Elearning blog: Learning re-imagined

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

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.

From capitalism to talentism: a complimentary webinar with Lucian Tarnowski

27 March 2013 – 12 p.m. GMT

Understanding the role of social media in talent engagement

As the prevalence of social networks continues to grow, more and more of us are using the likes of Twitter and Facebook for not just personal, but business use. Indeed, last Christmas Twitter revealed that it had more than 200 million monthly unique users; with both people and businesses keen to get involved and reap the benefits of this increasingly mainstream communication medium.

So with interest in social media at an all time high, does it have real relevance for businesses beyond representing a nice add-on?

Lucian Tarnowski, founder and CEO of BraveNewTalent.com, believes social media has created a fundamental shift in the way organisations communicate and engage with talent. He believes talent is king in the modern workplace and will explain how businesses can use social media to engage and foster talent, in a free Skillsoft webinar on Wednesday 27 March at 12pm GMT.

In the session, Lucian will explore:

• The effect and impact of social media on the talent function.
• How next generation talent now expects to be engaged online.
• The opportunity to leverage the internal knowledge and content at your organisation to the external world.
• Social learning trends and the future of online learning.

If you are interested in finding out more about how to use social media to attract and retain top talent, visit our event page to register for the free webinar. We look forward to seeing you (virtually at least!) on the day.

About Lucian Tarnowski
Lucian is Founder and CEO of BraveNewTalent.com the social platform where organisations create talent communities in order to attract, engage, develop people from their past, present and future workforce. The long term value is that BraveNewTalent will map the talent graph by knowledge, skills and potential enabling organisations to increase the efficiency of applying human capital. 

Lucian has been honoured as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum. He is also winner of the Global Enterprising Young Brit. In his spare time Lucian runs Take Heart India, a no overheads charity that provides blind and handicapped students in rural India with the vocational employment skills that guarantee them jobs for life. Lucian speaks to audiences around the world about the convergence of talent and technology and its impact on the future of the global workforce and education.

The 7 deadly skills of the perfect leader

By Kevin Young

Kevin Young, Managing Director of Skillsoft EMEA, outlines the seven deadly skills that every manager should strive to have and what organisations should be looking for in their future leaders.

Employing and retaining strong and capable managers is becoming increasingly difficult as there just aren’t enough candidates with the right skills or levels of experience. Figures released by the 2012 National Management Survey, carried out by the Chartered Management Institute, showed that 59 per cent of employers were struggling to recruit the right calibre of manager in 2011.

1.   Be an effective communicator – lead by example

The success of a manager largely depends on their ability to communicate effectively with all those around them; organisations want managers that are able to both understand and be understood. Written communication needs to have clear direction, accurate facts and the appropriate language - nothing should be left to the guess work of the recipient. On top of this, oral communication is a must-have skill for any manager. The ability to speak with confidence, credibility and poise, and also with enthusiasm, will motivate others and boost productivity.

2.   Motivator, innovator

Organisations and managers alike shouldn’t forget that leaders are the catalyst for achieving success. Leaders are not often born, they are made. Through training, experience and personal development good managers can be created and nurtured so they become invaluable business assets. They will seek out more challenging assignments, always meet deadlines and line staff will respect their direction. A team that is lead by a good motivator and an inspiring innovator will ultimately achieve.

3.   Be a strategic thinker

Strategic thinking is a term that affects managers at all levels and can impact on an entire organisation. For middle-managers this is difficult as they feel they are shouldering a lot of responsibility without really having any power. Although being caught between senior managers and line staff can be challenging, there is an opportunity to play an important role. The reality is that senior managers rely on the middle-manager to translate their priorities and directives so that goals can be achieved. Senior managers need to use strategic thinking to identify goals to drive a business forward and lead to future growth.

Needless to say, no matter at what level they sit, all managers rely on each other to convey important messages.

4.   Spotting and harnessing exceptional talent 

A good leader will cultivate the right team that will meet objectives and give your company that competitive edge. It is vital that talent spotting and development are treated as a top priority, especially in this economic climate. Managers also need to remember that talent may come from within your organisation, so shouldn’t rush to look for external options as their next leaders could be right next to them.

