What is Learning and Development (L&D)?
Learning and Development (L&D) is a systematic process of upgrading the skills, competencies and knowledge of the workforce of an organisation.
The responsibility of Learning and Development (L&D) belongs to the HR management team.
Why L&D is crucial for any HR
Learning and Development (L&D) aided by Human Resources (HR) is crucial for several reasons:
- L&D activities enhances the overall skill sets and competency of the workforce
- It helps in the professional growth of the employee
- Makes the workforce respond more effectively to market demands and outperform competitors
- Benefits the growth of the organisation, as all its employees are well equipped with the latest technologies, methodologies and soft skills
- As the employees become well equipped, the company leads in innovation, becomes future ready, gets strategically aligned and races ahead than its competitors
- Improves the job performance, productivity, and efficiency
- Company brand improves as it gets projected that they care for their employees, hence invest in their upgradation
- Talent retention is higher as the employees feel more belonged to the company that invests in them
What are the hurdles the HR face in it?
The HR might face multiple issues while implementing any L&D activities in the organisation. The biggest is the existing work culture which doesn’t believe in any training workshops for the employees. It will be always difficult to break through this work culture and set up any L&D activities with no support.
Second is the existing attitude of the employees who themselves live in a complacent world and don’t believe in skill upgradation.
However, when there is an approval to set a L&D process, it could be done as follows:
- Assessments and feedback to identify the skill gaps and map it to required trainings
- Allocate budget for it
- Implement mentoring and coaching programs to facilitate knowledge transfer and skill development.
- Encourage employees to do cross trainings i.e. a software developer could learn something in marketing
- Take feedback like surveys regarding the training workshops and conduct feedback cycles on regular basis
- Identify your future leaders and arrange special leadership workshops for them
- Make the entire learning lot of fun, rewarding with perks and use gamification
Conclusion
Not just the employees, even the HR benefits from the various L&D programs.
E.g. We provide business storytelling workshops for the HRs specifically as part of the various L&D initiatives. Our workshop enables the HR in better hiring of candidates, avoiding last minute candidate dropouts and negotiating with job candidates.
