TM - November 2007 - (Page 59)

sistently. Learning also needs to be used as a means of rewarding employees and reducing turnover. Thus, the demand for and importance of training within the organization are increasing, and increasing amounts of money are being spent on it. Organizations need to optimize this spending for organizational impact and not just throw more cash at learning. At the same time, approaches to learning are changing. Advances in learning technology have created some interesting challenges in terms of which approach to employ in which situation, how to combine different types of learning delivery within a single learning program and even the suitability of different learning delivery channels for differing employee profiles. Another issue is persuading employees to train, which has implications for learning design. It also can involve restructuring of training into more bitesized elements. Given all these challenges, it is easy to overspend the learning budget, so it is very important for organizations to become more effective at training while finding ways to improve their learning efficiency. Whenever there is this combined requirement for improved effectiveness and greater efficiency, there is an opportunity for BPO, and this is the case with learning BPO. But this switch in emphasis within HR outsourcing from improving transactional efficiency in payroll, benefits and employee care has been quite rapid and relatively recent — learning BPO remains a young industry with considerable growth opportunities (see Figure 2). The industry is still much more developed in North America than elsewhere but has significant growth opportunities in Europe and emerging economies. So, what are companies seeking from learning BPO? Initially, many organizations still need to identify how much they spend on learning, what learning each employee has undertaken and how proficient he or she has become as a result. Ultimately, though, organizations want to know what impact, if any, training has on employee and company performance, and then which training courses and elements do and do not have significant impact. Ideally, they want to know this within an integrated talent management approach. Organizations need to increase the levels of learning within their organizations, as well as use learning BPO to ensure each learning program has an organizational impact and is delivered at reduced cost. Learning also needs to be timelier, particularly in support of events such as a new-product launch or regulatory change. Obviously, some industry sectors depend more on learning than others, and this tends to be reflected in their satisfaction with their current learning provision (see Figure 3) and their rate of adoption of learning BPO. Learning is highly critical in industries with rapidly changing products such as high-tech and pharmaceutical. Another major factor driving the importance of learning is changes in regulation, with the financial services and pharmaceutical industries being heavily affected. Learning delivery also is critical in industries with competitive marketplaces in which customer retention and increasing the average revenue per customer are key success factors. Industry sectors of this type include telecoms and financial services. Further, there are some sectors that involve life-and-death situations and the potential for expensive litigation, such as health care, where learning is extremely important and has huge potential for improvement over current practices. Figure 4 provides an outline example of the benefits that can be achieved from learning BPO. In this example, an airline company has used learning BPO to implement a blended learning delivery model with 40 percent of training delivered online in the first 12 months of service delivery. Learning service levels also were enhanced but with the reduced cost of learning content development and use of blended delivery rather than instructor-led training, resulting in savings of $40 million over the life of the learning BPO contract. In another example with a financial services company, use of learning BPO in the form of training administration and customized content design resulted in a 200 percent increase in the volume of training for a 25 percent decrease in cost, a 33 percent reduction in time to proficiency, combined with a 70 percent reduction in compliance training time, and the business benefit of a 20 percent increase in cross-selling. But how are these benefits achieved, and how is learning BPO delivered? There are two ways benefits are achieved: • A move to blended training delivery replacing, where appropriate, instructor-led training with online, self-service delivery through learning portals. • The use of offshore delivery for labor arbitrage. In terms of location, offshore use across all learning BPO processes averages 36 percent of full-time employees. This proportion varies considerably by process, however, with content design and development typically being offshored and learning administration predominantly onshore. This is beginning to change, however. A typical learning BPO services supplier also is going to focus on its own delivery of key aspects of the service and use partners to achieve a full learning BPO delivery capability. Activities learning BPO sup- talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com 59 November 2007 http://www.TalentMgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of TM - November 2007

Talent Management - November 2007 Editor's Letter Contents Letters to the Editor Human Performance Leading Edge Learning Connections Viewpoint Finding Candidates with the Right Fit Turning HR Data Into Business Intelligence Compensation Technology: Drive Higher Performance, Gain Competitive Advantage The Art and Science of Influence Training the Ethical Workforce Making the Best Managers Application: Pre-Hire Testing Drives Down Employee Turnover at Advnace Auto Parts Dashboard: The Role of Learning Business Process Outsourcing Insight: Nationwide Insurance: On Employees' Side Advertiser's Index Editorial Resources Full Potential

TM - November 2007

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