5.   Discovering and nurturing your business acumen

Bridging the gap between management skills and business expertise can be a challenge for the most successful leader. By developing the business acumen of company managers, organisations will see new and compelling business strategies becoming defined, but the right skills must be in place. To possess business acumen, managers must understand their company’s market place, its position within it and where improvements can be made. A thorough understanding of the business landscape will also help managers recognise and learn how external change can affect a company’s success. 

6.   A beautiful mind – solving problems and decision making

Decision making and problem solving are important skills in both life and business. One tends to incorporate the other, but techniques can be learnt to make the process quicker and ensure better results. Analysing a situation and identifying problems is a key business process, but as with being a leader, it does not come naturally to most of us. Decision making training can help leaders focus on each problem and deal with it in the appropriate manner. It will improve managers’ skills and help them make more of an impact in their organisation.

7.   Adapting to an ever-changing business landscape

Business is an area where change is one of the only constants. Managers must learn to embrace these changes and seek out creative ways of dealing with the accelerating speed of modern business life. Whatever the change, good communication is crucial; listening to fears, questions or concerns from your line staff is key to helping them cope with any changes. Responding well to change will inspire your team and will show that you can adapt to any situation.

The importance of management training: helping your leaders grow

Good management skills do not always come easily but even if they do, training is vital. Skilled leaders can provide both immediate and long term benefit. By helping your managers to develop, your business will prosper, maximise its potential and enjoy a competitive environment. The right training will expose talents that may have previously been hidden and will offer managers the opportunity to be at the cutting edge of new business innovations.

To learn more, download the full 7 Deadly Skills of The Perfect Leader White Paper.

 

 

Complimentary webinar: Blended Learning on Steroids

Blended learning is a great way to reinforce retention, save money and integrate effectively into learners’ daily lives. However, simply providing a variety of training options doesn’t guarantee success − finding the right blend depends on your specific learning needs and audience.

Attend a complimentary webinar on October 16 at 1 p.m. EDT
Join Skillsoft and Annette Miiller, Talent Management Leader, Capgemini, to learn how Capgemini defined a Virtual Managed framework to build targeted, engaging and impactful blended learning programs.

During this session, you’ll learn:

• Best practices and lessons learned for delivering global virtual programs.
• How Capgemini’s programs are measured using a Value Impact Analysis.

Register today!

Throw Back Thursday: finding innovation

We receive so much valuable content from our customers, partners and internal subject-matter experts. On Thursdays, we thought it would be fun to do a “throw back” and bring back an older post that was valuable to our audience. Today’s throw back discusses how to find innovation.

To find innovation, start with your own skill, love and purpose

By Shawn Hunter

In late 1953 the Swanson brothers had a glut of turkey.  They were turkey wholesalers and had overestimated the market.  So now they had 235 metric tons of turkey riding around the U.S. in refrigerated rail cars and the executive team was wondering what to do.  Can't you just imagine the CFO showing charts of what it cost to have all those turkeys rolling around on refrigerated rail cars per day?

Gerry Thomas, a sales executive at Swanson, had just seen what Pan American Airlines was doing with compartmentalized in-flight food offerings.  He and the executive team at Swanson coupled this notion with Clarence Birdseye's new flash freezing technique, and then added the catchy product label "TV Dinner" that fit beautifully with the cultural explosion of television.  Their great market opportunity was the eight million moms who were joining the workforce after WWII, who were also enjoying an abundance of electrical home appliances like ovens, refrigerators, freezers, and of course televisions.

Swanson prepared to sell five thousand units the first year.  They sold ten million at .98 cents each.  Big hit, and now you understand how the intersection of technology, inspiration, marketing and resources made it happen.  But does that formula work again today in 2010?  Here's the difference now:

Resources are scarce, not abundant: From water to textiles to lumber, the availability and premium placed on the natural resources we use to create the consumer products and comestibles are in high demand and, in the case of fossil fuels and water particularly, are increasingly precious.

