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6 forgotten elements of Learning & 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 specific intervention for a particular issue, all planned learning is "managed" by an administrator or coordinator. They monitor and report on employee progress to the Learning & Development partner, manager or specialist to review and amend the L&D strategy.

Then Administration, that time consuming element that needs a completer finisher to make sure the records are all up to date, new content/course dates get added, old content is removed and generally makes sure that things run smoothly. Managing the LMS.UXP if the business has one or keeping spreadsheets up to date.

Communication is so important, the administrator/coordinator is normally responsible for ensuring the right messages are sent out in the correct format to the right people at the right time.

Who manages the relationship with vendors and suppliers? Of course it's the Administrators and Coordinators taking care of the Supply Chain. 

Once learning is completed in whatever form there needs to be a period for Evaluation. Sending out the surveys, following up when learners don't complete first time. Follow up on comments to get more detail and so on.

And then at the end the Data needs to be collated and delivered in a useable form, or uploaded to a data visualization suite. The data that will be used to review and influence the L&D strategy for the next period, or be used during employee briefings or annual performance reviews.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, and for SMEs this is even more crucial as the business may not have a dedicated person as an L&D partner/Officer/Specialist etc or an administrator/coordinator.

So my question is, "How do SMEs cope with the complexities of delivering the learning & development requirement of employees?"

Let me know what would make things easier for SMEs.

Les Heath

Learning & Development Strategy Implementation Specialist

Interested in what else I do? Follow this link www.nutshelllnd.co.uk 


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