Sales forces have been working on quarterly cycles since time began!

Generally speaking, sales people align their performance with the business’s quarterly goals – so why wouldn’t that culture cascade through every part of an organisation’s employee performance plans? It appears that it’s beginning to do just that.

There is a clear bit of re-engineering going on in a growing number of organisations in that they are moving away from the annual review, annual talent development cycle, top down approach.

Continuous Talent Development

Bersin says they should be moving towards “agile management practices”. An agile management practice? The mind boggles!  What do they mean?

They’re advocating that annual reviews and talent processes should be done “in a more systemic (across the board or universal ) way”. In other words get all managers involved and do it all more often. Rethink HR practices as continuous rather than episodic. That’s agile management.

Continuous recruiting, learning, management, feedback, recognition and rewards, define the new agile model for HR.

Continuous is becoming the desired norm for another reason too. Workforces are becoming more specialised and labour markets supplying the specialised needs of businesses are getting tighter.

Companies are responding by building talent internally. The idea of really vibrant career development is beginning to remodel talent acquisition, learning and talent management.

Here at TWM we believe this too. We ensure that we can measure and promote internal mobility and empower managers to promote from within their own teams.

Bersin does start explaining this in a bit more detail and to do this have developed a model called the Four Pillars of Career Management in which they define the four big stakeholders to consider: The employee, the manager, HR and the Company.

Or, as TWM have been referring to them for years now… the user, the line manager, HR/L&D and the boardroom. Nice to know we’re not only in agreement with Messrs Bersin and associates – in some cases we’re “getting there” before them!

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Following yesterday’s 2013 Budget statement there is muted applause for the work he has done in helping the building industry (Government Guaranteed Loans to assist with Deposits on new homes) but what has he done for industries which are the bricks and mortar of the future. The Learning and Development industry for example.

What impact will Budget 2013 have on the L&D industry?

Thanks to HR Zone for chasing down Ann Pickering, Telefónica UK’s HR Director, who they report, had this to say: “The Chancellor talks about building skills to ensure, as a nation, we’re equipped to compete on a global stage. But when the country’s growth depends on the digital economy there’s still a huge pool of untapped skill going to waste with our most digitally literate citizens, young people, more likely to be excluded from the workforce than any other group. Their digital skills are the future fuel of the economy and more must be done to harness them.

“Government can’t tackle this challenge alone. All businesses have a role to play in supporting young people on their journey to work. Whether through work experience, mentoring or making digital skills central to their hiring strategies, we all have a responsibility to create a workforce that’s fit for the digital future and with it put Britain’s economy back on the road to growth.”

Ann is right that all businesses have a role to play in supporting young people on their journey to work, but it’s their journey once in work, that also provides the opportunity to benefit hugely from the digital experience.

Most digital work experiences happen as result of devices connecting with the internet which means that in the case of everyone deploying digital learning solutions, they are competing with the other offerings on the web for the attention of the viewer / reader.

So it follows that if businesses are to support and develop people in their journey at work using digital technology they must engage their people.

Picking up on Pickering’s “workforce fit for the digital future” view, there is similar sentiment that should be aired: “We all have a responsibility to ensure that the digital present is both engaging and inextricably linked to the organisation’s goals.”

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Welcoming Tracy to the company, Managing Director Philip Purver said: “We are delighted that Tracy has joined TWM at this key next stage in our development.”

Tracy has a strong pedigree within learning and development and the technology based industries.

Prior to joining TWM, Tracy was carrying out a senior consulting role with arguably Capita’s largest learning and development managed service contract across government. He joined Capita after two years as Sales Director of Redtray’s ALTO Managed Services Division where he focused on developing Redtray’s LMS business. Prior to Redtray, Tracy was Commercial Director of Epic Performance Improvement, the UK’s leading bespoke eLearning company who he joined in 2005.

Tracy’s career began with Maxim training in 1989 where he rapidly helped the organisation develop one of the most successful ranges of leadership and management multimedia products in the UK. Subsequently, Maxim were acquired by Knowledge Pool in 2000. His success at Knowledge Pool saw him appointed CEO of Knowledge Pool eLearning Ltd.

Speaking about his new position at The Working Manager Tracy said: “It is an exciting time for TWM. Market indicators are clearly signifying the need for a strategy of innovation and continuous performance improvement. This coupled with improved employee engagement is essential for keeping the organisation competitive. I believe that TWM is breaking new territory here and I am looking forward to building on the exciting work that Phil Purver and his team at TWM have achieved in helping effectively translate business goals into practical and demonstrable and measurable behaviours by the organisation’s key assets, its people.”

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If, and evidentially some believe it should remain an ‘if’ for the time being, you subscribe to the view that organisations should adopt the 70:20:10 model, the next question that might spring to your mind is: “Where is the current emphasis of my efforts – into the 70% ‘zone’ of informal learning amongst our people or the 30% more structured learning that we’re working so hard to deliver.”

