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Companies rely on their learning-and-development functions to help workforces learn fast. But often, the function itself needs a transformation.
Organizations are acutely aware of the importance of learning in today’s business environment. They understand that technology is changing the nature of work and the roles within it. They also understand that the ability of the workforce to learn new skills, model new behaviors, and adapt continuously is key to sustained success. Hence the elevated role of the learning-and-development (L&D) function, which must work together with business leaders to enable an organization to learn effectively, at speed, and at scale.
Learning needs to be deeply integrated with an organization’s strategy and core talent processes, such as performance management. Yet many companies feel their functions are ill equipped to play such a role. Rather than being regarded as one of the most forward-thinking functions in an organization, leading it through a learning transformation, many feel that their L&D functions struggle to keep up with the needs of their businesses.
Not so the L&D function of a US healthcare company that played a pivotal role in helping the organization respond to the COVID-19 crisis. When 90 percent of the 55,000-strong workforce suddenly began working remotely, within 24 hours, the function produced and posted online videos and learning modules to help workers set up equipment at home and log on securely (relieving a severely overstretched IT department that was already taking thousands of daily inquiries). And it curated new “playlists” of learning modules for employees on its digital platform, tailoring them to help workers find the information they needed quickly and navigate the crisis more effectively.
That burst of activity did not divert the function from continuing to support the company in achieving its strategic goals. The company’s hiring program went ahead, thanks in part to the L&D function helping onboard 200 new recruits virtually. The function also converted critical leadership-development programs into digitally enabled sessions, facilitated calls for 1,400 leaders to help them build the behaviors required to manage teams remotely and ensure that productivity did not drop, and helped business teams learn about the latest technologies required to serve their clients in new, digitized ways.
“It all came together,” said the global head of the organization’s corporate...