Champagne Learning & Development on a Budget

With your available budget, focus on 5 points from three experts’ guide to develop your talent to their maximum potential and impact your business strategy in 2023.

The budget crunch means one thing for Talent Managers: cuts to your learning and development scope and budget for 2023. Leaving you with a common predicament:

“How do you develop your talent with limited resources?”

Many of you resonate with this concern. As Talent Directors, you see the business potential of your L&D.

HR Directors that combine data, tech and talent upskilling grow business profit by 11%. Yet only 5% of businesses manage this to gain this competitive edge and surpass investors’ revenue targets.

You can’t be part of that 5%.

The budget is holding you back. It’s either not there at all or restricted to the bare minimum this year. We hear your frustrations:

1. We don’t have the budget (we thought we had more)
2. We are killing all learning projects due to the economic situation
3. Our business budget for 2023 is focused on other resources

With monetary restrictions, our stakeholders cut the L&D budget to protect other areas in the business. Yet the lack of investment in our talent is hurting business profit, talent retention and performance. Despite the need to invest in people skills, for some it seems a near impossible task in 2023.

How do you invest in your people to grow your business in 2023 with a limited budget?

The Guide on operating with a low Budget

From our State of Skills Report interview with three upskilling experts, there are three key focuses for 2023:

1. Have confidence to invest in learning
2. Select learning priorities
3. Be resourceful by using learning tech

Margareta Krusell & Gabriella Granholm, MEKO

Margareta Krusell & Gabriella Granholm pinpoint People Leader’s budget troubles this year. However, they emphasize that the scale and intent of the learning has to match your companies’ growth goals in 2023.

“For most organizations you have to operate within the limitations of an allocated and defined (learning) budget. Therefore the best you can do is to plan as much as possible, and keep some slack for new ideas or needs that might appear throughout the coming year. Dare to look ahead and ensure that you have the right talent and competence to follow the strategic direction the company is aiming at.”

Despite limited learning budgets, Margareta and Gabriella explain that organizations must invest in L&D to hit targets this year even if their business downsizes.

“Apart from the planning, but still related to the budget, be confident enough to invest in L&D, and avoid being too prudent. Some organizations might have to downsize, but that still doesn’t take away the necessity of developing and investing in their remaining talents to be able to reach future goals.”

As an example, they provide a direct insight into MEKO’s upskilling and hiring plans to match its 2023 growth and the impact of their learning strategy on their organization.

“L&D is becoming crucial for the retention and engagement of the workforce…MEKO has many exciting projects and initiatives planned in 2023, related to our continued growth in the market. We are developing new processes, new competencies and skills, and given our bigger size, we are looking at new ways of doing things. Which requires either hiring new talents with different skill sets or investing in upskilling or reskilling existing talents, or most likely a mix of both.”

Ross Stevenson, Filtered

Shifting from matching the scope of talent programs to your companies’ targets in 2023, Ross Stevenson provides his take on the benefits of learning tech in 2023 and how to use it.

“(Companies have to adopt L&D technology) to do more with less in the economic climate and it’s time to investigate how the business can do more with the technology structure it already has.”

What’s more, Ross talks us through how L&D content in 2023 can be structured on a budget to have business impact.

“Focus on the most valued-add tasks that will provide a performance improvement – whether that’s in hiring, retention or capability. Therefore, double down on skills L&D teams need, select 3-5 learning priorities and give people clear (learning) tools to manage their careers.”

“I know how to operate within my budget, but which skills should I focus on?”

Taking the advice of the three experts to; align your learning with business growth, do more with less via HR tech and select 3-5 learning priorities, we’ll divert your attention to key skills to train.  

Based on data from 162 companies, we show you which skills to concentrate your budget and resources on for the highest business impact in 2023:

Investing in your leader’s skills is a valid priority for your business this year. But to be more precise, from 78,551 hours of training, competitors are training communication skills such as collaboration and influence Power Skills.

Why did companies focus on leadership and collaboration skills? Because coupled with a team of effective communicators, empowering leaders are “crucial for the retention and engagement of the workforce.” (Margareta Krusell & Gabriella Granholm, MEKO).

Data from State of Skills

However, there’s other key areas to incorporate in your budget planning. Read our full State of Skills report to find out why Diversity, Equity  and Inclusion training is increasing and why Resilience and Taking Ownership is the upcoming skill for 2023.

“But there’s no urgency right now…”

Given the “economic climate” and monetary challenges, it may seem logical to place your resources in other areas of the business; supply chain, expansion into other markets or digital systems etc.

But here’s how companies are reshuffling their learning budgets to boost their growth in 2023.

Data from State of Skills

In essence, budgets are increasing and there’s a reason why. Companies are realizing they have to place more value on upskilling in 2023. Referring back to MEKO’s internal learning plans, you can’t grow your business revenue and leave your people’s skills behind. Your people have to be the ones carrying your business forward in 2023.  

What business value are you missing by scrapping your L&D budget? How are you making your business robust and developing resilient people with the right skills?  How are you adapting to changes in workforce needs to attract and retain the best talent?

Here’s an interesting price comparison for a business leader.

For 1 company car (avg cost $30000) you can upskill 120 first-time leaders to actually make a business impact.

Develop a Champagne L&D Framework on a Budget

Any Talent Manager can have a cutting-edge L&D program on a budget to impact hiring, retention and talent performance. It’s not a question of if you should invest in talent, but how within the limitations of your budget.

With your available budget, focus on these 5 points from the experts’ guide:

1. Use the tech you have to upskill at scale and do more with less
2. Prioritize the most value-added skills to impact talent’s performance
3. Match your upskilling with your company’s market growth
4. Invest in new talent but also reskilling existing talent with internal mobility
5. Select 3-5 learning priorities and give people the right tech tools to manage their careers

However, we understand the predicament People Leaders must confront this year. Only 29% of Talent Managers have the resources to combine tech, people and data and impact business profits. It’s therefore the duty of business leaders to release this potential and allow People Leaders to contribute to 2023 revenue and growth targets.

Resilient companies will rebalance their L&D budget to prioritize long-term over short-term needs and secure future stability. We expect to see more financial pressure and talent retention and recruitment challenges in 2023. But strategic companies will keep investing in their learning budgets and upskilling to mitigate the long-term impact.

Find out which L&D tech builds a resourceful and scalable learning framework here.

Download our State of Skills report here to gain full insights into experts’ advice on the optimal L&D solution for 2023 to impact your business performance.