How to Get Budget for Your People Development Programs
HR and L&D leaders, this one is for you. I've been talking to many of you over the last few months about initiatives you are advocating for in your respective companies. First off, I want to recognize that arguably, you have been put in one of the hardest positions over the past year because you have had to keep engagement, morale, and good communication up in a crisis: health, social justice, political. Everybody is feeling a lot of emotions and no one has had to navigate all of this before. It's hard.
Many of you have expressed that every time you create a plan, things change so abruptly with continued uncertainty that you can't seem to get one thing started before another need arises. And yet everybody is desperate and looking to you for guidance and support. And here's the big issue. You don't have the budget. Maybe you were never given the budget, given a very small budget (and asked to be grateful for it), or do not feel empowered to ask for a budget without hard data and facts which are hard to come by in a people-first role like HR and Learning and Development.
I created this short video as an empowerment tool to give you new ways to think about how you can get a budget for your programs so you can support the people you've been hired to nurture and thrive in your role.
The bottom line is you cannot do your job without funds and investment. You may able to create some workshops or mentorship programs, but you're not going to be able to transform your organization by yourself or even with a small team. The most effective programs are personalized, dynamic, and diverse. This video is a mini-business plan for HR and L&D teams. It outlines the financials behind a winning program that can support ALL people in a company and be a mindset (maybe a core value!) of how a company can operate as truly people-first.
Watch this video is to get some numbers to help you create the case for your boss to get a budget for your L&D and HR efforts.
To recap:
Engagement: Coaching works. 100% of the people who've been through one of our coaching programs report that they feel more motivated and inspired in their job because of coaching.
Retention: When people feel invested in, they stay. Providing 1:1 coaching to leaders is proven to drive up loyalty and retention - plus it saves your company money in the long run and is a competitive advantage. That's ROI!
Commitment: a great starting point is to budget 5% of each employee's salary to re-invest in their personal development. It needs to be included in the company P&L and all hiring budget forecasts.
I invite you to use these suggestions to get investment to support your efforts. Remember that the biggest impact comes from supporting every single person in your organization. We love it when companies launch programs that provide skip-level support and rotate through the organization in a way that resembles a waltz - nonlinear and super effective.
If you'd like a breakdown of how Collective Gain can take a 5% investment from each person and turn that into a robust 1:1 coaching program for everyone, email me. I am here to support you, and the larger vision you have for your company. If you need to brainstorm how you can use the budget you have most effectively for your teams, reach out. You do not need to do this alone.
