Everyone who knows me also knows that I am a dedicated champion of L&D. It’s central to performance.

I took a postgraduate diploma in L&D. I have since used my knowledge to build and deliver countless bespoke, in-house learning programmes. I understand the science of learning. I’ve won awards for it.

I also understand the realities of a small or micro business. Most struggle to find the people, time and money even to supply all the information it takes to make someone a great recruiter. And as most hire occasionally, there are no economies and never enough of a burning need to create your own training programme. So many fall back on a self-service video programme and hope the knowledge will osmose into their staff as they stare at a screen.

Here’s the thing – knowledge (about your sector, about companies, salaries and so on) is important. But 90% of what makes a great recruiter is not knowledge. It’s skills.

Skills can only be developed by learning a process of trying it out, evaluating and improving. That doesn’t happen if you are watching a video of a lecture.

So here are the questions all recruitment leaders should be asking themselves about L&D:

A) Are the learning objectives clear? Do we know what we want people to be able to do (not just know)?
B) Do we know for certain that what is being taught leads to the best outcomes and ROI?
C) Do we have a clear means of evaluating what people have learned? (Through observation, sampling or role play, for example)
D) Do we insist on embedding newly learnt behaviours with some repetition before moving on to the next thing? Are my managers capable of ensuring implementation?
E) How predictable is the performance of my newly hired recruiters? Can I say that 90% will be producing X by month Y?
F) Am I satisfied with the standard of content in the video libraries we use? Are the models and processes the very best? Or a lowest common denominator?

I have reviewed quite a number of these offerings, and I have to say that they are too often either “lectures” or scripts or long, long lists. That is not how people learn and put into action.

It absolves some owners’ conscience to pay for a video training library that is cheap, generic and lecture-y. But where is your ROI?

If you’d like to look at how your business can accelerate ahead of your competition, and create better experiences for clients, candidates and colleagues, including through great L&D, please get in touch here. You can also tap into resources and podcasts on my website www.recruitmentleadership.co.uk.