Learning Strategy in a Nutshell

  Evaluate The 2015 CIPD learning and development survey highlighted that one in seven organisations do not evaluate the majority of their L&D initiatives – over a third limit their evaluations to the satisfaction of those that take part. One in five assess the transfer of learning into the workplace and a small minority evaluate the wider impact on the business. It’s important to learn how to create and implement an effective training evaluation strategy to fit and drive your training and performance initiatives, whether formal or informal, so that you can help to create and demonstrate the organisational value of your work. An effective strategy will ensure that your valuable, limited resources are dedicated to the programs and solutions that will bring about the most impact.  Developing criteria that measure success against business goals Review each role in the business and identify the critical success factors for each role, build competency frameworks from ...

  Making sure it is learner-centric The learner should be at the heart of all activities. Every individual should know what path their training is taking, where they are now and where they need to be to achieve their personal and corporate goals. The learning should not have a fixed path, it should be “Branched”; as learners progress at different paces there should be the option of accelerating past sections if the learner can display the required knowledge level. What is content? Content is basically anything that your employees can access to improve their performance. This is not always formal learning, Google searches for a piece of information could be considered content, as could reading a relevant article. The modern L&Der, not only manages formal learning but can curate much in the way of informal learning. Content should engage the learner Remember the aim is engaging the individual learner, as much as fulfilling the organisational needs. Choose learning modalities and ...

  Plan, Plan, Plan Do you know what the organisations main business challenges are? Why not? Is L&D demand driven; unplanned. Always reacting to the next crisis or simply delivering what learners want to attend rather than what the business needs them to attend. Never engineer a solution. What? Do not create a programme and then look for challenges or business issues to solve. The approach must always be the reverse of that; Understand the need, then look to offer solutions that fit. Administration Most companies today use a Learning Management System of some sort for administration. An LMS has many functions including:  Administration – The ability to easily manage and administer the learning function including classroom, enrolments, course catalogue, instructors, and more. Facilitating Learning – An LMS can be used to schedule and facilitate live learning, build eLearning programs and courses. Data analysis – collect learning evaluation and report on learning, Use a rang...

  A business cannot become one in which learning is continuous and part of the business culture without direction and support from the top down Understand your company needs Ask yourself a question: Does L&D speak the same language as the business? Every department has its own language, buzz words, terminology and we within learning and development as guilty as everyone else. So instead of talking to them about 70/20/10 models, Kirkpatrick evaluations, working out loud or blended learning speak to them in language they will understand. Likewise, learning a little bit of their language and embedding it in your L&D dictionary will go a long way to building mutual trust. We have, as L&D practitioners, historically been focused on “Event” learning. In the world of the business executive the type and number of courses run is to some extent irrelevant. That is why we need to change the way we think; to look at L&D through “executive” eyes and start concentration on p...

  In 2019 and beyond, learning and development (L&D) strategies shouldn’t just be implemented by corporations or enterprises alone. Why? Because L&D will be the most innovative department for any organisation for the next decade or so, regardless of its shape or size. An L&D strategy is a vital tool for organisations to align the corporate training with business objectives. It has the following benefits:  It ensures that staff learning and development needs are effectively met. Company's skills requirements for senior management are being developed. Despite knowing these benefits, questions still remain.  What are the best ways to create an L&D Strategy? How do we make it efficient and effective? Aligning learning goals with business The past is the past, but what about the future? The future is something we can’t control. Wrong, strategy begins by focusing on the vision, mission, and goals that make the future of your business an exciting o...

  Small businesses may not have the resources or budget of their larger counterparts for learning and development activities, but that doesn’t mean they should simply ignore it. The most recent report (2017) from the Federation of Small Businesses indicates that while 91% of small businesses recognise the value of staff training and development, both in terms of increasing the value of an employee’s contribution to the business and in terms of employee retention, just 43% of British SMEs are currently investing in training and development. The cost of providing training was cited as the primary reason small businesses don’t offer their staff a training and development programme, with 43% identifying this as an issue. 34% of the businesses surveyed by the FSB indicated that they don’t provide training because they don’t have access to relevant training options in their area. So, you’re responsible for your small to medium sized company’s employee development...

I feel I may have missed some Learning & Development posts, blogs or articles, because it seems to me that much of what I have read focuses on learners, content and technology. Now I know that these are the most exciting areas of learning and development, but hang on a moment, there is still an awful lot of other work that goes on. I'm going to take some time to shine a light on 6 elements of learning & development that are often forgotten along with the indispensable team members that take care of them. I'm talking about the administrators and the coordinators.  The 6 elements I'm going to highlight here (and this isn't the whole list) are; Skills gap analysis Administration, Communication Supply chain Evaluation Data The first element, Skills Gap Analysis , could also be considered as part of the HR functions responsibility, but before any kind of structured personal development can be implemented it is important to know what is required. Unless it is a speci...