5 Ways to Communicate the Value of Investing in L&D to the CEO and CFO in 2021

If anything, Covid-19 underlinedthe importance of employee skilling and development for business sustenance andgrowth. For some businesses, it meant adopting L&D practices to get theirworkforce up to speed and for others, it meant strengthening their digitallearning interventions for improved productivity. One way or the other, L&Dbecame the cornerstone of business success.

However, with cash flow becoming thebiggest problem facing businesses during the crisis, making room for trainingbudgets seemed like an uphill task. So as the world ‘Reacted’ and ‘Responded’to the pandemic, two of the four phases defined by Josh Bersin in his report ‘UntanglingThe HR Tech Market 2021’, furlough, salary cuts and layoffs became the norm,threatening to deprioritize employee development. In India alone, Uber fired3,700 frontline workers over a 3-minute Zoom call; social commerce startup,Meesho, laid off 150 executives just days after assuring them their jobs werenot at risk and the UP government suspended 35 labour laws for three years toattract investment.

While the world grappled with theseuncertainties, the company’s HR was undergoing a transformation like nonebefore. They didn’t just have to roll out remote working for their in-officeworkforce, they now had to reinvent the business model, rethink customerexperience and demand, and make employee wellbeing a key part of theirstrategy. They had to grow from being Responsive to Resilient. They had tointegrate work and life. And the onlyway to achieve this was by flipping the perception and role of L&D from acost center to a profit center.

This means making the right investment decisions and getting the necessary buy-in from the top management, making ‘Communicating the value of L&D to the CEO and CFO in 2021’ the lynchpin of a thriving business