Elearning blog: Learning re-imagined

Telecommuting for Increased Employee Engagement?

By Candy Osborne, Senior Marketing Manager, Skillsoft

I became aware of an article in a recent Skillsoft® Books24x7® Analyst Perspectives™ that led me to proverbially pen this post. The CIO Insight article Nine 'Best Practices' For Telecommuting hits close to home for me as a telecommuter. I’m one of the 20+ million workers who spends at least one day rocking out the work day from the comfort of my home office. I state “rocking” loosely, you might be dub stepping but nonetheless, as some companies are withdrawing the work-from-home option, others are further exploring it, believing in positive impacts it has on their employees.

At the end of the day, telecommuting isn’t just about getting to work in pajamas and blasting Cold Play on surround sound; it has a deeper positive impact on employee engagement. Here’s why.

According to Using Workplace Flexibility as a Talent Strategy, flex arrangements (those which allow employees the autonomy to control when, where and how they get their work done) can do four things:

1. Improve employee health (through reduced stress, less germ spreading).
2. Lower real estate costs (via reduced office space and parking fees).
3. Ensure business continuity (when bad weather makes driving unsafe).
4. Increase diversity and inclusion (by accommodating caregivers).

Telecommuting and flex time roll up under a bigger umbrella of work/life balance, which as we know has significant impact on overall happiness. In fact, some suggest that flex time and telecommuting be used as a recruitment tool.

If we can see an increase in happiness and engagement from telecommuting, what about productivity? In a recent scientific study, The effects of telecommuting on productivity: An experimental examination. The role of dull and creative tasks, we learn in a nutshell that telecommuting has a positive impact on productivity of creative tasks, not-so-much on dull tasks.

I don’t think this post would be fair if I didn’t address some of the cons I’ve come across. A couple include data backup and ergonomics of the furniture in the home office. It seems the pros which contribute to happier, more engaged and productive employees far outweigh the cons. And even the cons seem bite-sized enough to tackle.

Gearing up for 2013 Global Skillsoft Perspectives

We're excited that Skillsoft Perspectives, May 13-16 in Orlando, Florida is fast approaching! Watch how a 2012 attendee benefited from the global scale of the conference.

 

Hitachi Consulting on Skillsoft Perspectives from Skillsoft on Vimeo.

Adopting Training Processes to Suit an Ageing Population

With the number of pensioners in the UK forecast to rise by half by 2030, and the over-85s to double, it’s no surprise that the impact on society of an ageing population has been given an increasing amount of media attention recently.

Just a few weeks ago it was suggested that ‘Britain is 'woefully' under-prepared for the rising number of elderly people’, with both the Government and businesses failing to address the implications of our ageing population. The statement follows a report from the House of Lords’ public service and demography committee and, whilst many may deem it to be a simple case of ‘scaremongering’, it highlights a worrying truth that should be a cause for concern far beyond the issue of pensions and benefits.

According to a recent Guardian article, ten years ago there were 500,000 people in work over the age of 65. Today, that figure is approaching one million, with a rise of 270,000 since 2009. However, despite many employees now choosing to work past the traditional retirement age of 65, businesses are overlooking valuable skills and opting not to invest in this growing generation of older workers.

The Lords’ public service and demography committee has called for employers and the government to work together to help older people remain in the workforce, but this alone is not enough to put things right. Whilst enabling the older generation to remain in the workplace for longer is a vital step in addressing the issue of an ageing population, it will only work if accompanied by a change in thinking by organisations. This includes reworking HR policies and practices to meet the needs of this growing number of older workers in UK businesses.

Our research shows that currently only 8% of UK companies invest in training for the over 60s, but if we are to remain in the workplace longer then this has got to change.

Businesses need to take the lead and encourage older workers to enhance their skill set by offering both a job and training in one package, as they do for the younger generation. To ensure that all employees feel engaged, businesses can start by:

• Making sure managers and supervisors do not introduce age ‘cut offs’ simply because of their assumptions about different age groups

• Ensuring training and development is seen as an integral part of the culture of the business, with employees of all ages being actively involved in identifying their own development needs

• Monitoring the take-up of training to ensure that all employees are aware of the opportunities and are encouraged to take them up[1].

