How Talent Management Creates a High Performing Workforce

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Talent management activities can include performance management, succession planning, talent reviews, development planning and support, career development, workforce planning and recruiting” (Heinen & O’Neill, 2004). Essentially, talent management refers to all the variables associated with the employment of human capital, and as with all other corporate assets, requires strategic and proactive management.

the human resource professionals are the cornerstone of any organizations. They not only solve business problems today but also participate in strategic aspects of the organization; talent management is one of them.Formulation of a talent management strategy is the responsibility of the HR function. This is often done in consultation with the business function. Be it talent mapping and planning or performance, recruitment and retention the human resource professionals of the day are seeking out ways to streamline and integrate their functions with the broader business functions.In Aditya Birla group, for example there is huge dearth of leadership positions at the top. The company is expanding globally and at a rate faster than it can grow its human capital. This has lead to talent deficit and this is common in many organizations. The problem requires a comprehensive set of solutions.Again in the same organization as mentioned above, people are empowered very early in their careers to give them more responsibilities and build more competencies in employees. This enables to develop high potential personnel. The organization runs an internal programmeIDventure where they promote entrepreneurship. You have an idea; you come forward, share and develop a comprehensive business plan. The best plan receives a support from the organization!Needless to mention now, organizations require an integrated approach to talent management. There is a need to strategize in HR functions to enable and support the business functions. Some strategies in this direction could be:Aligning Business strategies with the HR strategies: Business HR is one function that is developing fast as part of the human resource department. The person is responsible for ensuring a smooth relationship between business and HR functions. They work with business heads to develop people strategies to support both short term and long term business objectives.Performance Planning and Evaluation: An integrated HR approach means that are uniform and standard procedures for employee performance evaluation and compensation, up and down the organization. Performance is linked to growth and the process adds value for employees to evaluate their work on their own. Indian digital disk giant Moser Baer employs such process.Strategic Manpower Planning: HR and Business function are interrelated. None can exist without the other. HR functions need to work in collaboration to assess current and future manpower requirements are plan for the same. They need to strategize on the approximate manpower requirements, the relevant skills and educational qualification, compensation and the like. This has to happen well in advance. Recruitment itself means a host of other activities like training and development, compensation, induction and orientation etc.Mapping your Talent: An ever increasing emphasis is being laid on identifying the top performing and talented employees to think of ways to develop, nurture and retain them. Further organizations also like to keep skill inventories for contingencies. As organizations realize the skills and abilities of individuals, they can then be more focused on devising means and strategies to attract, develop and retain these people.

Key issues when developing a talent management strategy include the following.Alignment to corporate strategyEnsuring that the talent strategy is closely aligned with the corporate strategy must be a priority. Strategic analysis from the business perspective should feed into an HR forecast, which can help shape an organisation’s tailored approach to talent management.Inclusive versus exclusive approaches Some organisations adopt an inclusive approach to talent management creating a ‘whole workforce’ approach to engagement and talent development. Others develop a more exclusive focus segmenting talent according to need, that is, the talent management process specifically relates to key or high-potential individuals.Often a blended approach is used in practice, as noted in our Talent perspective report (see above), with attention paid to employees as a talent group as a whole but with special focus given to a particular core group or groups of employees.Regardless of which approach organisations adopt, fairness and consistency must be applied in all talent management processes, alongside diversity considerations. however, employers do not invariably adopt ‘joined-up’ approaches linking their talent management programmes with their diversity policies and activities, meaning that they are failing to reap the benefits of accessing and developing talent from the widest possible pool.Involving the right people Careful consideration needs to be paid to involving the right stakeholders in developing the talent management strategy and associated activities.ParticipantsA key initial consideration for employers is how to select participants for formal talent schemes. Our research shows that the existence of structured selection processes serves to increase the perceived value of talent programmes and the motivation of participants to perform. For those not selected, by contrast, the negative effects of being ‘passed over’ are not as detrimental as might be feared, particularly if individuals are provided with sensitive and practical feedback.Once participants have completed talent programmes, there is a need to maintain dialogue with and between these individuals, by means such as ongoing networking structures, as sometimes participants express frustration that the career development opportunities associated with the talent management process do not immediately materialise.ManagersVisible senior-level support is a must, and a ‘talent panel’ is a useful means of ensuring the involvement of directors and senior management, especially when it has representation across the organisation. Line managers must take responsibility for managing performance and for identifying and developing talent in their own areas, but also need to be encouraged to see talent as a corporate rather than a local resource.HR functionHR specialists have an important role to play in providing support and guidance in the design and development of approaches to talent management that will fit the needs of the organisation. Our research shows that HR is perceived as playing a critical role in facilitating talent pools and programmes and in maintaining the momentum of such exercises.If organisations choose to implement formal selection processes for talent pools, the HR function additionally has a major role to play in ensuring that the selection criteria are applied consistently, as well as developing a planned strategy for those who are not accepted to be part of the programme.Focusing on the talent management loopIt is also important to focus attention on the four areas of the talent management loop, that is, attracting, developing, managing and evaluating talent.Attracting talentThe ability to attract external talent depends upon how potential applicants view the organisation, the industry or sector in which it operates and whether they share the values of that organisation. The creation of an attractive employer brand is an important factor in recruiting external talent. Developing talentTalent development should be linked to other learning and development initiatives including both informal as well as formal learning interventions. Participants on talent management programmes tend to value coaching, mentoring and networking particularly highly, especially according to our research, the opportunity to meet senior people in the organisation.Managing talentInvestment in management and leadership development will positively impact on talent retention. The process of succession planning in particular helps many organisations in identifying and preparing future potential leaders to fill key positions, while secondments may also play a useful role. Tracking and evaluating talent managementEvaluation of talent management is difficult, requiring both quantitative and qualitative data that is valid, reliable and robust, but necessary to ensure that the investment is meeting organisational needs. One method could involve the collation of employee turnover and retention data for key groups such as senior management postholders or those who have participated in high-flyer programmes.Ultimately, organisational success is the most effective evaluation of talent management.

