Measuring the business impact of L&D programs is an essential step for organizations that want to ensure they are getting the most out of their investment in employee development. By understanding the ROI of L&D programs, organizations can make informed decisions about future investments and optimize their efforts to deliver the greatest impact. Additionally, it can help to demonstrate the value of L&D to employees and improve employee engagement and motivation.
If the words “upskill and reskill” are bantered about by executives in your organization, that’s a big opportunity for you to demonstrate your value. And if they’re not, they should be. The World Economic Forum estimates we will need to reskill more than 1 billion people by 2030. How can you leverage this situation to demonstrate your value?
Now you have a model that people can easily assess against for both upskilling in their current job and also reskilling to learn a new role (career planning and workforce agility). It will define any skill gaps and tell them exactly what learning level of activity they need to develop. It will make them self-sufficient and able to capitalize on intrinsic motivation and a growth mindset. And it tells you exactly what learning content you need to close your organizational skill gaps and position it for future success.
When you make your competency model accessible and assessable, whatever competency assessment system you choose must support making these changes easily. If it’s too difficult, it won’t happen, and then your competency model will be out of sync with strategy.
For competency-based learning to be sustainable, the competency model must be agile. Competency models describe what someone in a particular role should be able to do to perform their part of corporate strategy. If your strategy is changing regularly (and I believe that for your organization to continue to survive, it will), then your competency model has to change/adapt as well.
A competency model should reflect business values. The tasks and skills in the model define what that individual needs to do to be successful. If your organization values customer focus above all else, then it is likely that every job in the company will have some skill in their model that reflects internal or customer focus.
In our experience, using competency models to drive intrinsic motivation for professional development works for everyone. If you look at Dan Pink’s research in DRIVE, it is a human characteristic to be motivated to mastery. It’s why we work on our golf game or learn musical instruments for fun. It’s why open source software and Wikipedia exist.
According to Work Institute's 2017 Retention Report, career development was both the most common reason people left and stayed with an organization. In a tight labor market, the ability to demonstrate that you have systems that promote ongoing career development is a key differentiator, especially for top talent with the skills you need. The easy solution: competency models.
