Create a Learning and Development Strategy

Transform your learning and development function from reactive to strategic.

Executive Summary

McLean & Company Insight

L&D can't be all things to all people. It needs to focus on proactively identifying and developing the critical learning needs that will enable the organization to deliver on its strategic objectives.

Situation

• Delivering effective learning and development (L&D) to employees is a key driver of bottom-line results; organizations with strong L&D programs are more profitable, more productive, and have greater customer satisfaction.
• Today, the increased role that individuals play in creating value for organizations makes a focus on L&D even more critical.

Complication

• Organizational leaders remain unsatisfied with the performance of their current L&D functions.
• Employees are leaving organizations because they are not receiving the training and development that they were promised when they were hired.

Solution

• Highly effective HR departments create programs that are deeply aligned with the strategic needs of their organizations. L&D departments need to do the same.
• Involve key stakeholders from the beginning and perform a comprehensive needs analysis to understand the type of support from L&D that would be most valuable.
• Create an L&D framework that details a vision, objectives, primary learning needs, employee groups, core delivery methods, measurement, and governance to ensure that your L&D function has a clearly articulated purpose and roadmap for the future.

Before starting this project

Be prepared to:

• Gather information about the strategy and goals of the organization.
• Speak with key senior stakeholders to understand their objectives and feedback on current L&D initiatives.
• Work cross-functionally with functional leaders and other stakeholders in HR (including business partners and Talent Management leaders).

This blueprint is most helpful when:

• The learning function is reactive, and the L&D leader wants to be proactive in identifying high-impact priorities.
• Learning has been identified as a priority area for key stakeholders; use McLean & Company's HR Organizational Alignment Diagnostic to understand how your stakeholders see the function.

An L&D strategy includes the following:

• Conducting a rigorous needs analysis that evaluates what learning will have the greatest impact on achieving the strategic goals of the organization.
• Evaluating and updating how the L&D function operates and what activities it should be engaged in to best meet those priority needs.
• Identifying gaps (in programs, infrastructure, and capabilities) that are limiting L&D's ability to realize the desired future state, and creating a clear action plan to guide the function into the future.

McLean & Company Insight

There is no shortcut for a rigorous and planful needs analysis. Even though it is easier and less time consuming to skip the phase of gathering information from stakeholders, the L&D strategy needs to be grounded in a solid understanding of the organizational objectives and the potential obstacles to achieving them.