…Difficult market conditions will open door for L&D professionals to reappraise staff skills and learning strategies…

Monday 4th January 2010 - ikonami Ltd, a leading provider of bespoke learning software systems for Government, Independent Healthcare and National Health Service (NHS) organisations, today called on Learning & Development (L&D) professionals to help their organisations benefit – not suffer - from changes caused by the recession. ikonami argues that organisational changes and even redundancy programmes give HR departments the opportunity to take a fresh look at resourcing, employee capabilities and learning and development, in a way that will benefit the organisation in the long term.

Many organisations in the private and public sector will have been forced to make restructuring decisions in order to cut costs this year.  However, forward-thinking L&D professionals will have undertaken a strategic review of skills, abilities and staff contribution to the overall performance of the organisation.

Arif Ahmed, co-founder & Director of ikonami commented, “Organisational change and redundancy can be incredibly stressful to all concerned, but HR professionals backed by robust, accurate and up–to-date systems can help to influence decisions in such a way that the capability of the organisation does not suffer when individuals are made redundant.  Approached positively, managers can do more than passively survive this recession; they can re-evaluate their operations, pinpoint where they deliver value, and identify the knowledge, skills and abilities required by the optimum number of people to deliver the vision.  Bold thinking can generate new opportunities for success, but this requires a central function that really understands the business’ strengths and how effective HR policies can make it reality.” 

Ikonami’s four step process on where HR and L&D can add value:
1.   Retain the knowledge if not the person: One way to retain knowledge is to negotiate with employees; they may consider working flexibly for a lower salary or on a contract basis.  Where staff are already contractors, it may be possible to reduce costs by renegotiating day rates or changing the engagement model by weighting payment to success-based bonuses. This increases the company’s gross profit margin in the short term while retaining essential knowledge and activity.   

2.   Establish communities of best practice: Technology can support organisational and inter-company communities of best practice to help improve knowledge and decision-making.  This is different from knowledge management, which concentrates on collating information; instead, it is more about pulling together people with the right experience and knowledge to learn from one another.

3.   Don’t stop learning – think longer term: It is possible to increase organisational knowledge during a recession; HR managers just need to be creative.  They can change the methods of delivery – replacing classroom training with lower cost alternatives, such as mentoring, e-learning or blended learning – as long as the content matches the delivery mechanism.  For example, it is easy to switch standard, repetitive learning such as induction training from classroom to e-learning.  In commissioning new e-learning, the organisation should work with a provider that adopts a modular approach, generating content that can be reused or repurposed and bringing efficiencies in the longer term.  Electronic performance support systems can deliver bite-sized e-learning, embedded into software-based systems or processes.  This may turn out to be the most efficient way of learning as the user access relevant modules while they are actually performing their job. 

4.   Grab this opportunity: HR needs to go back to basics, focusing on the fundamentals and moving to integrate learning into the broader management strategy.  With money tight, decisions might need to be made as to whether to fund operational development to deliver immediate impact to the bottom line or longer term talent management programmes.  The recession is a great opportunity for organisational learning – if employees can deliver business success now that bodes well for the future, but it is important to capture the learning and lessons.  HR and L&D managers must demonstrate the contribution they can make and earn their place at the strategic planning table.

“Change can bring a fresh impetus for implementing learning programmes that are more timely and deliver better value for money, such as blended learning strategies that make greater use of mobile learning and e-learning and participation in communities of best practice.  It may also encourage organisations to consider newer solutions such as electronic performance support systems and social learning.  HR and L&D professionals therefore need to be proactive in identifying solutions, rather than dealing with the aftermath of financial decisions,” concludes Ahmed”