by Brian Clark | capability, competency frameworks, DOTS LMS, learning and development, learning management systems
This is a guest post by Cindy Pascale, CEO of Vado Inc.
As a teenager, my first job was working at a Dairy Queen making ice cream cones, sundaes and shakes. On my first day, my manager showed me how to make the famous DQ swirl that sits on top of all DQ cones. First, he showed me how to make a cone identifying all the minor movements that need to be made to create the perfect ice cream cone. Then he handed the controls to me. The first few were sloppy and lopsided. He told me to keep practicing and practicing until I got it. And I did. Within a short while, I was able to create the signature swirl.
Without giving it a name, my manager had me develop my skills to create the perfect DQ swirl by practicing and developing my skills on the job.
Most learning and development professionals can quickly recite these statistics “70% of development happens on the job; 20% through coaching and mentoring; and the final 10% through formal learning.” So this leads to the question, what are companies doing to develop their employees on the job?
Job skills are pretty easy to develop on the job. For instance, managers, technical trainers and front line leaders show employees how to run a piece of equipment. They then have their employees practice until they can run the equipment at the required level of productivity and quality requirements. Yet, in a recent study from the Towards Maturity Benchmark Study 2012 – 2013, they found that while 94% of learning and development leaders seek to speed up the application of learning back into the workplace, only 23% believe they achieve this.”
It is much harder, though, to develop employees’ soft skills through on the job application. That is why training and development leaders turn to Vado. Vado is the only off the shelf e-learning courseware that provides a step by step Implementation Guide to help the learner apply skills on the job to develop their behavior based competencies. The Implementation Guide helps the learner make the transition from the formal learning environment (the e-learning course), to application, by walking the learner through each step of the process to develop on the job and leverage the natural way a person develops.
Companies win because instead of having employees sit in an e-learning course for long periods of time, over 95% of the development time of Vado’s courses is the application on the job. The results are accomplishing two goals at one time: development while doing work that needs to be done.
You can get more information on the large range of modules available here. Request a full catalog of modules and a 3 month pilot by contacting us here.
by Brian Clark | crm, customer relationship management, learning and development
Just in case you are not sure, CRM is the acronym for Customer Relationship Management. There are heaps of CRM systems out there and there are plenty of opinions about which ones are good and which ones to avoid. There is also a wide range of pricing options to consider as well. Back to the story.
It is easy to blame software for all sorts of issues. This blame may be warranted but very often it is simply a lack of knowledge that frustrates our ability to use the software effectively. The issue we run into most frequently is the lack of diligence in the use and administration of the CRM. Our consultants usually hear things like; “we don’t have time to use it” or “it is too hard to use” from frustrated business managers and owners. These statements are usually spoken when we start asking some questions that require their looking at the data in the CRM. I usually ask to have a look at their CRM very early in the consulting project so I know what I am facing as we move to automate processes and get more productive.
Most CRM software is now pretty mature. This genre of software has been used in business for many years now and most vendors have evolved their systems to a point where they include many features and tools to make sales and marketing EASIER. Here are some of the key complaints and a bit of diagnosis. If you have one or more of these issues in your business then please get in touch.
- Your sales people are not using the CRM.
- They may not know how to use it or the reasons why it is important that it is used. I like to include competencies in the position description to ensure this is documented as an essential part of the performance appraisal process. You must train your people in how to use the CRM and you need to ensure you regularly communicate its essential status in your business.
- The CRM is too hard to use.
- I have yet to find a CRM that is really hard to use. There were a couple I used more than a decade ago that were a bit difficult but not recently. People need training and this training is best done regularly and not just once. Your new hires need to be trained and I really like to include peer to peer training and best practice sharing.
- We can’t get meaningful information out of our CRM.
- Garbage in – garbage out; remember that? If your CRM was poorly implemented with a generic configuration or one that is not aligned with your business processes then you will never leverage a high ROI. The whole purpose of a CRM is to provide your business with data that is essential to grow your sales and market share.
- We have to pay for this software every year and we don’t get any support or training.
- Welcome to the club. Some CRM vendors have terrific online help and training resources. These are all self-serve and can be re-purposed to create some internal training programs. Training and support can be very expensive and so we work to create this training to ensure that you have these training resources ready to go.
- I know we need a CRM but there are too many options and I don’t want to waste money.
- If you are looking at implementing a CRM and doing research you will already be aware of all the options. It is a jungle out there. There are so many features and options that may be named differently and behave differently for the user and this makes comparison even more difficult. Get some help.
