Quick Tips: Marketing Your L&D Department… If Not You, Then Who?
It’s not enough for a learning and development (L&D) department to simply put courses on the company’s Learning Management System (LMS) and hope employees take them. Employees need to know about the L&D department and why it exists. And if you, as a learning professional, don’t market the department, who will?!
“The first and most important reason to market your L&D department is because you’re doing good stuff. You’re leading efforts to improve employee skills, knowledge, and performance, and you’re helping the company reach its business goals,” says Innovative Learning Group CEO Lisa Toenniges.”By sharing this important work, L&D will be seen as a credible and critical part of the company, not just as a support function. And, over time, you’ll be able to educate leaders about the crucial linkage between training and performance, and results.”
TIPS ON HOW AND WHAT TO SHARE TO MARKET YOUR L&D DEPARTMENT
How to Share
- Post L&D highlights to your company’s intranet
- Publish a department newsletter (print or digital)
- Create a blog written by your chief learning officer
- Conduct a learning expo for employees to drop by the department to see your work
- Weave the department’s learning accomplishments into every meeting/forum attended
- Equip the L&D team to serve as ambassadors of learning and performance
- Keep your department leaders up-to-date on various L&D projects so they can discuss accomplishments during their executive meetings
- Partner with corporate communications to ensure L&D news is shared within the company and externally, when appropriate
What to Share
- Upcoming formal and informal learning offerings
- Learning paths by role
- Department success stories
- Awards the department and team have received
- Business results L&D helped achieve through learning and performance solutions
- Simple tips to improve performance without training
- Upcoming L&D team speaking engagements
- Learnings from conferences the team has attended
- Articles, websites, and research papers that contain nuggets that align with the company’s L&D strategy
Watch the PechaKucha “Get the Word Out!” for more information on how to market your L&D department.
