Introduction

0.1 General

Learning and development comprises planned activities undertaken in the workplace to increase the performance of people at individual, team or organizational levels. This document provides guidance on effective processes to manage and evaluate learning and development.

0.2 Learning and development in the organizational context

Learning in the workplace is influenced by organizational context, priorities, opportunities, regulatory frameworks, and available resources, including technological resources. Figure 1 indicates how effective organizational learning and development involves a process of ‘plan’ (P), ‘do’ (D), ‘check’ (C) and ‘act’ (A) through identifying and meeting learning objectives at individual, group and organizational levels that will equip employees with knowledge, skills and capabilities to contribute to reaching organizational goals. This can contribute to organizational outcomes such as improved organizational capability, employee engagement, change-readiness and employee retention. Figure 1 illustrates the learning and development process.

Figure 1 — Learning and development process

L&D	learning and development

0.3 Using this document

This document provides guidance on a systematic process model for learning and development. This guidance will help managers and those with responsibility for learning and development in all types and sizes of organization to ensure that learning and development occurs in the most efficient and effective way. The guidance in this document focuses on planned learning and development in an organizational context. It will enable those with responsibility for learning and development to:

a) analyse learning needs in alignment with organizational strategy and priorities;
b) identify areas where skills shortages must be addressed to fulfil organizational goals;
c) plan effective learning and development processes to meet identified needs at organizational and individual levels;
d) facilitate and/or deliver learning processes in a consistent way;
e) undertake assessment and evaluation of learning processes as a basis for continuous improvement;
f) identify the impact of investment in learning and development through the use of appropriate measures and metrics relating to learning and development processes and outcomes.

The guidance in this document focuses on planned learning and development in an organizational context. Clause 5 describes processes and procedures to identify learning and development needs that align to the individual, team and organizational context. Clause 6 provides guidelines for planning effective learning and development activities. Clause 7 sets out processes to deliver, assess and monitor learning processes in an effective way. Clause 8 provides advice on measuring the effectiveness of learning and development processes. Clause 8 identifies procedures to evaluate the contribution of learning and development to financial and non-financial outcomes that ultimately affect the organization’s performance.

0.4 External relevance of this document

Increasing skills, knowledge and capability is important for the continual improvement of sustainable organizational effectiveness and performance. In addition, increased skills and knowledge enable individuals to participate more fully in every aspect of their lives and their community. The guidance in this document focuses on planned learning and development in an organizational context. This document is also relevant to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

— Goal 4, Quality education;
— Goal 8, Decent work and economic growth;
— Goal 9, Industry, innovation and infrastructure;
— Goal 10, Reduced inequalities.

BS ISO 30422:2022

Human resource management. Learning and development

Current

Published:

31 Jul 2022