by Brian Clark | Business Process, learning management systems, networking, Performance, strategy
The difficulty facing many learning and development teams in organisations is the lack visibility in the executive team and board. There are a number of reasons for this and I have spoken with some who have resigned themselves to the ‘this is the way it has always been’ mindset. It is partially true but this should not prevent you from changing this situation if you and your team are working in such an environment.
The tactics to employ are pretty basic; there is no magical formula to change this reality other than coup d’état or your career taking you to the c-suite. Anyway here are some ideas that I have discussed with a few of our clients and the results have usually been positive if not transformative.
The most obvious way to gain some visibility is to approach members of the executive management team directly. Of course you may have met and mingled but have you taken an opportunity to schedule some time and really talked about your learning and development projects? This is not a meeting that is undertaken without preparation. You need to ensure that you link everything to what is important to the executive, for example;
- Reducing risk with better compliance tracking.
- Enhanced productivity.
- Training cost reductions [careful with this one but good if you have recently implemented an LMS!]
- If you have an LMS or similar, take this chance to show the person the types of information you are able to supply with your reporting capability. This one always causes raised eyebrows.
That all sounds ok but what do I do if there is a moat between me and the executive team? I do not know any of them and doubt the gatekeepers would grant a meeting. In this case you need to plan your approach using your network within the organisation. You need to find a person that supports your cause and is well connected. These people are not always obvious; strong connectors can be in any role.
Recently I heard an example of a IT support person with a husband who played tennis with a CFO. The IT person had no hesitation in saying a hello to the CFO and mentioning how impressed she was with the LMS implementation undertaken by the l & d team. Guess what? The CFO responded with, “What LMS?” The rest is happy history that depended on some synchronicity. People are more connected than ever and you will find it easier than you think to get an intro to a senior executive and gain some visibility.
One more tactic that has shown some success uses technology. If you have an LMS consider enrolling the executive management team in a course that demonstrates what you are doing. Corporate induction courses are always good for this as you can justify the enrolments in the interest of gaining valuable feedback and ensuring awareness of the content included in the induction programs. Surveys are also an excellent tool to gain better visibility for your learning and development team. One government agency we work with conducts regular surveys that are designed to communicate the learning and development strategy and gain input on planning future initiatives.
by Brian Clark | Business Process, resource planning, risk, strategy, succession planning
An old adage about advertising says: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Many organisations look at learning and development the same way as some look at traditional advertising. They are often not sure whether money spent is delivering measurable returns. When organisations start tightening budgets or changing their spending priorities, learning and development is commonly a target and made to operate with fewer resources. Despite the evidence we’ve learned on the importance of learning and development and its positive impact across many facets of an organization, including the bottom line, learning and development continues to be a cost cutting target.
One of the key reasons this happens is the lack of strategic linkage. Strategic linkage is lacking in a couple of primary ways. There is often not a strong representative of learning and development in the executive management team and even less so on a board. The second and somewhat related issue is the lack of demonstrable alignment between the strategic objectives of the organization and the learning and development strategy. The latter issue is often a perceptual problem in the executive team and one not shared by the learning and development team.
In a perfect world these two issues would not exist and in our client community I can happily report that these issues are becoming less common. I know from speaking to many learning and development professionals and senior organizational leaders the gap between the two is sometimes quite wide on a couple of fronts. The first is the lack of communication both up and down. This lack of communication is both interpersonal as well as the l & d team not having the tools to provide senior executives the data that would contribute to better decision making.
The second gap is one of return on investment. I am seeing more emphasis from senior executives on compliance and often at the exclusion of other measurable benefits that learning and development can deliver to an organization. One of the most obvious ones is resource planning. In an environment wrought with skills shortages and often a lack of quality candidates in the market, learning and development can deliver improved succession planning, improved productivity and overall risk reduction.
So how do we work to improve the situation? I will look at some ideas in our next posting.
by Brian Clark | DOTS LMS, e-learning, LMS
There is a lot of discussion about employee face time vs. productive time in both our client community and on some well read blogs and social media. The topic is one that has some importance. We have all lived in a ‘do more with less’ paradigm for many years despite the state of the economy in which we work. The hours that one works is not always a good indicator of the work that is completed. The time and execution ratio often shows a skew that discounts the theory that work hours equate to output or execution. In the knowledge economy that insists much work is self generated the hours worked is a rotten indicator of contribution to an organisation. There are all sorts of variables that contribute to a person’s contribution to an organisation. I would include time spent in planning, innovating, exercising, communicating, learning,creating, and dreaming as time well spent in any organisation that I lead. These measures of time are not dependent upon the time a person spends in the office. In an ideal world people would engage in these activities outside of the work environment. By doing so they magnify the impact they make when they are working. I would recommend you have a look at or re-visit Ricardo Semler. When Ricardo’s work first gained prominence it was pretty scary stuff to a lot of business leaders stuck in command and control. An LMS can provide a powerful platform to support engagement and contribution that is not dependent upon more hours worked. The LMS should be a tool to support people to spend more time exploring, thinking and innovating.
by Brian Clark | coaching, LMS, performance management
Too many companies struggle to get the most from staff because of poor and ineffective performance management systems. And that’s despite several attempts to redesign and tweak their current systems.
