What is Learning and Development?

Learning and development is an important function within a business that is responsible for empowering employees’ growth and developing their knowledge, skills, and capabilities to drive better business performance.

The learning aspect is about the acquisition of knowledge, skills and mindsets through experience, study, training or teaching. Development is about broadening and deepening knowledge, often in relation to goals, objectives, or career aspirations set by the employee.

What is the role of Training and Development?

Learning and development is an ongoing process that every company should have as one of their major focuses to ensure staff are onboarded correctly, retrained when necessary, and retained through investment into your staff’s long-term development goals.

As a function within your organisation, Training and Development is responsible for the growth and development of employees’ knowledge, skills, and abilities. Empowering them to perform better and drive improved business performance.

What is the purpose of L&D?

Traditionally, L&D was characterised by mandatory formal inductions and training courses.

However, today it is far broader and can cover anything from online platforms to game-based scenarios, listening to a podcast, or joining Boards, voluntary groups or advisory committees – even employees sharing expertise with their peers.

How does L&D impact company culture?

In an ever-more competitive employment market, one of the best ways you can stand out from the crowd is through a well thought out and engaging Learning and Development function. One of the biggest benefits of this is the effect L&D can have on your company culture. Some reasons for this include:

• • It creates a values-based culture: 
    • By investing in your employees’ development, you are showing them that they are valued and respected as individuals and beyond just a number in a spreadsheet.
  • It improves employee engagement: 
    • Employees who are challenged and stimulated mentally through training and learning opportunities often feel more engaged with their entire job role and more enthusiastic about their career at your company.
  • It encourages feedback and new ideas: 
    • L&D provides a sometimes rare opportunity for employees to discuss their ideas and experiences, and to come up with new ways to improve ways of working in your organisation. Feeling like they have a stake in the work environment and their opinions are valued, is another way to encourage engagement.

• It can improve individual performance: 

• For those who may need a little more help with training or who may otherwise become a drain on higher-performing staff through asking more questions, or making more mistakes at work, additional regular upskilling through L&D can help those individuals improve and contribute equally to the workload. This grows the confidence of these staff, and allows top-performers to focus on their own development rather than fire-fighting.

• It can reduce absenteeism: 
  • Enforcing mandatory L&D training where all employees are expected to contribute ideas and take part, can help to improve employee engagement and prevent some staff going under the radar and not living by your company values.
• It can increase productivity
  • By training employees more effectively to help them improve their skillset, knowledge, and behaviours in the workplace, your productivity will naturally increase. In-line with this, staff will feel less stressed or overwhelmed if they have been taught ways to improve efficiencies in their work
• It can help attract and retain talent: 
  • Through L&D programs, top talent can be attracted to work at a company that values progression and staff can enjoy better internal progression opportunities once they have joined your company. Staff often feel the short-end of the stick when employees leave or when you have a high-turnover and this can lead to higher stress levels, burnout, and dissatisfaction among remaining staff.

How should L&D training be delivered?

There are many different ways to deliver Learning and Development training for your staff. Above everything, it’s important for you to consider your own goals as a business-owner, the needs of your staff, and the best ways-of-working for them when planning your training – tailoring this to work best for you. Practical considerations like budgets for training can be useful to consider too, as some delivery methods will require more costs to perform than others (e.g. if hiring an external trainer or bringing staff from multiple locations together for in-person training). 

Some forms of training delivery include: 

• Face-to-face training: 
  • Traditional classroom-style training.
• Online learning: 
  • Courses employees can complete in their own time online.
• Virtual classrooms:
  • Online training sessions following a standard classroom-style training plan via video conferencing.
• Mobile learning
  • mLearning allows employees to access educational content via a smartphone or tablet which can be useful for teams that don’t have access to computers, or for those split across various locations without the ability to train all employees at once in person or virtually.
• Microlearning
  • Smaller, less intensive course content that can be integrated into employees’ everyday work software without taking up a large chunk of time in one go.
• Instructor-led eLearning
  • Real-time training that can be delivered from anywhere and combines in-person instruction with online tools for a more personalised learning experience.
• Blended learning
  • A combination of any variety of the above options.
• Self-learning

Building a culture of self-development by assigning regular L&D self-learning time in schedules, or providing free membership for online learning platforms.

Should Training and Development be led by HR?

