Continuing to Invest in Workforce Learning and Development in an Economic Downturn

The Conference Board research highlights how business leaders can continue to make investments in learning and development even in difficult economic periods by partnering with community leaders, educators, and training providers in their communities to promote workforce skill-development and career mobility. Leaders rely on training, coaching, and experiential development of their current workforce to address the existing labor shortages, skills gaps, and changing nature of work. While these are significant investments, organizational leaders realize they cannot fall behind by letting skills lag, and risk losing competitive advantage in their markets.

These steps may include:

• Growing and diversifying talent pipelines that include support of underrepresented or economically vulnerable groups, such as workers economically impacted
• Designing curricula and training for the skill sets and experience employers need from new hires
• Determining credentials based on attainment of skills instead of degrees
• Engaging with state and local workforce boards or employer-driven regional consortiums to improve the quality of publicly supported training pathways
• Participating in sector-based initiatives that deliver learn-as-you-earn opportunities to draw in workers who would otherwise be excluded because of their financial circumstances.
  
  Human Capital leaders must continue to demonstrate the return on investment of learning and leadership development programs, by directly connecting learning programs and outcomes to business priorities and outcomes.
  
  For a deeper dive, see A US Workforce Training Plan for the Postpandemic Economy and Accelerating Value by Using Human Capital Analytics to Understand the Workforce Experience