Learning organisations are leading organisations. You have a huge impact on the learning — and thus the success — of your organisation. That’s being recognised at the highest levels. Organisations should be begging for your services, but making that happen is up to you. So, let’s get them begging.

The 20th century is history, and what was a difficult era for business is now, for the most part, behind us. Starting with a boom that few had predicted, the 1990s ended with many of the business world’s greatest organisations struggling to stay alive. A number of them failed.

Most companies spent the past few years cutting plants, people and processes – cost-cutting was very much in vogue. No doubt many organisations are financially healthier because of their commitment to reducing expenses, but those same companies may now be risking their futures by ignoring the need to prepare staff for the next wave of leadership focus—growth—and neglecting to ‘right skill’ their employees.

‘On-demand’ replaced ‘on-time’ as a basic business mantra. But many businesses find themselves ill-equipped to grow, because the skills required to meet the demand for growth, innovation, and competitiveness are in short supply in their organisations.

Whether addressing a skills gap or just a lack of capability, workplace learning professionals are increasingly asked to play a key role in moving their organizations forward. Developing the flexible and adaptable workforce required of today’s more agile business environment has become one of the biggest challenges the profession has ever faced.

The C-level view
‘Welcome back to the top line’ reads a headline in Your Turn, IBM’s 2004 global study of CEOs, which signaled a major change in focus for chief executives. It showed that four out of five CEOs now believe that revenue growth is the most important path to organisational success. The IBM study suggests that responsiveness is the new competence: ‘CEOs recognise that growth and differentiation require major change… yet deficiencies in skills and capabilities… seriously threaten the growth agenda.’

Even companies that are aware of the need for workforce redevelopment may not know what to do about it. A survey of 300 finance, operations and HR executives by Convergys in 2004 found that nearly two-thirds of them admitted to an increasing demand for a flexible workforce. Despite that awareness, the research showed that many companies can’t retain key talent, don’t have methods in place to identify skilled employees, and aren’t providing enough training and development for their most strategic employees.

According to the Convergys study, 80 per cent of senior executives emphasised the need to focus on retention and development of their strategic employees and most skilled talent. In striking contrast, less than 20 per cent of those surveyed rated their companies as highly proficient at either retention or development.

Further demonstrating the importance of developing talent, a full 66 percent of respondents to a recent ASTD poll say there is a skills gap in their organisations right now and almost 20 percent say there will be one within the next year.

Relevance and results
To be relevant, the workplace learning and performance professional must be able to prove that the organisation’s learning initiatives are driving meaningful results. Organisations that merely measure the quantity or dollar amount of their learning activities miss the boat. It’s not just how much you do or how much you spend; it’s about how you leverage the investment by generating results and communicating their impact.

Workplace learning and performance (WLP) professionals will be expected to take the lead in bridging the skills gap, which may prove to be the biggest challenge of all. Organisational growth and transformation in the next five years will be wholly dependent on having the right people in the right seats. From giant technology companies to local manufacturing plants, organisations that are not right-skilled – those lacking fully engaged and properly developed employees based on the organisation’s priorities – will lose ground and miss opportunities.

If the training function ever was a cul-de-sac, removed from the day-to-day business realities of the organisation, it certainly is not today. In the current economic climate, the role of the WLP professional is critically relevant. The challenge will be delivering on that upgraded expectation.

Proving its value
The issue of relevance has plagued the training profession for decades. Caught between management’s demand to meet business needs and a strong concern for the people in organisations, the training function has long struggled to prove its value.

No one will automatically bestow credibility and relevance on a profession unless it proves its worth. That’s the reality of every industry, from medicine to accounting to education. You cannot simply assert that you are relevant; you must prove it day after day, result after result.

ASTD (American Society for Training & Development) is the world’s largest association dedicated to workplace learning and performance professionals. Copyright © 2005 from T+D magazine by Tony Bingham. Adapted and reprinted with permission of ASTD. Tony Bingham can be contacted at tony@astd.org

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