During recessions, businesses—especially enterprises—are hesitant to make investments in L&D solutions.
Why? Because recessions mean budget cuts. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to completely cut your L&D efforts. Not only is this bad for your people, it’s also bad for business.
In this post, we’ll explore why that is and what you can do to continue investing—albeit smartly—in your L&D efforts during economic downturns.
What L&D Investments Can Bring to Your Business
Retention
You don’t want people jumping ship when times are already tough in your organisation. In fact, this is the worst time for knowledge to leave.
During times of change and uncertainty like an economic recession, your people may feel anxious and restless. Thankfully, investing in your people at a time like this gives them confidence that their jobs aren’t in any danger.
Productivity & Quality of Work
When things aren’t going great, you need the best in your people—both in terms of how well they work and how efficient they are. L&D initiatives like mentoring programs have been proven to help with both of these things.
Case Study: EDF
To better understand how such initiatives can work for your business, let’s look at a case study. EDF Energy is a British integrated energy company, with operations spanning electricity generation and the sale of natural gas and electricity to homes and businesses throughout the United Kingdom.
Before launching a formal mentoring program, EDF enjoyed pockets of mentoring within their organisation, which was a sign of a wider culture of mentoring and also an indication of demand. However, the mentoring that was already happening didn’t extend beyond the same departments and business units, and there was a lack of women participating in them.
While they didn’t want to dissolve these existing mentoring relationships, it was resource-heavy to support them manually and, when left alone, they had the tendency to fizzle out. They wanted to learn how to support these relationships and ensure they could sustainably offer this opportunity to more employees without burdening the HR Business Partners heavily with administrative work. Therefore, they decided to use Mentorloop’s mentoring platform.
The Results
The pilot program had overwhelmingly positive feedback, with 98% of employees suggesting EDF continue offering the mentoring program; this inspired the Program Coordinators to scale even more. Additionally, the program enjoyed representation from all business units and employee networks, including the Women’s Network 29%, Young Professionals 18%, and Working Parents 17%.
Get Started Today
Developing your people is still important—in fact it might actually be even more important—in a crisis like a recession.
And, thankfully, mentoring is a great way to do just that. Moreover, it not only always makes business sense—productivity, employee satisfaction, and reducing turnover are only a few of the perks—but it makes even more sense when times are tough. And the cherry on top? It’s the most cost-effective. In fact, a Mentoring Program with Mentorloop is 680 times cheaper than executive coaching and 373 times cheaper than an in-person training session.
Ready to get started and see what a mentoring program can do for your organisation during a recession?
Get Started with Mentorloop Pro
