Introduction

Learning and development strategy represents the approach an organization adopts to

ensure that now and in the future, learning and development activities support the
achievement of its goals by developing the skills and capacities of individuals and
teams. It can be described similarly as strategic human resource development, defined
as follows. In other words, these strategies are concerned with developing a learning
culture, promoting organizational learning, establishing a learning organization and
providing for individual learning.

In this chapter the term ‘learning and development strategy’ is used as it represents
more accurately current thinking on this subject. The chapter covers the features and
basis of such a strategy and the concepts of a learning culture and the learning
organization that are associated with the strategy. It is completed with a discussion of
the impact learning and development activities make on organizational performance.

Strategic human resource development defi ned, Walton (1999)

Definitions

The following are certain definitions relating to this chapter:

HRD Strategy

Strategic human resource development as defined by Walton (1966) involves

introducing, eliminating, modifying, directing and guiding processes in such a way that
all individuals and teams are equipped with the skills, knowledge and competences they
require to undertake current and future tasks required by the organization. Or;

‘HRD strategy is a plan that defines how the human resources would be utilized through
the use of an integrated array of training, organizational development and career
development efforts to achieve individual, organizational objectives.’

Learning

‘Learning – defined by Bass and Vaughan (1966) as ‘a relatively permanent change in

behaviour that occurs as a result of practice or experience’. As Kolb (1984) describes it,
‘Learning is the major process of human adaptation.’

Training

‘Training – the planned and systematic modification of behavior through learning

events, programs and instruction that enable individuals to achieve the levels of
knowledge, skill and competence needed to carry out their work effectively.’

Note: Learning should be distinguished from training. ‘Learning is the process by which
a person constructs new knowledge, skills and capabilities, whereas training is one of
several responses an organization can undertake to promote learning’ (Reynolds et al,
2002). It is also better to understand that learning is what happens after the person has received
the training and is much more self-directed which takes place when the person is able to apply the new
knowledge or skills to their own work based situation.

Development

‘Development–the growth or realization of a person’s ability and potential through the

provision of learning and educational experiences.’

Note: The distinction between learning and development made by Pedler, Boydell and
Burgoyne (1989), who see learning as being concerned with an increase in knowledge
or a higher degree of an existing skill, whereas development is more towards a different
state of being or functioning

Education

‘Education –the development of the knowledge, values and understanding required in

all aspects of life rather than the knowledge and skills relating to particular areas of
activity.’

Vertical integration

‘Vertical Integration means integrating the L&D Strategy with the overarching HR Strategy and
with business strategy at corporate and business unit levels.’

Horizontal integration

‘Horizontal Integration means integrating L&D activity with other HR practices so that there is
consistency across the whole HR area with all its activity supporting HR goals.’

Elements of the learning and development strategy

The learning and development strategy should incorporate the following elements:

 The learning and development philosophy of the organization.

 The aims of the learning and development strategy.

 The priorities for learning and development.

 How, broadly, it is intended these aims will be achieved through the creation of a
learning culture, formal learning and development programs, coaching, personal
development planning, and self-directed learning.

 The responsibilities for learning and development as shared between top

management, line management, individual employees, and members of the HR
or learning and development function.
  The resources required for learning and development – financial budgets, training
facilities, and external help.
 The success criteria for learning and development.

 How the effectiveness of learning and development in meeting these criteria will
be measured and evaluated.

Learning and development philosophy

Learning and development strategy is underpinned by a philosophy and its purpose is to

operationalize that philosophy. It is fundamentally concerned with creating a learning
culture that will encourage learning and will provide the basis for planning and
implementing learning activities and programs. This concept of a learning culture is
associated with that of the learning organization.

A learning and development philosophy expresses the beliefs of an organization on the

role of learning and development, its importance and how it should take place. It can be
expressed in the following terms:

 Learning and development activities make a major contribution to the successful

attainment of the organization’s objectives, and investment in them benefits all
the stakeholders of the organization.

