Struggling to show the business value of L&D? Learnovate develops a new model.

Learning and Development as a strategic tool is essential for both business owners and those working in the L&D sector.

But demonstrating the business value of L&D to the C Suite or senior management is difficult and has been a challenge for L&D leaders both globally and historically.

The Learnovate Centre has developed a new model to help stakeholders to link L&D impacts to the bottom line.

Peter Gillis, Innovation Services Team Lead at Learnovate, revealed this model during a webinar on 24 March 2021.

Called ‘L&D Business Value — A 4-Stage Measurement Model’, the webinar was hosted by Chief Learning Officer (CLO).

Chaired by Learnovate’s Senior Business Manager Linda Waters, the webinar featured a panel discussion with Brendan Noud, LearnUpon CEO and Co-Founder and Sharon Claffey Kaliouby, Learning Pool VP North America.

During a two-year research project, Learnovate investigated previous models, most of which were ambiguous or overly time-consuming. Learnovate then engaged with many businesses across various sectors to co-create a workable solution to this problem.

It has now tested a working model with industry and is in ongoing development of a technology prototype.

Peter brought attendees at the webinar through the model, which examines four stages — Plan, Explore, Analyse and Share — that L&D leaders can apply to show the business value resulting from their efforts.

Using examples from real-life cases, he demonstrated how you can adopt this model and move L&D toward the position of strategic partner to the organisation.

“As a research centre, we love solving painful problems. Our members came back to us after a workshop asking us to look at the painful problem of showing the business value of L&D to the C Suite or senior management team,” says Peter.

“We know L&D does create business value but there seems to be confusion around how to measure it or it is only being done on an ad-hoc basis. You need to change your mindset and separate the business value from the metrics associated with the learner themselves.”

Peter said that Learnovate’s research found strong evidence that, as Kirkpatrick stated as far back as 2015, “there was a desire from management to see more than just lofty notions about continuous learning and employee development”; they want to see how it impacts the bottom line and the company’s misson.

To hear more about Learnovate’s new model, you can register and watch the video on-demand on the CLO website: L&D Business Value — A 4-Stage Measurement Model

Learnovate is a global research and innovation centre in learning technologies. An industry-led technology centre funded by Enterprise Ireland, Learnovate provides thought leadership to the world’s learning and development community on the innovative use of learning technology for maximum organisation success. Global experts in learning technology, Learnovate help companies transform employee, student and customer learning experiences.

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