Seven out of ten learning & development teams are too busy fire-fighting their day-to-day challenges to focus on the strategic talent and learning issues in their organisations, according to a survey by KnowledgePool, the managed learning company.
104 L&D managers were asked about their perceptions of training in their organisations. 69 percent claim their training department is under-resourced and 42 percent say that training receives inadequate support from senior managers. Only 56 percent feel that the training activities in their organisation add value.
“Lack of resources and lack of support are a reality for today’s L&D practitioners,” said Al Bird, Learning Consultancy Director at KnowledgePool. “Constant fire-fighting means that L&D teams don’t have the time to be strategic. This means that organisations are missing an opportunity to vastly improve performance at every level.”
The survey reveals that 80 percent of L&D managers believe that they could improve their organisation’s return on investment from training. 82 percent would like to develop a closer working relationship with line managers, to enable them to plan ahead more. 77 percent believe that new opportunities for improvement could be identified through a more rigorous analysis of their training spend and evaluation data. 75 percent say that improvements could be made by using more informal and on-the-job learning methods.
“L&D teams recognise the important role that line managers play and they want to involve line managers more,” said Al Bird. “They also recognise that the right development option may not be a training intervention at all; it could be an internal assignment or a project. There is a strong belief that informal learning with better collaboration and on-the-job learning opportunities for staff could be the way forward but many seem unsure of how to achieve this. Given more time, L&D teams believe they could reduce unnecessary training and cut out inefficiencies by analysing training booking data and evaluation response data to forecast future training needs and likely volumes.”
KnowledgePool offers the following tips to help L&D managers improve their training processes:
• Focus formal training where it works best (and weed it out where it doesn’t). This will improve the perceived value of L&D. Costly formal events which are unnecessary give training a bad name.
• Capture good examples of informal learning in your organisation and showcase them on a dedicated forum on your intranet. Offer an incentive to encourage people to share their initiatives and experiences.
• Find time to build your own skills. Without development, you can get stuck in a rut. If you aspire to a strategic business partnering role, build a business case for your development based on how this would help the organisation to perform better. Then educate the business about your new capabilities.
• Get involved with line managers to uncover and prioritise the most pressing people development needs. Boldly highlight where you can actively make a difference by spearheading learning and collaboration projects that will deliver results.
• Track and measure your activity to ensure you’re implementing the right solutions. The management information you’ll gain – by tracking who did what, when and why – can help you to better plan for the future.
Mentoring is the way forward….
Interest in mentoring has varied over time and has been affected by economic and social factors. Organisations recognise that workforce demographics have changed dramatically in recent years, as groups have joined the workforce.
In addition, technology has automated traditional employee functions and continues to affect on-the-job performance, altering the way people see themselves and function within the corporate structure. With these changes, organisations are finding it difficult to recruit and retain qualified personnel.
As corporate downsizing continues, organisations are also experiencing a flattening of their organisations, challenging them to provide sufficient growth opportunities for employees. On the plus side, organisations find today’s employees exhibit a more flexible approach to work. On the minus side, employees may feel less loyalty to the organisations for which they work.
Organisations now look to mentoring to implement a strategic game plan that includes:
– Recruitment
– Retention
– Professional development
– Development of a multicultural workforce
While many managers demonstrate mentoring behaviour on an informal basis, it is very different from having a structured mentoring programme.
There is a qualitative difference between a manager-employee relationship and a mentor-mentee relationship.
The manager-employee relationship focuses on achieving the objectives of the department and the company. The manager assigns tasks, evaluates the outcome, conducts performance reviews, and recommends possible salary increases and promotions. Because managers hold significant power over employees’ work lives, most employees demonstrate only their strengths and hide their weaknesses in the work environment.
A mentor-mentee relationship focuses on developing the mentee professionally and personally. As such, the mentor does not evaluate the mentee with respect to his or her current job, does not conduct performance reviews of the mentee, and does not provide input about salary increases and promotions. This creates a safe learning environment, where the mentee feels free to discuss issues openly and honestly, without worrying about negative consequences on the job.
The roles of manager and mentor are fundamentally different. That’s why structured mentoring programmes never pairs mentors with their direct reports.