Strategic Human Capital Insights

By most estimates, only 10 – 30% of training transfers into job performance. That low estimate creates a trillion dollar training problem in the U.S. alone.  The whole area of learning transfer – has been significantly neglected as a business discipline.  As a result, companies are now being forced to evaluate if their training is having business impact, adding value and delivering the strategic advantage that it should. 

To deal with this issue, there appears to be a global movement of people who are filling the potential vacuum in both corporations and the entrepreneurial market.  It’s a force not only in the West, but in the Middle East, India and Asia. The outdated learning and development models of the past are being questioned and broken.

When an organization is going through change (however it is initiated), its ability to strategically leverage Learning & Development (L&D) to accelerate the business through the cycle of change can be a key, strategic differentiator.

Employees who feel satisfied and successful are more engaged and perform at a higher level. This final stage of satisfaction and success is rarely achieved automatically without deliberate planning, action, and accountability.

Accelerating through the change cycle can move an organization to peak performance faster.

This blog was co-authored by Joanne Flynn, Jim Bosserman, and Debbie Gower.  This article combines perspectives and research from three strategic performance and learning and development professionals.

Part 5 – Learning & Development Series

“In the end, we expect our people capability to improve and our results to be better.” - said David Novak, CEO of YUM! Brands

How many other leaders have utilized learning to improve the performance of their business as effectively as David Novak? It is our observation that while many have utilized learning as a catalyst for improving business results, there are other leaders who, in looking back, would observe that they wished they had spent more time and effort on improving the capability of their workforce. 

In this case study, the role of learning and development (L&D) varied through the four transformations, and the business results were dramatically different.  It’s not uncommon for businesses to be distracted and forget about the power of learning to help improve performance and accelerate the pace of change of the business and its people.

This blog was co-authored by Joanne Flynn, Jim Bosserman and Debbie Gower.  This article brings together perspectives and research from three strategic performance and learning and development professionals.

What happens when you make learning a strategic investment in your people?  You “move the dial” on individual and organizational agility and, thus, the performance of the business.

In our series demonstrating why learning and development (L&D) is critical to an organization’s success, we offered points of view about:

• L&D’s “War to Develop Talent” to support organizational growth and change initiatives
• Leadership’s “Make or Break” role in L&D
• “Taking People with You” to develop a readied and enabled workforce
  
  

Discover more about the Learning Function itself and its true need to:

• Establish an active partnership with business operations to understand changing business and related workforce L&D needs
• Validate the results-driven connection between L&D investments and desired business outcomes
• Touch the “minds and hearts” of the workforce to reinforce the commitment to individual and collective organizational improvements
  

This blog was co-authored by Joanne Flynn, Jim Bosserman and Debbie Gower.  This article brings together perspectives and research from three strategic performance and learning and development professionals.

What happens when you make learning a strategic investment in your people?  Discover two real life stories showing how “taking people with you” achieves business performance objectives.  

This is the third post in our series demonstrating why learning and development (L&D) is critical to an organization’s success. We’ve previously set the stage for 1) why L&D needs to elevate its game to support organizational growth and change initiatives and  2) leadership’s “make or break” role in L&D.  Today we highlight the workforce … the “arm” of the organization that executes strategy and a key differential for success.

This blog was co-authored by Joanne Flynn, Jim Bosserman and Debbie Gower.  This article brings together perspectives and research from three strategic performance and learning and development professionals.

As we described in last week’s discussion, the first blog in our learning & development (L&D) series, L&D is critical to an organization’s success. It’s not surprising that CEO’s of organizations continue to assert that talent is their #1 or #2 concern, particularly as it relates to skill gaps. [1]

Significant business change typically requires:

1. Reassessment of business strategies, operating models, organization structures and competencies (i.e., knowledge, skills and behaviors) to address the very nature of work being performed
2. Answering the questions of our people: “How do I get my job done to my very best ability?” and “What is in it for me?”

For many organizations, the sales function is the front line of the marketplace. Keeping the sales function aligned with strategic goals can and does significantly impact growth. So, how could you ensure your current sales function is robust, ready, and up-skilled to accomplish the task? When is it appropriate to determine if it is time for learning and development to play a part in accelerating strategic growth goals?  

This blog was co-authored by Joanne Flynn, Jim Bosserman, and Debbie Gower. This article combines perspectives and research from three strategic performance and learning and development professionals.

What is the role of Learning & Development (L&D) in an organization’s growth and transformation?

What is the role of L&D in dealing with continuous change?

6 Key L&D Strategic Issues

Learning & Development is critical to an organization’s success. Although the “war for talent” focused attention and efforts on recruiting since the late 1990’s[1], the “war to develop talent”[2] recently emerged more prominently on CEO agendas. Why?  Concerns over talent shortages and skill gaps have created obvious obstacles to achieving business performance and transformation goals.

As a result, the investment and ROI to elevate organizational learning functions has become just as, if not more, important as “buying” talent through the recruiting function.