In this webinar, Laura Overton discusses one of the modern day challenges of today’s L&D department – how to balance the needs of business and individuals. For the past ten years, Towards Maturity research has focused on the behaviours of successful learning organisations. Alignment to business priorities has always a critical component to success, but the careful attention to the requirements of individual staff members is becoming increasingly pressing. This session looks at ten tips to get the balance right so that L&D can engage more learners AND deliver against the bottom line. This webinar was conducted in conjunction with Towards Maturity’s founding Ambassador- Corporate Learning Consortium on the 28th of March 2014. The full recording can be found at http://tinyurl.com/kl5ap65. We’d recommend that you share this at your next L&D team meeting! The session draws on findings from the 2013-14 Towards Maturity Benchmark Study – the New Learning Agenda, which can be downloaded for free at: www.towardsmaturity.org/2013benchmark.

1. The L&D challenge for 2014:
Balancing business priorities and
individual needs
28th March 2014
Laura Overton
Laura@towardsmaturity org
lauraoverton
28th March 2014 In association with

2. The balancing act
business alignment is increasing priority, so is staff engagement
with learning
The needs of business leaders:
• Business priority
• Managing Change/Agility
• Talent
• Results
The needs of Staff:
• Relevance
• Flexibility
• Recognition
• Support

3. Responses from webinar delegates:
Where do you focus your attention right now?
Meeting the needs
of business
11%
Meeting the needs
of individuals
17%
Both – but it is hard
to get the balance
right
63%
Neither- we are
mainly focussed on
course delivery
17%
None of the
delegates felt that
they were currently
able to focus on
business and
individual needs
successfully

4. Get the balance wrong
When we
focus purely on:
• Efficiency
• Bottom line
results
Staff maybe
reluctant to engage

5. Get the balance wrong
The business maybe reluctant to
pay!
Focus purely on
Experience
Choice
Flexibility

6. Getting the balance right
Business priority
Managing Change
Talent
Results
Relevance
Flexibility
Recognition
Support
Alignment
Speed
Customer driven
Performance
Focus for L&D:
The Towards Maturity New Learning Agenda highlights 4 areas of focus that allows us
to create the right balance – download at www.towardsmaturity.org/2013Benchmark

7. Limited
understanding
of stakeholder,
31%
Resources
(Budget/Time),
50%,
Credibility of
L&D, 19%
Other, 13%
What is the biggest challenge in
getting the balance right?
What practical
tips can we learn
from top
performing
organisations to
help us achieve
this?
Responses from webinar delegates:

8. Find out what the problem is!
Alignment – Tip 1
Only 55%
agree that they
analyse the
problem before
recommending a
solution
Recommended Resources:
www.performanceconsultingbook.co.uk/products-page/
www.amazon.com/Seeing-Eye-professionals-alignment-business/dp/1477246746

9. Listen – to everyone!
• All stakeholders
• Advice on needs
• Guiding
development at
all stages
• Influencing
• Support
• Review
Alignment- Tip 2
Set up a steering group
‘training is training, but what we actually do in the workplace is different’
How to overcome the culture shift?
The steering group was fundamental to award winning success of Touch Programme at HC-One
HC-One case study can be found in Feb 2014 Edition of eLearning Age magazine

10. Keep it simple
Our recommendation is to
be brave, challenge and
take risks but keep your
focus.
Do one thing, do it well
then move on!
Reducing call handling times at
• Addressing top 4 issues only
• Short & sharp
• Shared via a simple portal
• Clearly communicated
Jason Pitfield, L&D Manager LV=
Winner of LPI Social & Collaborative Learning Award
Speed- Tip 3
See page 45 New Learning Agenda for more information www.towardsmaturity.org/2013benchmark

11. Respond fast
• The Help desk challenge
• The quick response –
Youtube Style
• Relationship - tracking
impact
• Reduction in help desk
calls by 50%
Speed – Tip 4
See full case study for more inspiration
www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2012/03/18/barnardos-delivers-e-learning-excellence/

