By Nima Singh – 24th January 2022

Ok, this one’s a toughie because A/ for some people this might be bit too close to the bone and B/ given point A, I’d be lying if I was to say that I wasn’t a little concerned that I might be overstepping the mark here. However, I believe it’s a question that all of us should ask ourselves (not just L&D people by the way, anyone and everyone should ask themselves this question if they want to achieve a sense of workplace fulfillment, positivity and contentedness).

Almost without exception, everyone I know that works as internal Learning & Development Managers, Co-ords, Admins, etc are truly passionate about assisting their workforce members develop their knowledge and capability. However, it’s an unfortunate fact that not all of them are given the resources (i.e. support, budget, staff, etc) to do a decent job of it, making it difficult to achieve a truly meaningful learning program and/or impact on the organisation.

The worst of it is that the limited outcomes are often (extremely unfairly IMO) blamed on the Learning & Development team themselves and used as ‘evidence’ that L&D initiatives are not worthwhile, which can add to the already high levels of stress, anxiety, and general lack of fulfillment felt by people/teams working in such a situation.

This is, of course, where one needs to ask oneself a difficult and challenging question – ‘Am I working for the right company?’ (or, if you want to be a bit more in-depth ‘Am I working for a company where I and my work is valued, where I can make a meaningful difference, and where I can feel fulfilled and achieve my career goals?’).

If the answer is ‘no’, then it might be time to consider a move, because there’s a lot of Learning & Development jobs in Australia right now and, perhaps more importantly (and excitingly), a real increase in the understanding that C-suites/SLT’s have in the absolute necessity of a well developed (and supported/resourced) capability development program if the organisation’s going to achieve its strategic goals…and THAT is a topic for another post!

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