Making learning stick remains the holy grail of anyone responsible for people development in their organisation. To recruit and retain an adaptable workforce that can learn new skills and put them to work effectively remains a challenge for most employers.

This aim is so central to an organisation's success or failure, they should spend 10 times more energy reinforcing the training that has just taken place, instead of looking for the next great initiative. If they don't, they risk their staff using less than 10% of the skills they learned in the training back on the job. Strategies for follow-up and reinforcement should be a natural part of the learning process. Organisations also need to spend much more time aligning training with corporate strategic goals in the first place. Knowing where you are going is the first step to getting there.