Organisations need to be preparing for this shift now or risk damaging the future development of their business.

 

[1] All bullet points refer to Age Positive business checklist: https://www.gov.uk/employer-preventing-discrimination

Forrester Research Analyst Discusses Social Media and Social Networks

Organizations can leverage social media to foster discussions among learners. Groups can rate content similar to consumer websites, helping employees find targeted and relevant resources. Watch Claire Schooley, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research discuss trends around social media and social networks with respect to learning.

Talent Development Reporting Principles (TDRp): The evolving standard for reporting on human capital

By David Vance

We’re pleased to bring you a guest blog post by David Vance, Executive Director, Center for Talent Reporting. Don’t miss David speak at 2013 Global Skillsoft Perspectives!

Accountants have the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to guide them in their reporting. There are standard reports like the Income Statement and Balance Sheet, standard definitions of terms, and a common vocabulary. Why don’t we have something similar for learning and development in particular and for HR in general?

Talent Development Reporting principles or TDRp is an industry-led effort to provide just that for the internal reporting on human capital. TDRp, pronounced T..D..R..P, began in October 2010 when Kent Barnett, CEO of Knowledge Advisors, and Tamar Elkeles, VP of Organizational Learning and Communications at Qualcomm, decided the time was right to address this long-talked-about need.  They brought together a group of industry leaders to develop a set of principles for internal reporting, including recommend statements and reports for human capital measures. TDRp was completed for L&D in 2011 and extended to the other key HR processes in 2012. The principles, statements and reports bring a discipline to the field heretofore lacking, providing a common vocabulary and reporting framework for all the existing measures. Moreover, TDRp is designed to facilitate the upfront, strategic discussion with leaders and stakeholders about the expected value of human capital initiatives and to provide the reports necessary to actively manage the initiatives to successful completion.

In a nutshell, TDRp classifies all measures into three buckets: outcome measures, effectiveness measures and efficiency measures. Outcome measures capture the organization’s goals and HR’s impact on those goals. Effectiveness measures are about the quality of the process or initiative, and efficiency measures are about how much, how many and at what cost. Next, these standard measures are grouped into three statements. The Outcome Statement contains the outcome measures, the Effectiveness Statement the effectiveness measures, and the Efficiency Statement the efficiency measures. Summary or high-level statements, typically less than one page in length and focusing on the key measures, must contain last year’s actual results, plan, and year-to-date progress against plan. Detailed or lower-level statements may contain more measures, greater detail, and/or monthly or quarterly data and focus just on actuals.

Reports are designed for different audiences but in all cases are meant to be used to manage processes or initiatives on a monthly basis to deliver planned results. The Summary Report will contain the most important measures from each of the three statements and is intended for the CEO, SVPHR, and other senior leaders. The Program or Process Report also pulls key measures from all three statements but focuses on just one program or process and is meant to be used by the program or process manager. Last, the Operations Report focuses on the key efficiency measures and is intended for the HR department heads. In addition to the columns required for the summary statements, the reports will have a forecast for each measure.

Hundreds of organizations are already using TDRp. Consultants are beginning to provide help to clients in implementing TDRp, and software vendors are beginning to make their products compliant with TDRp. A nonprofit organization, the Center for Talent Reporting, was established in August 2012 as the permanent home for TDRp. The Center offers webinars and workshops as well as certification for individuals, consultants, organizations and software. The next workshop is in Alexandria, Va. June 6-7.

Learn more at www.CenterforTalentReporting.org where numerous white papers, sample statements and reports, and lists of measures are available at no cost. Contact David Vance at 970-460-0837 or DVance@CenterforTalentReporting.org.

Don’t miss David Vance at Skillsoft Perspectives. Register today.

Skillsoft’s Conversations in Leadership Series continues its lineup of distinguished experts

We are excited to celebrate the first anniversary of our Conversations in Leadership series! The popular program, which follows a web-based conversation format moderated by Skillsoft’s leadership expert Shawn Hunter, regularly features prominent business experts’ insights on leadership development. The series includes dynamic audience participation through live discussion and boasts an impressive lineup of noted business executives, renowned authors and leadership innovators.

