Chief Learning Officer - May 2006 - (Page 42)
CO0506.qxd 4/18/06 1:38 PM Page 42 productivity in practice: ued frequent
job turnover requires CLOs to adjust learning methods to meet employee
needs, including Wa s h i n g t o n Gas: the way information is packaged
and delivered. R e a l - Ti m e Knowledge Transfer B u s i n e s s
Complexity With more than a million residential, commercial and industrial
customers throughout Today's business operating environment is increasingly
metropolitan Washington, D.C., and the surrounding regions, WGL Holdings
Inc. and its complex for workers to navigate. Not only has the pace
subsidiar y Washington Gas launched the Learning Solutions Center in May
2005 to cre- of change increased, but regulatory pressure, competi- ate a
consistent, systematic and more effective approach to learning for its
1,700 tion and the tools that information workers have con- employees. Led
by Organization and Employee Development Director Dori Ramsey, the tinue to
evolve rapidly. Workers frequently balance Lear ning Solutions Center is
working on two parallel efforts: the knowledge management several tasks
among the multiple resources that support initiative, which targets the
organization's entire workforce; and learning interventions, their
performance, often with no clear preferred which at the outset are
primarily focused on the operations division. Ultimately, the process.
Business processes themselves are unclear, Lear ning Solutions Center will
support all divisions of the company in meeting learning many of them
constrained by regulations, and simply and development needs. trying to
find the information needed to perform one's One of the challenges that we
are facing stems from having a large number of employ- job wastes energy,
time and money. Consequently, it is ees eligible for retirement over the
next three to five years, Ramsey said. So, this has common to have
multiple methods, some flawed, to shown us that we have to be extremely
efficient, shorten the learning curve and perhaps accomplish specific
tasks. As enterprises seek new ways modify the ways that we have
traditionally trained people in the past. Our basic approach to cut costs
and improve productivity, they will stream- is to make sure that we have
clearly defined what an employee needs to know to do his line business
processes and educate employees in real- or her job so that every minute
we spend in the learning environment is really targeted time about those
changes. on those objectives. The knowledge management initiative focuses
on both the explicit and implicit knowl- Preparing for Real-Time Learning
edge of each WGL Holdings business unit. In order to identify this
knowledge, the The move to this type of learning environment will Lear
ning Solutions Center had each division identify its core processes,
complete gap look less like an evolution and more like a paradigm analyses
and create plans to address any gaps. For the explicit piece, we are making
shift. Such a shift requires other elements to fall sure that we have
critical processes documented and that they are documented in such into
place, including advancements in technology, a way that the information is
easily retrievable. We have purchased a knowledge man- the on-boarding of
generation Y and retirement of agement system from Contextware that we are
currently implementing and will be rolling the baby boomers. However, the
benefits of a real- out over the remainder of this year. This is going to
assist us in ensuring that employees time environment as it's framed here
are tough to have the most up-to-date information on specific processes,
Ramsey explained. dispute, and those charged with learning, workforce
However, Ramsey said identifying and making implicit knowledge explicit is
more challeng- development and succession planning can initiate a ing. A
lot of expertise, wisdom and knowledge that has become innate to our
workers is few practical steps to take advantage of the chang- not easily
captured and put into a tool such as Contextware, she said. But it can be
done ing environment for their businesses. through things like lessons
learned and best practices. We are also looking at other learn- ing
interventions such as an expert speaker series, one-on-one coaching,
mentoring, etc. Develop or Hire Learning Professionals For the operations
group, Ramsey is currently focused on developing a learning environ- With
New Competencies ment to transfer knowledge through a more hands-on
approach. We want to put all of How far do we have to go? According to a
recent our training and learning solutions under a microscope and say,
`OK, they need to be as report from The Conference Board, we still have
good as we can make them because we have a challenge to bring new
employees up quite a distance. Only 31 percent of survey partici- to speed
more quickly.' We are expanding hands-on-type training and doing more sce-
pants say that HR executives in their companies nario training as well, so
that when C doesn't follow A and B, employees know what to have a strong
understanding of strategic key per- do, Ramsey said. The employees that
are currently in our workforce just know what to formance indicators. Even
fewer 25 percent sur- do when C doesn't follow A and B because they have
been doing it for years. veyed consider their HR leaders capable of
linking In addition, Ramsey and her team are developing career development
paths for the oper- people measures to such indicators. However, there
ations group because with a large part of the workforce expected to
retire, they need to is progress, as evidenced by several indicators,
includ- accelerate learning and shorten the time it takes to move to other
job functions. As we ing the rise of the senior human capital officer to
the look to attract people into the company, we want to make sure that
when they look at C-suite, the outsourcing of non-critical HR tasks and
Washington Gas they see a range of opportunities and that they understand
how they can the shift of administrative tasks to the employee's get from
one position to another, she said. Another motivation is to simply make
sure immediate manager. As needs change, the learning that we can start
people down their preferred learning paths early so that when a job
organization will need to add new competency opens up they have already
begun their training for that position. requirements to mid- and
senior-level management May 2006 By clearly defining the job functions,
career paths and the learning prerequisites for each responsible for
executing learning strategy. job role, Ramsey envisions the organization
will improve proficiency on the job, employ- Competencies can be used to
refocus the learning ee satisfaction and retention. Further more, Ramsey
said the Learning Solutions Center I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning
Officer organization on what's really important and what it will
eventually offer support to the rest of the organization in order to
realize such bene- takes for them to be successful. CLOs will need to fits
throughout WGL Holdings. We are inching toward expanding the Learning
Solutions consider core competencies that include business Center 's
support to the rest of the company so we can give guidance on a more sys-
process experience, business planning, strategic plan- tematic approach
toward learning, she said. We want to offer more opportunities for ning,
finance and other operational expertise. various types of solutions for
the entire company, and we think this will help employees reach their full
potential much more quickly and will present a lot of opportunities G e t a
Healthy Dose of Technology throughout the company. Understanding technology
is not the same as being a
http://www.clomedia.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer - May 2006
Editor's Note
Table of Contents
Letters to the Editor
Take Five
Selling Up, Selling Down
Imperatives
Strategies
Guest Editorial
Learning Solutions
Robbins-Gioia University
Environment
Deloitte & Touche USA
CLO Profile
Productivity
Washington Gas
Case Study
Human Capital
Health Care Service Corp.
Tactics
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida
Business Intelligence
In Conclusion
Advertiser's Index
Editorial Resources
Chief Learning Officer - May 2006
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com