So what goes wrong?
Performance management has become very complex. Often the job of just maintaining the compliance requirements is time consuming and onerous. However, if you want real productivity gains much more than this needs to be done.
Research by Bersin & Associates in 2011 found that companies with strong, positive performance management processes outperformed their peers. Without an effective performance management system in place companies will struggle to be competitive.
If performance management is well-planned and well-executed, it can greatly improve enterprise success at all levels as well as advancing the motivation and morale of employees.
Role of Technology
In today’s hi-tech, economical and result-oriented business environment, injecting technology into the different facets of business is essential. This includes your staff performance systems and processes.
This is not to say that traditional performance management processes are antiquated or ineffective. It just means that by incorporating technology, performance management can be more efficient and cost-effective.
Consistency and Communication
Performance management is a continuous process of communication between supervisors/managers and the employees about job responsibilities, job performance, and expectations.
All too often this process breaks down because:
- Compliance requirements are very specific and carry heavy responsibilities
- Supervisors and managers often avoid conversations with employees about performance and expectations.
- There is inconsistency in the quality and content of performance reviews.
- There is a lack of a centralized responsibility to follow up and take actions as a result of performance reviews.
On the upside, if you have performance systems in place that provide effective and consistent feedback to staff the rewards are great.
You’ll also have a framework for feedback and coaching that fosters a high level of communication and teamwork.
What an Effective System Should Do
Any good performance management system should:
- Establish open communication and foster a strong relationship between manager/supervisors and employees.
- Provide transparency of the company’s and the employee’s goals, priorities and expectations.
- Identify and determine solutions to problem areas affecting performance.
- Recognize and support strong performance.
- Align employee’s career goals with the organization’s objectives.
What about Coaching?
Coaching sessions are opportunities for both employees and supervisors to discuss progress in meeting certain goals or expectations. It is a personal and close interaction between supervisor and employee.
This allows supervisors to communicate feedback, recognize and reinforce strengths, and encourage areas where improvement is necessary. Unlike performance appraisal that happen quarterly or yearly, coaching is less formal and it can be done far more frequently.
Effective performance management achieves corporate goals
An effective performance management helps diagnose performance-related deficiencies or problems and helps develop targeted training initiatives. It allows managers and supervisors to assess the training needs of staff. The training should be designed to meet the competency gaps of the workforce.
Targeted training will enable employees to correct deficiencies and improve their performance. It provides staff with the knowledge and skills that lead to increased productivity for the organization. The final result is a highly trained workforce all contributing towards clearly understood corporate goals.
Strategically complementing performance management provides mutual benefit for the workforce and the organization. While it helps staff gain competitive skills and knowledge that makes them succeed and reach their personal career goals, the organization enjoys the benefits for having a motivated and highly productive workforce and lower staff turn-over.
Learning Management System augments performance management
A Learning Management System (LMS) is technology based and it streamlines administrative and managerial functions in the learning and development area.
Most medium-sized to large companies with employees of more than a thousand (and may be in multiple locations) should have an LMS in place.
LMS doesn’t necessarily abandon traditional performance management methods which may includes face-to-face training and one-on-one coaching. In fact, it augments performance management in a more time and cost-efficient way. That means cost savings for the company.
LMS improves performance management processes by:
- simplifying the creation and deployment of training
- providing easy tracking and documentation
- consolidating company-wide training information in one system
- improving certifications and compliance requirements.
Whether it is a classroom type of training, computer-based or web-based training, LMS provides all the necessary tools to make training easier, effective and more straight-forward. With LMS in place, managers and supervisors can focus on the things they are good at—on managing and supervising people—and on the things that need their time and attention.
Call to action
As a takeaway, here are the three things to help improve the effectiveness of company’s performance management system:
- Link the performance management with the company’s learning programs.
- Align training programs with the organization’s needs and objectives.
- Improve the coaching skills of managers.
by Brian Clark | branding, e-learning
I think this blog raises some interesting ideas about branding your training. There has been some discussion in our client community about branding the learning and development in organisations. This goes beyond the typical branding of theDOTS LMS and may extend into a brand for the L&D team and the different services it offers the organisation and other stakeholders. I would like to hear about your ideas and experiences in using branding for your learning and development.