Since its launch in 2012, the series has hosted leading industry experts including executive coach Steve Farber, leadership development duo Bob and Gregg Vanourek and best-selling authors Jim Kouzes, Shawn Achor and Tammy Erickson. Through this diverse lineup of featured experts, Skillsoft is thrilled to provide participants with an inside perspective on popular industry trends and actionable insights to enable leadership development of individuals and their companies. 

In its first year, the positive response to our Conversations in Leadership series has been outstanding, an achievement we are happy to celebrate with the contributing experts whose knowledge and insights are at the heart of the series. We look forward to continuing to grow the interactive program with an elite lineup of industry experts, all dedicated to providing viewers with top-notch content to foster leadership development discussion.

A full archive of Conversations in Leadership webinars can be found here: http://www.skillsoft.com/infocenter/events/web_events.asp#leadership 

For more information on upcoming webinars, please visit: http://skillsoft.com/infocenter/events/web_events.asp#current

Thanks to all who have joined the conversation in our inaugural year – we welcome you to continue engaging with us through future Conversations in Leadership events!

Have a memory of the game before it starts

By Shawn Hunter

Wayne Rooney is widely regarded as an astonishing soccer player—one of the greatest playing the game today. But his behavior is also mercurial, brooding, and even thuggish at times. He was recently banned for a game for intentionally kicking Montenegro’s Miodrag Dzudovic. As a kid he played non-stop—in the streets, in the house, in the backyard. And when he couldn’t play, he dreamed of playing soccer.

Rooney does this today before every match:

“Part of my preparation is I go and ask the kit man what color we’re wearing — if it’s red top, white shorts, white socks or black socks. Then I lie in bed the night before the game and visualize myself scoring goals or doing well. You’re trying to put yourself in that moment and trying to prepare yourself, to have a ‘memory’ before the game. I don’t know if you’d call it visualizing or dreaming, but I’ve always done it, my whole life… you need to visualize realistic things that are going to happen in a game.” (David Winner interview)

If you can actually practice, great. But imagining practicing is just about as good. In a well-known experiment, Australian researcher Alan Richardson divided about 90 students into three groups. With the first group he asked them to ignore basketball and come back at the end of the month. He asked the second group to come into the gym 5 days a week and practice their free throws for twenty minutes, trying to get better at their free throws as best as they could. With the third group he asked them to come into the gym 5 days a week and for twenty minutes imagine shooting free throws — to sit in the gym and visualize each attempt, to develop a pre-shot routine, “see” and “feel” the ball bouncing and then leaving their hand arcing to the basket. If they missed, they had to visualize an adjustment. They were also asked to be constantly getting better.

At the end of the month all three groups had to come into the gym and shoot 100 free throws.

• Group 1 didn’t improve
• Group 2 got 24% better
• Group 3 got 23% better

I had an interview with Rich Herbst, VP for Learning and Leadership Development at Teletech, who emphasized the use of simulations to help develop call center operators to perform better on the job. A former F-14 pilot, Herbst described how he had thousands of hours practicing in simulators and on airfields before he actually landed an F-14 on an aircraft carrier. In our interview he described the experience of landing on a carrier:

“I had done it so much that it was like it was kind of like muscle memory. And so you stop thinking about the stress of what you’re doing, and training takes over. And so I think in the best types of training that you have, regardless of what it is that you’re doing in life, if you can get yourself to a place where you’ve learned it so well that when you experience it in real time.”

Think about what you’re trying to accomplish, or get better at. Are you wishing it, or rehearsing it in your mind, and then actively doing it—prepared to fail or succeed but always learn?

Why elearning continues to trend upward

Elearning has been a viable replacement for traditional instructor-led training since the late nineties. From major corporations to respected universities, elearning adoption continues to grow.

People want to learn online
It comes as no surprise that elearning continues to be a growing trend around the world. In the digital age, people don’t go to the library or their bookshelf when they want to know something. Whether they need to define a word or know how to tile their bathroom floor, people are turning to popular search engines like Google, wikis like Wikipedia and even social media sites like Pinterest. One study stated that 76% of teachers are using Wikipedia in the classroom.

Unfortunately, not all of the information available online is vetted or accurate. Elearning meets the need for on-demand resources while providing quality content. Learning assets such as courses, videos, books, and guides provide employees with the on-the-job training they want from respected subject matter experts.

