Spending professional development funds wisely is key to optimizing ROI and ensuring employees get the most valuable skills and knowledge. 

The right learning and development solutions will empower individuals to grow and advance in their careers, while simultaneously becoming more efficient and effective at their jobs, supporting the continued growth of your organization.

But which solutions are right for you? Where should you invest professional development funds? That’s exactly what we’ll explore in this post.

Understanding the value of professional development

Professional development is vital for both employees and businesses. For employees, it helps them develop their skills and knowledge, which allows them to progress in their careers and feel like they’re growing professionally. For businesses, it ensures they can adapt to an ever-evolving landscape and not be left behind by competitors.

The impact of professional development on employee retention

When employees continuously develop, they’re more engaged, have better job satisfaction, and feel more valued. These benefits add up to better employee retention, which is a key factor in creating a solid working culture and avoiding the significant costs associated with high levels of turnover.

The role of professional development in business growth

Happy, engaged employees perform better. They’re more productive, and they have greater levels of innovation and creativity. When your employees perform better, they serve your clients and customers better, meaning your entire organization performs better. Therefore, a culture of learning is essential to encourage continual business growth.

Strategic planning for professional development spending

When considering how to spend professional development funds, it’s vital to align the allocation of resources to support both individual and organizational goals. 

Consider the six steps below before making your investment:

Assess business needs - Understand current and future organizational needs, identifying skills and competencies required to stay competitive and hit objectives.

Create personal development plans - Managers should create PDPs for all line reports, covering an employee’s aspirations and tying into the company’s needs. PDPs should outline the steps an employee should follow to progress and understand how their actions will benefit themselves and the company.

Link to organizational goals - Your organization’s strategic goals must directly link to any professional development initiatives you undertake. 

Allocate budget - Allocate funds to address critical skill gaps, which should be prioritized to maximize ROI. 

Choose a solution with a mix of learning methods - This caters to different learning preferences and styles and could include text, image, video, quiz, audio, and in-person learning.

Measure your success - You can’t understand the ROI of your spending without analyzing the impact of learning on your company. Establish KPIs to evaluate your professional development initiatives. 

Balancing cost and quality in professional development

It’s crucial to look for reputable training providers and courses for your teams. And it’s worth considering the format in which your employees will learn. For instance, will they take time out of work to attend conferences or in-person training courses? Or would you prefer to offer a more flexible online learning environment, such as the courses available at Go1? 

Both classroom-style and online learning offer valuable opportunities for employees to upskill, but online courses certainly offer some advantages, such as:

Convenient & flexible - Employees can learn at their own pace, whether they set chunks of time aside or just dip in and out of courses when time allows. 

Cost-effective - With no travel expenses and less time taken out of the working day, online learning is often less expensive than classroom learning. 

Access to experts - Employees can learn from experts around the world from anywhere with an internet connection.

Engaging formats - Gamification, videos, simulations, and other multimedia options make online learning an engaging way to achieve professional development.

Continuous access - Online learning resources are always available to revisit at your leisure.

Personalized learning pathways - Online learning doesn't have to be generic. Employees can find courses and learning pathways tailored to their specific aspirations.

With online learning, balancing cost and quality doesn’t need to be a compromise, because quality is thankfully available in a cost-effective solution. It should therefore be an option you consider carefully if maximizing ROI is a priority.

Measuring the impact of professional development

You can’t evaluate ROI without having a dependable way to measure the impact of your professional development initiatives. But what are the best ways to measure their impact? Here are seven steps to consider:

Do pre- and post-assessments - Before launching an initiative, assess employees’ current skills and knowledge, then compare after training.

Use learning analytics - Many learning management systems (LMSs) provide analytics that track employees’ progress, assessment scores, completion rates, and other performance indicators. These metrics are a great way to analyze the effectiveness of a professional development solution, as well as engagement levels.

