4 Ways HR Can Integrate L&D Into Their Talent Management Strategy

If you’re looking for top talent, L&D should be at the heart of your talent management strategy

Companies have hit particularly difficult economic times in the past year. In the midst of layoffs and massive budget restructures, it is challenging for HR executives to know where to prioritize their spending in 2023. 

For those who want to experience continued employee retention and recruitment, I challenge you to place learning and development (L&D) at the heart of your talent management strategy. According to recent research, 70% of employees would consider leaving their current company for a role in an organization known for investing in employee development. 

And 94% of employees would remain working for an organization that invested in career development. These numbers lead to only one conclusion: invest in your people’s professional development if you want to retain them. 
 
If there is one thing I have learned in my time as a business leader and former CFO, it is that you can never underestimate the value of retaining top talent. Not only are employees happier and more productive, but from a broader business perspective, talent retention is the difference between high and low performing companies.

Because of its high value and scarcity, talent matters. If companies do not get this right, there are huge costs for replacing the right talent given the time, effort, and resources required. 

Below are four ways HR managers can ensure L&D is effectively integrated into their talent management strategy. 

1. Incorporate L&D into Company Culture and Values 

Learning culture starts from the top. It is crucial to communicate your learning initiatives to employees, then back these initiatives up with the resources your employees will need. The difference between companies that are able to survive the talent shortage and those that fail to remain competitive will come down to their ability to invest in the growth and development of their employees. 

This includes empowering your teams with the tools and technologies they need to accomplish their daily tasks and responsibilities. Another important piece of this is providing them with opportunities to build new skills — whether it is by providing access to a learning platform, the ability to attend virtual industry conferences, or the chance to earn professional certifications. 

Companies who make L&D synonymous with their corporate values will not only retain talent, but also become more attractive to prospective job seekers. By creating a culture of learning, companies will further enhance their value to job seekers and naturally attract more talent over time. 

However, it is imperative that job seekers see that your company does not simply pay lip service to learning and professional development. Companies must actively create opportunities to make professional growth happen for their employees. 

2. Create Pathways for Collaboration 

With the onset of the pandemic, many organizations turned to remote operations. However, the skills required for collaboration in a remote work environment are a bit different from those we used before the pandemic. Soft skills have become much more important. Expressing and sharing ideas involve a bit more written communication than they used to. 

Forging relationships, establishing trust, and building camaraderie with coworkers all take more effort as well. Managers should provide pathways for their teams to develop these skills and practice outreach with coworkers, and give them the space to do so. 

Going hand-in-hand with collaboration, providing opportunities for peer-to-peer learning is another important part of building a learning culture. By providing a dedicated space for team members to share ideas and reach out for help, information, and guidance, peer learning creates an engaged workforce that is encouraged to develop their skills since it is constantly reinforced in their workflow, if and when needed. Developing regular rhythms of collaboration among teams is also crucial in fostering better teamwork, cooperation, and team unity that is necessary to achieve shared business goals. 

3. Provide a Variety of Learning Modalities  

Not all learning is created equal. This means that every single person within your organization will not learn in the same way, or at the same pace. Incorporating a variety of learning modalities for employees is an important part of ensuring they are getting the professional advancement and training opportunities needed – and is key to getting talent management right.

For example, if an engineer is looking for a quick line of code to complete a project, pointing them in the direction of a 250-page ebook or a two-hour recorded conference session probably is not helpful. But getting them straight to that needed line of code absolutely is. 

However, if a software architect is preparing to move their organization from a monolith to a distributed system, a 250-page ebook about microservices could be exactly what is needed. That is why it is essential to provide individuals with multiple learning modalities — books, videos, interactive learning scenarios, live online courses, instant answers, and more — so they can apply what is appropriate for the task at hand.

4. Incorporate Varying Levels of Hands-on Learning

Learning by doing is arguably the best way to develop a new skill. After all, you did not learn to ride a bike by reading about it. Beyond books and videos, providing interactive learning experiences will allow learners to apply newfound knowledge immediately. For developers, this might include sandbox environments that allow them to experiment with technologies like Linux and SQL before putting them to work in the real world. These sandbox environments enable them to learn how they work and make mistakes in a safe environment that will not impact the business. 

Not all situations will require such involved learning, however. When it comes to progressively building knowledge, more often than not, employees will simply need a quick answer to a problem. In these instances, AI-enabled L&D tools allow employees to quickly access the right resources in the flow of their day-to-day and eliminate the need to poor over chapters of a textbook. Whether providing quick access to answers or opportunities to try out new coding skills, providing varying levels of hands-on learning helps employees cement their knowledge and accomplish their work.

Placing learning at the center of talent management is imperative to recruit and retain top talent. Employees are demanding career development and, in today’s competitive job market, employers who meet this request will see talent flock in droves. Employers should no longer ask whether they can afford to incorporate L&D into their budget, but whether they can afford not to.

Laura Baldwin is the President of O’Reilly Media. Laura began working with O’Reilly in October 2001 as chief financial officer and added chief operating officer to her responsibilities in October 2004 before becoming the company’s first president in March 2011. She’s spent the years since focused on building and leading O’Reilly’s businesses worldwide. Prior to O’Reilly, she was a consultant to the publishing industry and managed several large consulting engagements across all genres of publishing and media.