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By Liza Andersin, HR Director for EMG – Educations Media Group.
In this day and age, you would expect that most companies already recognise the value that training their staff has on their businesses’ future success. Not only can it increase engagement, but it also diversifies and retains knowledge within a company and helps keep it on the cutting edge of technological and industry-specific advances.
Why, then, are we still having to make a case to secure budget for learning and development?
If you’re wondering whether now is the time to invest in learning and development, drafting a pitch for your senior leadership team, or even just looking for some great reasons to convince your boss your staff are worth investing it, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve rounded up insights from our 2018 Learning and Development report on why a strong learning culture is key to your company’s success.
1. Poor learning culture could be costing your company money
Training and development costs money, and this is often the biggest hurdle businesses face. In our most recent training report, 34% of companies said that limited training budgets was their biggest challenge for 2018, second to small team sizes and getting employee buy-in for learning and development.
However, not spending this money can have a wider-reaching negative affect.
HR professionals from companies whose revenue had decreased in the last fiscal year were twice as likely to say that their staff does not prioritise learning. But if your staff are disengaged with the process (as 5% of companies claimed), how do you get them to see the value in on-the-job training?
2. Poor learning culture stems from the top of the organisation.
If you want your employees to adopt a proactive and enthusiastic approach to learning and development - it has to come from the top. If your senior leadership team places learning and development at the heart of what they do, it will filter down to your employees. Passion and enthusiasm are catching - so if your top management say that training is a waste of time, it’s no surprise that your staff feel the same way.
HR professionals from 72% of companies with poor learning cultures said that their organisation’s leadership does not value workplace learning or could value it more.
3. If you want employees to value learning, you have to show the impact
The companies that say that their employees don’t value L&D training are also, overwhelmingly, the same companies that do not measure the value and impact of learning and development.
Return on investment is a buzzword in any business endeavour, so why shouldn’t it be when it comes to L&D? Track your successes and recognise and work on areas where training hasn’t delivered the results you were forecasting.
4. A healthy learning culture is tied to more satisfied employees
Companies who spend above average on training for their employees are twice as likely to say that their employees are highly satisfied. In fact, there’s a wealth of statistics to show that investing in your employees makes them happier, and even more loyal to your company and your brand.
5. Leading organisations use learning to put employees first
In investigating a winning learning culture we spoke to HR and L&D professionals from a wide array of organisations and we believe Kim Edwards, Senior Talent Development Manager at Getty Images put it best:
‘’A healthy professional learning culture is one that puts employees at the centre of everything.’’
It’s true that people are the heart of any business. Without the people, nothing would happen. So why do we spend so much time and money on infrastructure and technology, and not on our people? Not on the employees that make the nuts and bolts of your business work?
That’s why a learning culture is key not just to your success now, but your success in the future.
Interested to learn more? Read the 2018 L&D Report by findcourses.co.uk here or by clicking the button below.