Critical Aspects of Talent Management SystemThe talent management system refers to the process of recruitment, development and retention of human capital. Talent management system rests on the pillar of human resource planning that ensures that right availability of talents. In order to link the human resource activities with the organizational goals, workforce planning is a must. It helps in bridging the gap between the current and the required human resource. Managing talent is equally important as that of managing finance in an organization. Talent Acquisition Vs Recruitment: Recruitment and talent acquisition are used synonymously but there is quite a lot of difference between the two. Recruitment involves the process of filling up of the vacancies where as talent acquisition shows the strategic hiring of talent not only for the current requirement but also planning for future. McKinsey & Company (1997) that coined the term 'the war of talent' predicted that there is high demand for managerial talent in future. The survey report insisted on five elements for tapping the successful talent such as talent mindset, growing great leaders, employee value proposition, continuous top talent recruitment and differentiation. Hence the companies need to be forearmed to anticipate and determine the talents. Talent Shortage: This shows that the talent quest is increasing day by day and it has become global. The estimated shortage of talent has been projected for sectors like Information Technology (5 million),health, (half a million ) education (24 - 40 %) and banking (50-80%).The skill shortage has compelled some of the companies to hire the top executives from outside. Strategic Importance of Talent Development: Once the talent acquisition process is completed the human resource professionals have to concentrate on the next level of talent management, talent development. It is necessary to develop the skills of the employees through training and development. The training programmes should be tailored towards the accomplishment of the organizational goals. To enhance the dwindling talent, best practices of talent development should be followed in the companies taking into account the individual, team and organization as a whole. The importance of talent management can be understood strategically through succession planning that helps in identifying the key leaders and developing them for future. Conclusion: Talent acquisition and talent retention are like the two sides of a coin that are critical in the human capital management. Innovative technologies are to be adopted to enhance the process of talent management. With the dynamic situation prevailing in the global employability status, the role of human resource managers is very imperative in maintaining the talent balance. Holistic cum participatory approach is to be followed for harnessing the real benefits of talent management system. The talent management system that acts as a drive to performance excellence has to be integrated with the rest of the areas in the company and through effective talent management strategy

