Don’t stop me now! Why L&D investment in uncertain times helps future-proof your business

In the past, when times have been hard for businesses and the economy, Learning and Development (L&D) have been the first budgets to be cut in an enterprise. How much internal L&D activity is ‘on hold’ in YOUR business due to uncertainty?

The Summer 2016 issue of CIPD and Adecco’s Labour Market Outlook makes interesting reading as it is the first of this quarterly survey since the Brexit vote last June.

The report opens, ‘Most employers are projecting a steady as it goes and business as usual approach when it comes to recruitment and retention and on pay expectations. However, there has been a clear deterioration in hiring intentions over the next few months as a result of the Brexit vote. Significant minorities of employers are also signalling higher costs, greater recruitment difficulties and lower investment in the future as a result of Brexit. These increased costs could induce cutbacks in investment in equipment and technology and in the crucial area of training and skills development – 21% thought Brexit would cause cuts in this specific area.’

This is a cause for concern: it’s clearly hard to generate improvements in your team’s productivity without increased investment in these areas. It is possible that the shock of Brexit (be it positive or negative!!) might have set a rocket under some firms to future-proof against increased costs by investing more, including in training and development, but so far there is no evidence of this according to the report.

Yet a skilled workforce is EXACTLY what will differentiate your products and services in new and existing markets in the future. In all truth, you NEED to have investment NOW to grasp future opportunities, not just to keep up with the world-wide markets we will need to get the most out of in the future.

HR180 can help you to future-proof your organisation, and not just through L&D, with our new service – the HR180 Strength Test. Our highly experienced HR Consultant, Sue Westhead, leads the process in identifying just what is going on across your entire business with a focus on people strategies, but not exclusively.

Then you could really get ahead of the post-Brexit game, and have a top class, fully skilled workforce to help put the Great back into Great Britain.

Call us for more information on 0845 458 5881 or 0113 287 8150 today.