5 Ways Skills Unlock L&D Outcomes

Learning and Development (L&D) covers a lot of ground. Success means developing employees that are ready to handle today’s tasks and tomorrow’s challenges and fostering a culture so that employees stay engaged in their growth. Even for a small organization, this remit can be challenging. Resources are limited and when it’s time to have employees present and engaged in training, there are always competing priorities. 

One of the reasons L&D struggles to engage the rest of the organization is that our discipline can feel “squishy” compared to other functions. Sales has revenue and growth metrics. Operations has output and utilization. Accounting has cashflow and profit. Marketing has leads and cost of acquisition. L&D doesn’t have a shared, familiar terminology that captures the motivation for and outcomes of learning. This makes it hard for the rest of the organization to quantify its value and undermines its importance. 

Skills aren’t new and they aren’t some panacea. In fact, they have always been the building blocks of well-written learning objectives. They’re specific, measurable behaviors. That’s all. A skills framework is a master list of the most critical skills an organization needs to handle today’s tasks and tomorrow’s challenges. A skills profile is those skills mapped to roles across an organization.  By creating transparency around skills, L&D can help the rest of the organization understand its purpose and impact. Here are 5 ways skills unlock L&D outcomes:

• Skills align an employee’s performance with business strategy 

A skills profile aligns individual performance with organizational goals by creating a clear map of the skills, knowledge, and abilities that employees need to contribute effectively to the company’s objectives. It quantifies the skills and competencies of the most successful performers.  

Read: Using Skills Insights to Align Learning with Strategic Goals

• Skills Focus and Clarify the Purpose of L&D investment

By identifying gaps between employee’s current skills and those needed to handle today’s tasks and tomorrow’s challenges, organizations can rationalize and target development. These plans focus on helping employees build relevant skills that not only enhance their performance but also drive progress toward organizational objectives.

Read: 6 Step Guide: Identify, Analyze and Act on Skills Intelligence Data

• Skills Provide Objective Benchmarks for Development

Skills profiles provide a basis for measuring performance in a structured way. Managers can give more specific, relevant feedback based on how well an employee is meeting the skills requirements for their role, which helps keep everyone aligned with the company’s strategic goals.

Read: Stop Losing Talent: Why Your Managers Need a Skills-based Approach to Coaching

• Skills actively engage employees in learning

Skills profiles link individual growth with company goals and boost employee engagement and retention. When employees see a clear pathway for development that benefits both them and the company, they’re more likely to feel valued and motivated to contribute to long-term success.

Read: How to Foster a Learning Culture and Model Successful Performance

• Skills provide a unified data source to measure the impact of L&D

Tracking skills development against how training dollars are invested against specific skills provides the clearest measure of the impact of training. If a skills analysis done well, the skills targeted by training reflect the highest value skills an organization needs to succeed, so the value in the improvement is self-evident.

Read: How to Measure the Impact of L&D Investment

Have your own thoughts on the use of skills in L&D? Join Ben Betts, Cammy Bean, Andy Andrews and myself on December 12^th for an interactive discussion on the topic.  

Key aspects of this ideal outcome include:

1. High employee engagement in learning:
   • Employees actively participate in learning initiatives and see continuous development as a valued part of their work. 
2. Improved performance metrics:
   • Measurable improvements in employee productivity, quality of work, and key performance indicators directly linked to learning programs. 
3. Alignment with business strategy:
   • Learning programs are designed to directly support the organization’s strategic objectives and future goals. 
4. Positive impact on talent development:
   • Effective succession planning and identification of future leaders through targeted learning initiatives. 
5. A culture of continuous learning:
   • Employees are encouraged to actively seek out new knowledge and skills beyond formal training programs. 

• Effective use of technology:

Leveraging modern learning platforms and tools to deliver engaging and accessible learning experiences. 

Working in Learning and Development (L&D) can be a thankless job. Too many people want training and it’s all a priority. Resources are limited. Leadership says they support L&D, but their actions say otherwise. These are just a few of the frustrations I’ve heard from L&D leaders over the years.