Top tactics to boost your learning and development efforts

At Ragan’s Employee Experience Conference last month, Kristina Markos, associate professor and chair of the graduate communication program at Lasell University, and Rachel Gans-Boriskin, partner and principal at NOVL, shared their findings on the current state of learning and development in the workplace. Markos stated that one of the primary obstacles to effective L&D efforts is dedicating sufficient time.

“Sometimes an L&D challenge is just simply getting people ready to dedicate time to it,” Markos told the audience. “The appearance of a time suck by the employer can make L&D seem like a burden rather than an investment.”

Gans-Boriskin said that communicators should consider how learning and development programs are shared with employees. If the messaging and promotion of them is tied to the career aims of individuals and the success of the company, L&D pushes are less likely to fall by the wayside.

“Start with the idea that L&D really needs to be relevant,” she said. “Are the materials current to how employees are doing their work? Is it context aligned? Too often, we’re not focused on pedagogy behind the training.”