Legal firms great at aligning learning with business strategy

LONDON - Dec. 4, 2013 - PRLog -- The research, conducted by Towards Maturity (http://www.towardsmaturity.org/) (the not-for-profit benchmarking organisation) and training provider Commelius Solutions (http://www.commelius.com/), is a part of the ‘21^st century learning for 21^st century legal firms’ campaign. It collates feedback from 21 UK legal organisations and compares it with L&D insights from businesses in other industries.

According to the study, 78% of legal firms are fully aligning their L&D activities with their overall business strategy, compared with 59% of other industries. This comes as one of the biggest strengths of legal L&D professionals when it comes to implementation of learning.

“This finding is great news. It shows that those firms are very good in defining learning needs of their staff so that they can meet their business goals. This gives them great advantage in joining the circle of the top learning organisations”, comments Vicky Jones, MD at Commelius.

She adds, “From the latest Towards Maturity benchmark we know that the top learning companies consistently report better business results. Their employees are twice as likely to put what they’ve learned into practice quickly. This is where the legal firms want to be, but there’s more work for them to do to get there."

Laura Overton, MD of Towards Maturity says ‘The  data in this report helps us to understand how L&D teams in the legal sector are using learning technologies and we map this against our broader benchmark data to give practical guidance on how to make more of learning technologies. With their strong focus on business alignment, the legal sector are in an ideal position to leverage the different learning tools available to them. By benchmarking with other sectors they can understand what works well, what doesn’t and what are the next steps to take.’

According to the research, though the legal organisations are strong at identifying the learning needs of their staff and aligning their L&D activities with an overall business strategy, their weaknesses lie in executing them.

“This stems from the fact that they have not been putting enough emphasis on the implementation and use of learning technologies, which impedes their learner context. This means their learners are not supported by learning technologies in gaining competency for their jobs, and have limited choice over when or where they can access their e-learning provision”, says Vicky Jones. “This is where these organisations need support.”

More information on Towards Maturity and Commelius’ research can be found in the whitepaper ‘21^st century learning for 21^st century legal firms’ available at www.commelius.com/legal-industry-learning/

Towards Maturity’s New Learning Agenda with more information on the learning landscape study is available at www.towardsmaturity.org/2013benchmark

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About Towards Maturity

Towards Maturity is a not-for-profit community interest company providing an independent benchmarking practice in the application of learning innovation to accelerate business performance. Towards Maturity's services leverage the wealth of data provided by its internationally recognised longitudinal benchmark study based on the input of 2,900 organisations and 10,000 learners over 10 years. Free case studies and resources are available to the community at www.towardsmaturity.org

About Commelius Solutions

Commelius Solutions is one of Europe’s leading providers of training and learning technologies to businesses worldwide, and the trusted partner of many FTSE 250 organisations. Their portfolio includes work with American Express, Hill Dickinson, Clifford Chance, CSC and DHL.

The company uses a combination of different learning techniques such as e-learning and live online learning supported by the latest technology to ensure the most suitable and most effective training method for their clients. Their solutions empower organisations to develop the skills of its people so they can deliver on their business goals while increasing the value of training and reducing its cost.

Commelius (formerly Redtray Solutions) has won numerous awards for their learning services including gold award (http://www.redtray.co.uk/news_2011_02_14.htm) for business transformation project for Royal Mail Group, gold (http://www.redtray.co.uk/news_2010_11_18.htm)for Most Innovative New Product or Tool with MyWorkSearch; and supported Hill Dickinson in winning Business project of the year (http://www.redtray.co.uk/news_2012_03_14.htm) and IT team of the year for their Red October project.

For more information visit: www.commelius.com