Since ancient times Learning & Development has been considered to be one of the most important and continuous processes of life; it has been referred to a number of times in many civilizations across the globe.
In the Ramayana, Ram received his education through his teachers who were there as ‘Vashishtha’ (educators); they were giving theoretical knowledge in a safe ecosystem called Ashramas. Then came Vishvamitra, who insisted on the need for learning through experience.
To understand this, Ram’s both technical and soft skills are harnessed with different challenges in his life as a balanced individual and leader. Ram as a student, was asked to kill a bird, and as a balanced king, he was also expected to win justice for a woman. This certainly correlates with the L&D in the corporates as well, as a learner, after going through classroom training, needs to be put into real-life situations to be able to apply the theoretical knowledge.
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Devdutt Patnaik, an Author, Mythologist, and Leadership Coach, says, “A successful organization is one where everyone feels powerful, energized, and motivated. This is possible only where the people are both skilled in their purpose and are good human beings.”
In today’s context, L&D has now already become one of the integral processes in businesses. Organizations are now able to align employee goals with that the company’s goal through an empowered learning and development team.
Learning and Development Framework
Ideally, the L&D Team is organizationally a part of the HR team. The team does a lot of in-depth analysis on its implementation following these quick steps:
A. Define the Organization’s Vision & Mission.
B. Apply competency mapping.
C. Analyze the gap between A) and B) through “Need analysis”.
D. Design the curriculum and content.
E. Deliver effectively.
F. Measure success through PMS.
5 Strong reasons why is Learning & Development so important:
- Well-trained and skilled employees: Any organization wishes to build a strong workforce who are well-trained, equipped, and smart to handle their clients and develop long-lasting relationships. The cross-functional and cross-departmental training and learnings make this happen very effectively. For eg: a Technical person might be good with coding and technically sound but might not be confident to sell the idea or project to the client he is working for because he lacks soft skills like strong communication and negotiation skills.
- Well-aware of the updated workforce: Employees also require updates and information about the various current topics pertaining to the business. Regular Compliance Training also keeps them in the loop and well aware of rules, laws, regulations, and company policies related to their job function, department, or the industry they are working in.
- Employee retention: Recruitment or hiring the workforce and talent is the most time-consuming and expensive process. Hence retaining the existing employees by L&D is much more cost-effective than starting the hiring process all over again, which includes searching profiles, a lot of coordination, offering them packages, joining, and then waiting for the expected performance. Organizations can spend a little more time and effort on the L&D of their existing work to boost their confidence, increase their productivity through a lot of continuous training and eventually gain mutual trust.
- Improved customer service and productivity: With the kind of trained and skilled employee, a company’s customer service or customer experience would obviously going to be the best and will positively impact the overall productivity of the business. Who would not like to deal or join hands with an organization that is empowered by a skilled and well-trained workforce?
- Happy, content employee and work culture: It’s been proven with studies that employees always appreciate, respect, and remain loyal to the organization that invests in their professional and personal learning and growth. Higher the learning and development opportunities, the higher the job satisfaction and happy employees. This happens when L&D enables the employees to get trained on the specific knowledge and skills they require to outshine in their current position. This can help create a balanced and positive work culture while simultaneously boosting employee morale. With technological advancement across the globe, there are now various L&D technologies available to impart quick and effective training. Earlier, the trainers used to spend time making efforts to create content, instructions, and overall classroom setup coordination to make sure of an excellent learning environment. L&D Technologies like Gamification, AI, Chatbots, Android phones, Apps, Storytelling, Hybrid Learning, Visual training tools, etc., have made the entire L&D process swift, impactful and engaging.
This all can be simply concluded as, “Learning and Development is like a healthy fodder for organizations which empowers them to grow and accomplish their ultimate aims and objectives”