What Would Happen If We Eliminated the Formal Learning and Development Department?

Patti P. Phillips, Ph.D., and Jack J. Phillips, Ph.D.

We are certain many of you have never been asked this question; however, we know some have. Top leaders ask this question during economic downturns, budget cuts, and other periods of uncertainty. Often, it's asked because executives think that a centralized learning function is no longer needed. After all, doesn't most learning occur on the job?

Recently, a prestigious NGO was considering eliminating the talent development function. The department head was asked this question, and they turned to us for advice. We responded, "If you have no future, then, probably yes, you should eliminate your L&D function. If you have a future, you need it.” It would be advantageous to supplant that answer with data showing how the organization will have less growth, reduced productivity, lower quality, more turnover, and even fewer clients if this path was followed.

In the last nine months, this issue has been discussed with us by several individuals who have been asked this question. Some executives have casually asked this question, trying to more clearly understand the value that the formal and centralized L&D function can provide. It's as if they are curious about what would happen to the organization if L&D went away?

We know formal L&D is needed, but what are we doing to convince executives that L&D contributes to the organization's success? And not in just a logical or intuitive way, but with actual data from trusted resources. Here are a couple of steps you can take to create and enhance the sense of L&D's connection and contribution to the organization.

Adjust Reaction Data to Include Business Linkage

Think about classic feedback at Level 1, where we capture reaction. First, let's acknowledge that there are business measures tracked by top executives of every organization. They are the key measures on their scorecard or dashboard. What data do they look at routinely? What’s most important to them? For a business, the measures may include sales growth, customer satisfaction, profits, job engagement, and productivity. For a hospital, the top measures may be patient access, length of stay, cost control, and patient satisfaction, among others. For universities, the measures will include graduation rates, time to graduation, placement rates, career satisfaction, and alumni donations to the university. It doesn't matter what type of organization; there are always measures that executives routinely monitor, and those are the important measures.

Let's list those most important measures and ask participants at the end of each learning program. "To what extent will this program influence this measure?” Rate each measure on a scale of one to five, where one is no influence and five is a very significant influence. This data goes on your scorecard, showing how participants in your program see the alignment of programs to key organizational measures. Participants can be very credible in this process. After all, they will be driving these impacts if they use what they learned. You will have 100 percent of coverage because you usually measure feedback 100 percent of the time. It’s revealing and powerful.

Seek Planned Action and Impacts

Still in the feedback, reaction level, we need to take data collection beyond what participants have learned and focus on what they will do with what they have learned and the subsequent impact. Just a listing of potential impacts from participants in a major program can help to see the business alignment. If participants cannot see this connection, there is a problem. Should we teach any program without an understanding of how it will help the organization? That's a great question to debate. We think the leaders who provide the budget would say, “No, we should not.”

This effort is much easier with the addition of application objectives (what participants will do with what they learn) and impact objectives (the impact from the application). When those objectives are added to major programs, you will have focus, alignment, and the connection you need.

These are only two simple steps to take to make sure that your programs connect to the business. All of this is important when re-evaluating your evaluation strategy, and maybe it is time to do this as you emerge from the pandemic. For more detail on how you can update your evaluation strategy, please contact ROI Institute, and we will be happy to share our insight with you.

 This blog post was originally published on February 2, 2021, on ChiefLearningOfficer.com.