Questions For L&D Leaders

Over the last decade, the role of L&D has undergone enormous changes, strategically. This has been the result of an increasingly competitive business landscape, shifts in global economies, rising complexity, and the digital revolution. 

As per Nick Van Dam, author of “25 Best Practices in Learning & Talent Development” today L&D’s strategic role spans over these five key areas:

As L&D professionals you must be well aware of these areas and most probably taking care of each right now. However, I would like to put some questions here that might help you get clarity & connect the dots between your L&D strategy and its translation into successful execution.

1: Attract And Retain Talent:

L&D is responsible for both attracting & retaining talent. To gauge your effectiveness, ask yourself the following questions:

• What are the top three reasons of people joining our organization?
• What are the top three reasons of people leaving our organization?
• Who is responsible for employees’ growth in our organization?
• Are we providing enough learning & development opportunities to our employees?

2: Develop People Capabilities:

Your development capabilities and efforts can be gauged by your answers to the following questions:

• Do we have a structured people development plan that is aligned with our corporate values?
• Do our employees know about such a plan?
• How much are we investing (time & resources) into ongoing L&D activities to retain its value?
• Are we investing enough (time & resources) into developing the next generation of leaders for our organization?

3: Create A Values-Based Culture:

L&D’s role is very critical here and following questions may act as a litmus test to identify your organizational culture:

• Is our organization Compliance or Value based, and what are we doing about it?
• How many of our Corporate Values are embedded into employee KPIs?
• Is there an alignment between employees’ personal values and our organization’s values?

4: Build An Employer Brand:

To define, gauge and enhance your employer brand is a shared responsibility where L&D plays a strategic role. Answer the following questions to see if your organization is moving in the right direction:

• What is our employee value proposition and are we communicating it explicitly?
• Is our corporate personality aligned with our corporate character, if not then what are we doing about it? (Watch Farhad Karamally’s ‘Organizational Challenge: Freedom and Framework Balance | MILE Webinar’ for details)
• How do we define and measure the candidate and employee experience?

5: Motivate And Engage Employees:

Engaged and motivated employees do wonders for organizations. Gauge your efforts in this direction by answering the following questions:   

• As an organization, do we believe in lifelong learning?
• Are we giving our employees regular, structured opportunities to learn & develop new competencies?
• Are our equipping, encouraging, and incentivizing our leaders to connect with their team members on a regular basis?

Share Your Experience:

Comment your answers to the following two questions to help fellow L&D professional benefit from your experience:

Q1: What challenges have you faced with your L&D strategy in the last decade and how you overcame them?

Q2: What would you suggest to budding L&D professionals who are struggling with their role in today’s rapidly changing world?