Chief Learning Officer - July 2008 - (Page 48)

creating an environment that spreads knowledge sharing and learning. Creating rewards and incentives to learn, and to share and apply what is learned on the job, should be encouraged. 8. The learning department should present managers with data on scrap learning within their organizations. Using questions from surveys, learning managers can aid line managers in understanding where scrap learning is taking place and why. Also, data can be an objective way of rooting out the causes of scrap learning. 9. The learning function should evaluate managers and participants 60 days after training and look for evidence of management support and use of training on the job. At a minimum, it is a reminder to the manager and employee that they should be applying the learning. 5. Were you provided adequate resources to optimally apply the learning? 6. Did you determine speciﬁc uses for the training after it took place? For example, if you just ask on a follow-up survey, “What percent of the new knowledge or skill learned was applied to the job?” that can benchmark against the 60 percent scrap learning indicator cited above. So if you have a response that averages around 40 percent applied, that’s consistent with the 60 percent not applied, or scrap. The goal is to elevate a metric such as this to the learning dashboard and place a goal against it to root out the scrap. Find out where it is more prevalent. It is likely a lot worse in certain areas than others. If you can reduce it by 10 percent, that may mean thousands of dollars in saved costs. More importantly, it could mean thousands of dollars more in increased impact and business outcomes because more people are applying what they’ve learned on the job to make a difference. Here’s a short case study to illustrate this point: An insurance company asked a question about managers setting expectations before the training and then determining speciﬁc use afterward. They ran the data against lines of business (ﬁnance, HR, claims, underwriting). Finance was the lowest of all the groups. The learning function showed the ﬁndings to leaders throughout the organization. It eventually was determined that the ﬁnance group had a negative experience working with learning on a Sarbanes-Oxley learning program a few years back and decided to create its own training. As a result, ﬁnance managers discouraged or did not legitimize or support the learning-sponsored training, preferring their own. The net effect was to stop the duplication of effort and collaborate. The data helped not only to pinpoint the scrap, but also cultivated a nonemotional and objective idea exchange to overcome it. Managers have responsibility when employees go to training. It is learning’s responsibility to highlight this. Using metrics to do this is an objective and nonemotional way to do it. Following the metrics with some practices to obtain and maintain manager involvement changes the culture. In a culture that supports it, learning will thrive in the form of impact and outcomes. That’s good for L&D, the manager, the employee and the stakeholders of the business. CLO Jeffrey Berk is chief operating officer for KnowledgeAdvisors and an adjunct professor of management in Loyola University’s MBA program. He also is the author of the book Champions of Change: The Manager’s Guide to Creating Sustainable Process Improvement and co-author of Human Capital Analytics: Measuring and Improving Learning and Talent Impact. He can be reached at editor@clomedia.com. For any learning program to be successful, no matter how good or bad the program, there must be manager responsibility and involvement to maximize the impact on the job. 10. Learning representatives should meet with managers prior to a major program and discuss how the learning event can impact a business result. The business result should be tracked and linked to the development initiative. Linking learning to business results can show managers the criticality of training. Measuring and Decreasing Scrap The old adage, “You only manage what you measure,” contains a great deal of truth. That is why you must measure the scrap learning/management responsibility issue. It’s actually easy to do. A ﬁrst step is to ask the right questions on evaluations to determine quantiﬁcation of scrap and where sources of scrap can be found. Questions include the following: 1. What percent of learning actually was applied to the job? 2. When did the learner apply the learning (e.g., time-to-job impact)? 3. What are the major barriers to applying the learning on the job? 4. Did you set expectations with your manager before the learning event? 48 Chief Learning Ofﬁcer • July 2008 • www.clomedia.com http://www.clomedia.com

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

Chief Learning Officer - July 2008 Contents Imperatives Selling Up, Selling Down Strategies Take Five A Customer-Driven Approach to Molding Tomorrow’s Leaders The Home Depot: Accelerated Leadership CLO Profile Birth of a Salesman: Selling Learning to Solve Business Issues Selling Learning’s Potential at Siemens Transform Corporate Learning With a User Network Wiki Training Increases Productivity for RMC Vanguard Mortgage Lessons From the Feds: Mapping Learning to Strategic Initiatives Department of Labor Centralizes Content Synchronous and Asynchronous: What’s in a Name? Coping With Cultural Barriers to E-Learning The Manager’s Responsibility for Employee Learning Case Study Business Intelligence In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - July 2008

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