4 Noteworthy Tips to Market the L&D Unit in Your Organization

A successful learning and development project is made out of multiple successful steps. We talk about the quality of the course, the practical implementation of the learning, and the support of the managers. However, one thing most managers fail to notice is the importance of internally marketing your L&D course.

Promoting your learning and development project within your organization is perhaps the most important step in the course’s success. However, not many organizations take this step seriously and later rue the lack of employee interest, the lack of proper feedback from employees, and the eventual failure of the course.

Many teams and managers feel that developing top-notch training content and marketing it to your team is enough. However, the fact of the matter is that it is just half of the battle. Your learning and development project will fail to reap the rewards you require if you don’t back it up with some solid strategies and marketing techniques.

4 Noteworthy Tips to Promote the L&D Unit in Your Organization

Your learners need to know about the course, what’s in it, the effort behind it, why it matters, and why they should most definitely take it. Most learning and development teams do not have the skills or talent required to promote a learning methodology internally. Keeping this in mind, we have come up with a guide to help you overcome the initial challenges and promote your learning project internally. Here are a few tips to market the L&D unit in your organization.

1. Promote Your Learning Program to the Learners

You can create the most effective, sophisticated, and thorough learning and development plan for your organization, but it won’t work out if your learners do not know about it.

A lot of L&D professionals believe their learners have no idea of how the L&D program works and what they can do to benefit from them. This identifies the biggest mistake in the process – L&D teams are more concerned about creating programs than selling them. Employees won’t come running your way whenever a new training program or course is released. In fact, employees are already doing a lot, and they won’t feel the need to extend their work day by joining a training session.

As a result of this, learning and development teams need to put more emphasis on marketing their learning programs to new employees. Learning and development teams also need to be prepared for resistance to change. Not all team members will be as open to learning and development as others. Organizations hence need to be prepared for potential resistance. There are ways to tackle this resistance, but the best way is to promote the program and pitch the benefits.

2. Follow the Essentials of Internal L&D Promotions

Some of the essentials you should follow during the promotions are:

• Try to achieve executive attention. Capture their thoughts and use them as ambassadors.
• Senior L&D leaders should be aware of the learning initiatives and can be used as champions.
• Promote benefits to your team members and tell them exactly what’s in it for them. Go personal if need be.
• Focus on change management as well. Embrace the importance of change and work on it.
• Most L&D personnel believe their employees have no idea of what’s in the plan for them. Focus on selling the plan before you focus on optimizing it.

3. Create L&D Champions and Ambassadors

Perhaps the best and most effective way of promoting your learning program is by marketing it to the employees benefiting from it. The fact is that employees do not see the actual success and real-life results of an L&D program. If you want to market the course, you need to show employees just how other people like them benefited from the courses and are now doing much better, in better positions. This will definitely get them drooling.

You can even use examples from C-level executives and senior leaders to have an impact on the program. Make sure the examples are legit and the people you’re referencing actually did benefit from the program and weren’t hired from outside.

Fortunately, many current CEOs have come internally and have benefited a lot from the learning culture in their organization. Researchers, experts, and executives believe that proof and success stories from top-level executives can authenticate a learning program and generate employee interest in them.

Internal learning champions can act as cheerleaders for the program and cheer others to be more excited about the opportunities. Water trickles from top to bottom, which is why championing the right L&D spirit among C-level executives and senior managers can most definitely spur change among other workers. And once employees see the utility of these programs, they will most definitely want a share in the pie.

Who’s Your Champion?

Well, not every organization has the same L&D champions across executive levels. If you’re still confused over this question, then you initially need to identify your champions and the face of your L&D programs.

Here’s a free webinar recording that will assist you to become an eLearning champion.

Now, L&D champions do not necessarily have to be employees that jumped the organizational ladder up top. You can also highlight individuals that learned something new from the program and used it to land a new client, a better commission, or an interesting bonus. The entire idea of the process is to highlight the utility of the program by focusing on a tangible benefit that is accessible to and understood by everyone in your organization.

Once you have chosen your champions, they should be enthusiastic and excited about acting as ambassadors of the program and pushing your narrative forward. You need to show your learners the professional and personal benefits of an L&D program. Show them the difference it creates and why it matters.

4. Decide the Relevant Information to Share

Promotions and marketing are all about creating hype. You should share information related to the learning plans and should generate employee interest before it starts.

How to Share Your Plan:

• Post highlights of your learning and development plan on the company’s intranet server.
• Publish blogs written by the chief learning officer. The blog should update the focus of the learning plan and build utility.
• Create a mini-learning expo, where employees can drop by and see the good work you’re doing.
• Publish information related to your plan in the company’s newsletter. Go for both digital and print versions.
• Focus on the learning accomplishments of employees in forums, job fairs, orientation sessions, and meetings attended.
• Share details with department leaders.
• Partner with corporate communication teams.

What to Share:

• Share all upcoming learning offers. Include formal and informal learnings.
• Include learning requirements based on position and role.
• Mention success stories.
• Mention awards.
• Share tips to improve performance after training.
• Focus on conferences and the benefits of attending them.
• Talk about speaking sessions.

Wrapping Up!

The tips and details mentioned in this article can help you promote your L&D program. Once you have successfully promoted your L&D program in your organization, you need to ensure the program stays up to date with the current learning trends out there. eLearning is a crucial part of your L&D program and to make sure you keep up with your competition, you can check out this free eBook and explore the latest eLearning trends.