Modern Learning Today: An Opportunity for L&D To Lead

The saying goes, “hindsight is 20/20,” and what’s clear today is the role of learning and development (L&D) within most companies today is critical to maintaining stability during times of crisis and uncertainty. Now that we are moving toward “normalcy” in most parts of the world since the pandemic, there seem to be more opportunities on the horizon for L&D to take the lead in reshaping the workforce of the future. 

A recent report published by LinkedIn, the 5th Annual Workplace Learning Report, offers insights into these opportunities, and we believe that now is the time for L&D professionals to take advantage of them. 

A Reserved Seat at the C-Level Table

It became evident that communication, transparency, and agility were key to surviving the global shutdown in the first few months of 2020—and that L&D played a major role. A year later, it’s also evident that the importance of L&D to the success of organizational performance wasn’t simply a one-time occurrence. C-level leaders saw the value of learning and the impact it can have on business in real-time. 

L&D professionals are now in a position to help their companies come out of the pandemic, ready to tackle any challenge because they’ve already done it. It will be a matter of aligning with business objectives to create content and deliver programs that prepare employees for whatever the future holds. 

Make sure you have a flexible learning content authoring tool that enables you to collaborate with subject matter experts across your company, create engaging interactive content in a variety of formats, and distribute that content so any employee on any device gets the knowledge they need.  

33% of L&D professionals expect their budgets to increase in 2021; even more intriguing is that 73% expect to spend less on instructor led training (ILT) and 79% expect to spend more on online learning.

A Growing Budget with Emphasis on Digital Learning

Many L&D organizations that had digital transformation somewhere on their to-do list were forced to bump it up to the top of that list during the pandemic. Those teams who were able to shift on a dime and deliver critical learning remotely know first-hand how important it is to have a modern learning platform that enables this quick shift. 

And as companies begin to recover, they’ve embraced the fact that employees can work remotely and be productive while they’re doing it. That means L&D teams will have to be prepared to make digital learning a mainstay in their programs. 

An interesting finding in the LinkedIn report notes that 33% of L&D professionals expect their budgets to increase this year; even more intriguing is that 73% expect to spend less on instructor-led training (ILT) and 79% expect to spend more on online learning. 

A Focus on Employee Surveys 

L&D professionals are constantly looking for ways to quantify the value of their programs, and that won’t change any time soon. In 2020, more than any year before, the L&D teams had to keep their fingers on the pulse of employee opinions about learning to respond to and deliver what was needed. 

What that means now is savvy L&D organizations are looking at adding employee surveys as a measurement tool for their programs. When you can show data that proves the value of your learning programs to the business, that when C-level executives perk up—and having powerful tools like checklists and surveys that enable you to gain more visibility into that data is key. 

One thing is clear: 2020 showed us all that change is a constant. How L&D professionals continue to embrace change and lean into it will enable them to lead employees, and their companies, through a successful recovery.