Is your L&D strategy closely aligned to your performance and talent management, recruitment and other people plans? If not, why not? Companies often develop these programmes in isolation and then attempt to join them up. This is difficult and results tend to be, at best, mixed.

Ideally a more joined-up approach from the outset is best.  A ‘holistic’ people plan has a competency framework at the centre. All people programmes then have the same shared goal and help an organisation to achieve its strategy. It ensures employees possess the skills and behaviours in order to achieve the business objectives. With this framework in place, individuals can be recruited, developed and measured against a clear set of criteria.

In the same way L&D plans should be aligned closely to an organisation’s competency framework to develop capability in areas that are key to achieving success. And don’t just leave the learning curriculum – it should be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that the L&D offerings remain relevant. Business strategies are ever-evolving and the L&D focus must evolve with them.

So what – what is the benefit for the company? Where L&D is concerned, it will be easier to link it to performance management and other programmes. Employees’ performance can then be measured against key competencies. You can identify areas within the L&D curriculum which employees need to focus on in order to up-skill.

This is just for starters but it should provide food for thought.

 

Guest blog post from Tina Carrington, Senior Business Psychologist at ETS