Giving your team members access to learning opportunities helps them acquire new abilities, which they subsequently use every day they work for you. On the other hand, L&D professionals just concentrate on the professional development and skill-building of employees. They concentrate on training, addressing knowledge gaps, reviewing employee performance, and developing learning solutions that support employees in producing their best work.
What is Learning and Development?
Everything a company does to promote professional development among its staff is referred to as learning and development. The category of Learning and Development includes training courses, development programs, online learning, development activities, and much more.
L&D comes in a variety of forms, including online training, in-person instruction, and mentoring. L&D specialists concentrated their training initiatives on three key areas:
- Retraining and upskilling
- Management and leadership
- Online onboarding
Related: Learning and Development: Guide for organisations
How to develop a training and development process?
The learning and development process is an essential activity for employees and their organisations. The skills that employees gain via training become organisational assets. As employees expand their skill sets, so do their job security and their opportunities for career growth. Overall, the process generally involves the following steps
Determine the need for development and training
If a company is running a training program, you may evaluate the potential for growth for both the individual employees and the organization as a whole. This may involve establishing a new department, bolstering the current teams, introducing new goods, or improving current ones. Making staff understand and adapt to new procedures and production flows requires determining the need for a training program and selecting one that meets your needs.
Set specific goals and objectives
Once you identify organisational needs, the next step is to set a specific goal or objective for the learning and development. Whether it is spreading awareness about new product launching or learning the installation process of new software, establish a clear plan that meets the needs of your training program. Here is a list of a few common goals an organisation may have:
- Improving product quality
- Eliminating wastage of time
- Implementing safety precautions
- Assisting effective management
Choose your training approaches and create a thorough plan
A complete training program includes teaching techniques, subject substance, a learning flow, and other crucial components. You can pick from the following training techniques:
- Classroom instruction: This can foster employee development and result in positive interactions that make new hires feel supported and welcome. To emphasize knowledge sharing, classroom training may also involve coaching, teaching, and mentoring.
- Computerized training: This allows for flexibility and scalability because it allows for the participation of any number of individuals, who can move through the program at their own pace. Implementing virtual classroom elements like screen-sharing, audio-visual aids, and video recording is required for this kind of instruction. Training that is based on simulations allows workers to interact with actual or imaginary scenarios.
- On-the-job or practical training: This enables staff members to comprehend the workplace and pick up new skills. You can employ specialized tools in a live-work practice or training setting thanks to the instruction as well.
- Role-playing: The procedure involves the trainee and the trainer, and the trainees take on the role of someone who is faced with a problem and must figure out how to solve it on their own. The participants must respond quickly and realistically to a variety of challenging scenarios.
- Case study with this technique, a participant is given a scenario that represents typical work scenarios, whether it be actual or made up. To assist them to develop their problem-solving abilities, they are then given some basic guidelines on how to analyze the situation and come up with the best solution.
- Videos for training are popular because many people find them more engaging than books.
Put the training program into action
The organization can carry out the training process through thorough, step-by-step instruction and coaching after choosing a training strategy and approach. The business can plan training sessions and employ the necessary materials for this. The organization may select an appropriate site for the training based on the type of training and the size of the group in order to increase its success.
Analyze the results
It is crucial for organizations to evaluate the program’s influence, efficacy, and level of success. To find out if the program was beneficial and to see if they have any suggestions for improvement, you can ask the staff for comments. In order to evaluate, you can also use tests, practical activities, and quizzes.
Monitor activities
Monitoring employee performance comes last before training and development are finished. Management can determine whether the training was sufficient for the present or if advanced sessions are needed based on the findings of the training assessment. The management can also make appropriate plans for the scope of upcoming training and development programs.
Pros of effective L&D process
1. Emphasise soft talents
A crucial trend for talent development in 2021 and the foreseeable future is training for soft skills and improving interpersonal (or more human) talents, according to the most recent GetSmarter 2021 report, which focuses on resetting professional careers in a COVID-19 environment. Automation, industrial transformation, and technology advancements are the main forces behind this.
The modern workplace demands flexible, critical thinkers who can effectively communicate and are aware of both their strengths and opportunities for improvement. You may pinpoint strengths and potential growth areas for individuals or groups using the GetSmarter Skills Hierarchy. It can also highlight skills shortages in your team that needs to be filled. Hone your interpersonal and leadership skills
2. Individualises personal development
Learning personalisation is now possible thanks to contemporary talent development technology, which was once thought to be beyond the realm of possibility. One-size-fits-all approaches to workplace development are ineffective in a changing, diverse workplace; instead, workers must be evaluated and recognized for their unique abilities, technical proficiency, and learning style. Develop staff development capabilities.
