Picture this: A CEO is reviewing the results of the 2023 employee engagement survey. The results, delayed by the demands of the first half of 2024, show a troubling trend—employees are disengaged. 

Frontline staff feel unsupported by their team leaders, and those team leaders feel unsupported by their own managers. The performance management system is riddled with complaints, with accusations of minimal effort by managers, lack of accountability, and outright favouritism.

Seeking a solution, the CEO visits the Learning and Development (L&D) department to create a programme addressing these concerns. 

Yet, when he arrives, the seats are empty. A Zoom call with the HR Manager reveals that L&D was dismantled as part of the company’s post-COVID cost-cutting measures. Now, the only remaining learning resources are a few corporate subscriptions to online learning platforms like LinkedIn Learning.

A mirror of reality

While this scenario is exaggerated, it mirrors the reality many organisations face after slashing L&D budgets in response to the current economic uncertainty. It’s understandable why L&D is often the first target in cost-cutting, as it's seen as a discretionary expense.

No longer can L&D departments carry the entire responsibility for employee development.

However, the need for employee development doesn’t disappear just because the department does. Without L&D, issues that were once solvable with the right kind of training can fester, leading to disengaged employees, decreased productivity, and growing talent shortages.

What’s the solution? The answer lies in rethinking L&D—not as a department but as a shared responsibility. Leaders, managers, and even the employees themselves must take on this responsibility. And perhaps, that’s not such a bad thing.

A coaching culture: Leaders as L&D champions

One of the most effective ways leaders can support Learning and Development is by adopting a coaching mindset. Leaders don’t need to become certified coaches; they simply need to embrace coaching principles—listening, asking thoughtful questions, and encouraging self-reflection.

Coaching is particularly powerful in today’s fast-moving workplace. By asking open-ended questions like “What happened? What did you learn from it? How could you approach it differently next time?” leaders can encourage employees to reflect on their own experiences and learn from them.

Coaching offers several key benefits:

• On-demand development: Instead of waiting for formal training sessions or annual performance reviews, leaders can have coaching conversations anytime
• Just-in-time learning: Coaching allows employees to address current challenges in real time, learning and growing in response to immediate needs
• Scalable, virtual-friendly development: Coaching can easily be done through virtual meetings, which is essential for remote and hybrid teams in today’s workplace

The benefits of a coaching approach go beyond employee development. Leaders who coach their teams see improvements in their leadership effectiveness. Coaching builds trust, strengthens communication, and fosters a culture of continuous learning. 

As leaders integrate coaching into their everyday interactions, L&D becomes an organic part of daily work rather than a separate, siloed activity.

L&D departments: Preparing for the future

Even as leaders take on more responsibility for developing their teams, L&D departments still play a crucial role in shaping the future of learning within organisations. However, the traditional role of L&D must evolve. 

Rather than simply delivering training programmes, L&D should act as enablers of continuous learning, facilitators of knowledge-sharing, and drivers of organisational change.

Here are ways L&D departments can become future-ready:

1. Foster a culture of self-directed learning: Employees increasingly want to take charge of their own development. L&D should support this shift by curating learning resources, building digital ecosystems, and empowering employees to learn independently. Encouraging the use of platforms like Coursera, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning, alongside internal tools, can help build a culture of continuous self-directed learning.
2. Develop microlearning modules: With the decreasing attention span of modern learners, microlearning—small, digestible bits of content—is an effective solution. L&D can create short learning modules tailored to specific job roles, challenges, or skill needs, providing employees with just-in-time learning opportunities.
3. Leverage data and analytics: The future of L&D will be data-driven. Learning analytics can provide insights into which programmes are most effective, how employees are engaging with development opportunities, and where skills gaps exist. This allows L&D teams to make data-informed decisions, continuously improve learning offerings, and demonstrate the business impact of learning.
4. Integrate learning with work: Rather than taking employees away from their jobs for long training sessions, L&D should explore ways to integrate learning into the workflow. This might include embedding learning opportunities into project debriefs, setting up mentoring programmes, or leveraging technology to deliver learning at the point of need.
5. Support leadership development: As leaders take on more responsibility for developing their teams, L&D departments can play a crucial role in supporting them. Offering coaching workshops, providing resources for difficult conversations, and setting up peer coaching circles are ways to equip leaders with the tools they need to guide their teams effectively.

Adapting company culture for a learning-first mindset

For these changes to be effective, organisations must also adapt their culture to prioritise learning and development. A learning-first culture is one where growth and development are not seen as optional but as integral to the work.

Here are some strategies to create a learning-first culture:

• Make learning a core value: Organisations should explicitly communicate that learning and development are central to their mission. Leaders must model this behaviour by continuously developing their own skills and encouraging their teams to do the same. When learning is seen as a core value, employees understand that growth is both expected and supported.
• Recognise and reward learning: A culture of learning requires recognition of those who actively pursue development. This could involve formal recognition programmes or simple gestures like celebrating developmental achievements in team meetings. Rewarding learning can also include offering career progression opportunities to employees who demonstrate a commitment to growth.
• Provide psychological safety for experimentation: Learning often involves taking risks, making mistakes, and trying new approaches. For employees to feel comfortable experimenting and learning, they must feel safe to do so without fear of negative consequences. Leaders should foster a culture where failure is viewed as a learning opportunity, not a reason for blame.

L&D is not a department—it’s a business necessity.

The future of L&D is a shared responsibility

The workplace landscape is evolving and so, too, must the way organisations approach Learning and Development. No longer can L&D departments carry the entire responsibility for employee development. Leaders need to take ownership of coaching and creating learning-rich environments in their teams.

At the same time, L&D departments must transform to meet the needs of the future workplace by providing the tools, data, and support to enable continuous learning. Most importantly, organisations must cultivate a culture that values growth, experimentation, and the development of every individual.

When L&D becomes a shared responsibility between leaders, employees, and L&D departments, everyone wins. Leaders become more effective, employees are more engaged, and organisations become more agile, innovative, and resilient. 

In this model, L&D is not a department—it’s a business necessity.