Talent is global, not local: Historically if you had a local workforce that was obedient, diligent, and brought expertise and skill to bear executing on top-driven strategies, you had competitive advantage.  The future is most certainly now in terms of the ability to connect need with a globally-dispersed labor force - highly talented, motivated, and comparatively cheap by U.S. standards.  And all connected by the cost of the internet (free).  The skilled talent, regardless of source, is indeed not free, but increasingly any function that can be made routine, and reduced to if=then equations which bracket to a correct answer, can also be automated.  Consider telemedicine, the in absentia health care solution to everything from fast, cheap review of MRIs, mammograms, and all manners of diagnostics.  You get an X-Ray in the afternoon in Illinois and the scan is reviewed by a U.S board-certified physician in India, and returned overnight - or even immediately - over the web.

Innovation is democratized, not top-driven: No longer can firms rely on the wisdom of a handful of insightful strategists at the top of a pyramid, when meanwhile companies like Rabobank or Best Buy are doing a better job of catering to customer need by creating mechanisms to actively listen to, and incorporate the interests of customers, and know-how of line personnel.

Upcoming webinar: Kick-Starting a Corporate University

Learning and development are a crucial component of a well-defined talent management strategy. A solid talent management program not only increases employee engagement and leadership effectiveness – but it places employees ahead of the competition and drives customer success.

Join Skillsoft and First Data for a complimentary webinar
Kick-Starting a Corporate University
Thursday, September 6 from 1-2 p.m. EDT

Join Skillsoft and Mary Miller, Vice President, Learning Architecture, First Data, for a webinar that will show you how to create an aligned human capital strategy.

IBM to acquire Kenexa

By John Ambrose

This week’s announcement that IBM is acquiring Kenexa for $1.3 billion has generated a lot of buzz. As I wrote on the Skillsoft blog back in December when SAP announced it was acquiring SuccessFactors, this sends a clear message to other large traditional software/services vendors - it’s all about the cloud. And as Josh Bersin wrote in his blog post on the acquisition, after SAP‘s acquisition of SuccessFactors and Oracle‘s acquisition of Taleo, it’s IBM’s turn to jump into the HR and talent management market.

Organizations are recognizing the significant hard- and soft-cost advantages of procuring software and content in the cloud. For the past decade, SaaS vendors including Skillsoft have been extolling the financial and deployment advantages of cloud-delivery models.

Skillsoft has always been a cloud-based provider and maintains relationships with many talent management vendors, including Kenexa. This relationship and our commitment to our common customers will continue.

IBM acquiring Kenexa, just like SAP’s move did back in December, underscores the importance of integrating talent management with existing mainstream corporate infrastructure. This is good for corporate users as they do not check their consumer tendencies at the front door of the company and expect and deserve a better, more seamless talent management experience.  

Learning content is key to any successful talent management program from recruitment to retirement. Skillsoft will continue to provide this essential ingredient to the talent process for our clients regardless of whether they are an SAP, Oracle or IBM shop. 

This deal, along with SAP’s acquisition in December and Oracle’s acquisition of Taleo earlier this year, confirms that organizations value employee development as a competitive differentiator more than ever before. The industry has moved from tactical (but necessary) human resource administration toward higher-value human capital management (HCM), where developing people, not the process, is the focus.

Virginia Clark, The Distinct Edge Group, LLC discusses importance of a global mindset

Virginia Clark, Co-founder, The Distinct Edge Group, discusses the challenge of implementing learning across global enterprises.

Virginia Clark, The Distinct Edge Group, LLC discusses learning on a global scale from Skillsoft on Vimeo.

Like what you saw? Watch an on-demand webinar with Virginia Clark on the connection between talent management and business performance.

Wondering what matters in learning analytics? You’re not alone.

By Kieran King, Global Director, Loyalty Strategy, Skillsoft

Some of the most commonly asked queries in our field include, “What should I report up to executives?” “What metrics are important to L&D?” and equally present is the question, “How does our L&D performance compare to others?”

Answers did not come easily until recently. An advisory board comprised of award winning CLO’s and a consortium of industry experts have joined forces to establish reporting guidance for our field. Whew!

Just as the accounting profession established a consistent set of clear definitions and reporting practices in GAAP, so has L&D. The emerging standard is referred to as the “Talent Development Reporting Principles” or TDRP. The data produced using these principles provides a solid foundation for analysis, just as the data produced by accountants according to GAAP provides the foundation for financial analysis.