With the end of the year fast approaching, it’s a good time for a post-mortem on what worked and what didn’t in people management and related learning and development (L&D).
As you evaluate the progress (and possible regression) of your lines of business and work groups, are there wins and losses that stand out to you?
Evaluating Internal Promotions
When you were able to promote from within, what were the results? In some cases, did the internal promotions cause strife that Human Resources and L&D teams could not resolve? Or to put it another way: Are there instances of failed or struggling internal promotions that could be attributed to insufficient support from HR and Learning?
For example, was there an internal promotion that got off to a rocky start because the manager never learned the needed communication skills for that role, or if they had those skills, did not know how to apply them to their new role?
If you identify a failure like this, see if there is still a way to remediate this disappointing internal promotion. If remediation is not possible, what will the process be for managing this person who was promoted into a role they have not thus far succeeded in? Do they have the option of moving back to their old role? Or could a new role be carved out for them that would allow them to focus on their core strengths?
Are there conclusions you can come to that are larger than this one individual about the learning and development needs in your organization, such as the need for a new and/or improved managerial communication skills training?
How about the internal promotions that were hugely successful? Are there themes you can identify for when the internal promotions worked well? For instance, were those successful promotions employees who had been closely mentored by their predecessors? Did they complete learning and development courses prior to moving into their role that those whose promotions were not successful did not complete?
Evaluating Layoffs and Terminations
Who did you let go this year and why did you do it? Which layoffs were for budgetary reasons and which were performance-based?
When it was performance based, were the performance cases their manager made valid or suspect? For the ones that were suspect—meaning the performance arguments did not track with what everyone else who worked with the employee knew to be true—why were the terminations allowed to move forward? Why were they rubberstamped without further investigation?
What does the post-layoff/termination landscape look like in the affected departments? Do you now have skeleton staffs that struggle to meet commitments to customers or are the remaining employees giving evidence of and/or expressing feelings of burnout?
Did any of the terminations result in a crisis, such as a department left flat-footed and unprepared when the remaining senior employee was struck by a surprise illness or life event, so that the only remaining employees in the department were junior and incapable of efficiently carrying on the work?
What does this tell you about Learning’s role in working with the executives overseeing each department to ensure that layoffs and terminations meant to alleviate budget concerns or interpersonal conflict do not result in a department unprepared for an unexpected crisis? Particularly, if the one remaining senior employee is 65-plus, you want to be sure a contingency plan is in place. Anyone at any age can be struck by illness or a family crisis, but statistically, the chances of health crises increase substantially with age. You can’t choose or eliminate candidates for promotion based on age, but you can be conscious of the need for backup and contingency planning.
Learning’s Impact on Product and Services Launches
Did your organization launch new products or services that customers did not respond well to or reported service and satisfaction issues about?
If that happened, can you identify what went wrong? In some cases, maybe the training programs for customer service representatives and salespeople need to be tweaked or revamped. If these products and services are continuing, the Learning team should meet with the customer service and sales teams to identify the specific areas in need of additional training.
By contrast, what can you learn from significant new product/new services success stories? Is the Learning model used in these winning situations replicable so you can use the same program framework with minor customizations?
When the year ends and you look back at what worked and what didn’t, what was within the control of people managers and Learning teams? It’s a great time to feel empowered to make positive changes for the New Year.
What are your people management and Learning teams evaluating this year to consider doing differently next year?