Chief Learning Officer - January 2008 - (Page 27)

clo profile Lawrence said managers follow up again months later with conversations among their intact teams. “[That’s] very much a hit over time, the same content delivered in different channels, in different ways,” he explained. “We try to emphasize learning by doing whenever possible, but we pay a lot of attention to getting people onto action-learning and project teams, giving them different job assignments. We try to track movement. We know who’s in a new job or needs to be in a new job, and we’d rather do that than just rely on a training class. Not that we don’t think training programs work, but we’ve seen tremendous value in putting people into experiences where they have to do the job.” It makes sense that just seeing tremendous value isn’t always enough — learning leaders need metrics to help quantify that development contributes to business success as a whole. Lawrence said to illustrate the link between dollars and development, VF relies on many traditional HR measures, such as the company’s employee-engagement survey data around satisfaction and its productivity and engagement index. The company also is consistently mindful of Kirkpatrick’s evaluation framework, uses qualitative assessments for key leaders at all levels and measures retention from multiple filters, including overall retention, high performer retention, top talent retention and voluntary retention. “Our attrition’s been extremely low, and that’s a tribute to the culture that VF has,” Lawrence said. “We ask: ‘Do they think training and development is contributing to their bottom line?’ We pay attention to how the company is doing on earnings and productivity, but there’s still an opportunity for us to keep building those metrics and making them as robust as they can be. We struggle with it for the reasons that most companies do — you can say there’s a correlation [between development and dollars], but it’s really hard to establish causality.” Lawrence said he and his team are focused on fully leveraging workforce intelligence and VF’s data-driven human capital management work, and they are trying to use technology wherever possible so that managers and associates can use self-service learning outlets as needed. The company’s future learning forays will vary according to an individual’s position, level in the organization and geographic location, among other things. “If I had to boil it down I would say we’re obsessed with two things,” Lawrence said. “One is innovation. We’re spending more and more of our resources teaching tools and practices tied to creativity and innovation in product development, supply chain and reinventing the customer experience. The second training obsession is how we field a high-performance team, developing managers’ abilities to assess their associates’ performance, communicate and give them really good feedback, especially really tough messages about inadequate performance. Those two thematic drivers will underlie a lot of training and development efforts.” – Kellye Whitney, kwhitney@clomedia.com Join us for this unique forum. Take advantage of the opportunity to meet other learning leaders in your area while benchmarking your initiatives and discovering new ways to reach your organizations’ learners. Learning’s Value to the Enterprise 7:30AM Registration Opens & Breakfast Buffet 8:15AM Interactive Panel Discussion Moderated by a local CLO. In today’s business environment, value is increasingly driven by the knowledge and skills of the workforce. With this emphasis on human capital, workforce development is more critical than ever before as organizations look to grow the bottom line. In the 2008 Chief Learning Officer Breakfast Club series, our panel of industry experts will lead conversations in major cities around the United States about the role that the learning organization plays in creating tremendous value in the enterprise. PHILADELPHIA Loews Philadelphia Hotel Thursday, March 6 CHICAGO The University of Chicago Gleacher Center Thursday, March 13 DALLAS Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas Thursday, March 27 10:30AM Close Stay for networking and refreshments ATLANTA Grand Hyatt Atlanta Thursday, April 17 Registration is limited and will fill quickly! Advanced registration is $49.95. On-site registration is $54.95. www.clomedia.com/events/Breakfast_Club http://www.clomedia.com/events/Breakfast_Club http://www.clomedia.com/events/Breakfast_Club

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer - January 2008

Chief Learning Officer - January 2008 Editor’s Letter Table of Contents Imperatives Selling up, Selling Down Strategies Take Five Environment Sips of Knowledge at E. & J. Gallo Winery CLO Profile Productivity UST Global: Opening Employees’ Eyes to New Learning Tactics Applying CRM Concepts to E-Learning Human Capital Capital One: Experiences in Innovation Learning Solutions Macy’s: Using Feedback to Develop One Leader at a Time Case Study Business Intelligence Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - January 2008

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