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We reached out to our network of L&D leaders to collect insight on what talent professionals around the globe have set as their #1 goal for 2019 in the leadership development space (thank you to everyone who contributed)! While the answers were diverse, the majority of the responses shared one of the following 3 common themes:
1. Ensure employees feel valued.
Organizations ultimately train employees to retain them. Each employees’ contributions to the organization are valued, no matter their role. The goal of learning programs should be to help employees excel in their careers and give them the skills and resources to achieve organizational goals. Additionally, it is vital to let them know how valuable they are – and that their satisfaction is high on their leaders’ priority lists.
Employees sometimes think they are being trained solely for the organization’s benefit. The goal in 2019 for many L&D leaders is to shift that perspective by designing learning programs that highlight personal & professional benefits alongside of the organizational benefits.
2. Emphasize team collaboration.
Peer-based learning has become a focal point for the learning and development space. It’s no secret that learning is more engaging and effective when it also creates an environment for connections to take place. The more that team-based learning and collaboration is utilized in learning programs, the easier it will be for employees to work effectively in teams in their daily roles, in turn increasing both employee productivity and satisfaction.
L&D leaders shared several times with us that they’re aiming to focus their training on emphasizing collaboration skills during the training to ensure that all of the learners in the training become an integral part of each others’ network into the future.
3. Implement internal branding for learning programs.
Employees are sometimes thrown into learning programs with little knowledge up front about what they will be learning, how it will be delivered, or why it will be applicable to them in the long-term. As a result, they are left to focus on the precious time that is being taken out of their workday, and that less will be accomplished as deadlines loom closer.
This leads to a cognitive dissonance between learner and learning content, before the program has even begun. Creating an internal brand around learning programs not only creates an awareness around the programs for employees, but gets them excited about it. L&D leaders are looking for creative ways to build “hype” around programs before they launch to increase the likelihood that employees will approach them with excitement rather than with uncertainty.
Thank you again to everyone who contributed. We look forward to hearing from you as the year progresses about how you approached accomplishing these goals. Best of luck in 2019!