Get employee feedback - Less high-tech but still valuable, getting feedback from employees can give you an idea of how satisfied they are with the available resources and how they feel it has affected their performance.

Monitor performance improvement - Performance metrics can highlight knowledge improvements among employees in areas you’ve already highlighted, showing that your organization is progressing toward its learning objectives. These metrics also show your business is compliant with appropriate industry standards.

Review time and cost savings - Has the training you’ve invested in led to tangible time or cost savings in day-to-day operations? If you’ve implemented online learning, compare your spending to what it might be with traditional learning methods to calculate time and cost savings.

Consider retention and job satisfaction - Has your professional development investment affected retention and job satisfaction? Engaged employees who feel they’re progressing are more likely to stick around. 

Look at long-term impact - Continue to review employees’ growth and development over time. Is training contributing to their success?

Make the most of your professional development investment with Go1

With Go1, you and your employees can gain instant access to the largest learning library in the world at a fraction of the cost of traditional, classroom-style learning.

For more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs. 

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Spending professional development funds wisely is key to optimizing ROI and ensuring employees get the most valuable skills and knowledge. Here's how.

How to spend professional development funds for maximum ROI

Spending professional development funds wisely is key to optimizing ROI and ensuring employees get the most valuable skills and knowledge. Here's how. 

Your learning management system (LMS) is a fantastic tool for developing your workforce. It provides instant access to a library of learning materials so employees can learn on their schedule. 

Another major advantage is that an LMS is a great way to streamline the onboarding process. Depending on your industry, onboarding can be a long, complex process that requires supervision from managers and HR. Luckily, using your LMS to train new starters will save you time and money, while ensuring you follow the correct processes. 

With this in mind, we'll explain how your LMS can improve your onboarding process, including the advantages of using an LMS for onboarding and tips for measuring success. 

Why your business should use your LMS for onboarding

Your LMS has such a wide range of functionality that it’s the perfect tool for onboarding new employees. For example: 

It provides a consistent onboarding experience, which guarantees every employee receives the same high-quality training and nothing is overlooked, misinterpreted, or forgotten.

It saves time by allowing your business to deliver everything a new employee needs in just a few clicks. Online learning is also a faster and more efficient way to learn.

Online learning is more cost-effective than in-person training or training that requires physical resources. It also saves time and money for HR staff and managers. 

It can be easily scaled, so whether you’re onboarding one new employee or a dozen, they can all learn from the same materials.

Online training can be accessed from anywhere, meaning employees can complete onboarding training and assessments as well as role-specific training. 

Onboarding content can be presented in different formats to ensure engagement and retention, including text, videos, podcasts, quizzes, and assessments.

LMSs allow for detailed monitoring and reporting, so you can view onboarding progress and provide additional support to employees where necessary.

Customized onboarding is simple if different employees require different training, meaning the entire process is personalized.

Many LMSs integrate with HR systems, creating a simple and streamlined onboarding process for new employees and HR professionals.

How to effectively use your LMS for onboarding

If your organization already uses an LMS to deliver employee training, you’ll know the impact it can have on development. Well, the same applies to onboarding. Below are the steps you can take to use your LMS for onboarding:

Understand your onboarding goals and objectives, including what an employee should have learned once onboarding is complete.

Collate learning materials to add to your database, such as the online courses provided by Go1.

Develop specific training materials relevant to your business, such as policies, ways of working, and processes. You will probably already have these materials, which means adding them to your LMS through its authoring tool should be simple.

IInclude any compliance-related training, such as health and safety and industry-specific compliance training. Monitor these to ensure employees pass their assessments so you can provide evidence of compliance should the need arise.

Ensure training is engaging, especially if the subject matter isn’t the most interesting. Use a variety of techniques, such as video, audio, and text.

Create a structured onboarding course that includes the relevant training materials. You may need to create several courses depending on role, seniority, and department-specific requirements to ensure personalized training. 