Regular readers of TWM’s blogs will know that we have something of a fascination with the “the business case”. We like to make sure that there is a seriously tangible (and measurable) link between the learning and development intervention at the coalface and the positive effect on organisational performance.

So what does 70:20:10 tell us which we need to account for in the context of the business case? In other words, why would the boardroom be interested?

The 70% is about informal learning.

The 70:20:10 model explained.

Let’s be clear about this, what the rule is saying is that nearly three quarters of everything people learn in the context of their work and workplace is delivered to them and absorbed informally. Over coffee, lunch, beside a colleague’s desk, by text, the phone, email, online environments, in fact just about anywhere. The fundamental point is that people are adopting the new approaches required to successfully do their work based on ideas and skills picked up from their colleagues, networks and sources outside official learning programs.

Let’s ground ourselves a little with this theory. Surely, in the cotton mills of the 19^th Century – the swift and verbal training course about how to operate a weaving machine was followed by a lifetime’s “informal learning” from colleagues showing you how to produce your daily quota of woven cloth without losing your fingers! People have always collaborated and learnt from each other in the workplace.

The point about 70:20:10 is what can we do, or what should we do, in this modern age of Learning Technology to move more of our formal programmes into the informal learning arena? We know that people MUST learn what we deliver in the formal environment. We cannot measure and manage performance without effective feedback process. We need to coach and refine and we need to formally train – but in recognising the 70:20:10 model we have an opportunity to question emphasis, focus and delivery.

As the embedding of a technologically driven learning culture becomes more prevalent within organisations, with HR and L&D included at Board level, there is an increased opportunity for learning technology companies to engage at a higher level and to become more influential in strategy development. In effect, organisations are recognising that they need to become more joined up in terms of their key business systems to deliver organisational development goals and ultimately business performance. Key to this higher level of engagement on the part of the learning technology provider is the ability to assist the organisation towards focusing on the 70:20:10 model. We can facilitate and support the shift towards the 70%.

The $4.2 billion Technology based learning and organisational performance solution market is experiencing massive growth. It’ll grow further. Newly acquired Bersin (by Deloitte) predict* a 22% increase in 2013 with higher growth rates in talent and performance management.

But even with technology growth rates as large as this, providers such as TWM continue to argue that there will always be a place for the 10% formal learning. Organisations quite simply have to teach core competencies and business specific skills.

In the end it comes down to the employee and their motivation to learn, develop and contribute to the larger organisational performance picture. And that comes down to the WHOLE environment on offer to our people. And that environment might just be 60:30:10.

Whatever “the split” it must be engaging and easily accessible. Here at TWM we specialise in working with clients to understand what parts they deploy where and seek to find ways in which we can re-knit them together to make a more cost effective and measurable contribution to the organisational performance process – sometimes adding our sprinkling of “fairy dust” on the way!

The trick is to deploy technology truly cost effectively to take advantage of the 70% rule but never to detriment of the 20 and the 10.

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Poor old Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg who hasn’t even worked out whether he will succeed or has been succeeded, now has to rapidly introduce the ‘Succession to the Crown Bill’ into the House of Commons “as soon as possible”.

The happy Royal news illustrates an important point for those of us who peddle our wares in the Organisational Performance field. Succession Planning is best thought about before the need rather than at the time of need.  So let’s think about this particular Royal need.

If we assume, god willing, that the Duke and Duchess’s first baby will be amongst us in Summer 2013 it is entirely reasonable to say that he/she will be 20 years old before Great Grandmother makes way for Grandpa, who at that time is likely to be in his mid eighties and aiming to certainly serve 15 years. This will make our new Summer 2013 arrival, 35 before Dad is handed the ‘reigns’ and he will be the same age as our current Prince of Wales at that time, looking to serve at least past his 100^th birthday..just like his grandmother and great grandmother before him.

This makes our new (2013) arrival likely to be way past pension age before he or she gets to start work.  So we’re looking for a succession plan that takes into account 3 forced retirements from the board and ensures proper preparedness for the Chairmanship role.

Looking at this from a TWM point of view the whole story underpins the need for the Royal Family to bring some joined up thinking to their Organisational Planning. The case for fixed terms “in the boardroom” is overwhelming and I have no doubt that in future an Organisational Planning Bill will be bought before Parliament.

Never one to miss an opportunity to draw attention to the massive opportunities presented by TWM’s VODE – I have pondered on whether we might see whether the House of Windsor Limited as lead. Not necessarily hot but certainly warming.

Clearly , HOW Limited have improved on their communication skills. Nobody can deny that. Any Queen happy to parachute into an Olympic Stadium for the benefit of the media, gets my vote on her external Comms Strategy.

The very fact that HOW Ltd stood, yes stood,  in the rain on Thames Pageant day illustrates very clearly that the learning & development needs are pretty much zero – these royals write the learning material, in my book.

