Making the Most of Your Learning Resources in Uncertain Times

One of the hot topics at the recent Elliott Masie Learning Systems Roundtable in Chicago was the role of learning departments in this uncertain business climate. Our “homework” from this roundtable was to think about how our learning and talent systems could play a role in helping our organizations through these times. I thought I would share my thoughts on this topic with all of you.

If your company is experiencing budget cuts, hiring freezes, layoffs or even mergers and acquisitions, make your learning and talent management system THE place to go to help your employees and organization build the skills or find the talent they need to make it through these tough times. For example:

• Use your learning management system (LMS) to quickly and easily help employees learn new skills or train for a temporary or new job/function.
• Leverage your talent management system to quickly identify current employees that have certain skills or experience.
• Take advantage of social networking tools to connect your workforce and allow them to share information anytime, anywhere.

But the bigger challenge becomes: How do you put these ideas in action when your learning or talent department may also be resource-constrained?

One way is to get your learners and subject matter experts actively involved in providing learning. Think about whether your learning department can evolve from the role of always creating and sourcing the learning to a role of recruiting and encouraging internal experts to share their expertise. Establish and provide the platform, standards and governance. And by tying social networking and information-sharing more intrinsically to your learning strategy, all employees in your company can become a learning resource.
 

 Some examples: 

• Solicit Employee-Generated Content: Identify areas/topics requiring expertise and solicit your workforce to create videos and/or podcasts on these subjects. Empower them to create this content by offering guidance and instruction on how to record a short video or podcast and providing a central place in your company with the necessary production tools and resources. Then, designate a team to review these video and podcasts and post approved content on your LMS.
• Leverage Tech-Savvy Employees: Don’t have a production expert on your team? Teach someone in your department how to record quick podcasts and videos or create a compelling PowerPoint. Short, relevant learning can be created quickly and easily. Or, find an intern or a Millennial in your company! Many of this generation have been creating their own content and sharing it on YouTube or Facebook. Take advantage of their Web 2.0 savviness to help your learning department create content.
• Foster Social Learning: Open up your corporate social networking site to your experts – and provide governance and monitoring if appropriate. Also consider making your retired employees part of this social network – they are often a wealth of information and they can also be great mentors. 
• Produce Internal Webinars: Conduct live internal Webinars with your subject matter experts (SMEs). If they’re camera or mic shy, conduct the Webinar in interview format. Some SME’s are more comfortable being interviewed than presenting. But, this also allows you to control the content and length of the Webinar. 
• Make Content Easier to Access: Organize your content in a way that your employees can easily seek out and find information that is most relevant to their needs. Use your talent management system’s Welcome screen, subject areas and custom page LMS functionality to help learners quickly get to what they need. Enlist your communications or marketing department to help you effectively communicate to your learners what’s important and relevant.

Coming soon....thoughts on how your Performance and Talent Systems can help.

Kim Hagan is the Director of Educational Services for Cornerstone OnDemand