Introduce gamification elements to make onboarding a more fun, engaging, and rewarding experience.

Test the content, efficiency, and functionality of the courses, ensuring there are no issues with materials, videos, links, or interactive elements.

Ensure new employees receive LMS login access as soon as they start to allow for a streamlined onboarding experience. The sooner you onboard employees, the sooner they can start in earnest. Some LMS and HR system integrations will allow for automation, so new starters will instantly have LMS access.

Communicate the new onboarding process to stakeholders and managers to ensure it’s successfully rolled out.

Ask for feedback from managers and new starters and implement changes to continuously improve the experience.

Ensure onboarding materials are updated to reflect industry changes, company policy, and process amendments, and always include up-to-date data and information.

Once successfully rolled out, monitor engagement to allow you to make changes and refine the process for future new starters.

How to measure the success of your LMS onboarding process

Measuring the success of your onboarding process is important, as it allows you to see what works and what you need to improve. Consider the following points when evaluating success:

Your employees’ learning journey starts the moment they begin the onboarding process. It’s the first step to introducing them to a culture of continuous learning and one that will help them achieve their potential and drive your business toward its goals.

Go1 can help your business refine its onboarding process with online training courses

At Go1, we have a library of online courses to help you design a cost-effective and time-saving onboarding process for your employees.

For more information, download our 50 tips for increasing L&D business value, or speak to one of our experts to discover how we can support your organization with effective learning.

We'll explain how your LMS can improve your onboarding process, including the advantages of using an LMS for onboarding and tips for measuring success. 

How to use your LMS to successfully onboard new employees

The extra mile: How Go1 helped Wave Utilities meet their learning goals 

Welcome to the extra mile! In this brand-new blog series, we’ll be interviewing Go1 customers and their Customer Success Managers (CSMs) about their relationship, challenges, learning goals, and everything in between. 

In this debut edition, we spoke to Mandy Rutherford, L&D Manager at Wave Utilities, and her Go1 CSM Emily Reynolds to get the inside scoop on their relationship, what they’ve taught each other, and how Emily went the extra mile to help Wave Utilities meet their learning goals. 

According to Mandy, having access to a CSM was one of many reasons Wave Utilities chose Go1. 

“It was good to know that support was available,” she said. 

Additionally, she said that “matching of values, feeling like we had an extension to the Wave family, excellent and relevant products, ease of use, and value for money” also played a significant role in their decision.

In Emily, Mandy found the extension to the Wave family that she sought. As Emily pointed out, “we allow Wave to access on-demand content for upskilling their workforce in a fast-paced environment. Go1 enables learners at Wave to learn in the style that suits them, and learn skills for tomorrow, today.” 

These factors set Go1 apart, meaning choosing a new learning partner was ultimately a straightforward decision for Mandy.

After meeting each other, it quickly became clear that this would be a fruitful relationship. 

Mandy shared that her first impression of Emily was that she was “absolutely brilliant. Emily really got us and the business. Her passion for Go1 shone through (and still does). [Emily] did what she said she would with no pressure on us or from us.” 

Emily’s first impression of Mandy was equally positive. 

“From day one, it was clear that we shared a vision of making Go1 and eLearning a success at Wave,” she said. 

“Mandy is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to L&D, her tenure and wisdom have been extremely insightful.”

From these promising first impressions, Emily and Mandy’s relationship quickly blossomed. 

Mandy emphasised that, without Emily’s support and professionalism, the learning landscape at Wave Utilities would not be what it is today. 

“Without Emily we would not have the great learning ecosystem that we have,” she said. 

“[She is] thoroughly professional but warm and with a great sense of humour, she has a good balance of support and challenge.  

“Emily is truly a part of our Wave L&D team and her support has helped us to drive our learning technology agenda.”

Emily returned the compliment, saying Mandy’s attention to detail and care for her staff made working together a pleasure. 