 Learning and development plans and programs should be integrated with and
support the achievement of business and human resource strategies.

 Learning and development should be performance-related – designed to achieve

specified improvements in corporate, functional, team and individual
performance, and make a major contribution to bottom-line results.

 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.

 Personal development processes provide the framework for individual and self-
directed learning.

 While the need to invest in learning and development is recognized, the prime
responsibility for development rests with individual employees, who will be given
the guidance and support of their manager and, as necessary, members of the
HR department.

Strategic HRD aims

Strategic HRD 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. Its objective is to enhance
resource capability in accordance with the belief that a firm’s human resources are a
major source of competitive advantage. It is therefore about developing the intellectual
capital required by the organization as well as ensuring that the right quality of people
is available to meet present and future needs. The main thrust of SHRD is to provide an
environment in which people are encouraged to learn and develop.

Learning culture and its strategy

A learning culture is one that promotes learning because it is recognized by top

management, line managers and employees generally as an essential organizational
process to which they are committed and in which they engage continuously.

Reynolds (2004) describes a learning culture as a ‘growth medium’, which will

‘encourage employees to commit to a range of positive discretionary behaviors,
including learning’ and which has the following characteristics: empowerment not
supervision, self-managed learning not instruction, long-term capacity building not
short-term fixes. He suggests that to create a learning culture it is necessary to develop
organizational practices that raise commitment amongst employees and ‘give
employees a sense of purpose in the workplace, grant employees opportunities to act
upon their commitment, and offer practical support to learning’.

Developing a learning culture, Reynolds (2004)

1. Develop and share the vision – belief in a desired and emerging future.
2. Empower employees – provide ‘supported autonomy’; freedom for employees to
manage their work within certain boundaries (policies and expected behaviors) but with
support available as required.

3. Adopt a facilitative style of management in which responsibility for decision making is

ceded as far as possible to employees.

4. Provide employees with a supportive learning environment where learning

capabilities can be discovered and applied, e.g. peer networks, supportive policies and
systems, protected time for learning.

5. Use coaching techniques to draw out the talents of others by encouraging employees
to identify options and seek their own solutions to problems.

6. Guide employees through their work challenges and provide them with time,
resources and, crucially, feedback.

7. Recognize the importance of managers acting as role models: ‘The new way of
thinking and behaving may be so different that you must see what it looks like before
you can imagine yourself doing it. You must see the new behavior and attitudes in
others with whom you can identify’ (Schein,1990).

8. Encourage networks – communities of practice.

9. Align systems to vision – get rid of bureaucratic systems that produce problems
rather than facilitate work.
Organizational Learning and its strategy

The process of organizational learning is related to the concept of a learning

organization, which Senge (1990) describes as an ‘organization that is continually
expanding to create its future’. It has been defined by Wick and Leon (1995) as an
organization that ‘continually improves by rapidly creating and refining the capabilities
required for future successes’, and by Pedler et al (1989) as an organization that
‘facilitates the learning of all its members and continually transforms itself’. As
Burgoyne (1994) has pointed out, learning organizations have to be able to adapt to
their context and develop their people to match the context.

Garvin (1993) suggests that learning organizations are good at doing five things:

