John Morgan is President of Career Transition & Mobility and Leadership Development at LHH, an integrated talent solutions provider.
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Amid tightening economic conditions, businesses across the country have been faced with the steep task of balancing shrinking budgets, corporate restructurings and layoffs—which are up almost 200% in 2023—while nurturing and retaining valuable talent. To add to this uncertainty, the world of work continues to rapidly evolve, with greater digitization and AI integration changing the hard and soft skills necessary for success and the kinds of roles organizations are looking to fill.
As business leaders seek to navigate these growing complexities, it’s no surprise that they’re finding it difficult to adapt to a landscape of constant change, churn and uncertainty. In fact, recent research from LHH found that 89% of C-suite executives reported that fostering "agility and responding to constant change" was a major challenge facing their organizations today. In response to these headwinds, it’s never been more important to invest in building an adaptable workforce equipped to weather the storm both now and down the road.
Key to these efforts is prioritizing long-term employee learning and development opportunities (L&D)—particularly around reskilling and upskilling workers. Not only can such programs help ensure your employees are prepared with the technological know-how to adapt to changing job requirements and business needs, but they can also keep your workforce engaged and morale high during such uncertain times. And while stretched budgets mean limited resources must be reallocated for these efforts, they are crucial investments for the health of your organization—as a business is only as strong as its employees.
What can L&D do for you?
Learning and development opportunities can help solve many of the challenges facing corporations today. As the impact of technological innovation only accelerates and estimates show that six in 10 workers will require significant training before 2027, L&D can enable employers to bridge crucial skills gaps and ensure their employees are prepared to meet evolving job requirements. As business priorities shift, L&D can also allow employers to move talent around within their organization to fill open roles rather than hiring from outside, which can save crucial time and money.
Additionally, upskilling opportunities can increase employee retention at a time when attracting and keeping strong talent remains a top concern for the C-suite. With research showing that people want to stay at their companies longer, but only if given upskilling and career opportunities, offering clear pathways for professional development can reduce turnover and reassure workers that their career growth remains a top priority. What’s more, L&D opportunities are found to boost employee confidence, translating into improved performance, productivity and morale.
However, despite these tremendous benefits, many employers find it difficult to ensure the L&D opportunities they offer truly make an impact on their workforce. In a recent survey, 89% of C-suites said they face barriers to implementing successful career development programs, with the biggest roadblock being a lack of interest from those benefiting from the training, closely followed by a lack of awareness of the benefits of the training itself.
To truly future-proof your workforce, organizations need to nurture strong cultures of continuous growth and learning that reinforce the importance of L&D and make it possible to move talent across an organization based on evolving needs, interests and growth opportunities. Here are four steps leaders can take to support this:
1. Consistently communicate the specific benefits of L&D programs.
It is important for employees to understand how the resources they are provided connect to the changing expectations of the current labor market and their personal career goals. Frequent discussions on the value of L&D for employees across departments and competencies can give workers a useful framework for leveraging available resources and better incentivize them to invest valuable time and energy into their professional development.
2. Create a top-down mindset of growth.
To make a meaningful and sustainable organizational change, a growth mindset must start in the C-suite and permeate throughout the entire company; internal development is a two-way street. Such an approach requires that business leaders think of training less as individual programs and more as an organization-wide transformation that relies on buy-in from all parties.
Initiatives must also be put into place to "get employees into the habit of constantly learning and improving their work, ideally in a collaborative environment where they can share these learnings," as Kristen Leverone told Forbes. Providing leadership development training to employees at all levels is key to ensuring leaders have the soft skills necessary to drive this culture internally and encourages workers to think of their career growth in the long term.
3. Cultivate a collective sense of purpose that propels employees to do their best.
Reinforcing a set of shared values can demonstrate how specific training opportunities ladder up to larger business goals and is also proven to lessen employee burnout, reduce turnover and strengthen engagement—translating to greater L&D participation as a whole.
Such a culture can be aided by celebrating employee achievements openly and often, which can drive deeper connections to company-wide values and motivate employees to model their peers' exemplary behaviors.
4. Embrace mentorship and cross-functional experiences that offer a comprehensive avenue for individual growth.
With research showing that employees with either a mentor or sponsor are more than twice as likely to believe their organization provides a clear path for career development, these programs demonstrate an organization’s commitment to L&D and unlock greater learning opportunities for workers. Additionally, these initiatives are relatively cost-effective amid stretched budgets.
Put it all together.
As we head into 2024, it’s abundantly clear that businesses across the world are facing yet another year of massive upheaval and unpredictability. With leaders looking for ways to steer their organizations through continued rough waters, adopting an organization-wide culture of learning to unlock the full potential of increased L&D investment can help propel businesses and their employees in both the near and far future.
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