The L&D challenge for 2014:

Balancing business priorities and individual needs

28th March 2014

Laura Overton

Laura@towardsmaturity org

lauraoverton

28th March 2014 In association with

The balancing actbusiness alignment is increasing priority, so is staff engagement with

learning

The needs of business leaders:

• Business priority• Managing Change/Agility• Talent• Results

The needs of Staff:

• Relevance• Flexibility

• Recognition• Support

Responses from webinar delegates:

Where do you focus your attention right now?

Meeting the needs of business

11%Meeting the needs of in-

dividuals17%

Both – but it is hard to get the balance right

63%

Neither- we are mainly focussed on course deliv-

ery17%

None of the delegates felt that they were currently able to focus on business and individual needs successfully

Get the balance wrong

When we focus purely on:

• Efficiency• Bottom line

results

Staff maybe reluctant to engage

Get the balance wrong

The business maybe reluctant to pay!

Focus purely on Experience

ChoiceFlexibility

Getting the balance right

Business priority

Managing Change

Talent

Results

Relevance

Flexibility

Recognition

Support

Alignment

Speed

Customer driven

Performance

Focus for L&D:

The Towards Maturity New Learning Agenda highlights 4 areas of focus that allows us to create the right balance – download at www.towardsmaturity.org/2013Benchmark

Limited under-standing of

stakeholder, 31%

Resources (Budget/Time),

50%,

Credibility of L&D, 19%

Other, 13%

What is the biggest challenge in getting the balance right?

What practical tips can we learn from top performing organisations to help us achieve this?

Responses from webinar delegates:

Find out what the problem is!

Alignment – Tip 1

Only 55% agree that they

analyse the problem before

recommending a solution

Recommended Resources:www.performanceconsultingbook.co.uk/products-page/ www.amazon.com/Seeing-Eye-professionals-alignment-business/dp/1477246746

Listen – to everyone!

• All stakeholders• Advice on needs

• Guiding development at

all stages • Influencing• Support• Review

Alignment- Tip 2

Set up a steering group

‘training is training, but what we actually do in the workplace is different’How to overcome the culture shift?

The steering group was fundamental to award winning success of Touch Programme at HC-OneHC-One case study can be found in Feb 2014 Edition of eLearning Age magazine

Keep it simple

Our recommendation is to be brave, challenge and take risks but keep

your focus.Do one thing, do it well

then move on!

Reducing call handling times at

• Addressing top 4 issues only• Short & sharp• Shared via a simple portal• Clearly communicated

Jason Pitfield, L&D Manager LV=Winner of LPI Social & Collaborative Learning Award

Speed- Tip 3

See page 45 New Learning Agenda for more information www.towardsmaturity.org/2013benchmark

Respond fast

• The Help desk challenge• The quick response –

Youtube Style• Relationship - tracking

impact• Reduction in help desk

calls by 50%

Speed – Tip 4

See full case study for more inspirationwww.towardsmaturity.org/article/2012/03/18/barnardos-delivers-e-learning-excellence/

Create clear paths for progress

Driving leadership and innovation for competitive advantage

What does a good lawyer look like?

Customer driven – Tip 5 22% of L&D teams support career aspirations

(or personal job goals) yet 66% of learners sayrecognition is important to them

Resulting Skills Compass helps maps roles, defines content strategy

See full case study for more inspirationwww.towardsmaturity.org/article/2011/11/22/leadership-learning-innovation-eversheds/

How do you know what is important to your learners?

Responses from webinar delegates:

We ask them – systematically

gathering feedback, 31%

We ask them – annecdotes

and conversa-tion, 25%

We guess, 19%,

We don’t , 38%,

90,000 staffConverting compliance training meant

challenging L&D assumptions about learners:

Only 30% training staff owned smartphones compared to

80% of soldiersThe result?

7 basic modules converted to apps

Take the time to understand your learners

‘Less about me, more about you

Customer driven- tip 6

See full case study for more inspirationwww.towardsmaturity.org/article/2013/09/13/british-army-compliance-training-goes-mobile/

Design to connect

Customer driven- Tip 7

• Connecting with reality- The Bystander issue

• Gritty , immersive• Powerful storylines• Real life accounts• As close to real world

as you can get

Resuscitation Council & Unit 9 breathes new life into e-learning – lessons from a multiple award winner

Lifesaver Project

See full case study for more inspirationwww.towardsmaturity.org/article/2014/02/28/resuscitation-council-breathes-new-life-e-learning/

Don’t neglect managers

Less than half of L&D agree that their staff understand how their work is linked to the organisation's performance

Performance- Tip 8

• Care home managers vital role

• Able to localise messages • Local dashboards/Grids• Alerts• Local Learning Ambassadors

HC-One case study can be found in Feb 2014 Edition of eLearning Age magazine

Communicate successes

Performance- Tip 9

Reduced Call Handling times by 20%Communicated successes

Stimulated demand

• Tracking what is important to business

• Reporting against business priorities

• Capturing what is important to individuals

• Sharing individual stories of success

• Reviewing to keep learning aligned

What do you think will be the biggest benefit in getting the balance right in your

organisation?

Responses from webinar delegates:

Learner engagement

More resources allocated

Deliver more bottom line value

More credible L&D

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

69%

13%

63%

38%

These tips work!

Learners put what they learn into practice quickly

Learners recommend to colleagues to improve job performance

Significant contribution to increasing our revenue

Postive contribution to improvements in productivity

Positive changes in staff behaviour

Managers agree additional business benefit achieved

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Top Q average Q4

#CLCwebseries

10 years of insights

An evidence based approach to learning that balances the needs of individuals and businesseswww.towardsmaturity.org/2013benchmark

The New Learning Agenda:

Do something!

1. Find out what the problem2. Listen (to everyone)3. Keep it simple4. Respond quickly5. Create clear paths for progress6. Understand your learners7. Design to connect8. Don’t neglect managers9. Communicate successes

Tip 10

What will you do differently as a result of today?

www.towardsmaturity.orgLaura@towardsmaturity.org

martinbaker@elearningconsortium.com

Find out more:

Image credits:The Noun Project , thanks to Nate Eui, Fission Strategy and Lorena Salagre

and Freedigitalphotos.net thanks to Stuart Miles, Salvatore Vuono and digital Art

www.theclc.info

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AgendaToday

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www.towardsmaturity.org/2013benchmark

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About Us Towards Maturity is a benchmarking practice that provides authoritative

research and expert consultancy services to help assess and improve the effectiveness and consistency of

L&D performance within organisations. It leverages the data gathered from the largest learning technology benchmark in Europe.

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