Industry Study Shows Top Performing Companies Make Learning a Top Priority
As an HR professional with Learning and Development (L&D) responsibilities, you may be wondering how your organization compares to others. Or, you may be looking for ways to help your company and its employees be successful. Our research will reveal what top companies are doing to grow and develop their employees. You will learn how mature learning organizations are helping companies be successful and employees succeed.
We used a proprietary research method interviewing over 1,400 respondents from multiple countries, industries and company sizes to produce the latest version of our High-Impact Learning Organization study.
Why Does Learning Maturity Matter?
The pace of change in today’s business world is unprecedented. Half of the companies on the S&P 500 are expected to be replaced by 2027. Companies with mature learning capabilities are able to prepare their workforces and adapt quickly to change. These companies will endure. Companies with mature approaches to learning and development have far better financial outcomes and they report superior overall business performance as well. These companies will thrive. Learning maturity matters to companies that want to endure and thrive.
What does a Mature Learning Organization Do?
Our study includes a ‘maturity model’ which helps describe what a mature learning organization does.
Traditionally, L&D has operated in a silo creating content to deliver to workers in a setting outside their normal flow of work. Mature learning organizations are treating L&D as an integral part of the business. It is up to the L&D professional to help create the conditions, systems and culture in which employees can learn. One of our case studies features a Chief Learning Officer (CLO) who closely collaborates with business line managers to create learning strategies that are in line with corporate strategies.
Once upon a time, work and training were separate activities. Going to a training class was a special privilege. Employees would learn in a classroom environment and then return to their jobs. Mature learning organizations see work and learning to be inextricably linked. These companies think holistically about development encouraging and rewarding employees to grow and develop while they work. They want their employees to meet their long-term career goals regardless of where they go.
Empowering employees is not a new concept, but mature learning organizations really do it by engineering the conditions to give employees freedom to make decisions about their work and development. Companies who empower employees take on a new mindset by choosing trust over control. Because employees are given the freedom to explore, they take the reigns of their own development as well which in turn benefits the company. One of our case studies shows how Cisco gives team leaders the ability to decide how to achieve certain outcomes.
Levels of Maturity
Our ‘maturity model’ includes a framework of four levels describing a progression of maturity in learning organizations - level I is the least mature and level IV is the most mature. 74% of the companies we surveyed fall into the bottom two levels; 20% are at level III and only an elite six percent are at the most mature level. These are the companies that are going beyond ensuring their workforces have the skills to be successful; they are anticipating the change ahead and preparing for it. These are the companies who will be here in 2030. Will yours?