1. Systematic problem solving, which rests heavily on the philosophy and methods
of the quality movement. Its underlying ideas include relying on scientific
method, rather than guesswork, for diagnosing problems – what Deming (1986)
calls the ‘plan–do–check–act’ cycle and others refer to as ‘hypothesis-generating,
hypothesis-testing’ techniques. Data rather than assumptions are required as the
background to decision making – what quality practitioners call ‘fact-based
management’, and simple statistical tools such as histograms, Pareto charts and
cause-and-effect diagrams are used to organize data and draw inferences.
2. Experimentation – this activity involves the systematic search for and testing of
new knowledge. Continuous improvement programs – ‘kaizen’ – are an important
feature in a learning organization.
3. Learning from past experience – learning organizations review their successes
and failures, assess them systematically and record the lessons learnt in a way
that employees find open and accessible. This process has been called the
‘Santayana principle’, quoting the philosopher George Santayana, who coined
the phrase ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’
4. Learning from others – sometimes the most powerful insights come from looking
outside one’s immediate environment to gain a new perspective. This process
has been called SIS for ‘steal ideas shamelessly’. Another more acceptable word
for it is benchmarking – a disciplined process of identifying best-practice
organizations and analyzing the extent to which what they are doing can be
transferred, with suitable modifications, to one’s own environment.
5. Transferring knowledge quickly and efficiently throughout the organization by
seconding people with new expertise, or by education and training programs, as
long as the latter are linked explicitly with implementation.

One approach, as advocated by Senge (1990), is to focus on collective problem solving

within an organization. This is achieved using team learning and a ‘soft systems’
methodology whereby all the possible causes of a problem are considered in order to
define more clearly those that can be dealt with and those that are insoluble.

A learning organization strategy will be based on the belief that learning is a continuous
process rather than a set of discrete training activities (Sloman, 1999). It will
incorporate strategies for organizational learning as described above and individual
learning.

Individual learning and its strategy

 Individual learning focuses on individual employee’s specific learning needs. It
essentially involves providing guidance and support through a variety of different
learning and development techniques that will help the individual employee.

The individual learning strategies of an organization are driven by its human resource
requirements, being expressed in terms of the sort of skills and behaviors that will be
required to achieve business goals.

The starting point should be the approaches adopted to the provision of learning and
development opportunities

The contribution of learning and development to

organizational performance

Jarvis et al in ‘the case for coaching’ suggest that effective learning and development is there to improve
employee performance in terms of the employees’ ability, motivation or engagement and employee
opportunities. And furthermore, that learning and development activities increase the amount of what
is known as ‘discretionary behaviour’. That is where employees want to do well, where they go out of
their way to do the best for the organisation. Jarvis et al state that this happens because L & D activities
make people feel valued, give them the skills they need to do their work well, help people introduce
change more easily, help people take more responsibility for themselves and helps them to take more
initiative over getting results.

An important part of that is people taking more responsibility for their own learning and with this an
emphasis now being placed on learning as opposed to training.

So the question from that is how aligned is the learning and development strategy?

It is the employee performance that then drives organisational performance. Cost effective HR and HRD
investment will bring about results in terms of labour productivity and in the quality of the product or
service delivered.

And all of that is shown in business performance outcomes. So the more effective the learning and
development the higher the employee performance and the better organisational performance leading
to increased business performance outcomes.

Effective
learning and
developmen
t
Employee Organizational
performance performance
• Ability • Cost effective
Improves • Motivatio HR
investment
Business
n
• performance
• Opportun Labour
ity productivity outcomes
 Drives

Jarvis, J., Lane, D., and Fillery-Travis, A., (2006), The Case for Coaching, CIPD

Creating an Learning and Development strategy

A learning and development strategy should be business-led in the sense that it is

designed to support the achievement of business goals by promoting human capital
advantage. But it should also be people-led, which means taking into account the needs
and aspiration of people to grow and develop. Achieving the latter aim, of course,
supports the achievement of the former.

To be effective, the L&D Strategy should be internally consistent and be mutually

reinforcing with other strategies across the Department. It should be vertically and

horizontally integrated.

