Learning and Development

Characteristics of a learning and development strategy

A learning and development strategy should be business in the sense that it is designed to support the achievement of business goals by promoting human capital advantage. But it should also be people, which means taking into account the needs and aspiration of people to grow and develop. Achieving the latter aim, of course, supports the achievement of the former.

Elements of the learning and development strategy

• The learning and development philosophy of the organization.
• The aims of the learning and development strategy.
• The priorities for learning and development.
• How, broadly, it is intended these aims will be achieved through the creation of a learning culture, formal learning and development programmers, coaching, personal development planning, and self-directed learning.
• The responsibilities for learning and development as shared between top management, line management, individual employees, and members of the HR or learning and development function.
• The resources required for learning and development – financial budgets, training facilities and external help.
•  The success criteria for learning and development.
• How the effectiveness of learning and development in meeting these criteria will be measured and evaluated

Developing a learning culture (Reynolds, 2004),

• Develop and share the vision – belief in a desired and emerging future.
• Empower employees – provide ‘supported autonomy’; freedom for employees to manage their work within certain boundaries (policies and expected behaviors) but with support available as required.
• Adopt a facilitative style of management in which responsibility for decision making is ceded as far as possible to employees.
• Provide employees with a supportive learning environment where learning capabilities can be discovered and applied,
• Use coaching techniques to draw out the talents of others by encouraging employees to identify options and seek their own solutions to problems.
• Guide employees through their work challenges and provide them with time, resources and, crucially, feedback.
• Recognize the importance of managers acting as role models: ‘The new way of thinking and behaving may be so different that you must see what it looks like before you can imagine yourself doing it. You must see the new behavior and attitudes in others with whom you can identify (Schein, 1990).
• Encourage networks – communities of practice.
• Align systems to vision – get rid of bureaucratic systems that produce problems rather than facilitate work.

The implications of learning and development research, Harrison (2005)

It has not yet yielded enough clear evidence of a direct link between individual learning and improvements in organizational performance (however that is defined). However learning and development activity does consistently emerge as a crucial intervening factor. In the Bath studies two HR practices were identified as being particularly powerful in influencing employee attitudes and creating positive discretionary behavior: careers (in the sense of a ‘developing future’) and training. In other words, the learning and development processes that help to activate the people performance link are those that ‘hold the promise of learning to do things better, or doing new things. It is the sense of progression and purpose that is important, especially in linking to organizational commitment (Purcell et al 2003, p 73).

References 

• Reynolds, J (2004) Helping People Learn, CIPD, London
• Schein, E H (1990) Organizational culture, American Psychologist, 45, pp 109–19
• Harrison, R (2005) Learning and Development, 4th edn, CIPD, London
• Purcell, J, Kinnie, K, Hutchinson, S, Rayton, B and Swart, J (2003) People and Performance: How people management impacts on organisational performance, CIPD, London