The goal of learning and development is to align your employee's goals and performance with that of your organisation. Those responsible for learning & development within your organisation must identify skill gaps among employees and teams and then develop and deliver training to bridge those gaps.
Identifying learning and development (L&D) needs starts with knowing your organisation’s current and future capability needs, and then assessing existing levels of skills, attitudes and knowledge. The aim of this is to produce a plan to make sure there is sufficient capacity to sustain current and future business performance.
A clear analysis of L&D needs that informs such a strategy is important because it allows your organisation to assess its performance and see if the right people are in the right place with the right skills at the right time.
What’s more, performing such assessments can also give insight into the realities of the learning environment employees experience. Highlighting any relevant learning opportunities that can enable staff to achieve their personal and career goals which can increase employee engagement.
A well-planned learning and development plan can be an effective retention strategy, particularly when linked to talent strategies.
If you are wanting to enhance your learning and development opportunities for your employees, potential methods include:
Organisational data and intelligence – ‘mining’ the existing data that are collated in the organisation is a great starting point.
Formal interviews and/or focus groups with stakeholders - these will often be primary sources of information on plans, and work organisation.
Informal conversations with stakeholders – ‘coffee chats’ are a good source of finding out what is needed.
Team meetings - attending team meetings across the organisation can give insights on performance needs.
Observations – engaging with the learners’ current ‘real world’.
Questionnaire-based or other surveys of managers, employees and their representatives.
I’d you’d like more information, get in touch with our team for specialist coaching.
