Why plan your organisational capability
Sometimes, it can be challenging for organisations to plan and invest in their workforce's capability – budgets are tight, resourcing is limited, time is not our friend - there is only so much to go around. In the absence of a learning and development (L&D) strategy, staff are left to devise their own workarounds. For example, they know their new team member needs to be shown how to do the job, and they do the best they can by devising tactics to get them through. For example, suggesting the new team member looks around the Intranet; arranging for someone to show them how to do the job; or maybe they hand over the car keys with a rallying cry: 'good luck, you'll be fine, see you when you get back'.
'A learning and development (L&D) strategy sets out the workforce capabilities, skills and competencies the organisation needs, and how they can be developed to ensure a sustainable, successful organisation'. (CIPD Asia 2020).
Without an L&D strategy, individual learning activities such as learning on the job, peer to peer learning, self-directed learning, micro-learning, eLearning become nothing more than disconnected, localised tactics. They can also create unintended consequences e.g. reinforcing out-of-date knowledge, supporting undesirable behaviours, undermining organisational culture, strengthening silo mentalities, generating inconsistent (unpredictable) decisions, creating inefficiencies, reducing productivity, and potentially undermining peoples opportunities for recognition and advancement. Over time, these individual L&D efforts become more and more disconnected, out of date and turn into a kind of fractured fairy tale where everyone is just playing to their own., of their local teams, tune.
With an L&D strategy, these tactics can be strategically aligned to ensure they meet the organisations capability and cultural needs. Effective organisational capability is a coordinated, targeted approach to developing peoples' capabilities and driving success within the organisation's context.
Your L&D strategy is an integral part of your overall business strategy. – it's where you develop and state a clear vision of your organisations learning and development goals. It's your organisations' plan/blueprint for acquiring, developing, maintaining and extending the capabilities, skills and competencies your organisation needs for success, now and in the future.
Your L&D strategy is the framework that connects and synchronises all of the learning and development activities happening across your organisation. It plans for the full capability cycle from recruitment to onboarding/induction to training, continuing professional development, and, finally, for when staff leave the building.
Recruitment
Capability starts with recruitment – the decisions about who you will and won't bring into the organisation. What is your recruitment process? Do you use psychometric testing or behavioural assessments? Have you benchmarked the role? Are you clear about any pre-requisite skills, knowledge, and aptitudes (and are they the right priorities)? Will they 'fit' and be able to learn the behavioural requirements of the role? How well will they work in the team? Are they reliable? Can they be trusted? How will you manage cognitive bias so you pick the right fit, build diversity and avoid groupthink?
Trainee: 'there's nothing here. Let's grab a coffee and head back to the office; we can tell Harry (the team leader) we had a look, and there was nothing to see.'
Mentor: 'Well, we've not been here that long. Rather than thinking this is boring, try to remember that what we're doing is part of the plan we discussed at the team meeting this morning – everyone in the team has a role to play, and ours is to drive out here and collect evidence.'
Trainee: 'well, you can keep looking if you want. I'll sit in the car and wait until you're ready to go.'
Onboarding and Induction
Induction is about preparing your new person for the role – the capabilities (skills, knowledge and behaviours) they'll need for success as an organisational team member. Induction can sometimes be conflated with onboarding, but they are two different things:
Onboarding is focused on bringing the new person into your organisation, helping them to become effective organisational members and 'insiders' (moving them from being legitimate peripheral participants to becoming experienced members and, eventually, old-timers (Lave & Wenger 1991)).
Induction is focused on role competency. Even if a new staff comes with a stellar resume and a truckload of experience, they will still need to learn how their new organisation goes about its work, the cultural norms, behavioural expectations, etc.
Training
All training should lead to learning, but not all learning is training.
Training is about equipping people with the skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies.
Training is another key component of your L&D strategy.
Are there key roles in your organisation that would benefit from competency-based training programs, or a national qualification? How will your organisation provide training and when?
Continuing Professional Development
Organisations work in complex and evolving operating environments.
How will you maintain, reinforce and extend your peoples’ capability during their time with your organisation?
How will you ensure your organisational capability remains strong, current and responsive to emerging trends?
How will you capture your internal subject matter expertise so that it becomes part of your organisations knowledge?
‘The purpose of any L&D strategy is to support the organisation's strategic and operational plans, through developing sustainable competent performance in all employees, for all roles, now and in the future.’ (McInnes, 2019).
An L&D strategy is considered, organisationally aligned, evidence-based, responsive and iterative. It is a plan that speaks to your organisations’ capability needs. It should be practical and provide a clear roadmap of your organisations existing and emerging capability needs and priorities to drive positive growth. It can incorporate and harness existing workplace learning practices, e.g. coaching, mentoring, job shadowing, peer-to-peer learning, formal/informal learning, etc. It should engender the desired organisational culture and drive individual and collective capability development.
L&D strategies can be large and complex, and they can also be small and simple – it's all about being fit for purpose.
What is important is that you plan your organisation’s learning and development to have the capability you need for success now and in the future.
Rather than asking 'what will happen if we invest in learning and development and the people leave?’ Ask yourself, ‘what will happen if we don't, and they stay?’
This article was first published on LinkedIn, 22/3/21.
References
CIPD Asia, (2020) Learning and development strategy and policy, https://www.cipd.asia/knowledge/factsheets/learning-development-factsheet#gref
Lave, Jean; Wenger, Etienne (1991), Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-42374-0
McInnes, P (2019) The 5 Critical Cs For A Comprehensive L&D Strategy, https://elearningindustry.com/learning-and-development-strategy-comprehensive-approach