Linked: Why Repeating Yourself Is a Good Thing
Don’t assume everyone hears you the first time. It’s pretty unlikely.
Training, Learning and Development Folks – The Pressure is On
They aren’t wrong. With the talent gaps being what they are in a number of industries right now, organizational leaders are turning to development and training professionals for help. Let’s face it, hiring gets a lot simpler if we have confidence that our culture and our internal resources will help these new folks that we bring in grow and continue to offer more and more value. We don’t need to wait for someone who ticks every single box that we are looking for, we can find the folks who are available now who tick the majority of them, knowing that our environment will make sure they tick the others in time.
Doing that successfully is a massive advantage in the competition for talent. Your investment pays off.
But, it puts the pressure squarely on those of us working in training and development, doesn’t it? We have to make that investment pay off.
Linked: Employee Retention Strategies to Future-Proof Your Org
So often, I see people sitting and doing the same job, the same way, year after year. Some people are OK with that, and it becomes difficult to help them grow because they are resistant to change. Most people, however, do not want that to be their career, and so they leave to find a place that allows them to grow. If you aren’t the place that supports their growth, you are at risk of losing them to a place that will. It’s really that simple.
Linked: Upskilling employees? Odds are you’re underinvesting
Whether you purchase an LMS or make some other kind of training resource available to your employees, the fact of the matter is that it is expensive to ignore this issue. Your people likely have skill gaps that hinder their work. They want to fill in those gaps through education and grow with your organization, and if you don’t provide that someone else will.
Linked: L&D’s Role in Attracting Top Talent
The folks from this survey understand two things.
1. The skills they have today won’t be enough to be successful tomorrow. Technology is changing the work we do at an ever-increasing clip. If they are in a job that isn’t keeping pace, or giving them the opportunity to keep pace, it’s going to end badly for them.
2. If an organization isn’t recognizing the need for their talent to continuously learn it is not only offering a job without the kind of future they are seeking, but it’s probably not offering itself the kind of future it needs. People see this. Your top people know it’s true. They see a sinking ship long before you do. A ship that keeps doing what it’s always done without growing and adapting to change is sinking. Maybe not today, or the next year, but eventually, they know.
Linked: A Return to the Office Doesn’t Have to Mean a Return to Boring Presentations
The number of people who can read one thing and listen to another is very small. It might be zero. Our brains can’t process two different things that require our understanding simultaneously.
Of course, that also doesn’t mean that you just read your slides. That’s just boring. No one likes boring either.
Visuals. It’s all about the visuals.