. Collaboration with business to understand its needs 

The most crucial factor in building an agile L&D function is the alignment of learning with business needs.  Those organisations heading up the benchmark leader board are 40 times more likely to agree up front with senior managers the KPIs that they want to address, securing vital buy-in and increased chance of business impact.  According to Toward Maturity’s report, Making an Impact: How L&D Leaders Can Demonstrate Value, those that do work with managers up front are also more likely to get manager commitment throughout the learning process to support staff as their ideas and behaviour changes.

2. Learning Approaches

A fundamental difference between the top performing L&D functions and those in the lower decks is in their utilisation of learning approaches. Top Deck organisations clearly look beyond ‘course’ as the solution, and are four times as likely to consider course as only one of many options for building skills and performance within their business.  They are also four times more likely to employ learning approaches that support learning within the natural flow of work. Including multiple solutions within an organisation’s learning armoury opens up the opportunity to engage the right solution, at the right time for the right audience, quickly.

3. Learning technology

Another key factor in facilitating an agile L&D function is the use of technology tools to help L&D respond with speed. Top Deck firms are more than three times as likely to encourage user generated content and communities of practice to share ideas.  Micro-content (information provided in under ten minutes) is also a key part of the solution for agile L&D departments, with top deck organisations ten times as likely to include bite-sized learning in their approach. Facilitating information reaching learners quickly and widely via these tools allows for fast response times in a fluid business environment.

4. Confidence in tools available

Those organisations who feel they are meeting business needs in a timely way report that their staff are confident in incorporating new media into their learning design.  In addition, Top Deck companies are a whopping 35 times more likely than those in the bottom quartile to agree with the statement that their L&D teams have the skills to design solutions that exploit technology for digital advantage. Empowering those responsible for learning design is a wise investment.

It is clear that L&D must be able to respond more quickly than ever to fast-changing business needs.The agility required to fulfil this will come from a combined strategy of early and continued collaboration with the business on mutually-agreed goals while leveraging the learning approaches and tools which facilitate fast and far-reaching delivery.

Laura concludes, “There is huge opportunity for L&D to shine in this time of change, but the foundations for agile response have to be laid.”

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