• It’s what the learners want, too: 78% of learners expressed the need for course recommendations based on their skill gaps.

  • Skills are changing faster than ever: 25% of LinkedIn members’ skills for the same occupation changed by about 25% from 2015 to 2021. At this pace, members’ skills will change by about 40% by 2025. 

  • The inter-organizational skill gap is widening: 46% of L&D professionals say the skills gap is getting wider in their organization

  • Identify skill gaps: Identify the skill gaps in your organization to understand which skills your new leaders need to develop in addition to leadership skills, in order to maximize their future effectiveness.

  • Implement regular check-ins: Monitor leadership skill development, both in terms of leadership skills and the skills necessary to fill gaps. Make regular check-ins and status reports a standard of your development program.

  • Have leadership impart their learning to their teams: As your prospective leaders develop new skills, have them pass these skills down to their own teams. This will help the manager internalize the skills and encourage learning among their team simultaneously.

  • Employees need to see the connection: Employees who don’t believe they can achieve their career goals with a current employer are 12x more likely to consider leaving. New employees who don’t believe this are 30x more likely to consider leaving.

  • It leads to longer retention and employee buy-in: 78% of employees say they’d remain with their employers longer if they saw stronger career paths forward. 

  • It’s the best way to motivate employees to learn: Employee’s top three motivations for learning are:

    • If it helps me stay up to date in my field

    • If it is personalized specifically for my interests and career goals

    • If it helps me get another job internally, be promoted, or get closer to reaching my career goals

  • Understand employee goals: First thing’s first: You have to actually know where your employees want to take their careers. Set up one-on-one meetings between employees and their managers to better understand their individual career goals. Base subsequent leadership development plans around these goals.
  • Tie skill development to internal mobility: Show employees the specific leadership skills they’ll need to develop to be promoted to the position they want, and then make their developing those skills a key element of their possible advancement.
  • Conduct employee-specific skill audits: Just as you conducted a skill gap analysis for the organization, conduct one for every employee in the development program. Show them the skills they have now and the skills they’ll need to advance in the way they want to.

  • Employees want to feel that their skills are helping the organization: Employees who feel their skills are not being put to good use in their current job are 10x more likely to be looking for a new job.

  • Effectively utilizing employee skills for developmental goals raises performance: Employees whose skills are effectively applied to concrete company goals perform 25% more effectively.

  • Tie skill development directly to company goals: For each skill you have your leadership team develop, clearly explain how developing that skill will directly benefit the employee’s team and the entire organization. 

  • Invest employees in reaching organizational goals: Offer bonuses, advancement, or other personal incentives to employees when they reach their own personal skill development goals and the organization meets the goal associated with that skill development.

  • Employees look to their managers for learning guidance: 91% of employees say it’s important for managers to inspire learning and experimentation 

  • It represents an opportunity to improve manager/report relationships: Only 14% of employees strongly agree their performance reviews inspire them to improve. Adding L&D to these reviews could improve that.

  • It encourages both parties to become more aware of opportunities: The number one way managers learn about leadership learning resources at mid- to large-size enterprises globally is when these resources are integrated into performance reviews.

  • Have managers design personalized leadership development plans for their reports: Managers should be in charge of creating the leadership development programs for their direct reports after meeting with those reports to understand how the employee wants to develop and why.

  • Make it a part of performance reviews: Make discussions of learning and development a core part of the regular performance review. Have managers and reports discuss progress, roadblocks, and needs during the review to normalize learning and development within the regular work process.

  • Give managers the ability to create and manage development programs themselves: Give each manager the ability to create their report’s learning and development programs directly within the Learning CMS.

  • Employees spend longer learning when they learn together: Employees who use LinkedIn Learning’s social features spend 30x more hours learning than those who don’t.

  • It creates great work culture: Employees say that opportunities to learn and grow are the top drivers of a great work culture.

  • Make learning social: When two or more employees take the same development course, set up time for them to study and discuss it together. Have them watch/attend the courses at the same time.

  • Make it a friendly contest: Create a “learning leaderboard” that shows what and how much each employee is learning. Award top-ranking employees to incentivize greater commitment.

  • Give them a place to learn together: Make sure your Learning CMS has the infrastructure to support socialized learning by providing members with the ability to see what others are learning, comment on each other’s progress, and chat about their lessons in real-time.

Learn more about how to create great leadership development programs in your organization: