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TRAINING INDUSTRY MAGAZINE - WINTER2015 I WWW.TRAININGINDUSTRY.COM/MAGAZINE 17

D-BASEDLEARNING

by CANDY OSBORNE

ccording to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. has hit a new low or,

at least the newest one since 2001. There were 4.8 million job openings in

2014, making it the highest level of job openings since January 2001. And

yet, the population in the U.S. has surpassed 319 million, contributing to the

world’s population of more than 7 billion people.

In looking ahead within the next five years, according to McKinsey & Company, the global labor market faces a deficit of nearly 85 million skilled workers. Specifically, that’s a potential shortfall of 38 to 40 million high-skill workers and 45 million medium-skill workers.

This is funny math – we have an abundance of people and significant job openings. The disparity in the numbers suggests that the world doesn’t have a shortage of people – we have a shortage of skilled people. It’s a good thing for all of us that skills can be learned.

Oddly enough though, many organizations haven’t found the sweet spot yet. That place where skilled employees meet the needs of business in a way that drives innovation and grows the bottom line. What if there was a way to make ends meet? A way that is scalable, portable and available in several modalities, such as videos, book summaries and online courses. There is a way to make these ends meet and best yet, employees don’t have to leave the office to access it.

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WHY CLOUD-BASED LEARNING?

Cloud-based learning offers a wide-range of benefits to organizations. Its greatest impact is the ability it has to reach more people at more points in time, resulting in the increased transfer of learning to job performance. In addition, organizations tend to save time and money with a cloud-based learning investment. (Learn about additional benefits in Figure 1.)

FIGURE 1. COMMON LEARNING PROGRAM MODALITIES

Cloud-basedlearning

Classroom-based learning

Virtual Classroom learning

Internally developed e-learning

Cost-efficient

Portable

Low carbon footprint

Curated

Variety of learningmodalities

Embedded intodaily workflow

Enterprise-scalable

Quickly deployed

Aligned to businessobjectives

Automaticallymaintained

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x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

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The International Data Corporation (IDC) states that knowledge workers spend approximately 30 percent of their time searching for data to bridge knowledge and skill gaps, yet about half of that time is wasted because the tools available aren’t able to adequately bridge those gaps. The quantitative savings obtained from the reduction in expenses, either actual or forecasted, usually offset the initial costs involved in bringing cloud-based learning into an organization. The qualitative results provide an increased focus on work processes, customers and overall productivity.

THE WORLD DOESN’T HAVE

A SHORTAGE OF PEOPLE –

WE HAVE A SHORTAGE OF

SKILLED PEOPLE.

DEFINING SUCCESS

There are a number of contributing factors that enable organizations to optimize to a point in which skilled workers and business performance collide. And at its core, is a successful cloud-based learning program.

EMBRACING A CULTURE OF CONTINUOUS, ENTERPRISE-WIDE LEARNING

What is the goal of a learning program? Counting course completions? No. The real goal of any enterprise learning program, including a cloud-based learning program, is to make behavior changes that positively influence business goals. Strengthening baseline knowledge across the employee population so that skilled employees are

engaged and coming to the job each day fully charged and ready to think innovatively and move the needle for the organization – that’s the goal.

There are a couple of points that some organizations fail to see, however. One, is relying solely on event-based learning events for a learning program and/or not reinforcing those one-time events with additional ongoing learning. More often than not, industry leaders question whether these event-based learning programs are sticking and creating desired behavior changes. Event-based programs certainly are not scalable. With the rapid need for skill development and transfer, organizations need learning solutions with enterprise-wide scalability.

The Forgetting Curve, first advanced by Hermann Ebbinghaus, shows that most of what we learn is lost very quickly – that includes the investment organizations make when sending employees away for training events. Because of this, learning should not be viewed as an independent event; rather, learning should be infused in the day-to-day and available anywhere and everywhere employees need it. Leading organizations embrace a continuous learning model where employees have access to a constant flow of succinct on-demand resources to support their development

The second point that some organizations miss has to do with who in the organization has access to learning. For example, if an organization sends just a portion of its population to event-based learning events, the organization is leaving a gaping knowledge hole for the rest of the employee population. Don’t we all have questions for how to improve on the job, how to react to the changes around us in the workplace and business landscape? If organizations are focusing on a select few for training, then expect to see a select few innovative ideas to emerge, if any, as a result.

EMBEDDING LEARNING INTO WORKFLOW

According to a Brandon Hall Group study, more than half of the organizations surveyed “felt that their employees needed to connect with learning resources on a weekly or daily basis to effectively perform their job.” Yet, there is often a disparity between the opportunities employees have and what they need to perform their jobs and move the needle for their organization.