12. Create clear paths for progress
Driving leadership and innovation for
competitive advantage
What does a good lawyer look like?
Customer driven – Tip 5 22% of L&D teams support career aspirations
(or personal job goals) yet 66% of learners say
recognition is important to them
Resulting Skills Compass
helps maps roles, defines content strategy
See full case study for more inspiration
www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2011/11/22/leadership-learning-innovation-eversheds/

13. How do you know what is important to
your learners?
Responses from webinar delegates:
We ask them –
systematically
gathering
feedback, 31%
We ask them –
annecdotes and
conversation,
25%We guess, 19%,
We don’t , 38%,

14. 90,000 staff
Converting compliance training meant
challenging L&D assumptions about
learners:
Only 30% training staff owned
smartphones compared to
80% of soldiers
The result?
7 basic modules converted to apps
Take the time to understand
your learners
‘Less about me,
more about you
Customer driven- tip 6
See full case study for more inspiration
www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2013/09/13/british-army-compliance-training-goes-mobile/

15. Design to connect
Customer driven- Tip 7
• Connecting with
reality- The
Bystander issue
• Gritty , immersive
• Powerful storylines
• Real life accounts
• As close to real world
as you can get
Resuscitation Council & Unit 9 breathes new life into e-learning – lessons from a multiple
award winner
Lifesaver Project
See full case study for more inspiration
www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2014/02/28/resuscitation-council-breathes-new-life-e-learning/

16. Don’t neglect managers
Less than half of L&D agree that their staff understand how
their work is linked to the organisation's performance
Performance- Tip 8
• Care home managers vital
role
• Able to localise messages
• Local dashboards/Grids
• Alerts
• Local Learning Ambassadors
HC-One case study can be found in Feb 2014 Edition of eLearning Age magazine

17. Communicate successes
Performance- Tip 9
Reduced Call Handling times by 20%
Communicated successes
Stimulated demand
• Tracking what is important to business
• Reporting against business priorities
• Capturing what is important to individuals
• Sharing individual stories of success
• Reviewing to keep learning aligned

18. What do you think will be the biggest benefit in
getting the balance right in your organisation?
Responses from webinar delegates:
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Learner engagement
More resources allocated
Deliver more bottom line value
More credible L&D
69%
13%
63%
38%

19. These tips
work!
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Learners put what they learn into practice quickly
Learners recommend to colleagues to improve
job performance
Significant contribution to increasing our revenue
Postive contribution to improvements in
productivity
Positive changes in staff behaviour
Managers agree additional business benefit
achieved
Top Q average Q4

20. #CLCwebseries
10 years of insights
An evidence based approach to learning that balances the needs of individuals and businesses
www.towardsmaturity.org/2013benchmark
The New Learning Agenda:

21. Do something!
1. Find out what the problem
2. Listen (to everyone)
3. Keep it simple
4. Respond quickly
5. Create clear paths for progress
6. Understand your learners
7. Design to connect
8. Don’t neglect managers
9. Communicate successes
Tip 10

22. What will you do differently as a
result of today?
www.towardsmaturity.org
Laura@towardsmaturity.org
martinbaker@elearningconsortium.com
Find out more:
Image credits:
The Noun Project , thanks to Nate Eui, Fission Strategy and Lorena Salagre
and Freedigitalphotos.net thanks to Stuart Miles, Salvatore Vuono and digital Art
www.theclc.info

23. Download the
New Learning
Agenda
Today
Or ask us for your future
proof L&D information pack
www.towardsmaturity.org/2013benchmark

24. Leading learning organisations who share our passion that independent
research should be freely available to all .
To join or find out more go to:
www.towardsmaturity.org/ambassadors
Download the
New LearningAgenda for free today
thanks to Towards Maturity Ambassadors

25. About Us Towards Maturity is a benchmarking
practice that provides authoritative
research and expert consultancy
services to help assess and improve
the effectiveness and consistency of
L&D performance within
organisations. It leverages the data
gathered from the largest learning
technology benchmark in Europe.
Download our case studies to support
your business case for change at
www.towardsmaturity.org
Find out your own Towards Maturity
Index to see if you are amongst the
top learning companies at
http://mybenchmark.towardsmaturity.org/
Lauraoverton
Towardsmaturity
New Learning Benchmarksn
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