You just finished creating coursework that amounted to a six-month project and many hours of revision and review. You’re satisfied—even happy—with the results, but will your bosses be? Understanding the goals of your company’s decision-makers can be difficult, but what’s even harder is taking that understanding and turning it into coursework your learners will respond to. Three Training Top 125 organizations show how they are creating learning programs that both help employees do their jobs better and satisfy the expectations of the Learning and Development department’s bosses.
Keeping Score
As you create courses and roll out programs, it helps to keep tabs on how you’re doing compared to the goals set for the Learning department. “We have a monthly divisional scorecard that is reported to and reviewed by executive management,” says American Fidelity Training Manager David B. McLaughlin. “New in 2016, we also formed a Learning Panel in which we include partners from various areas of the business to communicate about our learning plans and progress.”
Keeping score of how well the Learning department is doing in meeting corporate goals is made easier at American Fidelity because of its philosophy, which emphasizes the broad sharing of company goals. “There has to be alignment from the top to the bottom of the organization. It begins with a clear articulation of organizational goals and strategy at the top of the company. This is communicated to all colleagues, not just a few secret people. Then the same process happens at the division and department levels,” says McLaughlin. “It is critical that each of those goals and strategies aligns with those above. They also get shared up-line and across departments so one hand knows what the other is doing. I won’t say it is always executed perfectly, but that is how we try to do it.”
Ensuring company goals are met also is made easier by listening to those the learning is being developed for. If you meet the goals of your employees, you will, in turn, also meet the stated goals of the company’s C-suite. “The alignment has to come from the top down, but the ideas can come from anywhere. Not only can the ideas come from the ground up, so to speak, but the best ideas come from our customers. We are always listening to what our customers want,” McLaughlin points out. “Our customer-facing colleagues are the ones closest to the customers, so we listen carefully to what they are telling us. It is easy to facilitate this kind of idea generation because we want to stay in business and gain market share. So we listen to the market.”
Direct CEO Involvement
Making sure the programs you develop align with what leaders have in mind is simplified when the top players are directly involved. At AT&T, Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson guides learning goals.
“Our learning priorities are developed from not just the expectations of executives, but the chief executive,” says Ken Fenoglio, president, AT&T University. “Our primary learning platform is AT&T University, known as ‘T University.’ With it, our CEO develops leaders and aligns our skills with the business priorities.”
Stephenson launched T University in 2008 when the business was entering a significant transformation to become a wireless company. He and his leadership team participate in all levels of executive training to articulate the top priorities for the year.
“Our chairman’s annual priorities are clear, available to all employees, and communicated to them,” says Fenoglio. “It’s helpful that those priorities are brief and to the point. We’re talking about a half-dozen easy-to-understand statements, bereft of jargon. That makes our learning and development goalsetting process much easier. There is no ambiguity about what areas our executives expect us to concentrate on, and those priorities are established early to allow the Learning team to plan accordingly.”
It’s essential for all departments, including the Learning department, to understand the future of the company’s industry, including the particular challenges each department will be expected to meet. “We know exactly where we’re headed, thanks to the transparency and communicative nature of our leadership team,” Fenoglio says.
Recognizing that it’s moving into an even more technologically demanding environment, the company offers technology-based training courses at four levels through AT&T University: foundational, intermediate, specialized, and advanced—all at no cost, or greatly reduced cost, to the enrollee. “All of the courses have measurements—ranging from certifications to a Master’s degree—to test the enrollee’s comprehension of the material covered,” Fenoglio says.
Getting a Seat at the Table
Regular, clear communication from the top becomes a streamlined, reflexive process when the Learning leaders are not just communicated with, but at the table where and when the decisions are being made. At Collectcents/SinglePoint, the Learning team is made part of the executive decision-making process. “Being afforded a ‘seat at the table’ is the best way to ensure that the efforts of the Learning and Development team can be aligned with company direction, while also enhancing the profile of the work that is being done by all Learning and Development team members,” says Director, Learning and Organizational Development Ryan Anderson. “For this to be effective, however, the onus must be on the leadership within the Learning and Development department to make team members feel like their work is having an impact on overall company direction. The assumption here is that the Learning and Development department will act as a sub-committee to the company executive.”
One way Anderson and his team have strengthened the link between the work of the Learning and Development department and overall company goals is holding L&D team meetings immediately following the weekly senior executive meetings. “By ‘mirroring’ these meetings, Learning and Development team members are first to know information relative to department initiatives,” he says. “We have found this is a significant motivating factor for team members as they are made to feel like they are on the leading edge of company direction. Further, we have been able to be proactive with team projects that have provided an immediate value-add to overall company mandates.”
Meeting the expectations of learners, while also keeping executives happy, requires a careful balancing act, one which Anderson and his team have developed a system to facilitate. “The ‘60/30/10’ approach assumes that 60 percent of our work will be focused on the projects that can be considered to be regular departmental functions. Some of these functions may be programs such as new hire training, skill refresher training, client-directed training, administrative functions, or training that may be regulatory or compliancespecific,” says Anderson. “Next, 30 percent of our efforts will go toward projects that are seen to be complementing our corporate direction. For example, this past year, our company named employee engagement, employee recognition and rewarding, and leadership development as areas of opportunity. The Learning and Development department structured 30 percent of our time and effort on these projects, and out of these efforts came enhanced Leadership Development and Leadership Pipeline programs, a ‘Tell Us’ campaign that rewards employees, and a revision of company onboarding and new hire programs.”
The remaining 10 percent of learning programming, says Anderson, is saved for development of any ideas team members feel may be worthy of time and effort. “This gives our team members an opportunity to be creative and consultative, while offering an outlet and release of sorts from regular mandates,” he says. “And while idea development sessions often can be scattered and boisterous, the 10 percent approach can be directly attributed to programs such as our Employee Wellness training program and enhancements in gamification techniques that have been launched and already are seeing excellent returns in the early part of 2016.”
When company leadership sees you’re not only responsive to its needs, but that you’re also successfully fielding ideas from learners, it often will respond in kind, reinforcing your seat at the decision-making table. “Senior leadership must have confidence that the department’s efforts are consistently responsive, reflective of corporate vision, and proactive in developing ideas that can be beneficial in the short and long terms,” says Anderson. “Mirroring team activities with senior leadership plans, and using a 60/30/10 approach to planning and executing departmental mandates,” he says, “can be integral ingredients to earning, maintaining, and even enhancing a Learning and Development team’s seat at the table.”
QUICK TIPS
- Keep a “scorecard” of how well the Learning and Development department is meeting yearly executive goals.
- Bring the C-suite feedback and ideas generated from learners and the departments, or lines of business, that the programs are being developed for.
- Encourage direct CEO involvement in the corporate university, and in acting as a direct sounding board about learning and development programs.
- Take time on your own to understand the current and future challenges of your company’s industry.
- If you don’t already, ask to have an L&D representative sit in on executive meetings, so your department can hear corporate goals first-hand.
- Hold L&D meetings after each executive meeting to review corporate goals.