“Mandy cares so much for her staff and the continuous development of all employees at Wave and this comes across in the care and detail they take every day in L&D,” she said

“They continuously seek feedback and recognise trends of how they can improve and adapt their eLearning offering to better serve staff. 

“Ultimately, their employees always come first.”

Meeting L&D goals is rarely straightforward. Inevitably, challenges will arise. But Emily and Mandy faced these challenges head-on and problem-solved together. 

Emily quickly realised that her biggest challenge would be overcoming ingrained stigmas and negative perceptions of eLearning. 

“We had to un-do a lot of negative stigma related to eLearning due to previous sentiment being so low,” she said.  

“We built learning pathways using Go1 content to be aligned to individual styles of learning and teams’ needs. 

“This has led to not only incredible feedback and a positive sentiment across the board from employees, but the highest completion rates yet!” 

From Mandy’s perspective, working with Emily was mostly smooth sailing. However, she appreciated that she could always expect a fast response and an even faster resolution should an issue arise. 

Whether it was a major challenge like transitioning between learning platforms or a minor issue like courses not loading, Mandy said she could always rely on Emily and the Go1 team to have it “sorted very quickly.” 

Throughout this journey, the pair never lost sight of their ultimate target: helping Wave Utilities meet their learning goals. So, did they succeed? According to Mandy, the answer is a resounding yes. 

“Emily did [help us meet our learning goals]. She knows the Go1 product so well and understood what we were trying to achieve with wellness, sustainability, performance, leadership, and management,” she said. 

“She always keeps us up-to-date on new things that are coming along, which is great for adding to our L&D roadmap.  

“When we described to Emily that we wanted to mix learning for people with pods, video etc. she was able to help us source short micro pieces (60 seconds) that supported those colleagues who are short on time to alleviate any learning fatigue.”

Ultimately, Mandy has no doubt that, without Emily, Wave Utilities would not have the thriving learning ecosystem they currently enjoy.  

What have you learned from working together? 

Naturally, working together has been far from a one-way street. Although it has been her job to help Mandy and her team, Emily believes she has gotten just as much out of the relationship — if not more. When asked what she has learned from working with Mandy, Emily’s response was emphatic: “SO MUCH.” 

“Most notably, [I’ve learned] that L&D is a very personal experience that differs from not only organisation to organisation but from person to person, and that collaborative conversation and feedback and transparency are pillars that need to be incorporated into any L&D strategy to ensure success,” she added. 

For Mandy, she simply says she’s learned how a relationship with an external partner should function. 

“For me, it’s a true example of partnership,” she said. 

“We can offer each other the right level of support and challenge in a safe space.”

And that’s not all they’ve learned from working together. On top of building a successful professional partnership, Emily and Mandy's personal relationship has also thrived, with Emily even sharing some very special news.

“Most recently, we have been catching up around my upcoming wedding, and Jess and Mandy were so generous and kind in sending me and my fiancé a wedding gift to celebrate our big day,” Emily said. 

“We do laugh a lot and the relationship is developing in such a way that we can share personal stories and adventures. Jess and I are wishing Emily and Ciaran all the very best for their coming wedding,” Mandy added. 

For more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

In this brand-new blog series, we’ll be interviewing Go1 customers and their Customer Success Managers (CSMs) about their relationship, challenges, learning goals, and everything in between.

The extra mile: How Go1 helped Wave Utilities meet their learning goals

Continuous employee professional development is crucial to ensure your organization has the flexibility to adapt to an ever-evolving business landscape. With technologies, industry trends, and customer demands changing regularly, your workforce is the key to making sure your organization is at the forefront of tackling these changes.

To do this, your organization must prioritize professional development for employees. As such, we’ll explore why professional development is important, including the role of continuous learning, and how you can cultivate a learning culture.

Understanding the importance of continuous professional development

Continuous professional development should be a key part of any organization’s growth strategy as it has two major benefits:

It develops employees’ skills and knowledge. 

