Tom Clancy said, ‘life is about learning; when you stop learning, you die’ Learning in organizations is really important in the development of employees and just as mentioned by Tom, it is important for the livelihood of the organization. However, two-fifths of international companies do not have a strategy for learning. This goes to show that there is a lack of awareness of the importance of this topic. Let’s look into why learning and development are not valued.

One of the reasons why learning is not valued comes from a personal point of view. People/employees find it undesirable to attend formal training and seminars. This may be due to previous learning experiences that they encountered which were more negative than positive. Therefore, employees would decide not to attend learning opportunities, or if they do, they do not actively participate or use the knowledge they gained in the work that they do.

Just like how the Personnel Department evolved into the Human Resources Department, the same needs to be done in order to value the Learning and Development departments in companies. Currently, most companies do not value the L & D department like the other departments. A new perspective needs to be given to the department. One way this could be done is by understanding that L & D could be partnered with all the departments in the company, therefore, bringing synergy between the different departments in the organization.

The L & D department needs more entrepreneurial thinking employees. This will assist in the evolution of the department and make it more attractive for employees to learn and develop themselves. Companies need to start to invest in putting not only financial resources into the department but they should consider putting better human resources into it. This will definitely change the way learning and development are happening and will make it more valuable.

Most companies do not value learning and development because they do not know how important it is and how to keep up with the changes in the education realm. There are so many changes happening that companies find it difficult to know where to start or how to keep up with the changes. This coupled with the lack of motivation from employees reduces their motivation in continuously investing in L & D. In fact, when companies are thinking of making budget cuts the L & D department is usually one of the first departments to be considered for this.

Lastly, investing in L & D is important for the bottom line of the company. One of those is the upscaling of skills of employees. Employees’ positions are easily filled especially when it comes to promotions as they acquire the skills through L & D. in addition, employees are more efficient and make less costly mistakes which consequently improves the quality of the products and/or services of the company. All of these points lead to more dollars and cents for the company.

In conclusion, companies generally do not have the understanding of the importance of the L & D department. This lack of knowledge (ignorance) makes them not value the importance of learning and developing. Therefore, they tend to not invest wisely in this and reduce their chances of improving the company in this aspect. For more ways of learning how you can contribute to the millennials’ development visit us here.