Talent management can be a discipline as big as the HR function itself or a small bunch of initiatives aimed at people and organization development. Different organizations utilize talent management for their benefits. This is as per the size of the organization and their belief in the practice.It could just include a simple interview of all employees conducted yearly, discussing their strengths and developmental needs. This could be utilized for mapping people against the future initiatives of the company and for succession planning. There are more benefits that are wide ranged than the ones discussed above. The benefits are:Right Person in the right Job: Through a proper ascertainment of people skills and strengths, people decisions gain a strategic agenda. The skill or competency mapping allows you to take stock of skill inventories lying with the organization. This is especially important both from the perspective of the organization as well as the employee because the right person is deployed in the right position and employee productivity is increased. Also since there is a better alignment between an individual’s interests and his job profile the job satisfaction is increased.Retaining the top talent: Despite changes in the global economy, attrition remains a major concern of organizations. Retaining top talent is important to leadership and growth in the marketplace. Organisations that fail to retain their top talent are at the risk of losing out to competitors. The focus is now on charting employee retention programs and strategies to recruit, develop, retain and engage quality people. Employee growth in a career has to be taken care of, while succession planning is being performed those who are on the radar need to be kept in loop so that they know their performance is being rewarded.Better Hiring: The quality of an organization is the quality of workforce it possesses. The best way to have talent at the top is have talent at the bottom. No wonder then talent management programs and trainings, hiring assessments have become an integral aspect of HR processes nowadays.Understanding Employees Better: Employee assessments give deep insights to the management about their employees. Their development needs, career aspirations, strengths and weaknesses, abilities, likes and dislikes. It is easier therefore to determine what motivates whom and this helps a lot Job enrichment process.Better professional development decisions: When an organization gets to know who its high potential is, it becomes easier to invest in their professional development. Since development calls for investment decisions towards learning, training and development of the individual either for growth, succession planning, performance management etc, an organization remains bothered where to make this investment and talent management just make this easier for them.Apart from this having a strong talent management culture also determines how organization rate their organizations as work places. In addition if employees are positive about the talent management practices of the organization, they are more likely to have confidence in the future of their organization. The resultant is a workforce that is more committed and engaged determined to outperform their competitors and ensure a leadership position in the market for their organization.

A number of misconceptions exist about the role of learning content in talent management. Belief in these misconceptions can thwart organizations from realizing the power of learning to transform how they operate. These misconceptions may be fueled by the accelerated speed of consolidationoccurring in the human capital space. Industry consolidations have been big news in recent months with SAP’s purchase of SuccessFactors and Oracle’s acquisition of Taleo. As larger vendors begin assembling the pieces of an end-to-end human capital management platform, their focus has largely been on the integration of learning management system (LMS) functionality into the overall process. But focusing only on the underlying technologies misses a key point around the business impact of learning content. This is fostering a number of fallacies in organizations, typically outside the L&D organization which has a deep understanding for the role learning content plays in driving true behavioral change. This paper identifies five of the most common fallacies and offers truths about how learning content integrates into a well-developed talent management strategy.

Learning is sometimes referred to as one of the “pillars” oftalent management, grouped with recruiting/sourcing,performance management, and compensation and benefits.1When examined more broadly than just the underlyinglearning management system, this view is too limiting.Increasingly organizations recognize learning content’sconnection to employee effectiveness, performance management,and organizational success.Learning content is a ubiquitous enabler within the organization,the proverbial ‘final mile’ that cuts across and canempower all the different pillars of talent management, fromonboarding to performance management, career planning,leadership development and succession. Learning servesas a central component at the heart of each pillar, connectingthem all horizontally. Learning injected throughoutthe talent management process creates a stronger platform,reinforcing each pillar.Josh Bersin has identified a number of flaws in the traditionalsilo approach to HR, including slow response to changingbusiness needs and disconnected decision-making.2 Whenthe learning function is not connected to workforce planning,sourcing, performance management, leadershipdevelopment and succession planning, the organizationlimits its ability to adapt.Some organizations have even incorporated learning aspart of the pre-hire process in the form of basic assessmentsand quizzes. Recently, a large staffing organization has usedlearning as a recruiting tool—the company invested in a anopen enrollment learning resource site. Visitors to the siteentered into the top of the funnel as the company tried toattract more people to its flexible workforce—the site was akey component of the organization’s strategy to source newtalent that exhibited the desire to self-improve and learn.Recognizing that learning connects the pillars of a solid talentmanagement strategy also allows organizations to moreeffectively measure the impact of learning within each ofthese areas. If you cannot measure, you cannot qualitativelyor quantitatively demonstrate impact or improvement.The ability to demonstrate learning’s impact and ROI willbecome an increasingly important consideration as the newTalent Management Development Reporting principles(TDRp)—already embraced by SHRM, ASTD and manyindustry experts—gain wider adoption.3