It ensures your business can adapt to an evolving landscape.

Each of these benefits feeds into one another to build a culture of learning. When your employees develop, they’re more engaged, which helps them to perform better. This allows your business to serve its customers better, which can reduce costs and increase revenue. By doing this, you feed back into the continuous development of employees, allowing for further innovation and growth, 

To understand the importance of continuous development, consider the following business impacts: 

How to implement a culture of continuous learning in your organization

Once you understand the impact of professional development programs on employees, you can begin implementing one at your organization. The good news is you likely already have the tools and resources you need to make it happen:

To embrace continuous development, your workforce must know your leadership team is actively participating. After all, if your leadership team doesn’t practice what they preach, how can they expect the rest of your workforce to?

Establish clear and achievable goals early so employees know what’s expected of them. Use employee PDPs and personal development at scale so employee goals align with organizational goals. 

Communicate the value of continuous professional development and ensure employees have all the tools, time, and resources they need. Highlight the benefits of micro-credentials to help improve engagement.

Use your learning management system (LMS) and create a collection of online courses, such as those provided by Go1.

Regularly recognize and reward employees’ learning achievements across your organization.

Encourage collaborative learning to improve engagement and retention.

Evaluate the effectiveness of your strategy using data, which will also allow you to understand the ROI of your training.

Introduce a professional development coach to guide employees.

Utilizing technology for continuous professional development

Creating a culture of continuous professional development is only possible by utilizing the right technology. In-person training and classroom-type sessions will always have their place, but with many organizations working from different office locations, or adopting hybrid or remote working, ensuring you have the right technology is vital. For example, even in a virtual working environment, video conferencing platforms like Zoom and Google Meet ensure tutor-led learning and workshops still have their place.

There are many benefits to using an LMS, but one of the key benefits is how accessible and flexible training can be. You can access training at any time, using any device. Features such as single sign-on (SSO) allow employees to access training and make the best use of their time, while microlearning means that even if an employee has just 10 minutes to spare, they can still use that time to learn.

From an administrative point of view, LMSs also provide you with data about engagement and course completion, allowing managers to offer extra support to employees who need it.

At Go1, we have a huge database of online learning resources that can be integrated with hundreds of LMSs. So, whatever skills your employees want to develop, you can easily provide them with the resources they need.

Key performance indicators for learning initiatives

Key performance indicators (KPIs) for learning initiatives are important for tracking the effectiveness and ROI of training programs. Below are some KPIs your business can use to measure the impact of training:

LMS Data - Data available through your LMS, such as training completion rate, assessment scores, and engagement rate, allows you to monitor how and when employees access training.

Knowledge acquisition - This lets you measure the knowledge and skills employees have retained after completing training.

Performance - Depending on the type of training, metrics such as customer satisfaction scores, revenue, average order value, and conversion rates are useful.

Return on investment - Measuring the ROI of training programs is a great way to assess their effectiveness.

Employee retention - Employees that feel valued tend to be less inclined to seek alternative employment.

Employee feedback - It’s important to get feedback from employees to gauge how they feel about their development opportunities. 

Build a culture of continuous professional development at your organization

Now that you know how to enable professional development, why not start upskilling your employees? At Go1, we have a vast selection of online training courses that integrate with hundreds of LMSs, making personalized learning at scale simple.

For more information, download our guide on five new thinking habits for a smarter, stronger L&D, or speak to one of our experts to find out how Go1 can upskill your workforce.

Foster a culture of continuous professional development by implementing effective training programs and encouraging employee feedback.

How to enable continuous professional development throughout your organization

In recent years, online learning has become more and more accessible and affordable. While this is a fantastic tool that businesses can utilize for personalized learning at scale, where does this leave professional development coaching?

In the modern business landscape, coaching still plays an important role in many L&D strategies. Coaching provides the support and guidance employees need to develop in a way that benefits both themselves and the organization.

