Link: http://www.humanresourcesmagazine.com.au/articles/17/0C051717.asp

COMPANIES WITH great learning and development practices are using a combination of strategies, processes and technology solutions to align the workforce with business objectives and achieve measurable business improvement, a report has found.

Seventy-seven per cent of such companies, or ‘best-in-class’ organisations, leveraged organisational learning and development to improve employee performance, whereas 41 per cent of industry average and only 28 per cent of worst in class, or ‘laggard’ companies were able to do the same.

The best-in-class companies also had improved operational metrics such as compliance rates, time to productivity and revenue per employee. The report found that a key differentiator was whether an organisation’s learning and development strategy was integrated with the organisation’s overall strategy (as was the case for 66 per cent of best-in-class versus 37 per cent of industry average and 31 per cent of laggard companies).

“The urgency for organisations to align their workforces with business objectives continues to grow and shows no signs of weakening,” said Kevin Martin, research director, human capital management at US business intelligence firm Aberdeen, which conducted the report.

“Organisational learning and development has long been second-guessed because the executives that set strategy and hold budget have not been convinced of its business impact...”