The buzz around talent and talent management, performancemanagement, and human capital management (HCM) has grown from a mere whisperthree years ago to continual murmurs in 2012 to a building roar in 2013 and 2014.Is this important to eLearning professionals? How does it affect our work?
You have probably noticed that executives these days arepaying attention to Big Data and the predictive analytics that can be appliedto it. Quants—specialistswho perform the quantitative analysis involved—provide strategic guidance tocompanies, based on big data. This is having a major effect on the thinking andthe decision criteria of top business leaders. It is essential for learning anddevelopment (L&D) professionals to understand this, to understand how datais driving HCM, and to position L&D within the business context. If youwant a seat at that famous strategic table, you’d better be able to speak thelanguage.
In this article, I will provide an overview of thesedevelopments. I will also suggest seven key practices that will make thedifference between success and simply failing to thrive. I believe L&Dprofessionals and their managers should begin to implement these now. Over the nextseveral months, Learning SolutionsMagazine will be publishing additional articles that dive deeper into HCMand its implications for eLearning.
Data analytics, automation, and integration
While financial measures traditionally expressed as return oninvestment (ROI) or in balanced scorecards are still important, it is more andmore the consideration of predictive data around the impact of an investment onperformance and outcomes that drives executive decisions (including thoseinvolving investments in L&D). It isn’t necessary for L&D professionalsto be able to do the mathematics of quantitative analysis, but it is importantto understand the thinking and to be able to collect and use performance datato support L&D initiatives. It is also important to fine-tune our thinkingabout the way we identify, design, and guide those initiatives.
These changes are driven by disruptive technologies and bythe problems involved in managing a generationally diverse workforce. Thedisruptive technologies include not only predictive analytics but also theincreasing automation and integration of key business functions and processes,including human resources (HR).
Automation of HR began with software for payroll andcompensation, but now is beginning to affect other processes with strategicimplications, such as talent acquisition (recruiting) and talent management(including workforce planning, onboarding, and succession planning). HR functions,especially the ones dealing with talent, are also becoming more integrated,although this is far from universal among companies and is more true for largecompanies than small ones. The trend is clear, though.
In the field of training, we have added the Experience API specification(xAPI) to our technologies, to complement the earlier SCORM standard. SCORM providedthe means to document completion of formal in-house training events andcourses, and to integrate this information into an organization’s learningmanagement system (LMS). The xAPI specification provides a way to document all of an individual’s learningexperiences, whether formal or informal, in-house or external, and to compileit into a learning record store (LRS). At this point, unfortunately, in mostorganizations there is as yet little or no integration of these systems withother HR functions and processes.
Why does this matter? It matters because these HR andL&D systems accumulate huge amounts of data. Properly integrated and analyzed,this data can provide strategic insights and business intelligence valuable tosenior leadership—the executives who make the decisions about where to investresources, including capital.
It can be very difficult to understand where we are headed,why traditional training is passing away, and how our ways of thinking about learningare (and must be) changing. But understand we must.
The learning (and performance) ecosystem
A first step is to consider how our knowledge about whatworks has evolved. Research, particularly in neuroscience, is giving usvaluable new information about how learning happens. One effect of this is thatwe better understand that learning is not linked to isolated events inorganizations. Our frame of reference for L&D must include more than formalinstruction, or on-the-job training or coaching. Our criteria for success mustgo beyond “completions,” and beyond criterion test results (traditionalKirkpatrick Level 2).
Now, as the result of advanced research in neuroscience, wehave a better understanding of the ways in which learning takes place in thecontext of life and work. Learning takes place outside of classrooms. Learningtakes place with peers as well as with supervisors and coaches and trainers.Performance can be shaped on the job through performance support.
The learning ecosystem is the appropriate frame ofreference, and actual business performance is the payoff that decision makerscare about! (What we have called Kirkpatrick Level 4 and the Phillips’ Level 5are no longer sufficient for executives.)
As my colleague David Kelly has said in a recent blog post, “Intoday’s digital world, a web of learning resources surrounds every individual.It’s an environment wherein each resource connects to others, creating anoverall structure in which all learning takes place. The learning ecosystem isthe combination of technologies and support resources available to helpindividuals learn within an environment.” And, I would add, that samecombination of technologies and support resources helps individuals perform within an environment. It is business-relevantperformance with which we must primarily be concerned.
