The cost of living is on everyone’s mind. Perhaps even more so for business leaders as employees look to them for support. As a business, you might be looking for ways to offset cost of living initiatives you’ve introduced to support your people and aid retention. One of those considerations might be reducing or cutting your learning & development spend. 

Is cutting your learning & development spend short sighted?

Cost of living initiatives may meet immediate needs, but it’s highly unlikely these things alone will keep people happy and engaged for long. Salary is a big pull factor, but the reality is, your star performers and top talent won’t just be leaving just for the money and though salary may sometimes be a contributing factor, it is often not the main or sole reason employees leave a job. To add the icing on the cake in the case for sustaining investment in learning & development, according to a Forbes survey ‘76% of employees say they’re more likely to stay with a company that offers continuous training’.

It’s no coincidence that many of the companies that stand out in the ‘Best Companies’ survey (celebrating the very best in workplace engagement, Best Companies | For a better workplace)  invest continually in their people development. This didn’t stop during the pandemic, so why would it be of benefit to stop it now? Companies that have won the special award for learning & development (to reflect their outstanding commitment to the personal goals and ambitions of their people), have, despite challenging circumstances, maintained a focus on personal and professional development as core to their people proposition and business success. For example, Energize Group (digital and IT recruitment specialists) are fiercely committed to personal and professional development, the company marries ambitions with a tailored bespoke internal development programme and regular input from industry experts. The group predicts business growth, forecasts revenues of £16m this year with continued expansion across its brands (SAP, Digital, Tech and Data) and locations (Best Companies | Energize Group Company Profile).

How can Stratton HR help?

We’re experts in working with growing SMEs to support the learning & development of their team. Our most popular offering is our management and leadership development programmes.

We work with our clients to make sure that the programmes we deliver are contextually relevant, practical, and focus on building capability and confidence, delivering behavioural change as a result.  

We work closely with the relevant leaders and stakeholders at the scoping stage to understand what you want to achieve through a development programme, for the individuals involved personally, but also for your business and what challenges you’re trying to overcome. This is translated into our delivery of modules, where we’re able to translate theoretical models into real life practical scenarios in your business – hence enabling the individual to feel like they can apply their learning outside of the training room.

‘It was the first training session I’ve had where I was able to stay locked in and interested as the subject matter was relevant to me and I had the opportunity to start debate and conversation about it’

Our work doesn’t just begin and end there though, we can help you right across your learning & development needs. Whether you are looking to change mindset, develop new skills or equip people with flexible learning and tools, our range of solutions can support across all levels of your workforce – think graduate programmes, apprenticeship schemes, upskilling your star performers, coaching your future leaders or widening your wellbeing offering. We can meet all those needs.

If you’re need help working out how to continue a commitment to your people and their development through a recession, or you’re interested in hearing more about the programmes we’ve delivered and the impact they’ve had then get in touch!