How to Build an L&D Programme with a Lean People Team

A robust L&D programme boosts retention, fosters innovation, and improves performance. This post provides a guide for you to cultivate a strong learning culture, especially for lean people teams and HR teams with limited resources. 

Why Learning Promotes Retention

Learning can be used as a powerful tool for employee retention, because it strengthens the employer-employee relationship. 

Here’s how: 

• Learning fosters a sense of accomplishment and purpose by providing opportunities for skill development. When employees lack opportunities to develop new skills, they can feel stagnant.
  
  
• Continuous learning makes sure that employees maintain a relevant skillset and stay proficient even as industries evolve. Developing new skillsets and enhancing existing ones is crucial for success, especially with the rise of AI and other emerging technologies.
  
  
• Tackling challenging learning material and mastering new skills boosts confidence. Being able to overcome challenges and solve problems on a regular basis builds confidence and self esteem, leading to a more proactive and solution-oriented workforce.
  
  
• Providing opportunities for learning demonstrates your commitment to employees. It demonstrates an ongoing commitment to employee growth and development, making employees more likely to see their long-term future at the organisation. 
  
  

The ROI of a Good L&D Strategy

1. Increased productivity: a more skilled and knowledgeable workforce is inherently more productive.
   
   
2. Good L&D fosters innovation: it nurtures intellectual curiosity and critical thinking, resulting in better problem solving abilities in your organisation. 
   
   
3. Improved customer satisfaction through better equipped employees: employees who are continuously learning and upskilling themselves can better develop their skills in customer and client facing situations to better anticipate and meet customer needs, resulting in improved customer satisfaction.
   
   

Your Guide to Building an L&D / Training Programme

A good learning culture provides many advantages, but concerns about costs and budgets can still arise. It’s important to understand that creating and maintaining a thriving culture of learning doesn’t require a large budget, extensive manpower, or a huge time investment. 

Here’s how you can build a thriving learning culture even with limited resources: 

Here are some tools you can use: 

• Free Online Resources: Make use of platforms such as Coursera, edX, Khan Academy, and even YouTube for high-quality courses on various topics relevant to diverse skillsets. 
  
  
• Find a Learning Platform that fits your needs! A lot of organisations including 5Mins.ai have already gone through the trouble of curating a comprehensive library with over 20K lessons covering over 200 skills. Explore the market and see what best fits your needs.

2. Interview employees to gain in-depth insights into what is needed:

• Create a structured interview guide to gather insights.
  
  
• Focus on identifying specific skills gaps, understanding how prior training experiences could have been better, and understanding what is necessary for future development.
  
  
• Ensure the employees you interview cover a diverse representation of roles and levels within your organisation, to understand the differing needs and experiences within all areas of your business.
  
  

3. Incorporate assessments: 

• You could use self assessments, encouraging employees to evaluate their own skill levels and areas where there is more room for improvement.
  
  
• This could include self-ratings on competencies, technical skills, and soft skills - and could be relevant to specific content or courses which are delivered as part of your L&D programme.
  
  

4. Prioritise high-impact learning initiatives, especially with limited resources:

• High-impact learning initiatives to address the most pressing skills gaps and directly contribute to improved business performance or outcomes are the best use of resources.
  
  

5. Consider using a diverse range of learning materials and formats:

• This could include eLearning modules, video tutorials, infographics, or downloadable resources.
  
  

6. Break down learning to make it manageable:

• Breaking down complex topics into manageable chunks, or “bite sizing”, can improve knowledge retention and learner engagement. 
  
  

7. Encourage ongoing participation: 

Employee engagement should be the heart and soul of your learning and development programme. Here are some strategies you can use as incentivisation for engagement: 

• Facilitate knowledge sharing through peer to peer learning. This could be through online forums, discussion boards, or kudos and activity feeds.
  
  
• Use Gamification. You can introduce an element of fun into learning by awarding points or badges for completing training modules or participating in discussion. For a deeper dive into how to Use Gamification to Enhance Your Learning - especially for HR teams - check out our related post here: https://www.5mins.ai/resources/blog/use-gamification-to-enhance-your-learning. 
  
  

How 5Mins.ai Automates Implementing a Successful L&D Programme

As a platform, 5Mins.ai covers all the potential needs a lean HR team needs to create a culture of learning and development at their organisation and provide their employees with the tools they need to grow in their careers.

We offer: 

• Over 20,000 bite-sized lessons covering 200+ skills, the largest bite-sized content library in the market.
   
• The ability to upload any of your own content directly to the platform (unlike other learning platforms), allowing you to create courses using your internal training material, our library, or a mix of both.
  
  
• A fully gamified platform, with points, badges, and course certificates to foster a sense of accomplishment.
  
  
• In-depth reporting and tracking capabilities to let you know how users are doing at any time, and enabling admins to easily showcase growth within their organisation. 
  
  
• Social features for peer-to-peer learning. 
  
  
• Customisable skill paths based on your organisation’s needs - providing your team with a highly personalised and relevant training experience. 

By implementing the actionable strategies outlined in this guide and taking advantage of the comprehensive features of 5Mins.ai, you can create a strong and thriving learning culture which will help your organisation to directly improve outcomes.

To get in touch with us for more information or a quick chat about how we can help you, click the button below!