Chief Learning Officer - August 2007 - (Page 48)

business intelligence Learning Cultures Differentiate Success: Lessons from Employee Opinion Surveys Patrick Kulesa A continual challenge for leaders at every level is to develop and retain talent while providing a learning environment that is truly enriching for all employees. Given these needs, an ongoing question for many managers is: “What should I emphasize in efforts to create and drive a learning culture?” Results from employee opinion surveys regarding managers’ perceptions begin to define a profile of the steps the best companies take to meet the goal of enriching employees’ experiences, skills and capabilities. Gaining insight into the key differentiators of a learning culture requires an extensive database of employee opinion from truly successful organizations. Each year, Towers Perrin-ISR studies the results of employee opinion surveys from companies that exceed their industry averages for net profit margin and return on invested capital. In the view of their employees, these high-performance companies excel in many areas of people management. By studying the opinions of managers across all levels in high-performance companies, the differentiators of effective leadership can be determined. August 2007 Three elements stand out among the differentiators of the opinions of managers in high-performance organizations. Globally, managers at the best companies view them as providing: • Opportunities that reflect a culture of ongoing learning. • Regular performance feedback that recognizes excellence. • Promotion practices that ensure the best employees advance and are retained. First, consider the results across all companies globally. Figure 1 shows the differences among the percentages of managers at all levels responding favorably (i.e., agreeing or tending to agree) to employee survey questions about people management practices. As Figure 1 indicates, relative to other organizations, managers in high-performance companies report that their organizations are significantly better in providing: • Learning programs that adequately prepare employees for their work. • Opportunities to improve current, job-specific skills. • Opportunities for learning that will increase employees’ eligibility for more challenging positions. Formal learning programs might seem like an obvious focus for companies seeking to create a learning culture. Yet, these findings clearly indicate companies that successfully provide learning opportunities to enrich employee skill sets also outperform their peers financially. The best companies do not stop there. Figure 1 also indicates managers in high-performance organizations view their performance management and recognition practices as superior. Specifically, Encouraging a learning culture is a key factor to derive a performance advantage through people. Employee opinion surveys from 128,127 managers at all levels in 29 high-performance companies are available for study. To provide a contrast, opinions in these organizations are compared with results from surveys across 389,503 managers in 205 companies. The majority of companies included in the research are multinational organizations, and they range across industry sectors, including retail, manufacturing, financial services, pharmaceuticals and consumer goods. I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning Officer 48 http://www.clomedia.com

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