Learning and 22
development
strategy
Introduction
Strategic learning and development takes a broad and longer-term view
about how to ensure that the organization has the knowledgeable, skilled
and engaged workforce it needs. Learning and development strategy sup-
ports the achievement of the strategic aims of the organization. It does this
by creating a learning culture and through strategies for organizational and
individual learning, as described later in this chapter. But it also defines how
the organization intends to provide employees with the opportunity to grow
and develop, thus enhancing their engagement with their jobs and the
organization. The chapter covers:
●● the meaning, aims and philosophy of strategic learning and development;
●● the elements of learning and development;
●● how to develop a learning culture;
●● the nature of organizational learning strategies;
●● the nature of individual learning strategies.
The aim of strategic learning
and development
The aim of strategic learning and development is to produce a coherent and
comprehensive framework for developing people through the creation of a
learning culture and the formulation of organizational and individual learn-
ing strategies. It is about developing the intellectual capital required by the
organization, as well as ensuring that the right quality of people are available
236 Specific People Strategies
to meet present and future needs. The main thrust of strategic learning and
development is to provide an environment in which people are encouraged
to learn and develop. Strategic learning and development is business-led but
it also takes into account individual aspirations and needs.
Strategic learning and development is associated with strategic people
management. Both are concerned with investing in people and developing
the organization’s human capital. Keep (1989: 112) observed that:
One of the primary objectives of HRM is the creation of conditions whereby
the latent potential of employees will be realized and their commitment to the
causes of the organization secured. This latent potential is taken to include, not
merely the capacity to acquire and utilize new skills and knowledge, but also
a hitherto untapped wealth of ideas about how the organization’s operations
might be better ordered.
Strategic learning and development
philosophy
The philosophy underpinning strategic learning and development is that:
●● its plans and programmes should be integrated with and support the
achievement of business and people management strategies;
●● it is performance-related – designed to achieve specified improvements in
corporate, functional, team and individual performance;
●● everyone in the organization should be encouraged and given the
opportunity to learn – to develop their skills and knowledge to the
maximum of their capacity;
●● the framework for individual learning is provided by personal development
plans that focus on self-managed learning and are supported by coaching,
mentoring and formal training;
●● the organization needs to invest in learning and development by providing
appropriate learning opportunities and facilities, but the prime respon
sibility for learning and development rests with individuals, who should
be given the guidance and support of their managers and, as necessary,
members of the learning and development or people management
department.
Learning and Development Strategy 237
This involves creating a learning culture, the characteristics of which are
self-managed learning not instruction, long-term capacity-building not
short-term fixes, and empowerment not supervision.
CASE STUDY People development strategy at AstraZeneca
A key strategic business objective of AstraZeneca is: To ensure a well-motivated
organization in which people are respected, enjoy their jobs and obtain
fulfilment.
1 Our people development strategy applies to all employees, not just to
managers or people of high potential. It relates to the continuing development
of ability and contribution in each person’s current job and, if considered to
have the potential to advance further, towards subsequent jobs.
2 People development strategies are vital to the business but it is important that
they support the key business strategies. The appropriate resources must be
available to meet the key priorities for people development. Expenditure on
education, training and development is regarded as a necessary and calculated
investment yielding considerable pay-off in terms of enhanced business
performance. Managers have a clear responsibility to develop their
subordinates. Performance management, which is the key management process
that brings together the setting of personal work targets and development plans,
is the preferred integrated approach by which employees’ learning and
development are managed continually in relation to all work activities.
3 All employees must have a personal development plan jointly agreed with
their manager, and this plan must be progressed and regularly reviewed and
updated. It should be derived from the accountabilities of the jobholder and
their personal targets for the coming period, plus any anticipated future
needs. The plan should cover coaching and on-the-job and off-the-job
training.
4 All employees are to be encouraged continually to develop their skills and
experience, both for their own benefit and that of the business, through the
improved contribution that will result, thus maintaining and extending the
business’s competitive advantage.
5 Career planning will be a joint activity between the individual and the
manager, with employees having a major responsibility for their own career
management, including personal development.
238 Specific People Strategies
6 The development of individuals must take into account that AstraZeneca is a
complex, globally managed business. Particular emphasis should be placed
on the need for good business understanding and teamwork across the
business worldwide. The nature of the business requires special attention in
the areas of organization development activities, team building, project
management and cross-cultural management skills.
7 People development activities will be regularly audited to ensure that
appropriate, cost-effective investment is made in all parts of the organization
to support current business activities.
Strategy for creating a learning culture
A fundamental objective of strategic learning and development is to create a
learning culture. A learning culture is one in which learning is recognized by
top management, line managers and employees generally as an essential or-
ganizational process to which they are committed and in which they engage
continuously. It is described by Reynolds (2004: 21) as a ‘growth medium’
that will ‘encourage employees to commit to a range of positive discretion-
ary behaviours, including learning’ and that has the following characteris-
tics: empowerment not supervision, self-managed learning not instruction,
and long-term capacity-building not short-term fixes. Discretionary learning
as defined by Sloman (1999) happens when individuals actively seek to
acquire the knowledge and skills that promote the organization’s objectives.
