Podcast | Launching an L&D Function with Artheka Sivaharan

Author:
Gary
PUBLISHED ON:
January 12, 2022
June 26, 2023
PUBLISHED IN:
Podcast

You’re the first ever L&D hire in a startup and you have a complete blank slate to work with - but where on earth do you start? Artheka Sivaharan, Learning and Development Lead at MyTutor, was in this exact position just a few months ago.

Listen to the episode to hear exactly how Artheka handled the situation as she shares her best tips for growing an L&D function from the ground up!

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Running Order

01:15 How do you know when you should bring in an L&D person?

02:18 Where do you start when you have a blank slate?

03:51 Directing people away from self-prescribing

06:33 Positioning the value of L&D

08:15 Choosing which problems to tackle first

09:58 Using data to build business cases

11:10 Creating a business case proposal

16:22 The benefits of working in sprints

18:48 Getting tangible results

21:30 Supporting your first L&D hire

23:33 Quickfire round

Key learning

How to build a business case.Artheka recommends kicking off this process by creating a proposal which includes a brief summary of the things that have come to your attention. Show trends within your findings and present evidence of the problems that need resolving.

The next stage is proposing what you do about it! Artheka highlights the importance of not creating the actual solution at this stage, but getting together and having conversations with stakeholders first. This is because while the L&D function might know exactly what it wants to do, it's hard to say if the solutions will work for the wider business if they aren't built alongside colleagues.

It's also useful to have the input of subject matter experts when building out the solution, and this creates much more buy-in as colleagues feel they have been part of the process. Click here to learn more about building an L&D strategy.