10 reasons why L&D is so important for organisations
The success of any organisation depends on its ability to learn and grow. Here are 10 reasons why learning and development is so important for businesses.
Knowledge allows us as a society to develop as human beings. Areas such as science and technology are able to improve and advance because of newly acquired information. Knowledge affords many new opportunities. We cannot evolve without education and applying what we learn to empower the world to change. Learning & Development is a vessel that enables businesses to empower their employees to stay abreast on matters not only pertaining to their sector but expand outside of it.
Would you hire someone off the street, provide no training or resources, and expect them to perform well? No, right? This is why L&D is integral to any form of business. Not convinced that having internal L&D resources is important?
Let’s review the top 10 reasons L&D is so important now more than ever…
1. Keeps your employees up to date on ever-changing tasks
It’s not enough to add documentation to your internal knowledge base. If you’re only providing your employees with the resources without showing how to use those tools to drive success, you’re contributing to that employee's failure. Ensure that they are staying up to date by requiring some form of action from the employee. For example, with the Virti Feedback tool, you can use it to assess how well your team interacted with material giving you insight on how to improve it.
2. L&D attracts top talent
According to a 2021 Gallup survey conducted on behalf of Amazon, 57% of workers (out of 15,066) put learning new skills as the third-most important perk when evaluating new job opportunities, behind only health insurance and disability benefits.
3. L&D encourages employees to learn more
“The most successful people learn something new each day. Knowledge is endless, and personal growth is continuous. Always seek more”-Brooke Griffin. “Top talent” never feel they reached the peak of their career. They are constantly engaging themselves with new content that empowers them to impart their knowledge to others who, in turn, want to learn more.
4. L&D keeps remote companies together
Especially now, where most companies work remotely, keeping up company morale is imperative to retaining employees and keeping the attrition rate low. Identifying new skills to learn together as a company is a great way to keep up morale and employees invested in their work.
5. L&D reinforces business values
At Virti, we believe our core values are:
- Attention to detail
- Relying on data-based decisions rather than assumptions
- Always learning
As a learning company, we constantly want to challenge each other via reading, podcasts, or side-projects. This allows our employees to work on passion projects that provide more content for our users aiding in driving up the business value.
6. Learning and Development Reinforces Organizational Culture
As part of being bold, fast, and amazing, our culture comprises of a fast-paced, inclusive culture. When changes happen quickly in an environment like this, the re-training of skills, expectations, the mission keeps the organizational culture intact.
7. Lifelong learning is becoming more important
University of California, Irvine completed a study that found that learning keeps brain cells working at optimum levels, limiting cognitive and memory decline as we age. Dementia affects approximately three million people per year. Lifelong learning can aid in keeping your brain continuously active and may reduce an individual’s severity of dementia.
8. L&D enables better futures
Continuous L&D improves skills and enables you to enhance your employee’s overall knowledge. This is how leaders are made.
9. L&D inspires others to learn too
When others can see the impact and growth that is a direct result of learning and development, it encourages them to jump on the L&D train and improve their skills as well. Think of it as good peer pressure since the result is advantageous to the employer and employee.
10. L&D helps facilitate great innovation
Anthony Sandonato, the Vice President of Learning and Development at Wyndham Destinations, encourages an agile L&D program as a key to supporting innovation. Open and flexible L&D format allows for changes in internal reporting structures, making it easy to adjust to continuous organizational changes without compromising the speed or quality of our talent development strategies. An environment like this allows everyone to be innovative, bringing in ideas to remain nimble internally yet competitive externally.
There you have it, ten reasons to devote attention to creating or expanding your L&D department.
Need some inspiration on how to implement or create an L&D course?
Visit some of our favourite online learning communities to get started:
Virti
Virti uses immersive learning, artificial intelligence and game design to drive employee engagement and enable your people to excel.
LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning is an American massive open online course provider. It provides video courses taught by industry experts in software, creative, and business skills.
Udemy
Udemy is an online learning and teaching marketplace with over 183000 courses and 40 million students. Learn programming, marketing, data science and more.
Skillshare
Skillshare is an online learning platform with thousands of creative courses and classes taught by experts to help you learn new skills.