Is your company investing in employee learning and development (L&D) to help close skills gaps and fight turnover? If so, you’re not alone — 70% of employers say they’re doing the same. Encouraging employees’ professional development is a solid strategy to upskill your workforce and hold onto top talent, and there’s data to back it up:
- 74% of workers say that a lack of employee development opportunities is preventing them from reaching their full potential.
- 86% of employees say they’d switch jobs for one with more chances to grow.
- Organizations with a strong learning culture are 56% more likely to be first-to-market with their products and services.
Whether your HR team is brand-new to L&D strategy, exploring how a Learning and Development team might function alongside your HR department, or refreshing your existing approach, you’re in the right place. In this post, we’ll take a look at how HR and L&D overlap and the critical role of HR in shaping effective L&D programs.
What Is Learning and Development (L&D)?
Learning and Development is a function of the business focused on equipping employees with the skills, knowledge, and resources they need to succeed and grow in their roles. L&D strategies aim to build and expand employee skills, support career growth, and improve performance across the organization.
L&D has always been an essential part of a business and a differentiator for those who do it well. It’s taken on even greater importance in the past few years. As technology advances overnight and industries rapidly evolve, employees need to adapt and upskill just as quickly. Effective L&D programs fill the skill gaps your company currently faces, and they future-proof the workforce, keeping them nimble and ready for whatever comes next.
An investment in L&D isn’t just an investment in basic employee training. It’s an investment in your company culture, signaling your commitment to continuous learning. It empowers employees to grow, innovate, and achieve their goals.
What Are the Differences Between HR and L&D?
Human resources refers broadly to the management of a company’s workforce — everything from candidate sourcing and recruiting to onboarding and compliance, performance, employee engagement, recognition, retention, and more. Learning and development is more specialized, focusing on training your people, honing and expanding their skills, and supporting their career development.
L&D is nearly always a function of the HR department because it closely aligns with HR’s goal of building a skilled, engaged, and productive workforce. While HR handles a wide range of responsibilities, there’s significant overlap with L&D in areas like:
- Onboarding: Ensuring new hires have the knowledge and resources to succeed from day one.
- Performance management and reviews: Spotting skill gaps and pinpointing development needs that tailored training can address.
- Succession planning: Preparing employees for leadership roles — a crucial part of an effective long-term talent strategy.
- Change management: Helping employees adapt to new processes, tools, or organizational changes through training and support.
However, the role of HR in training and developing employees can vary widely. Large enterprises often have an L&D department dedicated to talent development. Mid-size companies may have a small team or an L&D professional working in HR. For lean HR teams and small businesses, L&D is often one of many duties for a busy HR professional.
HR teams typically lead or support L&D teams due to HR’s role in workforce planning and employee engagement. With your HR team spearheading or advising on learning and development initiatives, you can ensure training programs and career paths align with company goals. HR can also make sure that L&D efforts promote a culture of continuous learning by:
- Creating structured learning experiences with quizzes, manager check-ins, and milestones.
- Using assessments, feedback, and advanced learning management software to tailor training to each person’s strengths, areas for improvement, and learning styles.
- Supporting cross-functional training to increase collaboration between departments and broaden employees’ skill sets.
- Measuring and tracking development outcomes to monitor the impact of training on employee performance and make adjustments as needed.
When HR and L&D teams — whether they’re made up of the same people or in a different department — work toward the same goals, your employees and the company are empowered to succeed.
How HR Can Support L&D Initiatives
HR plays a pivotal role in driving training and development. Your team ensures that L&D initiatives are practical, aligned with company goals, and focused on employee growth. Here are some key ways HR supports L&D.
Spotting Skills Gaps
One of HR’s primary responsibilities is identifying skill gaps by analyzing your company’s needs and using people data, such as performance reviews and goal completion. These insights allow you to pinpoint any crucial skills that may require immediate attention through training or need to be developed in the near future. You might even uncover broader skill gaps that open up opportunities for advancement and internal mobility.
