Influences on Learning and Development Strategy

Learning can be defined as the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, practise, or study or being taught whilst development is improving the performance of individuals and groups in organisational settings by devising organisational activities that channel them to this goal. Therefore the strategy a business takes to introduce or manage learning and development of its staff in all levels of the organisational structure has to be determined by a range and combination of various factors.

The most important factor influencing the strategy is the budget. Companies with a high budget for the Human Resources Department [responsible for Learning and Development] can afford a wide range of effective measures to increase the skill levels of their employees. Because they are already established on the market and have a wide range of income streams, learning and development creates an opportunity to invest in labour to allow continuity, sustainability and reduced operational costs in the long term as employees' experience will kick in allowing creativity in ideas and decision making and improvisation in marketing, sales and the overall competitiveness.

Smaller firms do not have that luxury. Training employees costs a lot of money and the opportunity cost for such an investment is usually product development of venturing into a new market in order to stay ahead of or in sight of the competition. In the current economic climate, there is constant need for businesses to cut costs, and in the UK, labour contributes a large percentage of the business' operational costs because it is easy to be driven out of the market by the more efficient competitors. They thus have to find other cost effective training and development mechanisms. Delegation is one of the most efficient methods of developing the skills of an individual at work. The subordinate gets to understand how the business is operating at the current stage from the superior's point of view. This allows them to understand the tactical decisions made by the management and also makes them more aware of the tactical and strategic objectives of the business in the same way a superior would see them. This process of involvement increases motivation and also reduces the cost of replacing managers as the subordinates will have relatively adequate experience to manage a workplace they are familiar with

Delegation is also influenced by another related factor which is the type of job for which the learning and development strategy is to be implemented. Delegation works best at a workplace where the roles of employees are not too specialised. This means that a subordinate can be elevated to a superior role for a particular period without interrupting the flow of business because the tasks are not too inter-related. It also means that no costs are incurred as a result of closure of some operational units as is the case with other strategies like off the job training.

The leadership style is most likely going to impact the way in which employees respond to instructions, and the strategies put in place to increase or improve their skill levels. An authoritarian leader would favour a more hands on strategy which would allow them to monitor the progress of employees. Training Needs Analysis [TNA] is a strategy that allows management to identify the skills that employees lack and which require attention in order to reach the desired performance level. This is done through:

• monitoring current performance using techniques such as observation, interviews and questionnaires.
• Anticipating future shortfalls or problems
• identifying the type and level of training required and analysing how this can best be provided

A more relativist leader like a like a democratic or laissez faire would prefer a more subtle way to monitor employees performances. This type of leadership is most common in marketing and other jobs where employees have to improvise in order to get their jobs done. A system that facilitates self-development is more favourable because it is liberating, allowing employees to be more proactive. It is more satisfying to employees of this nature because learning something on your own is more satisfying than having it taught to you by someone else.

Like with all business strategies, learning and development has to be embedded in the culture and organisational structure of the business. This means that the strategy the business decides to use should be easy to introduce into the business culture without drastically changing the culture and the organisational structure. This helps to maintain the stability of the business and the values upon which the business operations are based as stated in the mission statement. Embedding a new learning and development strategy into the culture of the business also puts a benchmark on which new recruits will be selected. This helps to save the training costs on new recruits because they will be chosen on the basis of them possessing the minimum skills requirements of those current employees who have just been trained. This makes human resource planning more efficient.

Legislation posses as a similar factor the Learning and Development strategy a company chooses. Considering the liberty employees have in this day and age, a business that invests in training staff means that they are running a risk of employees moving to a competitor with their skills. The opportunity cost is to mechanise. This often involves making some employees redundant which has negative implications on the companies' image and finances as they have to pay out compensation as required by law. If the competitors train their staff effectively, which is often shown by the iconic

[Investor in People] badge, they will be more attractive to career minded employees who are usually the most academically skilled and professionally experienced. Thus, training employees gives companies a competitive advantage in the labour market. Also, it is required by law to conduct health and safety training for all employees such as fire drills and organisation of production lines and offices.

The quality of the skills in the labour market also influences the strategy applied by firms to develop employees skills. It has often been argued that the reason for the gross unemployment in the UK is not due to the lack of jobs but rather the unreadiness of college graduates and students to work. This is because teachers are more focussed on making sure students pass their exams instead of making them ready for the working environment that follows. Learning and development thus has to start at the grass root level through government policy on the education system to promote work ethic in the youth and most importantly to encourage entrepreneurship. In the meantime the businesses have to settle for an apprenticeship scheme to make students ready for the work environment. These schemes are affordable for even small businesses and cater for students who are deterred off university by the rising tuition fees. It also indirectly increases the likelihood of these apprentices to be entrepreneurs.

Some of the details in this piece were found on the following websites and you can visit them to read the finer details:

http://www.skills-thirdsector.org.uk/training_needs_analysis/

http://www.london.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/staff/staff_development/tna.pdf

http://t.co/mFr1KUji

Mudiwa Mari