Want to remain competitive? Here are 3 reasons you need to invest in L&D...

Marie-Josee Lefebvre, Director Leadership, Learning & Development & Stephane Rivet, VP HR , Corporate Services, Learning and Developement, Intact

Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup once wrote “The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else”. We all know the importance of the Learning and development function, as it has been recognized for decades that learning organizations are more profitable. As the economy is constantly changing and we see the rise of new emerging digital trends, the importance of the L&D function has risen to a whole new level. By contributing to overall organizational effectiveness, helping organizations to adapt, and attracting potential talent, as well as retaining current employees, the L&D function as become a true differentiator for organizations that are wise enough to invest in it.

Contributing to the overall effectiveness

The L&D function contributes to the overall effectiveness of organizations and helps them to stay ahead of the game in many ways. Aside from increasing the speed to develop and deploy its learning programs, the L&D function also: • Increases employee performance

• Contributes to organizational adaptability

• Improves and extends corporate capabilities

One of the most important ways L&D can contribute is by aligning the L&D strategy to the overall corporate strategy. Unfortunately, according to Deloitte research, only 10-15% of organizations have L&D programs that are aligned to the organization’s strategic objectives. If you believe you can rely on the existing skills of your current workforce to carry you into the future, think again.

The future of work will not be about degrees, but about how fast your organization can learn and adapt

A World Economic Forum report mentioned in 2017 that 65% of children entering elementary school will work in a job that does not yet exist. Therefore, most skills taught through a college degree will not be relevant in 10 years. Does your organization have a strategy to address this? No one knows your business better than the people working in it; this is your competitive advantage. As HR / L&D leaders, you are in the best position to predict how rapid changes will impact your organization and therefore react more quickly than any great business school or consulting firms when it comes to anticipating the needed skills to succeed. This is your chance as an HR professional to outlearn the market and offer training opportunities that cannot be found anywhere else.

"Increasing employee retention, especially when it comes to top talent, saves money and therefore, improves your organization’s bottom line"

If the size of your L&D function does not allow you to create customized internal learning paths, then leveraging existing options, such as Google certificates, that promise to reskill someone in less than 6 months for less than 500$ could be a great alternative. If your competitors are hiring recent graduates, then you could target a different audience such as mid-40s professionals looking for a career change, then support them with strong learning and development resources. Having your own L&D strategy will allow you to create, provide and deliver training programs that are far more aligned with your business objectives than any generic degree or certificate program being offered on the market.

Attracting and retaining talent

In today’s workforce, it is very seldom that you will hear someone say, “I’m going to stay in this job forever”. Despite this, in a market where candidates are becoming increasingly harder to find, a 2018 LinkedIn survey found that 93% of employees would stay with a company longer if it invested in their career. According to recent a report released by TalentLMS and backed by Epignosis and the Society for Human Resource Management, 76% of employees say they are more likely to stay with a company that offers continuous training and 55% say they need additional training to perform better in their roles. Increasing employee retention, especially when it comes to top talent, saves money and therefore, improves your organization’s bottom line.

Let us be honest here, the era where you were hiring people based on the probability that they would stay in the same position for many years is over. Potential candidates are now considering accepting a job offers based largely on their opportunities to grow within your company. They need to know their career will go somewhere and that their marketability as a professional will not only be secured but enhanced too!

Can your organization clearly articulate what kind of development experience perspective employees will gain in your company, or how aspects of their unique personalities will be nurtured? Let’s be clear here: we are not talking here about those generic statements we read on every career website; we are talking about being able to demonstrate your proactivity in identifying emerging skills, whether it is technical, digital, leadership, or power skills… and deliver! Only then, will your employees know that their professional development is secured. And what happens next? Your organization becomes THE place where the skills they gain make them exceed the expectations for their role which in turn, leads to better results and outperforming your competition.

Now, for these reasons to become a reality, the L&D function needs to up its game. According to that same report from Talent LMS, the L&D function itself needs training to be more relevant, more up to date, and provide more control to the learners. Therefore, the context and the path for L&D to be a key differentiator is clear; It is up the L&D professionals and organizations they support to invest in making it happen.

Human Resource

LMS