All of these issues can be fixed. Our company ‘eats its own dog food’ and so we are a bit passionate about the power that a well implemented and managed CRM delivers to growing businesses.
by Brian Clark | competency frameworks, e-learning, learning and development
The eLearning Industry Association of Victoria is hosting a breakfast seminar on May 16. You do not want to miss ‘Development Best Practices.’ You can register for this event here. The presenter is Cindy Pascale, Founder and Vice President of Vado Inc. Cindy’s presentation is full of insights based on research and these translate to actions you can execute in your organisation.
Cindy has over 20 years of Human Resources, Sales & Marketing and Operations experience. Before co-founding Vado, she:
- Was a SVP & Partner for a niche employee engagement provider, leading the sales, marketing and business development functions
- As the President & COO, led an assessment services organization delivering employee surveys and 360 degree assessments
- Lead the Human Resources, Training & Development and Organizational Development functions for a mid-sized software company and a medical device manufacturing company.
Cindy earned a MBA in Human Resources from the University of St. Thomas and a B.A. in Business Management with a Minor in Organizational Communication from the University of Wisconsin.
If you would like to learn more about Vado’s innovative learning content and supporting tools, please get in touch with us here. We can set up online access so you can see for yourself this unique range of courses really is.
by Brian Clark | DOTS LMS, DOTS webinar, e-learning, learning and development, utilisation
We are focused on helping you get the most out of the DOTS LMS. We know how hard it is to juggle the demands of your position as well as knowing all the features and tools in DOTS. We are giving you an opportunity to take 60 minutes out of your day to learn and refresh your knowledge in using DOTS LMS.
This online webinar is going to focus on how to “Set up a Beautiful Course Catalogue”, which will include the following topics:
- Changing the Course Catalogue Home Page
- Adding and Editing Categories and using images and description
- What course components display in the Course Catalogue
- Creating Deep Links to Course Detail Pages in the Course Catalogue
- Creating an Auto-Enrol Link for Course Sessions in the Course Catalogue
- Why you can’t see a course in the Course Catalogue
This webinar will be hosted by Kathleen Bosworth.
Block out one hour in your calendar on Tuesday 23 April.
- 12.00pm AEST (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane)
- 11.30am ACST (Adelaide)
- 10.00am AWST (Perth)
You can register by sending an email to dotsinvitation@dotstalentsolutions.com
Your registration will be confirmed by email with a link to the online webinar.
by Brian Clark | DOTS LMS, learning and development
Precise words are important to the meaning of the ideas being expressed. It is interesting that we use the words, “learning and development” to describe the training or learning activities in the majority of organisations. The definitions of these words are quite different, though.
learn·ing /ˈlərniNG/
Noun: the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, practice, study or being taught. Knowledge acquired in this way.
Synonyms: knowledge – scholarship-erudition-science-lore
de·vel·op·ment /diˈveləpmənt/
Noun: The process of developing or being developed or a specified state of growth or advancement.
Synonyms: growth, evolution, progress, expansion
My experience with organisations is that the focus is typically on “learning” with minimal activities in the “development” area. It is understandable. Certainly, knowledge-based activities have always been easier to deliver and track even before the advent of Learning Management Systems. Whereas, development activities have always been more challenging to define, more challenging to develop and definitely more challenging to track even with the use of Learning Management Systems.
The greater challenge in tracking development activities with Learning Management Systems is probably because the realm of development is conceptually somewhere between learning activities and activities within the management of performance. And not all Learning Management Systems include performance management features like DOTS so the tracking of “development” within a system is not as mature as tracking “learning”.
Delivering true development programs via a Learning Management Systems (when it includes performance management features) is also an emerging area because there isn’t a lot of “development content” that is readily available as off-the-shelf content. Whereas, there is a plethora of knowledge-based courses and content where knowledge is delivered and assessed. Development courses that provide employees to document development performed in on-the-job activities are rare. And creating development courses or content from scratch would be a daunting and expensive exercise.
With our new development courses, you have a complete capability framework to help the transition from “learning” into “development” in the workplace. The combination of short instructional videos followed by downloadable step by step on-the-job Implementation Guides helps employees put into practice the instruction they just completed and provides the structure for documented (in an LMS) coaching and mentoring sessions.
Keep an eye out for our Development Best Practices Webinar, coming soon in March 2013.