Employees need just-in-time training, as well as ongoing learning reinforcement. That’s why it’s important to infuse learning in the day-to-day making it convenient for employees to access what they need, when they need it. This can be achieved by integrating learning where

TRAINING INDUSTRY MAGAZINE - WINTER2015 I WWW.TRAININGINDUSTRY.COM/MAGAZINE 19

employees go, such as the intranet, the customer relationship management (CRM) system, talent management system, etc. Doing so makes it easier for employees to get what they need and more immediately apply what they learn to the job.

ALIGNING LEARNING TO BUSINESS

According to the UK-based research organization, Towards Maturity, seven habits emerge when describing top learning companies exhibiting tight strategic alignment.

Well-aligned learning organizations:

1. Actively involve leaders in decisions 2. Use strategic business goals to

determine priorities3. Focus on the end results4. Integrate with HR and talent strategy5. Demonstrate business value6. Ensure staff members understand their

contribution 7. Enjoy proactive management

commitment

SUPPORTING SOCIAL LEARNING

COLLABORATION

With geographically dispersed workforces and employees perpetually on the go, social media is at the heart of keeping people and teams connected. Facebook has a billion active users and it’s no longer a question of whether or not you’ve heard of it, it’s a question of what your last post was about. Because employees likely have social media behaviors either on the job and/or off the job, the idea of social learning is taking hold. It’s important, however, to apply social learning in the right context.

Cloud-based learning naturally lends itself to collaboration via social media. Social learning layers that are built as a feature set within an LMS can enable learners to create public notes and discussions related to online assets, follow colleagues of interest

and view an up-to-date newsfeed of activities and content generated by other users in their organization

OFFERING ANYTIME, ANYWHERE ACCESS ON PORTABLE DEVICES

With smartphones and tablets becoming more and more commonplace in enterprise environments, the interest in mobile learning has been heating up. The evolution of the mobile market will play a key role in whether you decide to move forward with building content geared specifically around a single device (such as a tablet) or if you want to take a more flexible approach. The devices you support may be largely dictated by your organization’s IT decisions, including whether they will purchase tablet devices for employees, or their level of support for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). Today the trick for content providers and consumers is to “future-proof” their mobile-learning strategy, which means including options for new developments and devices in the rapidly changing mobile market.

CHOOSING A LEARNING PARTNER, NOT JUST A “CONTENT PROVIDER”

The right supplier will have deep knowledge about the path organizations take as they evolve their learning strategy. A learning partner will likely have an established benchmarking model with various stages of learning defined and plans of action for how to attain each stage. It is beneficial to define

what stage your organization is operating in currently and what stage to attain to next. A learning partner can help you navigate the path toward learning program — and business — excellence.

DETERMINING ROI BY MEASURING AGAINST BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

Outcomes are optimized through the quality of engagement, alignment, and adoption efforts. The ultimate test for any learning metric is whether it helps the organization deliver peak performance. Does the metric help monitor agility or other key organizational characteristics required for success? Does the data help identify high efficiency or over-investment? Does it allow decision-makers to compare performance quarter to quarter? Does the data help identify strengths and opportunities? Can outcomes be forecasted?

For decades, the limiting belief that value derived from learning cannot be measured has left too many organizational leaders with no data for decision-making and less confidence in the power of technology-based learning.

SEIZING THE POTENTIAL

A cloud-based learning program has great potential to affect business outcomes for organizations by influencing employee behavior to meet or exceed business goals. But it needs to be established and rolled out correctly starting with a supportive culture of continuous learning to meet the just-in-time learning needs of all employees and to support learning that may be taking place in the classroom or other event-based learning event. The right learning partner can help you define goals and the path forward to measuring business impact.

Candy Osborne is a senior marketing manager at Skillsoft with a focus on researching, writing and marketing leadership and talent management solutions. She has more than 20 years of experience writing for myriad B2B and B2C organizations in the U.S. and Japan. Email Candy.

Increased sales

Increased customer service

Reduced travel time and costs

Reduced employee turnover

Reduced time away from work

Reduced scrap learning rate

Accelerated productivity

Increased agility and flexibility

Increased scalability of content

Shortened development cycles

TOP 10 BENEFITS OF E-LEARNING

1.2.3.4.5.

6.7.8.9.10.

SEVEN TIPS FOR CLOUD-BASED LEARNING SUCCESS

Embrace a culture of continuous, enterprise-wide learningEmbed learning into daily workflow Align learning to business goalsSupport social learning collaborationOffer anytime, anywhere access on portable devices Choose a learning partner, not just a “content provider”Determine ROI by measuring against business performance

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.

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