Top 4 takeaways from ‘How to make L&D a strategic enabler’

Psst… want to know the biggest reason L&D budgets get cut? It’s because most senior L&D professionals don’t know how to operate L&D like a business within their company.

In the recent webinar How to make L&D a strategic enabler, industry experts Lori Niles-Hofmann and Amanda Nolen joined Ollie Browning of Go1 to reveal the secrets that make L&D a more successful function.

There were plenty of useful takeaways from the webinar; we’ve pulled out our top four.

1. Find the evidence of need

Next time a stakeholder comes to you with a request, resist the temptation to jump in and simply fulfil the order. Instead, ask one simple question: “What is the evidence of need?”

If your stakeholder can’t come up with an answer, other departments in your organisation can. Speak to IT, internal communications and marketing. They are already tracking employee behaviour and offer rich seams of data that can provide you with evidence – such as the ‘help’ subjects people are searching on the company intranet, details of performance goals, and findings from employee engagement surveys.

If the data shows evidence of need, your next step is to drill down to discover the strategic value of this intervention to the business.

2. Check that it ties to a business goal

Now it's the time to find out what the stakeholder is truly trying to achieve. Is it to reduce risk, save money, improve performance, lower attrition rates?

The request must be tied to a business goal. If you need help locating your organisation’s business goals, take a look at recent company reports, turn to the Project Management Office to see what areas of the business they’re investing in, or speak to HR and those looking at strategic workforce planning to see what skills gaps they’re facing.

Don’t be afraid to ask. L&D must use all the information available to align itself with the desired business outcomes.

3. Get endorsement from the top

Once you’ve given your stakeholder’s request the green light, you want to make your training impactful. Developing senior-level champions for training is key. Managers are the link between L&D and your organisation’s business strategy, so you need to get them on board early. The more positive a manager is about training, the more likely it is that the programme will gain traction with employees.

4. Curate your content

There is a lot of great content out there, so you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. But with companies clamouring for the latest skills to stay productive and competitive, L&D professionals are often unsure where to turn.

One option is Go1, an online marketplace of more than 100,000 courses from the world’s top training providers, including Harvard, Microsoft and Blinkist. You’ll find solutions to meet a diverse range of training needs all in one place – everything from compliance to communication, soft skills to leadership training – all carefully curated to meet your business priorities.

If online content is part of your L&D strategy, a one-stop shop like Go1 can help you overcome some of the challenges you’re facing today.

L&D must use all the tools available to become a strategic enabler. With the help of these tips, you’ll be able to speak to your organisation in ‘business language’ and demonstrate the impact L&D will have in terms of productivity, revenue, customer service and staff satisfaction. That way, L&D can deliver training that produces strategic business results.

For more insights, be sure to 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.