HRHeadStart #43: Evolving Role of L&D; Workplace Relationships; Greatness

The Talent Agenda

As industries and technologies shift faster than ever, ensuring that the workforce has the relevant skills is a key imperative. A narrow way to think about accomplishing this is by investing in L&D or training capabilities. For instance, if you invest in a Learning Management System and fill it with content to help the workforce pick up relevant skills, you have probably achieved goals which were relevant 5 years ago!

Having a clear understanding of future skills and the ability to offer training programs to employees is an important, but insufficient condition for success. Yes, you can teach skills, but people can’t hone them unless they have the opportunity to apply them. And they can’t become great at it without having context, mentorship and wisdom - all of which come from experiences i.e. new projects, stretch assignments, learning from others etc. Earlier research has shown that almost half of the value of lifetime earnings can be attributed to experiences.

In effect, the role of L&D needs to expand to Growth and not just learning. This implies greater integration with teams like Talent Management, Recruiting and HR Business Partners to create solutions beyond one-time skills development programs and instead develop offerings that enable talent mobility, job shadowing, formal mentoring etc. Check out this article on how this evolution might play out.

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Working Better

Achieving success at work is a function of 1) doing our jobs well and 2) being seen or known for doing so. The importance of workplace relationships cannot be overstated. Yet so many of us struggle with it and hybrid work can make it even more awkward. Gorick Ng (author of a bestselling book on early career success) has written this super practical guide for breaking the silence and building strong relationships.

P.S. He has also put together an interesting dictionary of workplace jargons - might be useful for those who are just starting off in their careers.

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Tiny Thought

Great work comes from iterating on good work.