By focusing L&D efforts on these areas, HR can help address skills gaps quickly while supporting employees’ growth and development.
Aligning L&D and Business Goals
L&D programs should further business goals to be as impactful as possible, and HR ensures that’s the case. For example, imagine your manufacturing company is planning to upgrade machines at several plant locations over the next year. Alignment between HR and L&D ensures there’s a program in place for training current employees and new operators. Then, you can ensure each location is fully staffed before machines are up and running.
Managing Learning Platforms
HR is usually responsible for choosing a learning management system (LMS) and other training tools to deliver structured, accessible learning experiences. With the right LMS, giving learners access to resources and tracking their progress is simple.
A good LMS also supports a variety of learning styles and needs. Whether it’s interactive videos, quizzes, or downloadable PDFs, the platform offers something for everyone, catering to readers, hands-on learners, and everyone in between. This flexibility ensures that all your employees can engage with the material in a way that suits their individual learning preferences.
An LMS can improve the learning experience by streamlining your L&D efforts and allowing employees to take control of their development and skills growth journey. A thoughtful approach to managing learning platforms reinforces HR’s commitment to creating a continuous growth and innovation culture.
Shaping a Learning Culture
HR is a key driver of company culture, and that includes the culture around learning. Your team’s policies and practices, like clear career paths and personalized employee development plans, motivate employees to pursue growth. That gives them a roadmap for moving up in the company and the support to refine the strengths they’re most interested in.
A strong culture of learning driven by HR motivates employees and strengthens retention and performance. It keeps your workforce adaptable, engaged, and ready to take on future challenges.
Measuring L&D Outcomes
Thanks to advanced HR analytics, your team can measure the impact of training programs, track participation rates, and gather feedback on your programs. With a data-driven approach, you can refine L&D programs more effectively and ensure they remain relevant and valuable to your people and the organization.
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Examples of HR Learning and Development Strategies
Is there an HR pro anywhere who would prefer managing teams of checked-out employees over an engaged workforce? We didn’t think so — and that’s why HR-led learning and development initiatives are so valuable. They improve employee satisfaction and performance while propelling organizations forward. Here are a few ways to do it:
- Employee Onboarding: The onboarding process is all about helping new hires get to know the company culture, values, and what’s expected of them right from day one. It usually includes company orientation, role-specific training, and ongoing support resources to ensure newbies feel welcome and prepared.
- Upskilling and Reskilling: As your company faces changing tech needs and market demands, your HR team can step up to the challenge. Head upskilling and reskilling initiatives to keep employees current and increase agility.
- Leadership Development: Building future leaders is a big deal, and HR can do it by rolling out coaching and mentorship programs. These programs focus on building critical leadership skills, including decision-making, communication, and strategic thinking. HR and L&D can work together to ensure a pipeline of capable leaders for the future of your organization.
- Personalized Learning Experiences: With the help of AI HR tools and people analytics, HR teams can offer customized development opportunities based on each employee’s goals, strengths, and areas for growth. Designing learning experiences tailored to personal preferences keeps learning exciting and relevant to their interests and career journey.
When L&D and HR teams work together to lead L&D programs, your workforce can be stronger than ever. Your employees not only feel supported but actually are supported to improve the skills they have and gain new ones. They’re more engaged at work, using the skills they learned to achieve their goals — ultimately leading to business success and long-term retention. Why wouldn’t people stay at a job where they’re consistently growing and smashing their goals?
Reap the benefits of L&D: build a resilient, loyal workforce that can rise to meet new challenges and drive innovation. It’s a necessity in the persistently unpredictable business environment.
Elevate your L&D programs with software designed to promote learning throughout the employee life cycle. Get tools for managing and tracking training, personalizing learning paths, and analyzing the impact of your initiatives with ClearCompany.
Learn more about the addition of Learning to the ClearCompany Talent Management System.
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