Resolutions for Your Learning and Development Function

In order to be successful and stay competitive, organizations need to re-invest in their learning strategies in 2016.

 

We sat down with Kris Dunn, CHRO at Kinetix and Founder of Fistful of Talent, to get his insight into the top 5 areas that Learning and Development organizations need to focus on this year.

 

Getting Organized and Understanding the Trends

Being organized is a no brainer, but what trends should you be focusing on for 2016?

• Leadership development becoming a growing part of L&D and now claims on average 35% of training budgets
• Increasing efforts to expand training offerings beyond onboarding and creating a culture of continuous learning
• Just-in-time learning is a must, but most training and development activities aren’t small enough to be effective

 

Becoming a Better Marketer of Your L&D Offerings

Building engaging learning content that no one knows about will get you nowhere. A big part of marketing is making sure that you are sending the right message to the right audience. To the business unit, make sure you are describing how the training will solve their need for increased performance and engagement. To the individual employee, make sure you let them know how your training offerings can help them progress in their career.

 

Need more tips? Check out the “Why Learning and Marketing Should Be BFFs” whitepaper for additional insight.

 

Learning and Development with an Eye on Retaining Top Performers

Most good to great performers leave at the 1-3 year mark of tenure. For learning, this means it is time to stop investing in under-performers and make sure that the right learning and development opportunities are being offered to the at-risk, high performers. This can mean anything from a learning path of internal content to help them progress in their career, or opportunities for broader professional development with third parties.

 

Investing in Managers of People

There is no question that managers who are perceived by employees as overly “bad” or “good” can have a dramatic impact on performance, workplace stress and overall retention. But what should organizations be training managers on? Delivering feedback and coaching, goal setting and performance management are a good place start.

 

Reinforcing the Culture of Your Company with L&D

This resolution can be misleading – it is less about focusing on “culture” as a set of values and behaviors that you want to reinforce, and more about operationalizing learning to ensure alignment with the groups or areas that are of high importance and focus for the organization as a whole. A good place to start? Focus on the people and functional areas that deliver results and contribute directly to revenue.

 

View the webinar replay for all of Kris’ great advice on how your L&D department can be a leader in learning this year!