More often than not, L&D is led by the Human Resources (HR) department. This is because HR are usually best placed and have the best experience to be able to lead this work effectively. There are a lot of overlapping responsibilities between HR and L&D for example with onboarding staff and performance management. The HR teams are also already used to working with all departments across the business and know the needs of each team well. And more generally the aim of staff Training and Development correlates directly with HR’s main function; to create a skillful, productive, and engaged workforce. 

That said, it’s not essential that HR lead the Training and Development program at your company, and there can be benefits to other departments taking charge, or outsourcing some training responsibilities to external experts. If certain teams have very specific needs and it is a specialism where only an expert within the team would be able to help upskill the wider team, this could be a time when it’s beneficial to delegate responsibilities. However, make sure you are providing the relevant time, support, and resources to ensure your teams are able to do this important role. Having HR leading the program and then delegating responsibilities and helping sub-leaders within their specialisms lead the training would be a good way to ensure you get the balance right.

What does an L&D manager do?

For those companies who are keen to impress external talent and take the role of Training and Development seriously, they may want to hire a Learning and Development manager to lead all of this activity. L&D managers need good communication skills, project management, and budgeting skills, and also experience in stakeholder relations. There are a number of qualifications that lead directly to L&D Manager positions, and those from a HR background are often well-suited to the role. 

An L&D manager’s role is to:

• Assess business & staff needs
• Create learning programs for staff
• Deliver training
• Analyse the effectiveness of the training
• Manage training budgets & negotiate new contracts
• Collaborate with team leaders and stakeholders to ensure business goals are achieved
• Keep up to date on the latest trends, tools, and techniques.

What is the impact of Learning and Development?

The impact of Learning and Development when done well will be felt in the following areas:

• Increased productivity
• Higher staff retention
• More innovation
• Better adaptability
• Higher profits
• Fewer staff absences and less absenteeism
• A growth mindset among staff

How can L&D be measured?

We know that L&D has enormous benefits for businesses, but it can often be hard to see specifically how, or where, it is benefitting the business. So how do you go about measuring the effectiveness of your Learning and Development programme?

Regular measurement and reporting is essential to make decisions and improve your results. If your L&D strategy is not measurable, then you’ll struggle to get results.

If you have a strong system to implement and analyse learning, training and development, it will be easier to see how effective it is, particularly if your systems are cross-functional and can speak to each other. This will help you see where investments in Learning and Development are paying off, and where they might need to be tweaked.

To measure satisfaction, look at direct feedback given by your employees:

• Was the training useful?
• Was it practical?
• Was it relevant?
• Would the learner recommend it?

Then look at learning outcomes: 

• Course attendance or completion rates
• Learning outcome evaluations (measuring skills or knowledge before, during and after the learning activity to evaluate how the learning has been retained)

To complete the evaluation, measure the impact and results:

• Profitability or turnover figures
• Staff turnover rates
• Customer satisfaction scores
• Employee satisfaction or happiness scores
• Rates of promotion
• Performance reviews, 360-degree reviews, or feedback given in coaching sessions
• OKR or KPI completion rate

These metrics can be used to help determine the return on investment or the benefits of the L&D initiative to the company in monetary terms.

What is a Learning Management System?

A learning management system, or LMS, is a software app that helps companies create, manage, and track their Learning and Development programs. There are a large range of companies which offer LMS tools, and all will have their own pros and cons, so it’s worth putting in some time to research which tool will fit your company’s needs best.

The best Learning & Development tools

As you can probably tell, we’re big fans of learning management systems – online platforms that allow your employees to follow their own Learning and Development pathways. You can subscribe to platforms with off-the-shelf content, or you can build your own with customised content specific to your training, L&D needs, and your Learning and Development strategies.

To decide which option is best for your business, you need to consider your company’s size, number of employees, budget, and skills gap. This can help you decide whether it’s better to curate your own content, or buy in from a specialist provider such as Employment Hero’s Learning Management System

If you’re building your own content, or adding your own content to an existing platform, bear in mind that you’ll be responsible for keeping it relevant and up to date. This might make sense for larger businesses with considerable Learning and Development budgets. For SMEs, it can be advantageous to outsource your LMS so that the external organisation is then responsible for providing fresh and engaging content.

Examples of companies with strong L&D offerings

1. Etsy

Etsy is becoming well known in the Learning and Development field for its Etsy School. Etsy is right to be proud of teir Learning and Development team that merges innovative learning formats with evidence-based leadership practices.

