At the heart of any organizational learning program is the desire to concurrently improve the performance of employees and the business. But in most cases, there is very little connection between them when and how learning is created, delivered and measured. Fewer than half of the companies in Brandon Hall Group’s Learning Strategy Study say their learning strategy is well-aligned with either business or learner objectives.
It is a convergence of outcomes, content, learners and technology that ultimately drives performance. Companies cannot afford to ignore any piece of the larger puzzle. A lack of synergy impacts learners; they feel little or no connection with the learning they are given and it impacts the business because there is scant guarantee the investment in learning is going to produce performance or behavior changes.
If organizations want to demonstrate learning’s impact on the business, they will need to align their learning approaches — and the programs they produce — with business outcomes or learning will continue to operate in a vacuum. Understanding the needs of the business and incorporating them with the needs of learners will supercharge learning to drive organizational performance.
Until learning has strategic conversations with the business about required outcomes and how best to achieve them, nothing will change. The learning function must understand what business leaders need from their workforce and use their expertise to determine the best way for people to learn those skills, change those behaviors or retain that information.
To enable this process, Brandon Hall Group developed the Learning and Performance Convergence Model. It lays out how to think through the entire process from the overarching business goals, to developing program modalities, to measuring effectiveness and impact. Join me for a webinar in conjunction with Brandon Hall Group Preferred Provider LearnUpon, to take a look at this model and how companies can effectively connect learning and performance.
–David Wentworth, Principal Analyst, Brandon Hall Group
