Importance of Learning and Development in an Organization

The global literacy level currently stands around 87% up from 12% in 1820. However, the world has evidently changed with the industrial revolution giving birth to a variety of things we use on a day-to-day basis. None of these would have been possible if not for the constant learning and development during this time. For example, we are living in a time where a brand-new iPhone will be out of date within a span of 12 months.

In the same way learning and development is crucial to an organization, especially since the pandemic, L&D strategies have been a priority promoting employee growth as well as developing a high skilled workforce that can drive costs down and improve productivity (Kong et al., 2014).

The importance of L&D in an organization are highlighted below.

Improved Work Culture: While the culture is at the heart of every organization, modern learning methods with the current technologies go beyond learning pure content but open ways to the social side on social media platforms to enhance a learning culture in an organization to improve productivity to become competitive in the market (Harteis et al., 2008).

Employee Engagement:  When an employee has access to continuous learning and development avenues, they will feel more values and motivated. When employees feel engaged, they contribute to important business performance outcomes (Hanaysha, 2016).

Keeps Employees up-to-Date: L&D helps employees keep up with the fast-changing world economies. The L&D programs can ensure that the management and employees are fully aware of the latest happening and trends in the relevant industry (Hanaysha, 2016). The fashion industry is changing along with the pandemic period, therefore suppliers are forced to adapt to the current situation where consumers have a lot less buying power.

Minimized Workplace Risk: Unskilled and untrained employees can cause a number of workplace accidents specially in labor intensive jobs that use machinery for example.  It is important that every employee fully understands how to remain safe in the workplace to minimize these risks. Since employees at Naturub work with high machinery and chemicals through the production process, the HR ensures the employees are fully trained and skilled before handling machinery and chemicals.

Increased Employee Retention Rates and Improve Turnover Rates: L&D strategies have an influence on employee retention rates where an employee will stay longer in an organization if the organization invests on an individual’s career development (Chiboiwa et al., 2010). If the organization loses top talent, it will face huge costs of turnover. The investment on the human resources of the organization can save huge costs of rehiring and training a new employee.

Productivity Levels: L&D methods help an employee perform better on their job, thereby enhancing their productivity since employee engagement and morale is high. An employee will feel valued and be pushed to innovate and get creative to perform better.

Better Communication Channels Between Management and Staff Members: Management invests time in developing strategies to enhance business performance. They focus on the external stakeholders and forget to focus on the one thing that can make a huge difference in the success of the company: their employees. Effective learning and development can encourage better communication skills and increase engagement between employees as well as employees and management. Improving on communication can drive a more productive and talented workforce (Carey et al., 2010).

Improved Customer Service and Satisfaction: A vital indicator of success in L&D involves an organizations customer metrics. When employees go through L&D programs successfully, they work more professionally and productively retaining the knowledge from the program. This directly reflects on the customers through an elevated service to build the brand (Akroush et al., 2010).

Significant Improvement of All Internal Weaknesses: At times employees’ skill may not be up to par with current happenings in the market. L&D programs aim to help the employee skills and update them to the current standards in the relevant industry. While this helps reducing the gaps within the organizations it helps boost productivity and performance.

Formalized Sharing of Knowledge: An organized L&D program guarantees that every employee has a consistent experience. This consistency is significant when it comes to the organizations procedures, policies, culture and expectations of the employer where the employee will be fully aware ensuring a baseline knowledge of the organization (Hendricks & Potgieter, 2012). When an employee joins Naturub, the new hire is taken through a two-week training program that covers processes, departments, and policies. Once this is complete the new hire is clear of the expectations the organizations expect of them.

 

List of References

Akroush, M.N. et al. (2010) “Conceptualisation and development of Customer Service Skills Scale: An Investigation of Jordanian customers,” International Journal of Mobile Communications, 8(6), p. 625. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1504/ijmc.2010.035481.

Carey, J.A., Madill, A. and Manogue, M. (2010) “Communications skills in dental education: A systematic research review,” European Journal of Dental Education, 14(2), pp. 69–78. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0579.2009.00586.x.

Chiboiwa, M.W., Samuel , M.O. and Chipunza, C. (2010) “An examination of employee retention strategy in a private organisation in Zimbabwe,” African Journal Of Business Management  4(10), pp. 2103–2109.

Hanaysha, J. (2016) “Testing the effects of employee engagement, work environment, and organizational learning on Organizational Commitment,” Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 229, pp. 289–297. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.07.139.

Harteis, C., Bauer, J. and Gruber, H. (2008) “The culture of learning from mistakes: How employees handle mistakes in everyday work,” International Journal of Educational Research, 47(4), pp. 223–231. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2008.07.003.

Hendricks, K., & Louw Potgieter, J. (2012). A theory evaluation of an induction programme. SA Journal of Human Resource Management10(3), Art. #421, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i3.421

Kong, L.-N. et al. (2014) “The effectiveness of problem-based learning on development of Nursing Students’ Critical Thinking: A systematic review and meta-analysis,” International Journal of Nursing Studies, 51(3), pp. 458–469. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2013.06.009.