The steps required to create a learning culture proposed by Reynolds
(2004: 12–20) are:
●● Develop and share the vision – belief in a desired and emerging future.
●● Empower employees – provide ‘supported autonomy’; freedom for
employees to manage their work within certain boundaries (policies and
expected behaviours) but with support available as required. Adopt a
facilitative style of management in which responsibility for decision
making is ceded as far as possible to employees.
●● Provide employees with a supportive learning environment where
learning capabilities can be discovered and applied, eg peer networks,
supportive policies and systems, and protected time for learning.
Learning and Development Strategy 239
●● Use coaching techniques to draw out the talents of others by encouraging
employees to identify options and seek their own solutions to problems.
●● Guide employees through their work challenges and provide them with
time, resources and, crucially, feedback.
●● Recognize the importance of managers acting as role models.
●● Encourage networks – communities of practice.
●● Align systems to vision – get rid of bureaucratic systems that produce
problems rather than facilitate work.
Organizational learning strategy
Organizations can be regarded as continuous learning systems, and organi-
zational learning has been defined by Marsick (1994: 28) as a process of
‘co-ordinated systems change, with mechanisms built in for individuals and
groups to access, build and use organizational memory, structure and cul-
ture to develop long-term organizational capacity’.
Organizational learning strategy aims to develop a firm’s resource-based
capability. This is in accordance with one of the basic principles of human
resource management, namely that it is necessary to invest in people in order
to develop the human capital required by the organization and to increase
its stock of knowledge and skills.
Five principles of organizational learning have been defined by Harrison
(1997):
1 The need for a powerful and cohering vision of the organization to be
communicated and maintained across the workforce in order to promote
awareness of the need for strategic thinking at all levels.
2 The need to develop strategy in the context of a vision that is not only
powerful but also open-ended and unambiguous. This will encourage a
search for a wide rather than a narrow range of strategic options, will
promote lateral thinking and will orient the knowledge-creating activities
of employees.
3 Within the framework of vision and goals, frequent dialogue, communi-
cation and conversations are major facilitators of organizational learning.
4 It is essential to challenge people continuously to re-examine what they
take for granted.
240 Specific People Strategies
5 It is essential to develop a climate that is conducive to learning and
innovation.
Individual learning strategy
The individual learning strategy of an organization is driven by its people
requirements, which are expressed in terms of the sort of skills and behav-
iours that are required.
As Sloman (1999: 17) emphasized:
Interventions and activities, which are intended to improve knowledge and
skills, will increasingly focus on the learner. And he or she will be encouraged to
take more responsibility for his or her learning. Efforts will be made to develop
a climate, which supports effective and appropriate learning.
An individual learning strategy should take account of these points. It will
be based on:
●● a systematic programme for identifying learning needs;
●● an understanding of how people learn – people learn for themselves but
they also learn from other people and they tend to learn better from
experience than from what they have been told;
●● a belief that most learning happens in the workplace and this therefore
needs to be encouraged;
●● the use of training in its complementary role of accelerating learning;
●● the combination of different approaches to learning (experience supple-
mented by training) so that they complement and support one another.
CASE STUDY easuring the contribution of learning to business
M
performance at Lyreco Ltd (UK)
Lyreco UK is part of a large family-owned office supplies group operating
extensively in Europe, Canada and Asia.
Metrics are a central part of all management processes at Lyreco and these
inform the learning investment and planning processes. In field sales, measures
include sales turnover, margin and new business, while in customer service the
Learning and Development Strategy 241
performance and productivity metrics include costs per line, abandoned call
rate, average call time and average wait time. Monthly performance results in all
areas are scrutinized to identify areas for attention, and the learning and
development team run learning sessions and activities aimed at helping people
to improve their performance. When sales margin was identified as an area for
attention, over 150 people attended focused workshops and subsequent
performance results were tracked to measure improvements. Similarly,
warehouse supervisors with the highest staff turnover attended learning
programmes and, as a consequence, staff turnover was at lowest-ever levels.
Key learning points
●● Strategic learning and development aims to produce a coherent and
comprehensive framework for developing people through the creation of
a learning culture and the formulation of organizational and individual
learning strategies.
●● It is driven by the organization’s people requirements, which are
expressed in terms of the sort of skills and behaviours they need.
●● The strategy will be based on an understanding of how people learn. It
will indicate how learning needs should be identified and set out the
intentions of the organization on how those learning needs will be met,
through workplace learning (including coaching and mentoring), formal
training courses or programmes, or a combination of the two in the
shape of blended learning.
References
Harrison, R (1997) Employee Development, IPM, London
Keep, E (1989) Corporate training strategies: the vital component? in New
Perspectives on Human Resource Management, ed J Storey, pp 109–25,
Routledge, London
Marsick, V J (1994) Trends in managerial invention: creating a learning map,
Management Learning, 25 (1), pp 11–33
Reynolds, J (2004) Helping People Learn, CIPD, London
Sloman, M (1999) Seize the day, People Management, 20 May, p 31