January 2009
Learning Trends
Results and Accountability
For almost every one of us, 2008 was a rollercoaster that impacted our jobs, our companies and our personal lives. Among the massive waves of dramatic change that have swept us over, one trend that continues and will not abate is the push towards increased results and accountability from learning and development.
“As businesses slowly recover, things are going to change in ways that we haven’t seen before.”
Regular readers of this monthly publication know this trend has been repeatedly echoed in our articles. For many that ignored this message, it may be too late, having been caught in the onslaught of recent layoffs. During every economic downturn we notice a sizeable reduction in subscribers—individuals who are no longer employed in their current positions.
During the late 1990s we observed large budgets for training programs that produced no documentable results. One training executive told us, “I can’t hold my people accountable for training… There would be a revolution!”
After the 2000 recession, we saw as companies recovered an increased push from the executive suite for greater accountability and results in terms of their training budgets. This trend continued as more companies aligned learning and development objectives with the performance goals of their organization. C-level executives were interested in hearing about measurable results and return on investment for their training dollars, not about how many people enjoyed the training or were trained. Without documented results and accountability other stats were meaningless.
Recently a c-level executive told us, “When things go south, training is the first thing to go!” The question is why? The answer is because in many organizations the value of training has not been clearly documented.
Many learning and development managers see training programs as nothing more than something they are expected to do; they view the results as insignificant and the interruption to work as a necessary evil that they must endure. Given the chance, they gladly drop the training dollars from their budgets as an unnecessary expenditure.
With all of this said, we see a trend in training of increasing results and holding employees more accountable through improved performance.
As businesses slowly recover, things are going to change in ways that we haven’t seen before. Learning and development activities will continue with a stronger emphasis on producing results and holding individuals accountable to use their training to improve personal performance. This will impact L&D staffs, companies and third-party vendors since it will demand flexibility, innovation and adaptability. Those who cannot make the transformation will surely fall by the wayside.
Many learning and development departments will need to be held accountable in the same manner as other business units within their organization. Executives will demand an accounting for every cent they spend, and it will spread to areas previously thought to be immune from this level of oversight. |