There might be different approaches can be followed to set L & D strategy. The chapter review team
however select the following most commonly used approached:

One approach to creating a learning and development strategy is given by Rosemary Harrison in
‘Learning and Development’. The first step is

 To put together a strategy development team in order to bring new ideas and expertise from all
parts of the organisation and to enable debate and challenging to take place. This is important
to keep the process from getting stale and old hat.
  Next is to clarify the organisational mission. What is the purpose of the organisation? How does
it fit in with everything outside of itself? What are its long term goals

 The third step is to explore the core values. This would include how the employees perceive the
organisation; what the espoused values of the organisation are and whether they are shared;
who are the stakeholders and are their needs being met and how is the learning and
development department and its contribution viewed

 The fourth step is to carry out a SWOT and or PESTLE analysis. SWOT being strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The strengths and weaknesses being from internal
analysis and the opportunities and threats being from external analysis. PESTLE being an
external analysis tool that considers Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal, and
Environmental influences on the organisation.

 And finally is to agree on the learning and development strategy and the strategic plan. This
involves agreeing on the long term goals and short term learning and development goals in
order that the organisation as a whole can reach its aims, mission and goals according to its
values and for all the levels within the organisation. It is also important to build flexibility into
the process so that the plan can move with the needs of the organisation, its teams and its
individuals.

Harrison highlights the issues for training and development professionals; they are to fit with the
organisation’s overall strategy and yet to have flexibility to handle local level needs; that the strategy fits
in with all the other HR strategies in the organisation; that the strategy has the agreement of all the
stakeholders and that the managers throughout the organisation are willing and capable of delivering
the strategy and finally that there are clear and easy to use ways of evaluating and monitoring the
effectiveness of the plans and strategies.

The second approach we want to highlight is Mayo’s approach. He also starts with strategic analysis, in
terms of carrying out a SWOT analysis, but also includes looking at the core competencies that are
needed, considering environmental studies and the projections put forward by the marketing
department. He then suggests strategic goal setting, in view of growth, customer satisfaction,
profitability and market share required and then to choose routes to those goals in terms of resources,
systems and processes, capabilities and partnerships. And that these two processes will cycle until the
strategy has been chosen. And then, of course, there comes implementation and into this comes the
process of leveraging resources, so that the desired resources are in the right place at the right time to
implement the strategy, to measure progress, to manage change and any conflicts that may arise in the
implementation.

He also suggests that there are three key components of an HRD strategy. Firstly an umbrella strategy
that has policies etc in place to support what the organisation wants to achieve in its total strategy and
plan. Then specific proactive and remedial strategies to support the goals and objectives and finally a
functional strategy which looks at the HRD departments own needs for learning and development.

Illustration on L&D strategy

As it is well known, Strategies are the sets of intended actions and integrated plans that are to
be pursued in order to achieve the strategic goals. L&D Strategies are the mechanisms that are
chosen to help increase human resource capability and improve performance to support the
achievement of these high level objectives.
The following table depicts a number of possible learning and development strategies which
may be taken as an example:

Strategies Components
On the job learning Observation/demonstration and practice
Delegation
Coaching
Mentoring
Self-Managed Learning Reading
E-Learning
Further education
Deployment
Mobility
Secondment
Temporary assignment/special project
Group learning
Cross Functional Team
Communities of practice
Networking
Action Learning
Tutor led intervention
Training Courses
Seminars
Development programs

Business performance
Studies on the relationship between learning and development activities and
organizational
performance have included those by Benabou (1996) and Clarke (2004). The research
by
Benabou examined the impact of various training programmes on the business and fi
nancial
results at 50 Canadian organizations. The conclusion reached was that in most cases a
welldesigned
training programme can be linked to improvements in business results and that return
on investment in training programmes is very high.

Learning and development strategy – key learning points

The features of a learning and
development strategy
A learning and development strategy should
be business-led in the sense that it is
designed to support the achievement of
business goals by promoting human capital
advantage. But it should also be people-led,
which means taking into account the needs

and aspirations of people to grow and

develop.
Learning and development philosophy
A learning and development philosophy
expresses the beliefs of an organization on
the role of learning and development, its
importance and how it should take place.
The contents of a learning and
development strategy
The aims and priorities of the strategy, how
it is to be achieved, responsibilities and
resources and success criteria.

