L&D Pro Challenges: The Process

L&D pros are challenged with limited budgets, small teams, and a gap in demonstrating return on investment (ROI). To tackle these challenges L&D must demonstrate business impact. Challenges can come from projects, people, and especially process. Here are 3 specific L&D challenges born from the process that you may encounter frequently, and a few tips on how to overcome those challenges effectively.

Challenge 1: Building employee awareness of L&D programs    

Internal awareness can be a challenge for any number of programs within an organization, but L&D seems to suffer from this on the regular. While this can be an issue of internal marketing or communication, often it all comes down to process. If you are noticing that you don’t have the internal awareness you need or expect from your L&D programs, dig a little deeper. Ask around and learn from the perspective and feedback of the employees and organizational leadership. Sometimes the issue can be solved with some targeted communication and support. can often feel like an organization in and of itself within the larger environment of a company. Think about your audience, employees, and how they are best likely to receive information about your programs. Build that strategy into your planning stages of a program, because remember that without awareness, your program will inevitably struggle to achieve your goals. Common reasons for a lack of awareness include inconsistent messaging around the need or benefit of a training. It can also come from disconnect or isolated attendees, who are more or less unable to connect on the topic of the training at any point in the process. Explore how you can build in more awareness communication and help your trainees get the most from their experience, even before they take a training.

Challenge 2: Engaging employees during L&D programs 

Every L&D expert knows that engagement is one of the biggest challenges of any training program. But did you know that engagement starts even before you sit down in the training hall? Engagement needs to be a cornerstone of the L&D process. Learners should be engaged before, during, and even after a training program. That can include awareness generation, excitement, value communication before an event, engaging experiences during the training, and good follow-through after a program is completed. Connect trainees together so that they continue the conversations they initiated in the classroom. Ask for feedback after training is complete. Invest in reiteration so that the next generation of learners can benefit from the experiences of their peers.  Keep people engaged throughout the process and they will help support the process of the L&D program as a whole.

Challenge 3: Demonstrating ROI

Return on investment is calculated on a ratio of benefit (or return) of an investment divided by the cost of the investment. The resulting percentage or ratio is your ROI. Calculating ROI is important to an L&D program, but even more important is communicating that return. Value demonstration needs to be built into your L&D programs in the process phase, otherwise the opportunity to show the value of your trainings will likely slip away, which does nobody any favors.

Are you looking to improve your L&D process?

We partner with you on a project basis, supplementing the talents of internal staff until goals are achieved, ensuring project success. Clarity’s consultants work globally and have experience across a broad range of business sectors. Our extensive network allows us to provide you with professionals whose skills and expertise precisely match your requirements. We deliver exactly what you need when you need it. For more opportunities to level-up your learning and development programs, connect with the team at Clarity Consultants today.