What is L&D & why is it important for your business?

Learning and development (L&D)  focuses on developing the professional growth and skill set of employees. The aim of an L&D department is to close skills gaps, improve workplace performance and support the continuous development of employees. 

Research shows that 69% of companies experience increased employee growth when implementing effective L&D strategies. This article will be discussing the benefits of L&D and how you can implement it in your business to increase employee growth and upskill your staff. 

Interested in empowering your employees with the skills needed to excel as L&D professionals? Check out our L&D CIPD courses today.  

What are the benefits of L&D?  

Professional career development 

L&D is a great way of supporting your employees’ professional development and empowering them with the skills and knowledge they need to excel in their field. Not only does this benefit your teams, it benefits you as a company. The more skilled your employees, the better your company performs. 

Narrowing skill gaps 

A company can identify training needs within their workforce and then target these areas by providing an effective learning programme. Good L&D strategies increase productivity, employee engagement and workplace productivity.    

Talent acquisition  

By providing learning opportunities for employees to improve their skillsets, a business is more likely to gain interest from potential employees as a good place to work. A company with a learning programme is more likely to recruit someone motivated and interested in developing themselves.  

Talent retention 

Existing talent is more likely to stay if they have opportunities to learn through good internal L&D programmes. For a business, L&D is an excellent long-term strategy to retain high performing, skilled employees, eliminating the reliance on lengthy and expensive recruitment.  

How to use L&D in your business 

The aim of any company is to maximise time and cost efficiency and increase profitability and this can be accomplished with an effective L&D strategy. By investing in learning and development programmes, companies empower their staff and give them the ability to perform better in their role.  

There are many different ways in which learning and development can be used within your business to increase employees’ productivity and safety. Sales training, Health & Safety training and customer service training are just some examples .  

Onboarding new staff 

One of the most important aspects of L&D is implementing effective training programmes for new hires, especially those who are young and have been recruited into entry level positions. The rise in home and hybrid working means developing really effective digital resources to upskill remote workers. A new challenge for L&D teams everywhere.  
  

Mentorship to encourage continual learning 

One effective method of L&D training is mentorship. This is where a well-skilled and knowledgeable individual, usually at a senior level in a company, coaches staff members and supports them in their role and helps them progress.. Due to the one to one nature of coaching, an individual coach is often assigned to one employee, or a small group of around 2-3 employees. 

Health, safety and ethics training 

It is important for a workplace to be a safe and secure environment. Staff often need learning and development training relating to company rules and values, this can include topics such as health & safety, ethics and cultural behaviours, especially during the onboarding process..  

Defining goals 

Without business goals, a company would be unable to successfully establish a path of progression from point A to B. Starting off by identifying areas of weakness within the business will allow you to establish points of L&D interest. Perhaps your sales are low? A targeted L&D sales training development opportunity can boost sales by equipping employees with the necessary skills. 

Establishing an L&D programme 

An effective L&D strategy will take into account the variety of learning styles  and abilities within a company.. There’s no universally effective teaching method, as some people are visual learners, while others may be more hands-on. An individual with a specialist L&D qualification, which can be achieved on our L&D course, will be able to successfully develop and conduct L&D programmes which are engaging and effective for every learner. 

Measure success 

Measuring the success of your L&D programme allows you to see the effectiveness of your L&D strategy. This can be accomplished through the use of pre- and post-programme tests, surveys and quizzes.  

What is the difference between L&D vs HR?  

People often confuse the field of human resources with learning and development, however, there is a difference between the two. L&D is often managed by the HR department under the umbrella of talent management and recruitment. However, L&D specialists are not responsible for general HR areas such as payroll, managing policies and keeping employee documents. The L&D team is solely responsible for staff training, identifying skill gaps and designing learning solutions. 

We offer a range of CIPD courses. Take a look at our Learning and Development Courses page if you’re thinking of upskilling your L&D team. We offer CIPD Level 5 Associate Diploma and CIPD Level 7 Advanced Diploma. Enrol today.