FEATURE INSIGHT
When in Rome...
Lisa Gillespie, HR services director at Moorepay, reveals what the Romans can do for our understanding of learning and development
M arcus Aurelius was emperor of Rome from 161 to 180AD, and the last of what Machiavelli called ‘five good emperors’. Aurelius wrote his thoughts down and noted his observations in what are referred to as his Meditations , providing a record of the stoic philosophy of the period – just one more thing the Romans did for us. But what does 1,800-year-old philosophy have to do with 21st century learning and development (L&D)? I am a huge believer in personal development both in and out of work, but uncertainty over the United Kingdom’s Brexit arrangements will impact investment in training for many workers. In uncertain times, the L&D budget is often the first line item to be slashed in cost-controlling exercises. Faced with proposals to cut L&D budgets in the past I have often quoted Marcus Aurelius, who said: “Men exist for each other. Then either improve them, or put up with them.” (Sorry ladies, I quote verbatim.) The lesson is clear: businesses either develop our people or inhabit a frustrating world of putting up with worse than the standards they require to succeed. The difficulty for L&D professionals and their proponents is that it can be difficult to demonstrate a return on the investment – particularly in the short-term – unless specific, specialist skills are required. For example, if you can justify technical software courses as key to securing competitive advantage for your business you will gain investment. However, more general L&D needs are often under more scrutiny than other business functions in terms of justifying their costs. It is possible, however, to follow well- established models to create a L&D investment plan with measurable, cost-driven outcomes, such as ‘Kirkpatrick’ or ‘Phillips’. Generally speaking, these models focus on
measurable outcomes, so it is important to agree these with stakeholders before launching any programmes within your organisation. My professional experience has been in advising businesses which have been relatively low in their human resources maturity – reactive, rather than strategic in their approach to L&D. Hence, I have often engaged staff and customer surveys based on the stop-start-continue model to build plans which will show small but quick gains. ...create a L&D investment plan with measurable, This is a wonderfully simple approach as it generates feedback which informs you what the organisation should stop doing, what it should start to do and what it should continue to do. Frequently the ‘stop’ list is a rich resource of short-term improvements which are behavioural, and very easily incorporated into the L&D strategy. They are usually what I would describe as ‘no- brainers’: ● ‘stop speaking over me when I’m trying to explain why I’m calling you’ = customer service training ● ‘stop calling my mobile phone but leaving no message’ = evaluate your communications strategy/cost of unproductive outbound calls ● ‘stop thinking email is an effective way of briefing the team’ = it’s likely some management behaviours need addressing. The ‘start’ list can also be enlightening: ● ‘start smiling at customers’ ● ‘start allocating time for 121s’ ● ‘start asking for product feedback’. When you know what you need to cost-driven outcomes...
do – and what the short- to medium-term benefits could be – you can begin to model the cost benefits you can realise through L&D investment: ● Business impact – improved employee/ customer engagement, such as reduced employee attrition rates, reduced time/cost to resolve customer complaints, fewer touch points to resolve issues etc. ● Engagement (employee and customer) – is measurable and can be costed against tenure – cost to recruit/train, average length of customer relationship, etc. ● Learning – what new skills/knowledge have been created in the business? What is the impact? E.g. reduced touch points, faster resolutions, etc. ● Application within the business context – how much and how quickly has the learning taken effect? Using these criteria you can calculate a return on the investment using a simple formula: ((benefits – costs)/costs) x 100 = ROI (return on investment). Knowing the cost of your investment also informs reward and retention strategy. Though I’ve said it before I say it again: people are the biggest investment any business makes year on year. Just check out your payroll costs as a percentage of sales or revenue. Depending on your industry this is likely to be between 30–50%. It’s going to be the biggest spend on any single line of your budget and, the higher it gets, both strategically more necessary and more difficult to sign off a L&D budget. In my experience, if it’s hitting 50% you are likely to have a huge challenge getting a spend agreed – yet this is exactly when it represents the greatest need for training and greatest opportunity for gaining efficiencies. L&D builds loyalty and equity, so I’ll go a little further than Marcus Aurelius and say: “Women (!) and men exist for each other. Either improve them, put up with them or lose them.” n
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | September 2017 | Issue 33 42
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