Doing More for Less: How L&D is Battling Budget Cuts

How can learning and development professionals deliver with reduced time and budget? This is a particularly pertinent subject for many learning professionals and one that will be considered in depth in a panel discussion at the forthcoming World of Learning Conference & Exhibition. Martin Baker, CEO and the founder of the Charity Learning Consortium, will be joining the panel at the world-renowned conference.

In the wake of recent cut backs, job losses and budget tightening, the business climate has changed and many L&D professionals have seen their budgets reduced – a fact that is frustrating but must be faced. Karen Velasco, Chairman of The British Institute for Learning and Development, and one of the speakers at the World of Learning Conference, explains:

“In the business world there has long been a view that when times get tough, L&D budgets are the first to be reduced. This strikes me as a short-term, knee-jerk reaction, and one that creates more problems than it solves. Such cut-backs create organisations devoid of people with the attitude, skills, competencies and behaviours required to cope in times of radical change.”

To address this, L&D professionals need to adjust to the new situation and the challenges it brings in order to continue to operate successfully. There is now a focus on delivering "more for less", leading many to reassess their strategies, objectives and resources. Karen continues:

“L&D departments must adapt to the new world they find themselves in. They must continue to engage and influence at every level in the organisation; they must link all L&D interventions to the bottom line; and they must be creative in designing and delivering solutions with reduced budget and timescales.”

One of the ways to ease the pressure on time and budgets is via the use of e-learning, which is now being introduced across a wide range of organisations -including the London Fire Brigade. Philip Evans, Head of e-Learning at the London Fire Brigade and speaker at the World of Learning Conference, explains:

“I became involved in e-learning when I was tasked with improving the consistency, efficiency and delivery of training across the force. We saw a major opportunity to introduce a centrally co-ordinated programme to include support for group sessions, individual e-learning and shorter classroom training.”

There are a number of advantages to e-learning, which can support a company’s cost-cutting objectives, as well as being more engaging than traditional classroom training. It can be delivered to a range of people regardless of their location. This helps to bring training in-house rather than outsourcing, thereby reducing costs further.

Philip explains the benefits of e-learning experienced by his organisation:

“It has drastically cut the amount of on-call time lost through classroom training, allowing us to halve the number of days required.  Introduced just two years ago, e-learning now saves the force £700,000 a year and has been widely adopted for a range of training needs, including management development, equality and diversity, IT support and operational improvement.”

These advantages are echoed by Martin Baker, founder and CEO of the Charity Learning Consortium (CLC), the largest group of UK based charities collaborating to make eLearning affordable, which currently has 100 members. Charities join not only to save money, but also to benefit from networking with others with similar goals, sharing resources, ideas and best practice. Martin believes the example of the CLC, which he founded, can be duplicated within other sectors. He explains:

"I believe that the simplicity of our strength in numbers is an example which can be duplicated by other organisations, in other countries, in other circumstances. The CLC itself started with just six charities, and look at us now!"

"Third sector organisations begin their journey with us because of the cost savings they achieve, accessing a suite of e-learning that otherwise they would never be able to afford. But once they have joined, they benefit in unexpected ways; by networking, sharing and learning with others - in this way they start, continue and progress on their e-learning journey.”

In today’s tough business climate, L&D professionals need to work smarter and faster in order to deliver against tight budgets and fulfil objectives. This means prioritising and identifying what activities will have real impact to ensure that learning and development continue to resonate throughout an organisation.


‘How can L&D deliver with reduced time and budget’ is the lunchtime panel discussion due to take place at The World of Learning Conference, a premier event for business learning, at the NEC in Birmingham on Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 September 2011.