Truly effective L&D strategies are aligned with business goals

CANBERRA, Australia, 2022-Jul-07 — /EPR Network/ — A learning and development (L&D) strategy outlines how an organisation uses employee training to develop workforce capabilities, competencies, knowledge and skills. Only 40% of companies out there say they align their L&D strategy with business goals. The Acorn subject matter experts, in their latest article, have explained why learning cannot be truly effective unless it is strategically aligned.

Forgotten or outdated knowledge depletes the economic impact your workforce can have. It’s not just about upskilling anymore. Proactive and guided learning interventions are necessary for developing the capabilities essential to business success, so organisations have them when they need them.

A truly effective L&D strategy follows people strategy, which in turn takes its cues from business strategy. That means at any point in time, a solid L&D strategy should be systematically addressing high-level business needs like capability gaps.

“For L&D to be truly strategic, employee development should address larger business concerns,” said Blake Proberts (Co-Founder and Managing Director). “If you’re designing training to reflect workforce, capability and strategic gaps, you’re able to proactively solve business issues and achieve goals rather than reacting to changes led by others in the industry.”

The Acorn experts believe that creating an L&D strategy for specific business needs starts by defining what needs to be achieved from training efforts. This allows organisations to address three questions: What are their business needs, what does an L&D plan look like and what framework will they work in?

A framework highlighted by the Acorn experts is the 70/20/10 approach. This suggests 70% of learning occurs in real life, 20% comes from feedback and observation and 10% comes from formal training. This is noted because it’s important to consider learning beyond the learning element. Think about how it is contextualised and applied.

You can read the Acorn experts’ full article about developing impactful L&D strategies on Acorn Labs: https://hubs.ly/Q01dLL3v0

Pursuit Technology is one of Australia’s fastest growing HR technology companies. Pursuit, via Acorn LMS, takes a different view to strategically enabling HR and L&D teams compared to traditional providers. Rather than focusing on analytics after learning experience, their products use workforce planning and capability frameworks prior to any learning. By linking to a company’s strategy, Pursuit products can inform organisational capability gaps and suggest education, deliver this education, then measure the impact – proving business impact by the HR and L&D team in a quantifiable way.