Elearning blog: Learning re-imagined

Reinforcing Company Culture by Capturing Internal Voices of Distinction

By Shawn Hunter

Amway understands that people and relationships remain at the core of their identity, embedded in fabric of their company, and essential to their success.  With over 20,000 direct employees and over 7 million independent distributors operating in every continent but Antarctica, and nearly every country in the world, Amway needed a powerful, yet scalable, way to sustain the culture of the company, while at the same time attracting and building new leaders in the organization who would also understand, adopt and amplify the core leadership philosophies of the company. 

With this goal of both growing the business, introducing new people, and at the same time preserving the Amway culture, Larry Looker, Manager, Global Leadership Development, and his team developed a plan to capture voices of distinction within the organization around the world by asking the simple question, “Who is leading the Amway way?” 

The program developed into a signature solution, born from the character and core identity of the founding partners, and executed by the creative leadership of Larry and his team to find those individuals who epitomize an Amway leader, within their own organization.

Larry and his colleagues identified eighteen individuals across the organization, whom they felt exemplified the expression, “Leading the Amway Way,” and invited them to participate in a series of interviews delivering their story and voice on three key questions:

• What does leading the Amway way mean to you?
• What does it look like to live our Vision, Founders’ Fundamentals, and our Values?
• What advice do you have for newly hired or promoted Amway leaders?

Tennis Racquets and the Long Tail of Talent Development

We’re pleased to bring you a guest post by Gary Hartman, a SkillSoft partner alliances manager responsible for partnership programs with LMS, Talent Management and Portal providers.

By Gary Hartman

The Long Tail refers to how technology can be used to serve markets that were, until now, too small to be serviced effectively or economically.  For example, I know my local Tennis Shop doesn’t carry the old, discontinued model of tennis racquet that I use.  It just wouldn’t make sense for them to stock the hundreds of discontinued, but still good, racquets.  But I also know I can easily find the racquet for sale online.  My tennis game benefits from modern technologies’ ability to deliver goods to small, discrete audiences with specific needs.

Many companies design Leadership Development programs for only their top performers.  These programs are usually targeted at the top 5-10 percent of their employees.  What about the rest of the employees?        

Modern Performance Management platforms and Learning Management Systems make it possible to enable every employee to find exactly the learning asset that they need to improve their performance in a way that makes sense to them.  You can provide the right learning to the specific employee who needs it, not matter where they are in the organization.  You can service the long tail of Talent Development.  

"Five Fallacies About the Role of Learning Content in Talent Management" Explores How Learning Can Help Solve the Global Talent Crisis

While the industry is beginning to develop a better understanding of how learning impacts talent management, a number of false perceptions still exist. The greatest myth is that learning exists separate from the other components of an organization’s talent management strategy. But to have an impact, learning content needs to be in the workflow, not locked in a hidden system.

At Bersin IMPACT 2012, Josh Bersin, chief executive officer and president, Bersin & Associates, said, “The workplace is undergoing dramatic change. Companies operate on a global basis and jobs are far more specialized, creating a global talent gap. SkillSoft’s solutions address these evolving needs, and offer an expanded portfolio of resources that includes social, on-demand, mobile, storytelling and other next-generation methods. Such solutions go a long way to address the global talent crisis at all levels globally, and to equip employees with 21^st-century skills.”

Leadership development, performance management, onboarding—even talent sourcing and recruiting—can all benefit from having learning content firmly embedded into the process. SkillSoft’s new white paper, Five Fallacies About the Role of Learning Content in Talent Management, explores the misperceptions about learning’s role in a talent management strategy and reveals truths about how learning can help solve the global talent crisis. Download the paper here to learn more.  

Talent Development Reporting Principles

We are pleased to bring you a guest blog post today from John R. Mattox, II, Ph.D., Director of Research for KnowledgeAdvisors, a learning measurement software and solutions company focused on improving the effectiveness of learning. John’s colleague, Jeffrey Berk, Chief Operating Officer for KnowledgeAdvisors, will be speaking during the Impact Analysis: Strategies for Success workshop at Perspectives 2012.

By John R. Mattox, II, Ph.D., Director of Research, KnowledgeAdvisors

Frequently, L&D professionals are challenged to communicate the impact of learning efforts to business leaders.  They are asked to answer seemingly simple questions:  How effective is our curriculum?  Is training cost-effective?  Is L&D supporting business initiatives?

Those simple questions often mushroom in voluminous reports that may or may not provide relevant answers to the executive audience.  And L&D leaders  who have presented to business leaders—CEOs, CFOs, COOs—quickly learn what this audience does NOT want—information about Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluation, or knowledge gain scores, changes in behaviors or the number of people trained.  The c-suite has a short attention, and L&D leaders don’t get invited back to the table if they don’t bring relevant information.

Navigant Consulting Discusses the Benefits of Attending Perspectives

Norene Trondsen of Navigant Consulting finds the SkillSoft Perspectives user conference to be a great opportunity to reconnect with old friends, meet new ones and learn what’s next in the industry.

  

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.  

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.

 

Despite Recent Acquisitions, Customers Will Still Encounter Learning Gaps that Must be Filled

By John Ambrose

Oracle’s recent announcement to acquire Taleo for $1.9 billion is another example of the trend toward consolidation and integration in our industry.  Just a couple months ago SAP acquired SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion and in February, Kenexa acquired Outstart, a learning content management system provider.  So the question is, what is driving this activity and why now?

Customers want simplicity. And they deserve it. Just look at how easy it is to navigate a content- and feature-rich consumer website like Amazon or Netflix compared to your ‘favorite’ behind-the-firewall enterprise application. Then imagine integrating that enterprise app with other business critical apps from different vendors, all on different versions and upgrade cycles. So what’s happening in the Human Capital space is an example of what’s been referred to as the consumerization of IT.  This is a good thing.  Vendors are moving these applications to the cloud, and they are aspiring to do a better job with the plumbing. 

The Value of Talent

By Kevin Young

With soaring unemployment figures and a poor state of the economy, people are now more appreciative of their jobs than ever before.  Moving from job to job is not as straightforward as it once was due to the abundance of unemployed applicants and a lack of vacancies.  With businesses tightening their belts, people are worshipping every pay check with the hope that it won’t be their last.  Working hard and training up has never been more important, especially when faced with a career move - whether it is planned or not.

From a management perspective, training and developing existing staff is both a more cost-effective and efficient process.  Not only is it more expensive to attract talent from other organizations, but it also takes more time to train up new recruits.  Growing your own talent internally and harnessing the power of existing potentials and performers from within the company not only re-assures employees of their worth, but also portrays strong leadership and management skills to customers and competitors. 

SAP to Buy SuccessFactors

By John Ambrose

This weekend’s announcement by SAP that it was buying SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion (almost 10x 2011 revenues) has generated a lot of industry analysis and blog posts.  History will judge the ultimate transformative effect of this deal but clearly SAP has thrown down the gauntlet at the feet of every other large traditional software/services vendor. 

SAP’s big message in announcing the deal is it’s all about the cloud.  Josh Bersin, CEO and president of Bersin & Associates, in his December 4 blog post, called the deal a “major shift in the talent management market.”