The nature of a learning culture

A learning culture is one that promotes
learning because it is recognized by top
management, line managers and employees
generally as an essential organizational

process to which they are committed and in

which they engage continuously.
The concept of the learning
organization and its relevance
A learning organization is one ‘which facilitates
the learning of all its members and
continually transforms itself ’ (Pedler et al,
1991). However, the notion of a learning
organization is somewhat nebulous.
How learning and development
activities contribute to fi rm
performance
While it is possible and highly desirable to
evaluate learning, establishing a link
between learning and organizational performance
is problematic, although research
has shown that learning and development
can be a crucial intervening factor.
Questions
Business performance

(Jarvis, J., Lane, D., and Fillery-Travis, A., (2006), The Case for Coaching, CIPD)

(Mayo, A., (2004), Creating a Learning and Development Strategy: The HR Business Partner’s Guide to
Developing People, CIPD)

(Jarvis, J., Lane, D., and Fillery-Travis, A., (2006), The Case for Coaching, CIPD)

(Harrison, R., (2005), Learning and Development, CIPD)

As part of the process of developing an L&D Strategy, Departments should take a

critical look at the current L&D policies and practices that are in place across all

business units. This should be followed by an examination of the level of joined up

thinking in the L&D and HR areas and the extent to which outputs/outcomes from

L&D activities can be traced to some specific aspect of the overall corporate strategy.

To be effective, the L&D Strategy should be internally consistent and be mutually

reinforcing with other strategies across the Department. It should be vertically and

horizontally integrated.

Vertical integration means integrating the L&D Strategy with the overarching HR
Strategy and with business strategy at corporate and business unit levels.
Horizontal integration means integrating L&D activity with other HR practices so
that there is consistency across the whole HR area with all its activity supporting
Departmental goals.

Key Stakeholders
There are key people and groups who can influence the Strategy and others who will
be affected by it. Senior management have a particular role to play in approving the
Strategy and by supporting its roll-out throughout the Department. Staff can make a
significant contribution in identifying and agreeing mechanisms to facilitate their
leaning and development, and by co-operating with the opportunities provided as the
Strategy is implemented. The participation of key stakeholders is essential in
securing support and buy-in for the implementation of the Strategy. Therefore,
representative groups should be identified at an early stage so that they can be
actively involved in developing the Strategy.

steps

Section 2 - Identifying Learning and Development Needs: This section sets out
how the L&D needs of the Department are identified. It should be noted that in order
to complete this section, a TNA will need to have been conducted and a TNA report
produced containing the findings. If this work has not yet been carried out, it should
be commenced immediately. This will require both secondary and primary research.
Section 3 - Addressing Learning and Development Needs: Section 3 sets out
how the L&D needs will be addressed, including evaluation. Departments will need to
consider what strategies are appropriate to address their specific needs identified in
the TNA.
Section 4 - Implementation: The fourth section addresses implementation
arrangements.

Ensuring Conformity with the L&D Framework

The template is designed to ensure conformity with the L&D Framework. In
systematically completing and implementing the Strategy in accordance with this
guide and template, the first four objectives will have been addressed:
Prioritise business needs & align Business, HR and Learning Strategies
(section 1)
Analyse L&D needs (section 2)
Develop strategies for addressing L&D needs (section 3)
Evaluate L&D (Section 3)

Identifying L&D Needs

To enable staff to operate to their optimum performance level and to meet business
objectives, an effective approach is needed to identify and prioritise learning and
development needs for the Department as a whole as well as for individual staff.
Learning and development needs should therefore be identified through the twin
approach of a formal TNA3 and the PMDS.
Training Needs Analysis (TNA): The TNA should be used to check on the
necessary Departmental capability levels, i.e. those needs that have been
identified as necessary for the Department to manage its current business
effectively and to be capable of meeting future challenges. The TNA should
also identify the gap that exists between what is needed and what is currently
available. This involves conducting a skills audit to uncover the current
situation on what skills the workforce currently has.
Performance Management and Development System (PMDS): The PMDS
should be used to identify individual job holder’s needs through discussion
and agreement between the individual and their line manager. This is by
means of identifying and comparing his/her existing level of knowledge, skills,
behaviours and attributes with the requirements of their role or job, having
due regard to the competency framework and the business needs of the
Department.

