session overview

Thursday 26th January 2012

15:30 - 16:30 Track 3 Session 5

The learning professional

Where should learning and development fit in an organisation? During the Learning and Skills Group Conference in June 2011, Paul Jagger tweeted that L&D needed to break free from HR. Almost immediately Jon Ingham came back to contradict him: HR is the natural home for L&D. Rachel Roberts, meanwhile, has a different, third opinion. It’s an important debate to have, and we can rely on our three speakers to share their thoughts openly and to kick off what promises to be an interesting debate between each other and with the floor.

P1: HR is not the best home for L&D

Paul Jagger, Business Area Manager, IBM Learning Development Europe

HR is not the best home for L&D. It claims to be strategic and business driven, but this is at best an aspiration and at worst an illusion. The reality is that HR is mostly bogged down in transactions. It is a side show, and putting L&D within it reduces learning to a side show of that side show.

How HR’s risk averse nature militates against learning technologies
The hard evidence for HR’s lack of strategic intent
The true home of L&D

P2: L&D can benefit from being part of HR

Jon Ingham, Executive Consultant, Strategic HCM

The work of the L&D department is important, so too is the social learning that takes place naturally in an organisation. To make the most of these, however, the tools, approaches and intended outcomes of social learning and L&D departmental activities, should – says consultant Jon Ingham – be extended into other areas of HR and the organisation.

The benefits of L&D being part of HR
How HR uses social media outside the learning sphere
HR’s crucial role in cultural change

P3: L&D belongs where the business needs it

Rachel Roberts, Senior Teaching & Learning Manager, City & Guilds

The idea that L&D should fit into any particular department is not the key issue. What matters is business effectiveness, not organisational turf wars. Sometimes L&D might best fit in HR, elsewhere it can exist effectively in sales, operations, or anywhere else, provided it is led by someone who makes sure it focuses on what the business actually needs.