NEWSLETTER

 

L & D Cinders – You Shall go to the Ball !

 

Learning & Development – Business Investment or Act of Faith ?

 

For years L&D has been the Cinderella department within most organisations. Seen as at best a necessary evil (especially for mandated training) and at worst, an on-cost.

 

We see L&D budgets under pressure (especially in the public sector), no-shows on learning activities as operations have decided that people are more useful doing their job than learning how to do it better. L&D often has low status and operations fail to see the value to the organisation.

 

All this could stop if L&D could prove the financial value of their contribution to the organisation – just like operations! No longer as an on-cost but a positive financial contributor.

 

Let’s start with some basic assumptions. You employ staff so that they will make a contribution to the business – not for any other reason.

 

So, you put staff through L&D activities so that they can make an even greater contribution.

Contributions are about outputs, not inputs.

 

How do staff contribute to your organisation?

 

Our research identified 5 ways in which they can. These 5 ways are also the areas at which L&D is directed.

 

Your staff contribute :-

• by using their “technical” knowledge and expertise.

• by achieving goals for key stakeholders.

• by building their personal capacity so that they can take on greater responsibilities and help the organisation to grow or achieve more with less.

• by initiating, managing and coping with appropriate change (Adaptability)

• by achieving the organisation’s social objectives

 

The relative importance of each of these will depend on the organisation’s strategy.

 

Learning only happens when an individual changes their behaviour in the real world.

 

By improving or increasing the contributions made by L&D participants, L&D is contributing to the organisation and that has to be worth something.

 

As a result of our research we are able to calculate a financial value for the contributions made by staff members.

 

So by being able to calculate the value of the contribution made by a cohort of people before they go through an L&D programme, and then doing the same after they have completed the programme and started to put into practice what they have learned, we can calculate the added value or extra contribution derived from that L&D activity. If we divide that added or extra contribution by the cost of the programme we get a financial ROI figure.

 

The puts L&D on the same footing as operations – it can prove the value of its contribution to the organisation.

L&D is in a stronger position in making its case against no-shows.

 

As the Verax ROI report also identifies things that happen in the organisation that get in the way of the transfer of learning, and hence prevent making a greater contribution, L&D can help the organisation become more efficient and effective and again enhance its own status by making a further contribution to organisational effectiveness.

 

No more a Cinderella – L&D can prove it is making a sound business investment and can prove its value to the organisation in terms the business understands - £’s