|
Most business leaders
understand the value of providing learning and
development opportunities to their employees.
Because human capital is such a significant investment,
it’s important that employees have the knowledge
and skills they need to produce quality work.
Companies realize this.
What leaders and managers often fail to do, however,
is to provide learning and development that aligns
with their organization’s strategy. Sometimes
the training they provide is haphazard or reactionary;
much of it fails to develop abilities that help
the company achieve its goals.
For learning and development to be successful,
business leaders—along with the professionals
who are in charge of designing and delivering
it—must move beyond this myopic view. Instead,
they must clearly define the organizational strategy
and then identify core competencies that employees
must develop and demonstrate in order to carry
out that strategy. They must then build training
that enhances these essential competencies.
(continued below)
As they design and deliver training, it is helpful
for leaders and learning professionals to recognize
that employee development is but one component
of the organization’s talent life cycle. It is,
however, an essential one. The talent life cycle
begins once the company profiles a job and begins
sourcing candidates for it. It continues in earnest
once an employee comes on board and becomes acculturated.
From here, learning and development kicks in,
integrating into all aspects of the employee’s
life at the company. The training an employee
receives can significantly impact how he or she
performs, the types of rewards that he or she
receives, and whether he or she advances in the
company. Because strategy is (or should be) the
core around which all life-cycle activities are
centered, learning and development then becomes
a driving force to help the company achieve its
strategic goals.
Because learning and development plays such a
vital role in the organization, those in charge
of designing and facilitating it must change the
way they approach their work. An important step
is to make sure that they are familiar with corporate
strategy and understand the vision. Leaders must
work closely with them to give them the information
they need and make sure they’re on the same page.
The training professionals should then identify
what competencies employees must meet in order
to carry out the strategy. In essence, they must
work with leaders to identify the development
opportunities that will allow employees to build
their skills, progress through the talent life
cycle, and ultimately help the company fulfill
its vision.
In the end, business leaders and learning and
development professionals must not view the training
they provide as an obligation or event; instead,
they must see it as an essential component of
a strategic process. When providing learning opportunities,
they should not focus so much on short-term needs
but rather on how those opportunities will help
the company succeed. And when evaluating success,
they should not crunch numbers to see whether
participants rated a session highly; instead they
should focus on how often participants will use
what they learned to help the company make progress
toward meeting its strategic goals.
To learn more about how FlashPoint can help tie
your learning and development programs to your
strategic objectives, visit our website,
e-mail
us, or call 317.229.3035.
© 2010, FlashPoint |
ClearlyHR
