commelius.com

Aligning learning & talent

in 21st century law firm

Hints & tips for getting started

commelius.com

Introduction

One of the biggest obstacles learning and development professionals

face is the diversity of their learners. It makes aligning learning with talent

within a firm somewhat challenging. But it’s a fact that although faced

with similar issues, each learner is different and one solution won’t fit all.

So how do you approach such a challenge?

In this short guide you’ll learn a few tips that can help you start making

learning and talent work well together within your firm. We hope you find

them useful!

commelius.com

HINTS & TIPS

for getting started

commelius.com

Start from getting to

know your learners

commelius.com

Don’t assume that you know your learners. Find out what they actually need to

learn to do their job better and faster. Ask them what their aspirations are and

what would they like to achieve at work. Find out how they like to learn, when and

where. This all might help you find the best learning solutions for your workforce

and identify gaps that might be significant in the success of your learning and

development strategy. This will also allow you to recognise the hidden talent in

your firm.

Hint: We said it before and we’ll say it again - one of the best solutions to getting

to know your learners is social learning and the tools social learning technology

has to offer. Blogs, forums, live chats, ability to promote internal experts (potential

mentors in your firm), status updates, and so on – all these give you an

impressive variety of ways in which you can reach your workforce and learn

what they really want.

For more information on how social learning can help you, read this guide with

8 simple steps to introducing social learning successfully to your workforce.

commelius.com

Create a platform

with on-demand

learning

commelius.com

The first place people turn to to find information they need to perform in their job

is the internet. The problem with the internet is the sea of information that fills it.

Finding the answers your employees need becomes time consuming, but there’s

also the issue of the validity of the information they find. How do you know your

staff are gaining their knowledge from the legitimate source? There’s lots of false

data out there. Anyone can become an expert on the internet.

Hint: Take control over that and build a learning platform where people can easily

and quickly find the information they need to do their jobs. Support your learning

resources with tools such as reviews, recommendations, sharing features and

“likes”, but above all make sure your content is relevant (which ties in with

knowing your employees).

commelius.com

Navigate and

give direction

to your staff

commelius.com

It’s not enough to simply open the door to all available training and

learning technologies and assume people will take advantage of it.

They need navigation and direction. Once you identify what your

learners really want, make it available to them but make sure you keep

encouraging them to use what you have on offer. Make it clear what’s in

it for them.

Suggestion: You might want to read ‘The alluring nature of self-

initiated learning’ to learn more about giving instant access to relevant

information to your learners, and how to support self-paced learning.

commelius.com

Support your

employees

in their CPD

commelius.com

When it’s up to an individual to make sure their CPD portfolio is kept up to date,

it’s in the interest of the organisation to share the responsibility of continued

professional development with its staff. CPD plays a vital role in career

progression, motivation and satisfaction.

Consider incorporating CPD into your learning and development and talent

management strategies, and take an active role in your lawyers’ CPD journey.

Your employees will feel that their efforts and their expertise is valued, while you’ll

have the opportunity to map the CPD objectives to the corporate

objectives. CPD is part of an individual’s learning and development journey

within the organisation and should be managed as such.

Hint: There is now learning technology available that incorporates CPD

management features. It’s a great tool that is easy to use for employees and

allows L&D managers to promote, monitor and report on their staff’s CPD

progress. Have a look around!

Suggestion: You can find a CPD management tool on our website.

commelius.com

Are you READY to START?

commelius.com

We hope you enjoyed reading our mini guide. It should have given you an idea

on what to focus your attention on when thinking of aligning learning and talent in

your firm. You might want to have a look at the latest social learning platform,

altoconnect, if you’re interested in supporting your learners with new technology.

And as an additional read, we also suggest an article inspired by Towards

Maturity Managing Director, Laura Overton, who’s an expert on organisational

learning and development, titled: Labelling learners vs. what do learners

really want

Now off you go to learn something new about your learners!

In the meantime, if you have any questions or need more information on the CPD

tool, social learning or the best learning technology for your organisation. You

can contact us on info@commelius.com.

commelius.com

www.commelius.com We’re making learning technologies

a better experience!