So, we’ll explore why coaching should still be part of your organization’s learning and development plan, including how it can benefit your business, and how you can successfully implement professional development coaching. 

Understanding professional development coaching

Professional development coaching, also referred to as career coaching, is a way for businesses to support the development of their employees by offering one-on-one coaching. A professional development coach works with individual employees to help them identify what they want to achieve, when they want to achieve it, and how they can enact that plan. In the process, they learn valuable new skills and knowledge that push your business forward.

You can utilize coaching across your entire workforce, from entry-level employees who are still trying to work out their desired career path, to senior managers who know their goals but want to continue upskilling. Coaching is a collaborative process that requires a proactive approach from employees seeking to further their knowledge and skills. A coach is simply someone who will guide employees using a series of techniques, such as setting goals, encouraging self-reflection, and setting skill and knowledge-building exercises.

Coaches will help employees upskill in a range of areas, such as communication, time management, leadership skills, emotional intelligence, and decision-making. Each of these skills allows employees to grow, while also contributing to the overall success of your business.

While coaching is a one-on-one process, individual employees undertake most of the legwork. That means a coach can support a large organization with many employees looking to develop.

The importance of professional development coaching

Coaching can be a fantastic way to improve your organization’s learning and development plan. The benefits of coaching include:

Developing key skills such as leadership, decision-making, and communication

Ensuring employees feel valued and motivated

Encouraging employees to embrace change and be more flexible

From this, your organization will be in a better position to promote from within, which will prevent the need to recruit as regularly, saving you from long and expensive recruitment processes. It’ll also help you attract and retain top industry talent.

A coach will help build a learning culture in your organization, pushing your employees to be the best they can be. They will also encourage continuous learning, so employees never lose their enthusiasm and drive to learn and develop.

Of course, without utilizing a professional development coach as part of your L&D strategy, your employees can still use online learning and other tools to develop. However, a coach will guide employees to overcome challenges, improve their self-awareness, and get the most out of their learning and development. Coaching will help employees reach their potential and drive your organization to success.

For more information, read our post on why professional development is essential for future-ready organizations.

How professional development coaching enhances L&D

Coaching is a fantastic way to boost your organization’s learning and development strategy to ensure your employees develop in the most effective ways possible. This includes:

Personalized learning so employees can take control of their journey.

Application of learning so employees can utilize what they learn to increase retention.

A shift in mindset across the organization as you introduce a culture of continuous learning.

Implementing professional development coaching in your L&D strategy

To implement professional development coaching at your organization, consider the following steps:

Understand the goals you hope to achieve by implementing coaching. For example, do you want to improve communication throughout the organization, or focus on leadership development?

Ensure your business has the infrastructure to support coaching. Can you dedicate the resources necessary for it to be effective?

Speak to qualified coaches to find one that aligns with your goals, industry, experience, and values.

Identify which employees are most likely to benefit from coaching. 

Develop learning strategies that align with the overall goals of your organization.

Roll out the strategy and communicate the benefits to your workforce.

Provide the resources employees need so your L&D strategy can be as effective as possible, such as offering relevant online training courses to help employees upskill.

Ask employees for feedback so you can continuously tweak and improve your strategy.

Use metrics to measure the effectiveness of the strategy and ensure the goals you identified are closer to being achieved.

Real-world success stories of coaching in L&D

78% of LinkedIn’s top US companies utilize coaching to support careers, succession, and performance goals. One such company is Verizon, which found that: “99% of managers agree that coaching has improved new directors' impact on communication, executive presence and influence, resilience and change, team performance, and strategic thinking.”

LinkedIn’s data also revealed that Alphabet (Google’s parent company) offers a coaching strategy that prioritizes learning and development, which resulted in a 200% increase in participation in just two years.

Upskill your workforce with online courses from Go1

Tips for leveraging professional development coaching to enhance employee skills and drive business success.