Thanks to the pandemic, the world of work has had to go online. Zoom, Google Meets and Skype have all become staples of our everyday working lives. This digitization of work has also had to come to include recruitment.
Whilst the pandemic has pushed the recruitment process online, that does not mean that you cannot still inject L&D directly into recruiting talent. After all, building L&D into your recruitment process is good for business.
But, first and foremost, what constitutes L&D?
What is L&D?
L&D stands for learning and development. In short, it’s your organization’s educational program. It’s what you offer by way of training to your employees. This can take the form of training that is essential for their role, but it can also be courses that build up soft skills and even ones that are more geared towards fun and learning.
L&D can help both professional and personal development.
L&D Can Boost Business
According to the 2019 L&D Report compiled by findcourses.co.uk, 72% of market leading companies use L&D as a recruitment strategy. On this occasion, following the crowd is not a bad thing.
Quite often, applicants to your organization, particularly graduates and younger people, will have an excellent set of soft skills as well as a good, relevant educational background. But they might lack some of the skills directly related to the role that your organization is advertising.
By building L&D into your recruitment process, you can tailor and shape your new recruits into your employees of tomorrow from day one. The ability to do this probably explains why 76% of companies believe that their L&D policies give them a competitive edge.
Taking L&D Online
Learning does not stop simply because of a pandemic. In fact, training in some roles is mandatory, so it still has to take place. It’s now becoming increasingly common for learning to be delivered through videos or live streams.
HR departments must be prepared to provide these services, that’s why professionals also need to use L&D, like human resources training, in ways that can give them tips and tools to develop new strategies.
In some ways, this makes L&D easier to build into the recruitment process than ever before.
You can invite your final applicants to a training session, meaning that you can get to see how they engage, interact, contribute and learn first-hand and in real time. This can give you a far greater insight into what an applicant can bring to your organization than CVs and interviews ever could.
Remote L&D Post-Recruitment
You can even use L&D to motivate and excite applicants. In fact, companies that tie success in L&D to promotion are 22% more likely to have highly satisfied employees and a lower rate of staff turnover.
This is not particularly surprising. By offering your employees the opportunity of continual growth and development with online courses and making it clear that they can advance in their careers through it, you are ensuring that motivation and satisfaction remain higher.
You are also demonstrating to potential applicants that you are serious about professional development, job satisfaction and promoting from within.
Wrapping up
We might be living in uncertain times, but this uncertainty can pave the way for an L&D policy that fosters learning and professional development from the very beginning – quite literally, from the initial application.
Companies that are leaders in their respective markets put L&D at the heart of their recruitment process. The fact that the world of work has now gone online also presents the opportunity for you to invite applicants to join a session. There, you can get a sense of how well an applicant is likely to fit into your company.
Lastly, remember that a great L&D policy, whether it is online or in-person, can help to attract and retain the very best talent. People want to grow, develop and advance their careers. A great L&D policy helps them do just that.
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