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Successful results seem always to be met with something along the lines of: “We knew you were doing well so why can’t you reduce your prices because you have done well?”

If the results are below par then the question is always “How many people will you be cutting out of the business to get these profits back up.”

Difficult not to conclude then that if you’re successful you’re charging too much and if you’re struggling you’ve got too many people in the business. I think not. Consider one of TWM’s clients.

Sainsbury’s this week announced “better than expected” results,  but far more importantly they announced another 5,000 seasonal jobs to add to the 20,000 they filled in record time during September 2012. And of the 5,000 seasonal jobs 2,000 will stick and become permanent. They have a publicly stated goal of adding 50,000 permanent jobs by 2020. That’s about a thousand more jobs for every county in the country!

A truly worthwhile contribution to the British jobs market.

Along with Asda, Sainsbury’s are putting pressure on under performing Tesco and Morrisons.

Is there an obvious reason for this difference in performance.  Of course – it’s about people. People run and grow businesses, not buildings, shelves and lorries.

Sainsbury’s people make the difference. I don’t mean their ever increasing number of customers “Living Well For Less” – I mean the people in their boardroom, their stores, their distribution warehouses and in their associated support offices.

Organisational performance is fundamentally about people. People in the boardroom, and people in every other part of the organisation, outside the boardroom.

The challenge of course is to create the environment in which people development can naturally thrive. A culture where people can develop personally and align their personal development with the wider business goals aimed at by those in the boardroom.

TWM’s engaging online environment D2, which we call the VODE, brings some joined up thinking to this process.

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Published in October’s Inside Learning Technologies and Skills Magazine, Peter Gray’s article looks to discover the secrets to improving organisational performance through the learning technologies you may already have available. He focuses his discussion on four fundamental beliefs:

1. Engagement brings improvement
2. Collaboration brings progression
3. You must identify primary stakeholders
4. It is our responsibility as Learning professionals and organisational consultants to engage employees

“It is crucial to engage people in their work in order to see real and measurable performance gains. Organisational improvement arising out of effective individual and team management, simply will not happen unless people are engaged with both the process and the organisation. So, can technology strengthen the links between organisational performance and performance management?

Research and experience repeatedly confirms that people prefer…’

Click here or open the magazine below to read the full article on how to deliver organisational performance success.

Peter Gray is a founder Director of TWM (The Working Manager Ltd.).

TWM is one of the UK’s leading providers of online people and organisational development solutions supporting leadership and management development initiatives and people, process and technological integration.

Peter has recently visited the HR Technology Conference in Chicago, USA. Read his most recent TWM article on the recent trends to hit the HR and L&D World across the pond.

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Chicago’s HR Technology Conference and Exposition gives us Brits a chance to see how things are moving in the US. A chance to seek out on behalf of our own clients what’s new and importantly what’s not. Even perhaps what’s hot!

This year two things are certainly warm if not verging on the positively tropical. Neither are new but both are maturing in terms of offerings. Information rich workforce planning and analytics look to be the headline act as presented by a number of booths I visited. It’s all about optimising the performance and profitability of your workforce and I must say what I was shown was very impressive.

Very close to headlining too (in my book) was one word. Measurement. Learning and Talent measurement to be precise. Learning analytics is taking massive leaps and I was privy to a couple of offerings which will go a long way to help business significantly improve the business impact of learning. What does that mean?

It means that more and more client businesses are wanting to “check out and be sure” about how well learning has embedded and what is the actual bottom line effect.

How do they do this? By staying very close to their customer group, the learners. Accumulating a huge amount of data which then provides some very useful and practical measurements which all aims to provide a platform for data driven decision making.

Powerful stuff and my bet for the most likely theme to generate questions from clients over the next 12 months.

What else? A creditable third place must go to the “meaningful recognition” offerings. Points awarded by (in the case of how we in the UK think) line managers, for a job or task well done, and redeemable against your next holiday or pair of Jimmy Choos or should that be Jimmy’s shoes?

Seriously, the “earning awards and points culture” in the US is twenty years mature and not surprisingly some big UK players are finally adopting the idea that adding a little extra incentive to get this or that done doesn’t actually do any harm and might in fact add significantly to the bottom line business case. I quote:

“By allowing all employees to give and receive points that recognise meaningful behaviours, you can increase engagement, foster deeper behaviours between your teams and reward the top talent across your company based on behaviours that lead to success.”

Just a more sophisticated way of saying: “Suzy you did a great job, why don’t you take Mark out to a film and dinner this evening on the Company, and thank you”. But here’s the thing. That kind of reward only happens in small organisations. The bigger organisations become the less they “do spontaneous thanks and reward”.

And finally, the same old big names were there with ever higher stands (it’s an American thing) and some boasting so many booth personnel it was not possible to visit the stand for fear of the crush.

How many points they all must have won to be invited to work the 15th Annual Expo I have no idea!

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