Learning can only be a good thing. It’s true, but it’s also deceptive. We believe that by offering colleagues a smorgasbord of learning resources, we’re guiding them towards growth and development.
Rates of completion reassure us that learning resources are consumed. Self-reported engagement with learning metrics and hours spent with content are positive stats to report to the board. It may seem trite to ask, in this context, what purpose learning serves. If people are learning, what more do we need to know?
And yet we should interrogate this, because we can only judge the effectiveness of L&D efforts through the lens of business impact. Are we improving our people? Are we making a measurable difference to skills growth, and are those the skills our organisation needs to succeed?
Looked at in that context, completion rates are meaningless and engagement is irrelevant: what matters is moving the needle on skills, based on a clear-eyed look at the skills which will drive growth in the months and years to come. In order to do that, there are five key shifts any organisation can make: shifts which will transform a free-for-all learning function into a targeted, measurable resource which employees, managers and leaders can see the benefit of in their day-to-day work.
Stop measuring learning, start measuring impact
Is it unfair to call completion rates a vanity metric? Perhaps. As long as people are learning, we can tell ourselves that we’re going in the right direction. But learning at work can – and should – be tied directly to output, and L&D professionals have access to the ultimate resource for measuring output: line managers. No one knows more about employees’ competencies, skills gaps and the knowledge needed to make a difference within the team.
By identifying key areas for skills growth, we can target learning to order. Does this salesperson need better negotiation skills? Does that finance team have a future leader within it, ready to take the next step in seniority but lacking in a crucial area of knowledge? Aim learning directly at the gaps, get the line managers on board, and start measuring success in tangible terms: increased revenue due to more sales, or cost-savings achieved by promoting a finance director rather than hiring one in.
Make learning frictionless
People usually want to learn. It’s not just good for the business, it’s good for their careers. The problem – and it’s nearly always the problem – is that they’re busy. If it’s a choice between getting through a learning module or delivering a deck for a pitch tomorrow, the deck wins every time.
But targeted learning is about work, not about the abstract. If specific skills are the aim, and improved capability is the end goal, then it’s much easier to incorporate learning into the flow of work. That learning module could directly support and inform an upcoming project. It could build the aforementioned negotiation skills in the run up to a major new business pitch.
The benefit to the employee is obvious – you’re helping them to do their job better and progress in their career. The benefit to the manager and organisation is equally clear: managers will see performance improvement, and the CEO will see its impact on revenue. If we make learning easy to find and easy to apply in the context of the job, it encourages people to make time rather than push it down the to-do list.
Don’t push content – build capability
Learning content has never existed in such profusion: vast libraries are available at the click of a mouse. And while libraries are undoubtedly a good thing, reams of content aren’t necessarily the answer… in fact, volume might even be part of the problem.
Mapping learning to key skills will ensure that the content is as relevant to the user as it possibly can be. Employee check-ins with managers – and, if the capacity is there, manager check-ins with L&D – will ensure that the right skills are being targeted. At the same time, AI can craft individual learning pathways in a fraction of the time it would take a human to do it. Curation for individuals, quickly and at scale, is possible for the first time in history. And on that subject…
Let AI do the heavy lifting
AI is great at doing the things that many of us would do anything to avoid. Laborious administrative processes can be virtually automated. Complex reporting can be set up, then left to run itself. And, as we just mentioned, curation of individuals’ journeys through those vast libraries of content can now be done in hours rather than weeks.
And that’s just a relatively basic application of AI. Advanced AI agents can now coach individuals, play out scenarios and roleplays with people in active learning sessions and even adapt to people’s skills gaps in real time. AI’s been a great assistant for some time now, but it’s evolving into a coach-project manager hybrid, taking even more strain off busy L&D teams and freeing up time for strategic thinking.
Create a culture where learning is an everyday habit
Learning is a tool, not an end in itself. If people constantly feel like they have to take time out of their day to stop and get themselves into learning mode, they’ll start to bounce off it. If they’re up against deadlines or worried about a particular milestone, learning will be the thing that makes way for an extra hour of work.
But if learning becomes part of work – and not just any part, but the part that makes the rest easier and more rewarding – then its value as a tool becomes that much clearer. Learning is the thing that can help you prepare for a sales meeting, launch a new product or deliver a big report to the board. It’s not a distraction: it’s an enabler. And when learning is aligned with workflow, and makes a clear difference in the quality of the work you do, it’s an enabler not just of better work but career progression and – by extension – better business performance.
L&D teams work hard in what can sometimes be seen as a rather thankless role: out on the periphery, trying to plot paths for employees through a complex web of content. But by tying learning to impact, they have an opportunity to take centre stage. They can prove their value, not just as proponents of learning, but also as the support structure which enables success.
As with anything worthwhile, it takes a little time and effort to make the change. But the journey is well worth it, and the destination is a clear, provable difference to results.
Nelson Sivalingam is CEO and Co-Founder of HowNow - the AI-powered learning and skills platform. He is also the author of award-winning book 'Learning at Speed', and co-host of the popular 'L&D Disrupt' podcast. Nelson has been recognised by Virgin Media Business as one of the top 30 young innovative founders in the UK, and recently featured on Bloomberg's Entrepreneurial Mindset documentary.
- Nelson Sivalingam