Elearning is ideal for both employees and employers
Bringing employees to the training isn’t cost effective. When you factor in instructor time, travel and time away from work, traditional instructor-led training is expensive. Online learning brings training to employees, allowing them to access training anytime, anywhere. Elearning also helps companies stay competitive. As industries rapidly change, the nimble nature of online learning allows content to keep pace.

Not only does online learning save money, it also saves time. Elearning classes are 25 – 60% shorter in duration than classroom training. And the shorter courses are more engaging, increasing knowledge retention by as much as 60%.

Online learning can also increase job satisfaction and employee retention. Many employees leave their jobs because their position lacks opportunities for advancement and enrichment. Providing access to both formal training programs and on-demand resources allows employees to grow professionally.

Trackable compliance training: A must-have for government contractors

By Katherine Doe, Skillsoft Marketing Manager, with Charlie Voelker, Esq., Skillsoft Legal Compliance Solution Manager

While Charlie contributed previously here on Learning re-imagined, I’d like to take an opportunity to more formally introduce him – our Compliance team has an impressive level of expertise!  Charlie Voelker, Esq. is the Product Manager for our Legal Compliance Solution.  In this role, he works with Skillsoft customers to create and implement cloud-based compliance training programs designed to reduce violations and mitigate risk, all while promoting an ethical culture and principled governance.  Charlie is also involved in setting the strategy for new content development within the solution.  Below, he shares a bit about why trackable compliance training is so important, especially for government contractors… 

“An efficient, scalable, and reliable training deployment strategy is essential to any organization’s compliance program.  But this is particularly true for firms that provide goods and services to the U.S. government.  For instance, in many cases a federal contractor is required to deliver ethics training across the enterprise, including directors, managers, employees, agents, and subcontractors.  The training must reach the entire organization with a consistent message, regardless of geography, in a format that is educationally effective.  Just as important is the ability for the program administrators to maintain detailed electronic records of training assignments, completion dates, and other crucial data that can be easily retrieved in the event of a government audit or investigation.  Skillsoft’s cloud-based compliance training solution delivers on all of these requirements, assisting hundreds of our customers, like Catapult Technology, meet their mission-critical training obligations.”

Watch a mini video case study on YouTube featuring Katie Cawood, Catapult’s Corporate Professional Development Administrator.  She describes why her Skillsoft compliance and on-boarding program has been “completely invaluable.”  

 

Untangling the training, mentoring, coaching confusion

By Jim Clemmer

For over three decades Jim Clemmer’s keynote presentations, workshops, management team retreats, seven bestselling books, articles, blog and newsletters have helped hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.The CLEMMER Group is Zenger/Folkman’s Canadian Strategic Partner, an award-winning firm best known for its unique evidence-driven, strengths-based system for developing extraordinary leaders and demonstrating the performance impact they have on organizations. http://www.clemmergroup.com

Like “vision,” “service,” or “leadership,” “coaching” has become a word that means different things to different people.

Many people think of the typical sports coach who’s a veteran of the game (often a retired player). Sports coaches typically develop skills, guide improvements with feedback and actively direct game plans. Other people talk about coaching and mentoring in one phrase as if they were two sides of the same coin. And we know of a few organizations where “coaching” means giving corrective feedback. So having your boss say, “I’d like to give you some coaching” sends shivers up your spine.

This wide range of meanings is one reason that an organizational survey in a large telecom company showed managers scoring themselves high on providing coaching while their employees scored them low.

This chart shows the improvement distinctions we’ve found between three key development activities:

Developing Distinctions
Training	Mentoring	Coaching
Trainer possesses skills or information student lacks.	Senior person conveys wisdom and corporate culture.	Coach could be superior, subordinate or peer.
Primary activity is transmission of information.	Mentor has traveled the path mentee is seeking.	Coach does not need same background or experiences.
Teacher/student relationship is typically temporary and narrow in focus.	Provides connections, references and advice.	Enables others to work through and solve their own problems.

We need all three to lead our teams and organizations to peak performance. But if we’re going to close the big coaching gap we need a clearer and shared understanding of what exactly good coaching is.