Learning and Development
Training is :
‘An instructor-led, content-based
intervention leading to desired
changes in behaviour’ (Sloman,
2005).
Learning is:
‘The process of increasing knowledge
and skills and developing our
attitudes or beliefs so that we have
the opportunity for increased choice’
(Thorpe and Clifford, 2000).
Differences
Training Learning
• Conditioning and control of • Broadening and liberating
individuals’ understanding understanding
• An ‘event’ • Ongoing
• Teaching cultural norms of the • Questioning and experimentation
organization and enforcing the with the freedom to learn and
organization’s definitions and unlearn
perspective
• Prediction of outcomes • Unpredictability of outcomes
Source: (Antonacopoulou, 2001)
What is learning?
Setting the context
Three-way partnership
Relationship between education & training
Source: (Buckley & Caple 1992)
Factors that create a learning and development need
➢Imposed Change
✓Arises from a change – internal or external to the organisation.
➢Performance review
✓Arises as a result of reviewing current performance against standards
➢Personal motivation
Organisations are concerned for?
Identify the impact of changes
• Does the change mean that people have to do something differently
that requires them to learn new knowledge, skills or behaviours?
• Would developing individuals/teams help or support change to be
more effectively implemented?
• Will the change result in standards being altered?
Focus areas of L&D
• Identify and assess skills gaps
• Increase engagement with learning programmes
• Coordinating coaching and mentoring programmes
• Train for soft skills
• Deliver company-specific insights to close organisational skills gaps
• Understand the impact of technology and automation on skills
Positioning of L&D
It depends on several factors, such as:
• the size and structure of the organisation
• purpose, products and services
• organisational culture and attitude to learning
• learning technologies in use within the organisation
• manager preferences
Is L&D a part of an integrated HR function,
or
Should it stand alone as a separate function?
L&D integrated with, or sub team of, central HR
Advantages Disadvantages
• Strength in numbers – HR and L&D are a • Can become a ‘generalist’ function and
unified force on ‘people issues’. lack specialist knowledge.
• Can offer a one-stop-shop for all people’s • L&D function may feel like a ‘poor
needs – a more streamlined service. relation’.
• Could be financial savings in working • Could be slow to respond to the needs of
together and sharing systems. some smaller departments.
• Can build a combined professional • Might be seen by some workers as ‘too
reputation and work in partnership across corporate’
the business.
• Better sharing of knowledge and skills.
• More integrated metrics to inform
business development.
Standalone L&D (positioned in the business)
Advantages Disadvantages
• L&D can be tailored to the individual • Could be a disjointed approach with a
functions that it supports. lack of corporate focus.
• Can allow for more specialist • May result in inconsistency of
interventions. coverage.
• L&D can build a deeper understanding of • May be disproportionately affected by
the parts of the business it supports. budget cuts.
• Allows L&D to be regarded as a profession
in its own right, ‘specialists’ rather than a
subset of HR.
• Stronger direct relationships with the
business
L&D Arrangements in Organisations
1. A central L&D team which is a subteam of the central HR function and provides
L&D services to the whole organisation/business.
2. A central L&D team which is independent of central HR and provides L&D
services for the whole organisation/business.
3. A central L&D team in which each team member is allocated into areas of the
business and acts as a business partner/L&D consultant to those particular
business areas.
4. No central L&D team, but small L&D teams situated within each business unit
and responsible to the business unit managers.
5. A small central L&D team who provides some key L&D activities but who
procures the majority of the organisation’s L&D services from external providers,
as required.
6. A small central L&D team who provides some key L&D activities whilst business
unit managers independently procure any other L&D services they require from
external providers.
7. A shared service arrangement where all organisations agree to procure all their
L&D services from a semi-independent ‘shared’ provider (possibly made up of
elements of each organisation’s original L&D teams).
8. No internal L&D function; business unit managers independently procure all the
L&D services they require for their team members from external providers.
9. An internal L&D function whose role is to manage an internal LMS system based
on business needs cascaded to them from the L&D director, who liaises with
business leaders.
10. No internal L&D function. Individual team members have an individual L&D
budget, provided by the organisation and are able to spend it externally as they
consider most appropriate, without any checks
Where companies go wrong with L&D
• Learning for the wrong reasons
✓Signalling
• Learning at the wrong time
• Learning the wrong things
✓Busy employees attend training session on ‘business writing skills’ or
‘conflict resolution’
✓Quickly forget what we have learned
