Are You Using High-Impact Learning?

 

Learning is as important today to maintaining your workforce performance as it has ever been, and now we have better means of discovering what really works as new technology and techniques change the landscape. So you are keeping up with workplace learning technology, aren't you?

OK, you might have a couple of other items on your plate and need a briefing. Answer this multiple choice question to get started on this update.

Which of the following statements is/are true about high-impact learning organizations as compared with the national average?

(a) They have a higher training staff per worker
(b) They have a higher amount spent on training per worker
(c) They have a higher amounts of outsourcing

As an IT project manager, it is important for you to move toward best practices because IT is at "full employment", the implication being that it is much easier for IT workers to move to another position outside of your organization that they feel is better. For example, they may choose an organization that helps them better improve their skills. At full employment you will find it very difficult to hire the skills you need. It is more efficient to build the skills you need in your existing workforce .

So use best practices from those who have implemented them successfully: High-impact learning organizations. High-impact learning organizations have 

• Lower staff per worker than the national average
• Higher amount spent per worker
• Higher amounts of outsourcing for the training function

Use similar tactics in your organization - or project - to increase the impact of your training dollars.

• Reduce training staff by using informal/social learning . Tools and techniques have been developed for this type of decentralized organizational learning and they are very different from centralized training department approach. Many have been subjects of this blog and my articles on gantthead.
• Determine the best way to spend more on each worker. Consider that high-impact learning organizations  can train workers 20 hours annually. Leveraging informal trainers for decentralized real-time learning and making experts available via social media makes this easier.
• Use contract training groups, now with more justification, to meet your immediate skill-building needs.
• Use your gantthead network to see what others are doing. Find out what has worked and not worked for them.

For more information, read the Bersin Learning Factbook summary.