Why L&D is a Must-Have in Any Business

While L&D teams are best known for being in charge of basic training and performance standards within most organisations, what many of us forget is that L&D professionals are also essential to creating a workplace learning culture that aligns with a company’s strategy, values, and goals.

Effective learning and development strategies are less about teaching and training and more about fostering an environment that enables employees to develop and thrive in their roles while working toward company objectives.

To give you more insight, below we discuss why L&D is not only important to every business but a must-have to stay ahead of the post-pandemic curve.

Employees Want to Learn 

It likely comes as no surprise that these days, employees not only want to learn, they practically demand it when it comes to remaining loyal to their organisation.

In fact, a recent study from LinkedIn concluded that 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if they felt that their employer was making a solid investment in their career development.

What’s more, on average it costs roughly five times the amount of money to hire a new employee than it does to train, upskill or reskill an existing employee. This means that investing in L&D not only saves organisations tons of time when it comes to recruiting new talent due to in-house upskilling and promoting, but also saves them a lot of money on their bottom line.

Attracts the Right Employees 

As is the case with any company, sometimes looking outside the organisation is necessary to find the best talent for vacant roles.

While a large part of talent acquisition lies in the hands of HR teams, having an enthusiastic, motivated, and driven L&D team is a business element that has the potential to create a lot of positive external buzz.

Consequently, when job seekers who are looking for a new role learn about organisations that are invested not only in their employees’ training but also in their continual professional development (CPD), they flock to work for them.

This makes recruitment that much easier for HR and L&D people professionals.

Employee Engagement 

When organisations make learning and development a top business priority, they have the opportunity to improve their employee turnover and retention rates by keeping their best employees on staff happy, motivated, and engaged.

An all-star L&D team will keep employees excited to come to work to contribute to the collective business goals, but also eager to progress and excel in their existing roles. Content should be essential and needs-based, ensuring that employees feel that they are spending their time taking advantage of meaningful learning opportunities.

This not only increases job satisfaction and employee productivity, but recent studies show that highly engaged employees show 21% greater profitability.

In other words, we think it’s safe to say that employee engagement acts as a strategic business function.

Encouraging Thought Leadership

Training and development strategies are at their best when they’re created proactively instead of reactively.
When this is done correctly, it encourages both employees and L&D professionals to find any glaring skills gaps that haven’t yet been looked at and allow for the opportunity to acknowledge and solve any major or immediate organisational issues.

This practice will help support innovation in the workplace as L&D will be able to focus on bringing fresh ideas and new perspectives to the table, aligning innovation with learning demands.

To add, encouraging thought leadership will also allow for employees to take some responsibility and ownership for their part in the business.

Hybrid Learning 

Hybrid learning has become a major focus for organisations since the pandemic began, however, what many people forget is that this method of learning was already swiftly becoming the norm for many businesses prior to all of the chaos.

While it isn’t uncommon for companies to hire employees who work both in-office and remotely, as we adapt to the new world of work, both remote and office staff need the attention of L&D teams now more than ever.

To this end, the L&D function is essential to making sure that organisations are at the top of their game with hybrid learning strategies to cultivate and maintain an inclusive learning culture.

This means working with HR to have the most up-to-date technology and tools available to effectively train teams in a flexible way, in-person, virtually, and online - championing professional and personal development from anywhere.


In conclusion, it’s high time that organisations start utilising L&D as a continuous learning journey rather than simply a destination. This ensures that L&D undoubtedly becomes part of the overall business strategy, one of which is dynamic and executed in a timely manner.


Are you looking to enhance your L&D knowledge and skills? Contact our programme advisors today to get started.