The output of both processes should be integrated so that a composite set of priority
needs are identified. These needs should be further aligned with the key L&D
objectives set out in the L&D Framework.
The L&D Strategy should be based on the key findings of that analysis, with priority
needs for the period ahead being established. While the level of detail from the TNA
provided in the Strategy is a matter for individual Departments, it should be
consistent with the key objectives set out in the Learning and Development
Framework 2011 – 2014.
3

SECTION 3 - Addressing Learning and Development Needs

This section sets out how the learning and development needs, identified in Section
2, will be addressed and evaluated by the Department. There should not be an over
reliance on classroom training. A number of possible strategies should be considered
so that those that best fit the needs of the Department are selected. The choices
made will collectively form the overall Strategy.
3.1 Strategies
Strategies are the sets of intended actions and integrated plans that are to be
pursued in order to achieve the strategic goals of the Department. L&D Strategies
are the mechanisms that are chosen to help increase human resource capability and
improve performance to support the achievement of these high level objectives.
A useful way to work on developing strategies is to assess existing approaches and
consider alternatives. Are there other vehicles that could offer a better means of
learning and developing? Effective techniques for opening up minds to different
possibilities are brainstorming ideas in a group or creating mind maps.
The following table depicts a number of possible learning and development strategies
which may be considered by the Department. As PMDS provides a structured
mechanism for targeting learning activities at both Departmental and individual level,
these options should also be discussed as part of PMDS.
SECTION 4 - Implementation
Responsibility for driving, supporting and implementing the Strategy must be
assigned. There are generally a number of stakeholders which are identified as
playing a key role in this regard. In large Departments, there may be a hierarchical
training structure with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. These roles and
responsibilities can be set out in this section. Where there is no formal structure, the
following are examples of roles and responsibilities which may aid internal discussion
and agreement.
4.1 Roles and Responsibilities
The roles discussed in this section are senior management, HR/Learning and
Development Unit, line managers and job holders.

Learning culture
A learning culture is one that promotes learning because it is recognized by top
management,
line managers and employees generally as an essential organizational process to which
they are
committed and in which they engage continuously.
Reynolds (2004) describes a learning culture as a ‘growth medium’, which will
‘encourage
employees to commit to a range of positive discretionary behaviours, including learning’
and
which has the following characteristics: empowerment not supervision, self-managed
learning
not instruction, long-term capacity building not short-term fi xes. He suggests that to
create a
learning culture it is necessary to develop organizational practices that raise
commitment
amongst employees and ‘give employees a sense of purpose in the workplace, grant
employees
opportunities to act upon their commitment, and offer practical support to learning’.

Developing a learning culture, Reynolds (2004)

1. Develop and share the vision – belief in a desired and emerging future.
2. 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.
3. Adopt a facilitative style of management in which responsibility for decision
making is ceded as far as possible to employees.
4. Provide employees with a supportive learning environment where learning
capabilities can be discovered and applied, eg peer networks, supportive
policies and systems, protected time for learning.
5. Use coaching techniques to draw out the talents of others by encouraging
employees to identify options and seek their own solutions to problems.
6. Guide employees through their work challenges and provide them with
time, resources and, crucially, feedback.

Recognize the importance of managers acting as role models: ‘The new

way of thinking and behaving may be so different that you must see what
it looks like before you can imagine yourself doing it. You must see the new
behaviour and attitudes in others with whom you can identify’ (Schein,
1990).
8. Encourage networks – communities of practice.
9. Align systems to vision – get rid of bureaucratic systems that produce
problems rather than facilitate work.