Why is L&D more important than ever?

If you work in L&D you may think that the current times are tough. Your budget is being slashed and maybe training has already been frozen or slimmed down. Before you reach for your noose there are some incredible opportunities out there for L&D at the moment.

The recent collapse of the financial markets was largely due to the lack of regulation in place. The banks could do what they liked......and we are now all paying the price. Now that the banks are back under the control of the govt (in the UK the govt now owns most of them) then that will all change. There will clearly be a focus on introducing new regulations and policies but perhaps more importantly a focus on changing the culture and inherent behviours of those in the banking industry.

Can you imagine how many people are going to be impacted by this....?  Each organisation is going to have to make sure that their people fully understand these new regulations - without it they won't be able to do business. If that wasn't a large enough L&D opportunity then how about the behavioural change piece. How can you change the behaviours of such a large group of people?

I am already talking with clients about these opportunities. To say they are receptive is what you might call an understatement....!

What other opportunities are out there for L&D professionals.....?

The Crunch Starts to Bite...

A few months ago I put up a post about the Credit Crunch and whether this was having any impact on L&D budgets. The response that I received was fairly mixed - some people were cautious but hadn't yet seen any impact, some had already experienced an impact whilst others predicted no change.

I suspect that the picture may now have changed and I would love to hear an update from you all.

When the pressure to meet targets is really on this is the ultimate test for an organisation's faith and commitment to its people. If you have to put some L&D investments on hold for a while then don't break the golden rules:

• Communicate, communicate, communicate: most people will understand if some L&D activity has to stop in the short term if you explain to them why. Communication with people in different but consistent ways to make sure the reasons are clear.
• Postpone the L&D rather than cancel it: If people know that their training will still be taking place but just a little later than expected then that's a much better message than 'all training is cancelled....".
• Budget for the postponed training: If you are putting back L&D activity until next year then make sure you include it in next year's budget.
• Focus on no cost L&D activity: Demonstrate your ongoing commitment to developing people by encouraging and facilitating L&D activity that has no or minimal cost. For example ensuring managers are equipped to and are having appropriate coaching conversations with their people, ramping up the use of web based learning, encouraging lunch time masterclasses, set up action learning groups, facilitate a mentoring programme,  encourage work shadowing, ecncourage people to document their personal development plan and 'best next move'.....

Tough times can be a really interesting time for L&D professionals. You may have to be creative but it means you have a chance to demonstrate your real worth to the organisation.  Are you up for the challenge....?