Headlines: June 10th, 2014

A new partnership between CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development and Towards Maturity, the learning and development research company, will deploy robust research to help drive better practice in the design, delivery and application of learning and development in the workplace.

The strategic partnership is built around a commitment from the two organisations to jointly contributing to each others’ research on current practice and new innovation in learning and development. This, they argue, is needed to ensure truly effective learning cultures are developed more consistently, contributing to organisational success and individual advancement.

CIPD is urging its members to participate in Towards Maturity’s highly respected annual Benchmarking Survey. L&D leaders can use the Benchmark to confidentially review their current learning strategy at https://www.research.net/s/TMBenchmarkCIPD14 before 31July. All participants will receive their Personalised Benchmark Report with comparisons analysis and activity recommendations in early September.

Towards Maturity participating in a series of forthcoming CIPD research projects on the key drivers of change in learning and development.

Over time, the partnership will build on the shared vision and insight of the two organisations, driven by research, to develop the most effective tools for improving practice and closing knowledge and capability gaps in the delivery of learning and development.

Andy Lancaster, Head of Learning and Development at the CIPD, said: “CIPD and Towards Maturity are united by a shared commitment to using excellent research to drive better practice in learning and development, for the benefit of businesses and the people they employ.

“There is much good and even great practice in learning and development. However, it can still be difficult for organisations to gain clarity on what their most effective activities and approaches to learning and development are, what gaps they have, and how best to address these gaps.