Do you use the end of the financial year to pause and reflect? Or is the 1st July your prompt to look forward and decide where you want your business to be positioned this time next year and into the future?

It’s the start of a brand new financial year and with lockdowns and quarantine now (hopefully) a thing of the past, it’s time to start focusing once again on the long-term future of your business; on further developing your leaders and building a gutsy culture for them to thrive in.

It’s time to shake off the old and bring in the new, to think about where you and your business are heading and, perhaps most importantly, take stock of what you already have, and what you want to achieve over the next twelve months.

Did you know, according to a LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report, a whopping 94 percent of employees said they’d remain at a company longer if it invested in their Learning and Development (L&D)? That sounds like a whole lot of reasons to invest in the training and development of your team now – wouldn’t you agree?

With this in mind, is it time for you to think differently?

Goal setting

When it comes to leadership, sometimes it’s good to go back to basics. And one of the smartest things you can do for your team is to sit down and set some goals. These goals can be around any aspect of your business, including the learning and development of your current and new employees.

Teams working within a constructive culture have clear goals and expectations.

When coaching leaders, we recommend a tried-and-true goal setting technique called the SMART method:

Specific – break down your goals, use action words and be specific.

Measurable – provide measurable data or information that’s easy to evaluate.

Attainable/ Achievable – there’s nothing wrong with creating ‘stretch’ business goals. Surprisingly, most people like goals they have to work a little harder to reach. Just be sure the stretch isn’t too far.

Realistic/Relevant – you should have the resources to achieve your business goals. They should also be relevant and make sense for your business.

Timely – create realistic deadlines for every goal.

Once you have your goals in place, it’s time to do something about them.

Learning and Development (L&D) is taking centre stage

It’s true that LinkedIn report we mentioned at the start of this article was commissioned pre-pandemic and the world has changed a lot over the last few years. But it’s safe to say retaining top talent should remain a priority for any business. By 2021, the pandemic had been in full swing for over a year and the economic impacts were already being felt globally. Not surprisingly businesses were taking notice with L&D shifting towards centre stage.

The introduction to the 2021 LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report, aptly named Skill Building in the New World of Work, stated:

‘We have seen learning move from a relatively new discipline within HR to taking center stage and becoming a must-have strategic role that will help shape the new world of work. To that point, two-thirds (66 percent) of L&D pros globally now agree that they are focused on rebuilding and reshaping their organizations this year’

With that scary 94 percent of employees would stay if they received better training stat rolling around, it’s not hard to see why L&D is taking centre stage for any business who wants to succeed.

In fact, the report adds 64 percent of L&D professionals globally agree L&D has shifted from a “nice to have” to a “need to have” in 2021.

In other words, the learning and development of your leaders and employees is no longer negotiable if you want to attract and retain the best talent. And with a well-documented global skills shortage, can your business afford  not to invest in their people?

L&D has a critical role

As Australian businesses continue to grapple with a skills shortage, could L&D save the day? A new report from Deloitte, The Business Return on Learning And Development, certainly thinks so:

‘Learning and development (L&D) can play a critical role in addressing skills shortages within businesses, by upskilling and reskilling workers to better meet current demand. Not only does this reduce Australia’s reliance on finding additional workers and alleviate current business pressure, it can also create a more flexible and resilient labour force that is able to adapt to rapidly changing skills needs.

L&D can be defined as the process through which employees are empowered with specific skills to deliver better business performance. It covers a wide range of both formal and informal training activity – from targeted skills programs, to mentoring and coaching, short courses, online seminars, credentialing, on-the-job shadowing, and much more.’

We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves (which is why we didn’t).

Tactician make impactful change

If you’re taking this stuff seriously, and you’re ready to move your leadership team into the future, we’re ready to help. Our team of Tacticians are L&D professionals, and we provide learning solutions through leadership programs, skills workshops, and one-on-one coaching.

We provide the support and tactics to grow constructive cultures and develop leaders.

And we tell it like it is. No BS. No fluff.

If you’d like to talk about taking the learning and development within your business to the next level, it’s easy to book a free 30-minute video call with one of our Directors, Luke Johnson. Together we’ll move you and your leadership team into the future.