3. Place a focus on digital learning
Employers need to engage talent using the channels they currently choose to spend their time on in order to lower learning resistance. The future of learning and development lies in agile learning approaches that emphasise efficiency, adaptability, and cooperation. This strategy will help leaders to more effectively manage skills gaps by ensuring that individuals quickly acquire new skills or retrain existing ones in order to improve job and organisational performance. acquire expertise in digital transformation.
4. Produce a plan of strategic development.
By 2025, the World Economic Forum predicts that 50% of workers will require reskilling.
Employers must take the lead in providing employees with up- and down-skilling training as the skills gap widens. The first stage in developing a development strategy is to decide on your company’s goals. Efforts to reskill and upskill workers can support and foster business success. L&D must work with all stakeholders to identify existing and prospective skills gaps in order to plan for future growth and provide training solutions that address those goals.
10 Benefits of Learning and Development
1. Employee Retention Rates are Increased by Learning and Development
Opportunities for learning and development have a significant impact on employee retention rates. In fact, according to one survey, 94% of workers would continue working for a company longer if it supported their professional growth. Additionally, increasing staff retention rates aids in cost savings for firms. The cost of hiring a new employee is typically five times higher than the cost of maintaining an existing employee.
Therefore, employers face a significant retention difficulty, yet great employee retention can be addressed through career development. In fact, training and development have taken on such a central role in firms that they are frequently utilised as a hiring advantage. Offering professional development opportunities promotes loyalty and makes employees feel valued inside the organisation, which eventually increases staff retention and results in a 59% reduced staff turnover rate.
Related: Benefits of Learning and Development
2. Creates Potential Leaders
In order to build a company for expansion and evolution, it can be crucial to target people with the aptitude for future leadership. It is possible to find leadership talent through new recruits or by choosing current employees to be managerial candidates. Professional development programs, according to the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), ensure that an organisation is focused on future business goals by training promotable people.
3. Gives Workers Power
Leaders will be more successful in swaying subordinates and winning their trust if they feel empowered at work. As a result, such workers will experience a higher sense of independence, value, and confidence in their work. Employee autonomy is defined by SHRM as the degree to which an employee feels independent and has the ability to make independent decisions about their work.
4. Increases Employee Engagement
Finding strategies to increase employees’ ongoing involvement can help reduce boredom at work, which if left unchecked can lead to sentiments of unhappiness and bad working habits. Regular training and development programs can reduce inactivity at work, which in turn will support organisations in regularly reevaluating their workforce, competencies, and operational procedures. Additionally, it can trigger corporate analysis and planning since it requires employers to analyse current talent and evaluate growth and development potential internally rather than through recruitment, which will have an impact on company culture by putting a focus on planning.
In fact, Forbes measured employee engagement and empowerment using data from over 7,000 employees and discovered that employees with low levels of employee engagement scored in the 24th percentile while those with high levels of employee engagement scored in the 79th percentile.
5. Fosters Relationships at Work
Finally, giving your team members the chance to learn new things, develop their abilities, and broaden their knowledge will help them get closer as a unit. In these training and development workshops, they will work together to overcome fresh difficulties. By collaborating with colleagues who have particular areas of expertise, they can also rely on one another for a variety of learning possibilities. Peer cooperation is actually their preferred mode of learning, according to research. In addition to creating a more well-rounded workforce, these connections can increase engagement and retention rates.
It is clear why employee training and development is important in the workplace when keeping in mind these five advantages as well as those that aren’t included here. If this empirically supported theory piques your interest as a business professional, a graduate degree in human resources might be the best choice. The highly sought-after online MAHR program at Ottawa University has earned prestigious accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), meeting or exceeding both organisations’ high standards and requirements.
6. Training Your Staff Increases Productivity
As trained personnel are far more productive than those who do not receive training, providing staff with learning and development opportunities can have a direct influence on your company’s bottom line. For instance, a study by IBM indicated that teams with training saw a 10% improvement in production. The fact that staff obtains the training and information necessary to consistently use best practices contributes to the rise in productivity.
