In the midst of the Great Resignation, the UK is facing a skills gap of epic proportions. The 2021 Skills Index report by City and Guilds found that businesses and employees report a mismatch between the skills people gain through the education system and the workplace. As a result, 23% of UK workers feel that their educational qualifications aren’t useful in their current career.
In contrast, 85% of respondents said employee training programmes are relevant to their current positions, and 73% found them useful for their career development.
As L&D professionals, we have a responsibility to create a business environment that employees want to be a part of and are likely to stay in. A successful learning and development strategy will create a values-based culture that motivates and engages employees, ensuring that the entire team is aligned towards the business goals.
In this article, we delve deeper into the key elements of a good L&D strategy including how to incorporate collaborative learning, on-the-job learning, and formal training into your L&D initiatives. Plus, we show you how to shape your plans—from aligning training with business goals, measuring impact, and leveraging tools such as an LMS to scale your learning and development programmes, we’ve got all the resources you need right here.
A good organisational L&D strategy should focus on harnessing employee development through continuous training and upskilling. By providing your team with further learning opportunities, they’re given the chance for professional development while simultaneously enhancing overall business performance.
For an L&D programme to be successful, it needs to fill skills gaps as well as harness a culture of constant professional development. An all-encompassing learning and development programme should include a mixture of:
A good strategy for learning and development offers more than just an opportunity for your employees to grow. A clearly defined strategy also reaps a number of benefits for your organisation.
With the benefits of having a structured learning and development strategy in place, let’s take a look at the steps needed to shape your initiatives.
Creating a strong learning organisation starts with developing an effective learning and development strategy. Through their ACADEMIES framework, McKinsey outlined the 9 crucial steps HR and L&D teams need to follow in order to implement their own strategies.
With these steps in mind, you can create your own learning and development strategy, which also incorporates the following elements:
With learning management systems like 360Learning, your company can develop an L&D programme using collaborative learning techniques. This way, you can build and grow skills in real-time, using peer-based learning and through distributed ownership.
We hope you’ve found some inspiration here to help you define and implement your learning and development strategy. If you’d like to find out more about how collaborative learning can help you and your teams thrive, don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of our experts!