How learning teams can make the right trade-offs & maximize ROI

How learning teams can meet today’s L&D challenges & maximize ROI 

Global organizations are changing their learning and development strategies. With technology driving rapid change in the workplace, learning teams are restructuring how they optimize their budgets and develop their workforce for an evolving future of work. 

At Learning Futures Basel, senior L&D leaders from global companies – including Amcor, Novartis and Alcon – came together to discuss the challenges of workforce development and creating impactful upskilling.

Here are three key points HR leaders shared at the event:

• Many HR teams are centralizing and streamlining learning offerings to ensure employees can access the best materials for their development needs

• Digital skills analysis tools are critical to establish individual skill gaps at scale and deploy the right upskilling programs

• L&D teams need to address the urgent need to upskill to remain competitive and future-ready while operating with limited budgets

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The future of L&D is federated and impact-oriented

Many HR and L&D leaders at the event recognized a common trend: moving towards a federated L&D model. In this approach, different teams or business units manage their own learning and development initiatives, while the L&D function at the center sets overarching strategic goals, standards, and frameworks for learning across the organization.

This approach is beneficial for large, diverse organizations where different teams may have unique skill requirements or challenges but still need to operate within a unified learning strategy.

On top of that, HR leaders are also streamlining learning programs from vendors. Providers like LinkedIn Learning, for instance, often have multiple courses for a single subject, making it difficult for learners to choose the most relevant one and ensure a high quality of learning content. 

Therefore, L&D leaders are increasingly partnering with strategic providers to identify business needs and co-design standardized, yet impactful upskilling programs at scale.

Limited learning budgets can still generate ROI and impact 

With technology advancements accelerating, many organizations are seeing the demand for upskilling and reskilling rising in their workforce. 52% of CEOs believe skills shortages will have a serious impact on the profitability of their organizations over the next 10 years.

However, restricted budgets are a common barrier to providing the right training that boosts workforce productivity and upskilling ROI. Therefore, learning teams have to make the right trade offs and investment decisions.

“In an ideal world, investment decisions would be easy. You have business needs, the highest ROI on your upskilling programs, and impact. Unfortunately, ‘ROI’ is a very tainted word in learning... I often compare it to nuclear fusion. Everybody talks about it, but nobody has really managed to do it at scale.” Jelle Tromp, VP of Solutions at Lepaya

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To maximize learning ROI on a limited budget, here are 3 essential elements:

• Insights: Determine business and workplace needs, particularly in terms of individual skill gaps. 
• Efficiency: Develop programs that can be rolled out while controlling costs to ensure everything stays within budget.
• Efficacy: Create programs that ensure people learn the skills most needed in their roles and organizations. 
  
  

Skills analytic tools are essential for identifying workforce needs

Skills mapping is becoming increasingly important as organizations seek to align employee development with evolving business needs and leverage skills-based practices. 

Especially in global organizations with diverse workforces, identifying skills gaps at scale is critical. By determining the skills and job titles of employees in each department, learning teams can not only design impactful training programs, but also build hiring and internal mobility criterias. 

For companies committed to skills mapping, investing in data and analytical tools - such as AI skills analysis or LEGO’s GenAI skills bank - can expedite the process significantly. It can also help L&D leaders design targeted learning programs that align with strategic goals, avoiding a “one-size-fits-all” approach to upskilling that doesn’t serve all employees.

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Rapid change demands a pivot in L&D strategies

In an evolving work landscape, new L&D strategies are emerging for companies to address people’s development needs. Especially on tighter budgets, moving towards a centralized model can help L&D teams to effectively allocate resources, ensure upskilling consistency, and focus on high-impact learning opportunities tailored to the specific needs of business units. 

Combined with a skills-based approach and AI-powered learning tools, companies can continuously equip their people with the relevant skills to stay competitive in a technology-driven world and increase their upskilling ROI.

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