L&D and Business Goals

It doesn’t take more than a second to spot what is wrong with this image. But when it comes to learning initiatives, sometimes we can go on forever without realizing what could be wrong with the way we are doing things. Why are we not making progress despite a lot of effort? Why are we not seeing the kind of results we intended to achieve? We could have a great learning solution, highly interactive, highly engaging, which learners actually loved and yet, with no tangible benefits to the business – which not only translates to wasted training dollars in the present, but a huge problem of L&D’s credibility within the organization in the future. The culprit? Training misaligned with business needs. But how do you align training if you are not very sure of what the business outcomes are in the first place?

This article explores L&D’s role and best practices for identifying business goals so that training can be clearly aligned to them.

L&D in Context

There are two contexts in which L&D comes into the picture.

1. Developing Business-centric Training: Focus on aligning training programs with the core business functions and strategic objectives. Ensure that training is not conducted in isolation but is integrated into the business strategy. This ensures that L&D truly wears a consultant hat when partnering with the business as a function that is in-step with the business. This is an ongoing responsibility.
2. Responding to Demand-Based Training: Implement a demand-based approach where training initiatives are developed in response to specific business needs and demands. This ensures that training is relevant and timely.

The challenge lies in balancing the two above. Which is why a sound foundation and a structured approach is invaluable in meeting the demands of the business regardless of whether the need for training has originated with L&D or with other stakeholders. This article focuses on the former, although some steps for both do overlap. 

L&D managers are pivotal in designing learning experiences and environments for business success. Join us as we chart the course to align L&D to business success in an interactive webinar. Click this link for more details!

Identifying Business Goals

Do you know your organization’s business outcomes/goals? Typical goals could be to improve profitability, increase revenue, expand the base of a critical-to-business team, do cost cutting, achieve 100% compliance, archive sustainability goals etc. You may say that you don’t have a seat at the C-Suite for you to have access to that information on an ongoing basis, but you can get this information by analyzing business performance data from various sources. Do the following:

1. Review Strategic Plans: Study your organization's strategic plans, annual reports, and business plans to gain insights into long-term goals and priorities. This is where you get a lot of information about where the business wants to focus on to do better. No business leader is going to sit you down and explain what the business objectives are. Annual reports are a rich source of information. Mine them.  
2. Engage in Strategic Meetings: Participate in meetings with executives and senior leadership to understand the company's strategic direction and key objectives. If you don’t have access to business leaders on a regular basis, identify who you can align with to hear from and also to give your inputs to. Engaging with key stakeholders such as executives, department heads, and team leaders will help you understand their perspectives on the organization's direction and priorities.
3. Listen keenly at quarterly review meets – In what areas are departments not meeting targets? And why? Listen, listen, and listen. Both to the success stories (make a mental note to highlight L&D’ contribution if any) and to the failures. Make a note of those areas and in your conversations with managers and leaders, get insights from their root cause analysis of performance problems. You could be looking at a potential area for training.
4. Review Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Review KPIs and performance metrics to identify areas where training can impact performance and contribute to achieving business goals. KPIs are essential for measuring the effectiveness of training programs and their impact on business goals, so select the KPIs directly related to the business goals you aim to achieve. For example, if the goal is to improve customer service, relevant KPIs might include customer satisfaction scores and repeat customer rates. Regular Review and Adjustment: Continuously review and adjust KPIs based on feedback and changing business priorities to ensure they remain relevant and aligned.
5. Analyze Sales and Customer Feedback: Analyze sales data and customer feedback to determine areas needing improvement or innovation.
6. Study SWOT Analysis: A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis helps an organization identify internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats that could impact the organization's goals. Study this from an L&D perspective to identify if any weaknesses can be addressed through training.

 Getting Clarity on Business Goals

Regardless of the means you use to identify your organization’s business outcomes, you need to get clarity on them. Do the following:

• Get your findings validated by leadership – Once you have identified business goals and listed them, share this with the relevant business leaders. Get insights into which of these goals are the organizations’ most urgent, top priorities. (Prioritization could be based on their impact on the organization's overall strategy and their feasibility in the current operational context etc. Be sure you understand the reason behind why something is a priority over another. Every bit of information on the big picture will help you be a true consultant partner with the business.
• Ensure clarity on SMART Criteria: Ensure that you get clarity on each component of the SMART goals- Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART). This will help set clear and actionable objectives at a later stage. If you are not too sure whether the business goal really addresses each of SMART goal criteria, don’t hesitate to reach out to leadership to get the required clarity. In this process, leadership may find themselves tweaking the desired business outcomes. This is where you also contribute as an active partner to the business - through your questions, feedback and recommendations.

Conclusion

Thankfully, we have moved beyond just taking orders for learning solutions that may or may not have been aligned to business outcomes. As an active partner to the business, we can ensure strategic alignment between L&D and key business goals to ensure we as a function are rowing in the same direction as the business.

Your thoughts add value to this discussion. Feel free to share your insights in the comments below! Don't forget to like & repost to your feed! Happy Reading!

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