Applying research from organisational psychology, sociology and adult learning theory — in addition to a deep knowledge of Etsy’s values and culture — the L&D team facilitates training, programmes, retreats and coaching. They also offer online resources on everything from how to invigorate a sluggish meeting to how to give difficult feedback.

Etsy is building a culture of continuous self-development, where employees have the ability to give and receive feedback that’s timely, useful and actionable. In 2015 they launched an innovative programme that facilitates year-round, 360-degree feedback collection, delivers rich information to employees, and enables them to own their development in partnership with their managers.

2. Google

Google embraces a culture of workplace learning, so it’s no surprise that their employee Learning and Development program is considered one of the best. Google’s ‘G2G’ (Googler-to-Googler) learning method is based on the idea that everyone can learn something from everyone.

This learning method promotes employee-to-employee learning. This allows all team members to upskill across the company, regardless of their role or seniority. Google’s continual educational mentality ensures that a culture of learning is maintained and employees are nurtured along their career paths.

3. Marriott International Inc.

Marriott International has been consistently recognised as one of the best employers and much of this comes down to their investment and commitment to employee development.

Marriott International offers a comprehensive suite of training to employees around the globe, including new hire orientation, hotel-based training programmes, core management training programmes, and non-management training programmes such as Gateways which is designed to train discipline-specific skills. Their Learning in Motion Program provides hands-on experience for supervisors to learn about different departments of the hotel and develop broader hotel expertise which help prepare them for management responsibilities. Marriott is committed to associate development, offering employees the opportunity to learn at their own pace through access to the Ashridge Virtual Learning Resource Centre.

Marriott’s Learning and Development programmes are designed to attract and retain a loyal team committed to the core values of excellence and service. Development programmes include:

• Early Careers Programs, intended to recruit and nurture recent university graduates and postgraduates, and those early in their journey at Marriott.
• The Marriott Development Academy, aimed at helping aspiring managers acquire the skills required for leadership roles.

4. Employment Hero

Our very own Employment Hero Employee Learning Management System is empowering small and medium businesses to attract and retain the best of the best – and it’s so good we swear by it too. All of our team has access to our LMS, which provides the Employment Hero team with access to comprehensive on-demand online courses so they can learn in their own time.

It’s a fully functional LMS which allows employers to build, manage, assign, track and report on all their learning and training needs, from induction and health and safety training, right through to professional development and leadership skills. We help our customers and our valued employees develop talent – it’s what drives any business forward.

Inside the app employees can develop specific skills or follow career pathways.

Our Head of Learning and Development Garth Byrne says, “We are committed to delivering best-in-class learning opportunities for our incredible people… Our learning programs are tailored to meet the needs of our people, ranging from essential soft skills to leadership development. From learning and reinforcing your essential soft skills to developing your experience and knowledge of leadership, our L&D programs have got you covered!”

We know our employees love it, and we love when our clients rave about it too.

For more Learning and Development inspiration, check out these 7 Great Employee Learning Programs Examples.

Employment Hero’s Learning Management System

Our LMS is an online tool that supports continuous professional development in your business. This is exactly the type of technology your business can invest in to make sure your employees have the right tools they need to develop, whether that’s in a controlled working environment or in their own time.

This is just another way that Employment Hero is empowering small and medium businesses to attract and retain the best of the best.

Here’s some of our favourite features:

Induction training

Employers with existing training content can now host this in Employment Hero, making it part of induction and even requiring completion before employees can be added to the roster. An audit trail will also help employers feel confident that they are compliant when it comes to policy acknowledgements and more.

Career development

Employers can also create or upload courses for employees who are moving into managerial roles or other new levels of responsibility. Employees who are provided with upskilling opportunities are more engaged than those who aren’t, making an LMS a key component of your employee value proposition.

Performance management

By using an LMS within Employment Hero, employers can better bridge the gap between employee performance and upskilling. When an employee fails to complete an OKR, or a performance review has identified an area of weakness, managers and admins can easily assign course content to fill in knowledge gaps as they become apparent.

Premium content

Businesses can also provide their employees with access to Learning Plus, an ever-growing library of premium learning content. With a Learning Plus subscription, employers and employees alike can choose from thousands of courses on a wide array of topics, from Java Programming for Beginners Preventing to Discrimination and Harassment for Managers.

If you’re interested in finding out more about how Employment Hero can help your business as one of the world’s leading all-in-one HR, hiring and payroll platforms, get in touch with our team today!