Developing an effective L&D Strategy

Learning and Development or L&D is a function, which should provide value to business in 3 separate ways, which I prefer to call the MAC Way:

1. M - Meeting the Value - By increasing learning activities efficiency and meeting compliance requirements
2. A - Adding Value - By implement business strategies by converting objectives to development activities
3. C - Creating Value - By developing new capabilities for organizations to achieve different or stretched goals

Let us look at these components of MAC, individually.

M - Meeting the Value: A couple of examples of this can be the mandatory training of the employees around Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH), which is conducted to sensitize the employees at the organizations, or a decision to centralize / decentralize the development activities, or to outsource it, for different levels.

A - Adding Value: The activities pertaining to performance improvement for the Sales or Operations team will fall under this header. The business strategy requirement of developing a talent pipeline could be converted into a program for the High Potential employees. The development of these type of interventions should not only take input from the top, but also the end users. This will be inputs from both individual as well as team levels.

C - Creating Value: One of the most important function of L&D will be this part, where it does not works as a support function only, rather it builds value for the business as a whole. This is the part, where L&D function builds capabilities enabling the business to explore different goals or achieve stretched business goals, keeping the future in mind.

In today's world, for most of the organizations on the growth path, the leaders state that they clearly understand the need for a two-way integration of the business strategy with the people development strategy. One of the business leader states - "The L&D function's role, in our organization is to help the company to learn, adopt and grow."

The key areas that the L&D function impacts are:

1. Attracting and Retaining Talent
2. Developing People Capabilities
3. Building a value-based culture
4. Creating an employer's brand
5. Motivating and Engaging Employees

Attracting and Retaining Talent: In today's corporate world, organizations are focused on retaining the talent, as long as they add value. The employees have become in-charge of their professional growth and development themselves. This is why, the Learning & Development opportunities are ranked as one of the top reasons for choosing a company over another.

Developing People Capabilities: With the rapid rate of change in the VUCA Corporate scenario of today, L&D requires ongoing investment of both time and money to ensure that the learning and development being provided retains it's value. Companies that invest in developing effective leaders during transformations increase their performance achievement by 240%.

Building a Value-based culture: As the workforce gets spread beyond cities, states and countries, L&D plays a vital role in developing a value-based organization culture, which contributes to the welfare of the society. The young workforce, specially the millennials look forward to working for such enterprises.

Creating an Employer's Brand: One of the most important asset of any organization is it's brand. Investment in L&D helps the organizations in enhancing the brand image and boosts it's reputation in the market. As the workforce, who are nearing their retirement and with shrinking talent pool, organizations can choose to portray their explicit brand strength by providing an employer value proposition.

Motivating and Engaging Employees: An important aspect of motivation and engagement factors today is the way, an organization provides learning and development opportunities to it's employees. As stated by John Coleman, "Lifelong learning is good for your health, your wallet and your social life." With high levels of engagement, employees feel energized by new and challenging opportunities, which results in their satisfaction level with the organization, that they are a part of.

Framework for an effective L&D Strategy:

The important components developing the framework for L&D strategy are:

1. L&D goal alignment with Business Strategy
2. Ownership by the Business and HR Teams
3. Assessment of Capability Gaps (Now)
4. Have a clear vision of the required Capability (Then)
5. Designing the Learning Path from Now to Then
6. Using the E-3 model (Education / Exposure / Experience)
7. Implementation & Broadening the coverage
8. Evaluation of impact on business
9. Integration of L&D and HR processes

L&D goal alignment with Business Strategy: The primary goal of L&D is to design learning initiatives and have goals, which are aligned to the business strategy. The goal and initiatives should focus to plug the capability gaps and provide professional development of the team-members.

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