In these uncertain times, employees must be encouraged and supported to continually update their skills and gain knowledge.

Encouraging employees to learn and develop helps an organisation remain flexible in the face of uncertain future conditions. There has been a shift in learning and development philosophy and thinking from an approach based on the delivery of training to one based on support and encouragement for individual learning.

Learning can be understood as the process by which an individual constructs new knowledge, skills and capabilities.
Training can be seen as one of several responses an organisation can undertake to promote learning.
Learning is not sustained unless individualised follow-up is incorporated into a training programme.

Learning is an individual process – no-one but the learner can learn. In the shift from training to learning, we are seeing learning and development interventions and activities that increasingly focus on supporting the learner.

Too often in the past organisations have attempted to develop their workforces without developing the learning skills of staff, or motivating them through consideration of their perspective – the ‘what’s in it for me’ factor.

Individual responsibility for learning (with assistance from the organisation in supporting learners) is now being promoted to address the balance.

Recent studies suggest that without follow-on coaching or support after a training programme, 87% of new skills learned will be lost. That’s 87 pence of every £1 you invest in ‘training’.

Typically, and this is common across many organisations, individuals revert to old ways when the new skills prove too difficult or awkward to use. It is now recognised that coaching can prevent this slippage.

The first step in deciding whether coaching will be the best intervention will be the identification of some kind of learning or development need, either by the individual themselves, their line manager or some one from the HR department. Once this has been identified, the next step is for the manager and the individual to decide how best the need can be met.

To discuss your coaching and development needs and options, please contact us today.

"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it. "
Theodore Roosevelt