Should social learning skills be part of our organisation toolkit? Welcome to the overview results of our second snapshot survey. Social learning is fast becoming a topical issue. We chose this topic for our second survey because we believe that social learning may hold some of the keys to creating the flexible, responsive and insight driven ethos that’s essential for surviving and thriving in our complex and changeable economic context. Our Performance Hub Survey Series is about uncovering touch-points for further discussion and debate - rather than trying to gather a mass of empirical data on the state of play. We’ll be taking these discussions further on LinkedIn over the course of the year. Take a look at the results and join our discussions on LinkedIn: The Performance Hub LinkedIn Discussion Group.

1. Welcome to
The Performance Hub
Social Learning Survey
Results
Feb 2012

2. About us...
THE PERFORMANCE HUB
is a small performance enhancement consultancy.
We work with performance targets.
Our values are Transformation, Innovation, Passion and Integrity.
We live these in our work, with our blue-chip clients, our partners,
our associates, our suppliers and each other.
www.theperformancehub.co.za
51% owned by a BBBEE Trust focussed on the upliftment of disadvantaged
youth. AAA+ (Level 3) rating on the BBBEE Scorecard.

3. The Survey - Who responded?
Our snapshot survey drew respondents from:
Services
Education
Manufacturing
Executive coaching
HR and training
And from a range of organisation sizes:
1 – 120,000 employees.

4. Have you heard of social learning and
how would you describe it?
Social learning appears to be a familiar concept to most of the
respondents.
‘It’s about using social media tools to learn informally. It
also helps people become more informed, gain a wider
perspective and make better decisions by engaging with
others.’
‘Learning from others - in a social context, online or face to
face.’

5. What learning methods are offered in
your organisation?
Traditional methods are still most prevalent, with all respondents
engaging in face to face courses and 80% having access to
resources such as books and journals. This is followed by
Coaching and Mentoring.
Online learning and social learning opportunities, along with
rotation opportunities around the business, are much less
common.

6. What about the newer technologies for
L&D and knowledge sharing?
 Almost all of the respondents are using LinkedIn and
Twitter for business, followed by Facebook which is slightly
less common
 60% are using Dropbox (a ‘cloud’ file-sharing service)

7. How effective is social learning? What are
some of the benefits and challenges?
Reactions about the effectiveness of social technologies are mixed:
‘Invaluable way of keeping up to date with the latest sources of
knowledge’
‘Average – we’re still in the birth stages of implementing
internally.’
Some concern was noted around the challenges that technology can pose,
and the associated costs of potential collaboration and knowledge
management tools.

8. Measuring the impact of learning
We asked if the impact of learning and development is measured and
whether this applies equally to social learning if used in the organisation.
The responses indicate:
-there is some form of measurement taking place across all methods
- often measurement takes place through performance management
systems
- some use more structured approaches such as Kirkpatrick’s Level 1-4.
One smaller organisation reported that informal discussion and evaluation
worked the best for their context (2 employees).

9. Looking to the future
So what might learning look like in the future? We had some great responses:
‘Self- led. Unstructured. Project related.’
‘Very 'mixed' up, as in lots of online and offline activity. We will have
avatars and virtual classrooms and simulations (for those
organisations who can afford this investment) and lots of cross
functional and matrix learning, practically applied on real work
rather than the more abstract learning we enjoy today. Smart phones
will have changed the learning landscape, with more
unitised, tailored interventions being commonplace and delivered
wherever you are. Learning will take place through all the
senses, visual, auditory, simulated. Learning and work hopefully will
not be so separate - so there will be a natural part of your day which
is about learning on the job.’

10. More responses on the future ...
‘Rapid evolution into a virtual immersed environment
encompassing different social learning technologies (virtual
instructional, work collaboration tools, etc.); supportive
culture that enhance employee learning and development;
changing strategic role of L&D professional; a robust view on
learning and measurement analytics; line manager engagement;
increased employee-driven learning process.’
‘... on-line courses via audio and interactive exercises that
employees can do on any device.’

11. In our last survey on leadership, we
identified these key people management
challenges of the future in SA
 skills and productivity challenges
 managing talent required to feed organisation plans
 engaging and keeping employees engaged
 developing flexible working practices and a flexible
workforce, and dealing with the regulatory context in SA
 building sustainable business.

12. Questions and discussions: join us
How can our current and visionary learning and development activities
tap into some of these challenges?
Should social learning skills be part of our organisation toolkit?
Join our group on LinkedIn where we can debate some of these
questions: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Performance-Hub-
3894549?trk=myg_ugrp_ovr
Follow our informed commentary feed on Twitter here:
http://twitter.com/#!/PerformanceHub