Chief Learning Officer - May 2006 - (Page 56)
CO0506.qxd 4/18/06 2:38 PM Page 56 tactics in practice: ent business areas,
the learning leader not only Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida:
benefits from a shared budget but also will strengthen the justification
that there are several R a p i d Learning On Demand company-wide benefits
to one technology. With growing support within a company for learning, As
one of the largest providers of health care insurance in Florida, Blue
Cross and Blue Shield the access to tools for on-demand information of
Florida serves more than 8.3 million people. With approximately 300
internal employees expands. The key is to become much more delib- and
5,000 external employees distributed across the state, the company finds
that providing erate around the application of technology for continuous
education can be a challenge. However, educating a distributed workforce
is not learning, beyond the formal models that are rou- the company's only
ongoing challenge. The complex nature of the insurance industry is just as,
if not more, challenging. tinely deployed today. We're heavily regulated
both at the state and national level due to the complexity of health care,
I n n o v a t i v e On-Demand Tools which involves finance, insurance and
clinical content, said Jep Larkin, director of sales com- From Commonplace
Technologies munications, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida. So when we
are doing communications and training, it requires a bit more than other
industries that don't have content complexity. For example, a company
using a sales portal can implement a learning component by using that In
fact, when regulatory or compliance issues arise, insurance companies such
as Blue Cross portal to give users real-time access to informa- and Blue
Shield of Florida are under strict time constraints to develop and deploy
the neces- sar y product solutions and the corresponding training
initiatives. For example, when the feder- tion relevant to the task at
hand. While working al government introduced Medicare Part D, a new
prescription drug plan, into the marketplace with a CRM application, the
system can offer the in January 2006, the company had merely 30 days to
educate both its internal and external user learning content that is
relevant to that par- employees on the ins-and-outs of Medicare Part D,
and it had another 30 days to educate its ticular client and the specific
part of the sales workforce on the corresponding Blue Cross and Blue
Shield of Florida-specific product. cycle. The portal interface also lays
out the sales We could only communicate generic, high-level information
about Medicare Part D to our process in a to-do list, prompts the user to
prepare employees, and we couldn't talk to employees about specific
products in the marketplace until for a sales call and suggests experts to
collaborate. a specific date. So we could only initially educate on what
Medicare Part D was from a gov- And, when users have insights or helpful
tips er nment perspective, said Scott Bryant, director of sales training,
Blue Cross and Blue Shield based on this experience, they can be shared
with of Florida. As a result, we had a limited window of 30 days to
educate both our internal and others by entering them directly into the
work- exter nal employees on the Medicare Part D product in order to stay
within compliance and place portal. For a company-wide learning imple-
another 30-day window to train the entire sales workforce on our Blue
Cross and Blue Shield mentation to succeed it not only needs to reach of
Florida-specific product. different business lines, but it also needs to
extend In order to address these inherent challenges, Blue Cross and Blue
Shield of Florida realized the business applications they already use.
that it needed a unique deployment tool to suit the needs of its internal
and external workforce for continuous learning. As a result, Blue Cross
and Blue Shield of Florida implemented a rapid In a formal setting, an LMS
is used to manage e-lear ning system. Rapid e-learning tools add value for
us because they are able to get just- and report on learning activities
relevant to in-time communications, messages or more robust training
programs put together and distrib- one's job roles and interests. Many
offer a per- uted to a dispersed audience in a quicker fashion, Br yant
said. For example with Medicare sonalized learning path that shows both
your Part D, we were able to reach the audience we needed under those time
constraints because goals and progress against those goals. The LMS of our
rapid e-learning distribution strategy. also can store the individual's
personal learning But Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida's rapid
e-learning system not only improves its time history, which could be used
in combination to market, it also improves the consistency of its training
messages and the ability for employ- with other artifacts to establish a
persona or ees to train on demand. Another point is that e-learning forces
us to digitize the content early active resume of the employee. If both the
learn- and that means that we can push it out to the Web easier for
follow-up and reinforcement, ing content from the LMS and expertise infor-
Larkin said. When you are dealing with the old style of training, you are
dealing with all these mation can be surfaced in new ways, such as to
materials, cards and things. And getting those materials on the Web can
become a little more facilitate informal learning, the investments in
perplexing sometimes. the formal learning systems show increased ben- The
company's rapid e-learning system also allows Blue Cross and Blue Shield
of Florida to efits to the organization. monitor and track employee
participation as well as each employee's viewing duration. The rapid
e-learning system gives us the capability to set parameters of what
constitutes completion For example, any application can take advan- of a
course. So, I can set that they have to listen to every bit of the audio
that is tied to that tage of presence. Presence is familiar in applica-
class, I can put that they have to look at every slide to gain completion
status, etc., Br yant tions such as instant messaging to inform the
explained. So, if employees don't meet the set criteria, they don't get a
completed status for user when another user is present, away or that
class. signed off. With presence enabled, learners can May 2006 B o t h
Bryant and Larkin agree that the company has seen substantial results in
terms of see which experts are present relevant to the e m p l o y e e
performance, i n c r e a s e d productivity and cost savings as well. I t
has increased task or business process at hand. When a ques- b o t h our
internal and external employees' productivity, a n d this is a sheer
numbers game. I I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning Officer tion arises,
an instant messenger IM applica- W h e n you bring someone into a
classroom environment, t h e travel time to the classroom, tion is used to
contact the expert. Following t h e interactivity and then the travel time
back into the market often equals lost opportunity, that interaction, the
expert can then add that B r y a n t explained. B u t if it is a 15-minute
e-learning module or a 30-minute e-learning associate's question to a FAQ
database, so the m o d u l e, e m p l o y e e s are back on the phone
making calls to agents or brokers instanta- next time a user has the same
question, an n e o u s l y. A l s o, e m p l o y e e s are able to pause
the module to take important business calls or I answer will be available
even if the expert is not t o perform other business tasks and go back to
the module when the time is right. S o basi- c a l l y you cut out many of
the logistical costs that are associated with traditional training and
present. This interaction shows how technolo- d e v e l o p m e n t
programs. gy allows the user to sift through loads of infor- mation
quickly and easily to access valuable
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
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