The days of isolating the learning experience from workplace activities are numbered and today’s L&D professionals are becoming increasingly passionate about aligning learning and work. Findings from latest CIPD and Cornerstone annual L&S survey released in April suggest that there has been a shift towards greater integration with the business and more awareness and recognition of the importance of evaluating business impact.

But how aligned is your L&D strategy to the strategic direction of your organisation? Can you say hand on heart that your learning provision is meeting the needs of both your business and the individuals within it? Or are we so focussed on delivering courses and ensuring compliance that our audience are going elsewhere to learn what they need to get the job done?

It’s a little harsh, I know, but in our last benchmark study only three in five agreed that their learning provision supports the skills that business needs and only 50% felt that learning was delivered in time to meet the business needs.

In our report ‘Aligning Learning to Business’ we define an aligned L&D function in terms of understanding the needs of business , building a strong relationship with the business and ensuring that all activity is committed to meeting the needs of the business. According to Jonathan Kettleborough in his book ‘Seeing Eye to Eye’ alignment is not a one way street, it’s also about ensuring that your business recognises the value that you are delivering.

In our studies with top learning companies we’ve seen that alignment makes a difference! Over the past ten years we’ve analysed the behaviour of the top performing and alignment is one of the 21 effective practice indices.  We’ve seen this increasing year on year. So why is alignment becoming so important ? Here are 4 reasons why we should care:

1.  Alignment encourages co-ownership

Alignment requires conversation. We’ve found that top learning companies are twice as likely to agree that learning decisions are made with management who are also supportive in identifying the business metrics that the learning needs to improve. This up-front conversation about the difference you can make to performance will do wonders for your credibility and the support that you receive.

2.  Alignment increases backing

Whatever you are asking for within the business, you’ll need backing! Whether it is the funds for a new Learning management system, additional capacity within the IT department to investigate security of mobile learning or simply line managers allocating time for their staff to learn. Modernising learning requires resources and you’ll need the backing of all stakeholders to succeed; from those holding the purse strings, to those controlling time managers and even learners who give their time. Jonathan Kettleborough points out ‘When you are aligned, you are not fighting for resources, you are a valued and integral part of your business, you have a seat at the table, you’re heard and respected’

3.  Alignment improves ongoing engagement

When you are delivering learning that the business needs, that the business has funded and that the business has asked for, engaging learners and line managers is so much easier!

4.  It helps you avoid the overload

Working closely with the business rather than the subject matter expert can really help you define what is important. As a result you can help to reduce the overload rather than add to it. Jason Pitfield , Learning Manager at LV shares a great example of this when designing learning for contact centre staff. The top four issues were identified with the business and short bite-sized pieces of content were rapidly created to address the needs. These were shared via a simple to use portal and clearly communicated. As a result, the call handling times reduced by 20% and the success of the programme soon became widely known, driving demand for more.