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Revenue? Results? You Mean Education.

Revenue? Results? You Mean Education.

Revenue? Results? You Mean Education. 1
As Vice President of Learning & Certification at IAB, I see the results that Learning & Development (L&D) has on our members every day. In a recent Sellers’ Intelligence Study for instance, we saw these key organizational metrics:

Company Revenue Grows
Senior digital media executives credit professional education and development with increases in their company’s revenue by an average of 30%.

Employee Retention Increases
66% of digital sellers who attended formal training last year intend to work at their current company for at least 2 years.

Employee Satisfaction Goes Up
Up to 93% of digital sellers who have participated in professional development programs reported being very satisfied with their job.

Employee Income Rises
Digital sellers who had formal training last year report a year-over-year income increase of 7.6% over those who did not have training.

Despite quantifiable findings like this, a company’s intent to educate employees and the time and money they allocate to achieve this are often at odds.

We have heard from leaders of member organizations that they end up spending what’s left of their incremental budget at the end of the year, or they don’t spend any money on L&D at all, despite their best intentions. Education is often an afterthought because leaders are too busy focusing on revenue and results, but the point that’s often missed is that focusing on L&D is focusing on both of those things, and more.

L&D for organizations is typically needed in three areas: product, industry and general career building. Most organizations provide product-based training in-house, but need outside help to bridge the knowledge gap for everything else. This is the educational challenge we face working in the digital industry, and this is also the subject we will be exploring in this new blog series.

In the following months we will be offering IAB’s perspective on L&D, and speaking with our members to understand how it has helped them, their employees and their organizations.

Everyone in our business has the same realities when it comes to resources; many companies do not have the time, budget or ability to provide in-house education.

Our industry has a unique set of challenges:

Keeping up with trends
Privacy, social, programmatic… as one trend becomes today’s topic of conversation, the next one is already surfacing. All of us in the industry have to figure out how to stay informed about trending topics, and understand how they are impacting our business as it happens.

Keeping up with changes
There is no other industry with such a seismic rate of change. Some digital organizations have literally changed who they are, what they do, and how they go to market, seemingly overnight. Changes like this create a huge need for quick, concise and focused education. To successfully navigate this caliber and speed of change, L&D is essential. But too often, leadership doesn’t understand the benefits or impact of it on their organization or their people.

Having L&D in place allows organizations to:

  • Drive sales and increase revenue
  • Gain a competitive advantage
  • Improve overall job performance and satisfaction
  • Enhance expertise and knowledge
  • Boost personal confidence
  • Instill trust in client relationships
  • Continue building on successes

These challenges, trends and changes are what we help digital leaders with every day.

IAB Learning & Development is the Digital Media Industry’s Educational Resource
We want leaders in the industry to know that we are their educational resource. IAB has had over 17,000 people participate in our certification programs and are continuing to support that demand by adding new trainings and programs. We have also heard our members’ requests for additional learning beyond certification, and are working to create more educational content and opportunities — like this blog series — to foster more dialogue and communities around the value of L&D.

We Offer Organizations Unique Learning Opportunities
IAB has become the center of digital knowledge because our membership represents the industry as a whole. Our 360 degree view gives us the unparalleled ability to leverage our collected knowledge from all sides of the digital industry.

This unique viewpoint has allowed us to build a world-class L&D department that gives members in-person and online access to the kind of learning they cannot get anywhere else. Whether we are providing training at an organization, or authoring this blog, our intent is for everyone to be able to access the kind of learning not available anywhere else.

We Want to be Your Touchpoint for Dialogue
We are always having conversations with businesses to see how we can further support their initiatives and goals. We are equally interested in having conversations with members of the Learning & Development community. We invite you to get in touch and to let us know what challenges you would like to see IAB Learning & Development tackle in 2019.

Moving forward, this blog will feature the perspective of thought leaders from IAB member organizations, as well as insights of our own, so that we can all continue to learn together.

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Authors

Author
Michael Texidor
Vice President, Learning & Certification
at IAB