Elearning blog: Learning re-imagined

Understanding Talent Management

By now, everyone has heard about the intense competition for talent. Between the retiring baby boomers, skill shortages and the pressures to innovate and grow – it’s hugely important to find the right people. Human capital is a key asset that organizations rely on to maintain a competitive position in the marketplace. To attract and retain employees, you need a talent management strategy with learning as the foundation.

Complimentary webinar series on the role of learning content in the talent management process

SkillSoft partnered with subject matter experts to help you develop a talent management strategy that delivers business results. The series features Claire Schooley, senior analyst, Forrester Research, Inc., and Virginia Clark, co-founder, The Distinct Edge Group.  

Driving a Positive ROI by Aligning Programs with Business

We are pleased to bring you a guest blog post today from Dr. Patti Phillips, president and CEO of the ROI Institute, Inc., the leading source of ROI competency building, implementation support, networking, and research. She is also chair and CEO of The Chelsea Group, Inc., an international consulting organization supporting organizations and their efforts to build accountability into their training, human resources, and performance improvement programs with a primary focus on building accountability in public sector organizations. Her husband, Dr. Jack J. Phillips, chairman of the ROI Institute, Inc., and  a world-renowned expert on accountability, measurement, and evaluation, will be leading a workshop at SkillSoft's 2012 Annual Perspectives User Conference  – “Show Me the Money: How to Determine ROI in People, Projects, and Programs.” This interactive workshop will introduce the concept of ROI ultimate accountability as participants are exposed to the ROI Process.

By Patti Phillips, Ph.D., President and CEO, ROI Institute, Inc.

Today’s business community is relying more on data about programs and projects than ever before. Yet, many people still ask:

How do we ensure the right measures are taken and that the connection between investment in our people and the results achieved is clear?

We do it through the process of business alignment.

Business Alignment

Business alignment is the process of ensur­ing that investment drives relevant business results. Achieving business alignment requires that pro­grams, projects, and initiatives be positioned for success, and then, evaluated accordingly. There are three phases to business alignment:

1.  Clarify stakeholder needs
2.  Develop measurable objectives
3.  Evaluate accordingly.

Clarify Stakeholder Needs

Initial alignment occurs when stakeholder needs are identified, which begins with po­tential payoff for opportunities or problems. These payoff opportunities represent an or­ganization’s opportunity to make money, save money, and/or avoid costs. Some payoff op­portunities are obvious, such as a $1.5 million cost due to unwanted employee turnover. Other payoff opportunities are not so obvious, like the desire to become a great place to work.

Leadership Advantage is Great! So How Do I…?

We are pleased to bring you a guest blog post today from one of our customers, Bruce D. Smith, Corporate Manager, eLearning, at Emerson Electric Co. Bruce will be a speaker at SkillSoft’s 2012 Annual Perspectives User Conference. Bruce facilitates classroom-based events, oversees the use of elearning from an enterprise perspective, and runs the Emerson Learning Center’s Studio8000 video production studio.  He has been in the training and development (T&D) field for more than 20 years, and has followed what he calls a “pinball-style” of career management with experience in private non-profit social work, the airline industry, computer programming, accounting management, Quality Management, and of course T&D. 

By Bruce D. Smith, Corporate Manager, elearning, Emerson Electric Co.

You can fill in the blank of the title’s question with a host of alternatives you’ve heard within your own organization.  Or perhaps you’ve asked the question yourself.

When our SkillSoft representative showed the Emerson Learning Center staff at Emerson Electric Co. in St. Louis, Missouri the things that SkillSoft’s Leadership Advantage could do and was planned to do, we were excited about the possibility of adding it to our list of SkillSoft offerings.  But how could we distinguish it from the other libraries of elearning courseware we already subscribed to without cannibalizing from our current user base? 

Enter the concept of a BLENDED LEARNING proposal.

The term “blended learning” means many things to many people, so first we had to define it for our own purposes.  We decided to blend an elearning experience into a live face-to-face classroom event.  We were already rewriting our Supervisory and Management leadership class, but we were puzzled how to cover MORE topics in LESS time while keeping learners engaged.  We also needed something that learners could access before and after the class for on-going learning. 

BCLC Discusses the Benefits of Attending Perspectives

Mitch Romanchook, BCLC's Talent Management, finds the SkillSoft Perspectives user conference a delightful, insightful and promising forum for product innovations. Registration is now open. Visit http://perspectives.skillsoft.com/2012/?srcid=blog for more details.

 

Improve the Office 2010 Skills of Your German Staff

The SkillSoft Office 2010 KnowledgeCenter™ is now available in German. This is good news for our German customers as well as our customers with offices overseas!  The content isn’t just translated – it’s localized so it’s contextually relevant for that market.

What’s a KnowledgeCenter, you say?

It’s a portal that gives learners instant access to targeted, pre-packaged content on key topics. Each KnowledgeCenter includes material specifically chosen to help learners build knowledge around a topic as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The new German-focused KnowledgeCenter contains articles, courses and online books in German, including hands-on Practice Labs allowing business professionals to learn and use Office 2010 skills in a real-time environment.