Chief Learning Officer - August 2007 - (Page 33)

up, and the performance measurements that are being put on people can’t be met if the proper training isn’t there to support it,” Wisniewski said. One answer to that challenge is formalizing individual performance plans that roll up to team or group performance and directly link to a specific business goal. “Where I’ve seen this work best is when training and learning is a priority — and it’s always because the CEO recognizes (and vocalizes) his or her point of view that the better trained the company’s people are, the more they understand the business strategy and where they fit into it, and the better they can deliver on it,” Wisniewski said. One key element to the success of Ernst & Young’s global learning organization is the integration of the performance management process with learning and development plans. These are the foundation for annual reviews and long-term planning that closely aligns people development to business goals. “This process serves as a baseline for matching individual needs with business needs that build the right competencies for a current role, for roles that the individual aspires to in the future and to the business areas in which they serve,” Liley said. “Alignment with our ‘people first’ culture and our overriding development objective as a global professional services firm is to deliver seamless, high-quality client service worldwide.” Further, Wisniewski said learning can aid in realizing global goals. “The corporate university can play a strategic role in showing business leaders the importance of linking people performance and business performance on a global basis,” she said. “The new approach to delivering global learning and development is to provide both training to support individual and organizational performance, as well as support of enterprise networking and mentoring.” The payoff from the new corporate university model is measured in the organization’s alignment with the new pace of change in the global economy. Companies benefit directly from getting their people out ahead of the competition. Today, slow adopters give way to the fastest learners. Wisniewski said environments that support this type of learning and networking will continue to attract and retain people, as well as evolve and increase in importance, especially as globally networked enterprises wrestle with the implications of doing business in a world in which customers and investors value corporate sustainability and social responsibility. “If your company is going to go down that path, you probably have a fairly high percentage of employees who aren’t educated on sustainability,” Wisniewski said. “You can’t wait until the CEO asks, ‘What are we doing about sustainability?’ or be proactive in that sense or opportunistic without the corporate university. I can’t help but think that the corporate university needs to be out in front of this.” Lyn C. Maize is director of market analysis and on the Thought Leadership Team for ACS Learning. Joseph Daniel McCool is a writer who has contributed to The New York Times, European CEO magazine and Healthcare Executive magazine. They can be reached at editor@clomedia.com. http://www.exed.hbs.edu/pgm/absclo/ http://www.exed.hbs.edu/pgm/absclo/

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