Chief Learning Officer - June 2008 - (Page 32) “If you look at the hours spent in training by the employee population, a bit more than 35 percent is done online, be it individual learning or Web-conferencing format. We want to promote online learning. It has an impact on the cost of ownership, but it also has an impact on our reach. We can reach many more people through online learning because it’s flexible, and we’re a geographically dispersed organization.” It was not always this way. When the Belgium-educated Ginneberge first joined the organization in 1986, it was ITT. It became Alcatel shortly thereafter and grew rapidly throughout the 1990s via business expansion and a series of acquisitions. It merged with North American telecom firm Lucent Technologies in late 2006, thereby arriving at the current corporate structure. Alcatel-Lucent’s values include respect for and embrace of all peoples and perspectives, and its corporate vision is simply: “Transforming the way the world communicates.” Ginneberge himself cycled through a number of different roles in HR and talent development prior to becoming the head of Alcatel University earlier this decade. “I have been in the same organization, but it’s had different configurations,” he said. Not surprisingly, Ginneberge has faced a number of significant challenges in delivering learning as the company has grown. One of these was expanding the amount of online learning. In 2000, the company had just 7 percent of its employee-development programs online. “We gradually moved more after building a single LMS at the former Alcatel,” he said. “We were able to increase online learning to 12 percent. And just before the merger with Lucent, it was at about 22 percent. Everything was done in steps. That’s our challenge: How do we include the new technologies and new ways of working in learning? We invest quite a lot to make sure people have what they need to work and learn. “It’s not just on the delivery side. The other challenge is on the receiving end. How do you get learners who are prepared to manage the times and locations of learning? That requires more discipline from learners 32 Chief Learning Officer • June 2008 • www.clomedia.com in a classroom, who have already set a time and place aside for learning and nothing else.” Along with the constant challenge of growing elearning, when the merger with Lucent was announced in 2006, Ginneberge was called upon to help lay the groundwork for the move. The biggest issue was time: Ginneberge and his team were tasked with bringing Alcatel’s entire sales force up to speed on the new suite of products that would result. “In two days, we trained 11,000 sales and sales support personnel on the new portfolio,” he said. “That was a contribution that was very impactful.” Additionally, he moved new learning programs and processes into the unified organization. One of these is a structure of learning consultants who delve into the business to determine what learning needs exist. “They go and listen to business issues and try to transfer them into learning solutions,” Ginneberge said. “We have a contact matrix, and we’re connecting with all the key players by function, region and business to make sure we get close to where their needs are. That’s a key connecting point that’s been proven very successful in a post-merger environment, where not everybody knows who’s who. When you integrate teams, roles and responsibilities change.” Also, Ginneberge adapted an integrated talent development program for high-level employees at Alcatel for the merged company. This includes coaching, 360-degree evaluations, online business games and simulations. The efficacy of this initiative was measured by comparing a control group that wasn’t developed and a group that was. Proportionally, the percentage of promotions was double in the developed group versus the undeveloped group. Along with these formal metrics, the program has shown its value as a promotional tool for the learning organization. “Having developed much of the talent promoted to executive level, we’ve got quite a number of relationships with leaders who’ve had a great experience with Alcatel-Lucent University,” Ginneberge said. “That’s clearly contributed to Alcatel-Lucent University as a brand inside the company.” At the moment, Ginneberge is focused on developing the key competencies needed to make the company run optimally and provide it with a competitive advantage. One of the proficiencies that has been identified as especially critical is project management. “Let’s say we’re running large rollouts of wireless networks for customers, and one of those customers announces they’ll be giving 3G service or have IPT [IP telephony] on their network,” Ginneberge said. “If we want to avoid damaging the credibility of that customer, the project managers’ skills in those areas are key. So now we have to qualify those project managers. http://www.clomedia.com
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