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These days, most firms see the importance of learning and development. They understand that, on a talent-tight landscape, successful people strategies don’t just consider external hires but actively promote reskilling and upskilling incumbent talent.
As Peter Cheese, CEO of CIPD, recently told CIPD’s annual conference, when it comes to acquiring skills recruitment can no longer be the sole answer. “These days it’s build, borrow, buy or bot,” he explained, referencing the increasing importance of internal training as part of the talent strategy. He also said HR needs to “think about this [skills] much more strategically” adding that any approach to talent – whether recruiting or developing – had to dovetail to the business needs.
The best HR practises are doing this. Whilst CIPD research found that 91% of the best learning organisations had goals set in step with the strategic goals of the organisation, Deloitte’s 2019 Human Capital Trends survey highlighted how important L&D is to both the HR function and business leadership. In its study, almost nine in ten respondents stated L&D was the most important, or a very important issue, going forward.
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What this implies is investing in tailored L&D is good. No orthodox HR practitioner would argue if you stated intention to develop internal skills to suit the business strategy. However, if you were to state that you were about to invest in training talent that might go on to join a rival, they might think you had gone a bit doolally. But this is exactly what BP has done.
