Learning & Development should be the #1 inhouse HR priority.

I’m not in HR but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night

HR hot take from a non-HR person: Learning & Development should be the #1 inhouse priority.

2 reasons:

👉Learning loss in remote settings is real. Anyone with kids in the pandemic can attest to this. Google what’s happened to testing scores at any level in the last 3 years if you must.

And it’s not like we had adult learning figured out before all this. The most compelling real reason for the return to office push? Osmosis learning filled the gaps when L&D wasn’t good to begin with.

👉 It’s the hardest thing to outsource. So much of it depends on what’s unique to your company, business operations, sales model, culture, etc.

What makes your company special and different? You know. But I guarantee no one on the outside does. Beyond what they can put on a PowerPoint.

Compliance, payroll, benefits, HR tech, DEI, and recruiting are all important. But a good partner can do them in a pinch.

But L&D? No one from the outside can come in and know your business as well as you do. Which is the baseline for inhouse training to be effective.

Every company is doing the hybrid scramble. Trying to figure out what mix of who comes in what days. What teams need to be around at the same time. How to make things equitable and fair for all the full remote vs. local team members you hired over the last 3 years.

But the core problem isn’t logistics. It’s learning.

It’s a core competency for your business to thrive. Always has been.

James Hornick

Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.