L&D as Strategic Mission Enabler

In our latest podcast with Neerja Chauhan, Director of Learning at Jiva Ayurveda, shared her experience, anecdotes and best practices for transforming your L&D into a strategic mission enabler for your business.

With over 17 years of career invested in a brand that's now a household name for health and wellness, Neerja has made it her mission to make employee training and skilling an engaging & holistic journey for the company's 500+ health practitioners across India. In this blog, we elaborate some of the key points discussed by Neerja.

“I strongly believe that L&D has to become a very integral part of the business and closely related to the business objectives. Otherwise it will always be like the lost piece of the puzzle.”

Over the past few years the persistent disruptions, advances in technology and the increasingly digitized business world have led businesses to refocus on L&D as a key function. Given today’s multigenerational workforce and the shrinking shelf-life for learning, employee upskilling has become the norm going into 2021.

However, to get the desired ROI from training programs, L&D teams must also step up and embrace a wholesome role in the business to be a strategic mission enabler by developing a strategy that is strongly aligned with the business and talent and skill needs.

But research suggests that L&D functions lack this role with a mere 40% companies stating their learning strategy is in sync with business goals; which means 60% businesses have a learning function that is not connected to the strategic business objectives.

In order to provide true value, L&D must support talent management and professional development to build the necessary capabilities in time to achieve the desired targets, while also fostering a culture of belief and values in the business. 

 “At the end of the day, as L&D professionals, we are not chasing numbers only, we are working with humans. And it is critical to ensure whether the understanding, belief and the motivation is there in the mind of every person. That is the gap L&D can fill very beautifully.”

For more podcasts about L&D and leadership, visit Leadership Spotlight.