Related: 15 ways to motivate yourself
7. Learning and growth are now expected as a norm.
According to research from Gallup, today’s workforce has grown to regard training and development opportunities as a given. According to the poll, 87% of millennials said that possibilities for learning and growth play a significant role in their decision to accept a new job. By 2025, millennials are expected to account for 50% of the workforce, thus it is critical that firms offer learning and development opportunities to accommodate the new majority.
8. Decreased risk at work
Workplace accidents are more likely to occur when personnel are not properly instructed in how to utilise equipment and behave. For employees to be aware of how to be safe at work, HR departments must develop a clear, thorough compliance training program.
9. An increase in job satisfaction
Thinqi.com research reveals that employees who have access to learning and development opportunities have much greater levels of job satisfaction than those who do not. This is due to learning and development initiatives enabling staff to acquire the knowledge and abilities needed.This is so that staff members can acquire the information and abilities necessary to succeed in their roles through learning and development programs. This may contribute to improving workplace morale and fostering a more favourable work environment.
10. Improved connections with customers
After receiving training, your staff members are more prepared to deal with clients. When your employees are competent at responding to all of a customer’s questions, you may offer outstanding customer service. Your consumers will gain from favourable interactions with your customer service personnel since learning and development boost work satisfaction. As satisfied workers are happier and more engaged, this positive tone is going to get noticed by your customers.
Learning and Development Examples
1. Yelp
At Yelp, everyone has stretch roles. An engaged workforce and a mentoring culture are produced when people are given duties that are just beyond their existing skills. Promoting from within encourages both personal growth and taking care of others.
2. Pixar
For several areas, Pixar University offers both necessary training and elective courses. According to Harvard Business Review, Pixar President Ed Catmull claims that “Pixar University helps reinforce the idea that we’re all learning and it’s wonderful to learn together.”
By giving them the authority to make decisions, they support their directors and take care not to undermine their authority. As a cornerstone of their peer-based process, directors take development into their own hands by consulting a “creative brain trust” of filmmakers.
One way Airbnb demonstrates its commitment to learning is through chats. These internal gatherings invite renowned businessmen to offer their perspectives on a certain subject. According to Airbnb, “These leaders, from CEOs to singers, always have something priceless to teach us.”
4. Earls
People at Earls can develop life visions and express objectives that will help them be their best selves with the aid of the Visions + Goals program. There are sporadic corporate retreats as well. Training for the guest experience combines in-person instruction with online learning.
5. Etsy
At all corporate levels, employees are encouraged to pick up new skills from others. Employees participate in lessons at the “Etsy School” where they teach a variety of subjects, such as tap dance or how to handle a challenging conversation. The Etsy Learning and Development team aids individuals in choosing a direction for their professional advancement.
6. OverDrive
At OverDrive, employees receive a Professional Growth Planner. This manual highlights the possibilities for growth and learning while assisting readers in making the best choice possible. Together, employees and management are urged to monitor progress all through the year.
At Thrive Digital, accepting candidates with all levels of expertise is encouraged. Even if they start out with little industry understanding, team members can advance to new jobs. The sponsored search channels they will eventually use are covered in training, and Thrive’s partners frequently offer extra chances in their areas of specialisation.
The A-Player Development Program was developed by 1800 GOT JUNK for professional advancement. They provide a number of employee-taught courses on a range of subjects, including franchise development and strategic planning.
9. Culture Amp
Through the Coaching for Everyone program, each employee gets access to a qualified coach. Employees might opt to focus on personal or professional goals during sessions offered to them every six, twelve, and twenty-four months. Coaches assist in determining where a person is and where they want to be, and they then lead each person through a plan of action to achieve their objectives.
10. Digital Ocean
At Digital Ocean, it’s crucial to prepare for individual development and make sure everyone has a job they can advance into. Every year, people create a plan for their goals, including both their personal and professional aspirations in relation to corporate strategy.
11. Optoro
It encourages its staff to take part in conferences, associations, and educational initiatives that will keep them at the forefront of their industry. A professional development fund is provided to each exempt employee for usage over the whole fiscal year. Employees decide which programs would best further their development while also having a positive influence on the company in collaboration with their manager and department head. In addition to allocating funds for professional development, Optoro offers in-depth, 10-plus-week internal management training. More than 40 employees went through this series in 2016.
Conclusion
An employee engagement survey is a wonderful place to start if you want to discover what is important at your firm in terms of learning and development.
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