Organizational learning and performance strategy
Now all of this is only a preamble to the bigger subject of humancapital management, which as I said at the beginning of this article we willaddress in Learning Solutions Magazinein coming months. In fact, probably the majority of organizations where readersof this magazine work are not currently fully engaged in the transition to HCM.In the majority of cases, organizations are not collecting and analyzing datafor strategic purposes or for business intelligence. The majority of companiesdo not yet have full integration of the systems.
But we don’t have towait to begin positioning L&D.
The biggest change required of professionals in the learningbusiness is to begin thinking strategically instead of reactively andtactically. To think and act strategically requires that we connect what we dowith the organizational results that matter to our executives and leadership. Italso requires that we adjust what we do and how we do it so that we takeadvantage of the technologies now available to us. Guided by what we learn fromresearch, and enabled by ubiquitous technologies, here are seven things we cando right now to build a learning ecosystem that will align with developments inHCM.
Social learning first
Develop your strategy for use of social and collaborativedesigns for learning, and make these your first option where appropriate (andremember they may be appropriate more often than you expect). We know thatsocial and collaborative learning is highly effective; it is how people learnmost of what they know about their work, and best of all, it doesn’t cost much,if anything, to incorporate it into your learning ecosystem.
Performance support
Develop your strategy for performance support at the momentof need (delivered on mobile devices, embedded in systems and software, providedcontextually in the workplace, and complementary to the formal and informallearning experiences in your learning ecosystem). This is also anotherrelatively low-cost element of the learning and performance ecosystem.
Use appropriate off-the-shelf courses (thoughtfully)
Fine-tune your selection and assignment of off-the-shelf(OTS) courses. Look for industry- and association-provided content as well asvendor-developed courseware, and match the person to the course. Consider OTSbefore in-house development, not as a default for the masses, but where provenhigh-quality courseware is available that specifically matches individual talent-developmentneeds.
Develop formal instruction in-house only when it makes sense
Consider your business case (not “use case”) for in-house-developedcourses and content. It is vitally important to be able to show why in-housedevelopment and formal instruction (including use of OTS) is more appropriateand provides more value than the other alternatives named above. This is themost expensive element of your learning and performance ecosystem.
Apply research before tradition
Provide practice, booster tests or activities (see Art Kohn’scolumn next week) and (where appropriate) spaced repetition as part of yourlearning design, for all modalities—whether informal or formal. Pay closeattention to research and use the results that apply to your situation. Thereis a lot of urban myth and ancient lore embedded in many eLearning designs, andit needs to go away if it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
Track learning experiences against results
Connect learning experiences with performance results. Thiswill require integrating your learning management system, learning recordstores, and performance management systems. Your executives will want to knowhow you expect to measure progress. Don’t make your pitch without an evaluationplan!
Teach managers how to develop talent
Develop the skills of your managers for guiding talent, andmaking appropriate use of learning resources and the performance managementsystem. Training, as we used to say, is never enough. Neither is informallearning or performance support. You must have the competent, proactive supportof the managers and supervisors.
Now what?
Counts of butts-in-seats and course completions aremeaningless to decision makers. Individuals who are merely informed or who can pass a test or who “knowthe right answer” do not give an organization what it needs. What anorganization needs is individuals and teams that can perform.
Design your learning ecosystem to develop what yourorganization needs: individuals who canperform. Supporting your organizational learning strategy and connecting totalent management efforts will provide that res ult.
Resources
Kelly, David. (November 18, 2013). What is a Learning Ecosystem? Twist. 18 November 2013.
McKinney, Rob. “eLearning Helps Equip Managers for DemandingNew Expectations.” Learning SolutionsMagazine. To be published 2 April 2014.
Messner, Wolfgang. Makingthe Compelling Business Case: Decision-Making Techniques for SuccessfulBusiness Growth. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Pease, Gene, Boyce Byerly, and Jac Fitz-enz. Human Capital Analytics: How to Harness thePotential of Your Organization’s Greatest Asset. Hoboken: John Wiley &Sons, 2013.
I also recommend Silk Road’s “The State ofTalent Management 2014.” While this is a vendor-created document and accessrequires registration, it is extremely well done and informative. If you wouldlike to see an overview of the report content, you can view a presentation of the report by Ed Veselyon YouTube. You can download the reportitself from the Silk Road website.