As businesses become more technology-dependent, thenotion that the platform must precede content becomes more prevalent. In the contemporary talent managementmodel, there is an LMS and that’s where learning happens: inthat silo. But to have an impact, learning must be democratizedacross the organization, pumped to the places wherework happens. Content needs to be curated, aligned andtargeted in a way that creates an engaging learning experience,rather than a learning task.Learning content already lives across the organization. Thenew hire orientation packet, the annual harassment preventiontraining, the workshop introducing the sales team toa new selling technique, the user guide IT supplies after aMicrosoft Office upgrade, the VP coaching a new manager…this content exists outside of your technology infrastructure.You don’t simply add content to an integrated talent managementplatform and suddenly realize great results. Successfulorganizations do not think of learning content as trivial orunimportant. The organization that flows the best contentthroughout the system is going to win. You must ensure youhave the right content reaching the employees who need it:muscles can’t move without blood.As organizations design their talent strategies, it is importantto look for an open content solution that can work bothwithin and without a legacy LMS to enable full flexibility incrafting learning experiences that deliver on business results.

When many in the industry talk about learning and talentmanagement, they emphasize the platform. Platformtechnology is important but it is just the first step on astairway to improved efficiency. That’s because automation—the current phase of platform consolidation and integration—offers clear benefits, but it is only a one-time improvement.Once processes are automated, how do organizationsachieve incremental benefits?Effective learning content, however, can change behavioron ongoing basis. The application of learning is critical andprovides sustained incremental value to organizations. Forexample, a company that prepares employees for Six Sigmacertification as part of its manufacturing quality process maysee an initial productivity gain by improving the speed andprocess for employees to find training when learning managementand the talent suite are integrated. But the greaterbusiness impact to the organization arises from the successfulapplication of the learning content, in this case whenthose employees apply that knowledge to develop systemsto decrease material waste. In this case, ensuring employeeshave access to relevant learning content helps reduce costsand increase profit margins.An organization that has a smarter workforce also has asustainable competitive advantage. The well-developedworkforce can be your most importance differentiator in aglobal marketplace. Companies with programs in place tosupport employee development and internal mobility reduce turnover rates, increase employee engagement, and boostproductivity.4It’s true that an integrated application can ease some administrativetasks. But the notion that simply automatingprocesses or integrating technology platforms should be theendgame is false.

Organizations need both alignment to competencies identifiedin the talent management process as well as performancesupport. While L&D must provide content that supports anorganization’s current initiatives, it is impossible to predictthe needs of every individual. This inability to predict needrises in direct proportion to employee population served. Many times I spoke about Books24x7®, people would ask,how many books do you really need? My answer has alwaysbeen, “One. The right one—the one that will solve the problem.”The odds of finding that one however increase as thesize of the corpus increases. It’s not that corporate learnerswant less content choice, they actually want better contentdiscovery. The ability to pinpoint the most relevant contentin a format that appeals to an individual learning style is atthe heart of what it means to be an agile organization. Andagility is critical in today’s global economy as 80% of companiesin developed economies are services related, which demandsa workforce with the self-service tools and resourcesto deal with unique business challenges on a daily basis.Effective performance support can be achieved by lookingfor multiple outlets for learning beyond the online corporateuniversity. An abundant content library offers organizations the dual advantage of providing individuals with a comprehensiveperformance-support resource to those unpredictabledevelopment needs while also proving L&D with theability to respond to business needs by providing targetedprograms. Providing self-service tools in addition to formalprograms empowers individuals to dip in to the assets theyneed to sharpen skills and develop the knowledge to tackleevolving challenges.The combination of targeted programs and abundant contenteases the administrative burden on L&D professionals,particularly in large organizations. For the dispersed globalorganization with myriad challenges, the most effective wayto deliver learning is through both push and pull. Organizationsmust have both the ability to reach into a deep bag andfind relevant content and the ability to allow employees toself-discover what they need at the point of need.Say someone decides the organization only needs 200courses. Those courses may align with current initiatives, butthey don’t allow adequate workforce development or justin-time performance support. Talent management can helpcreate the relationship between targeted needs and targetedcontent—there’s currently a huge disconnect at this stage inthe process.

Ultimately, the learning organization is the steward of thecontent ecosystem available to develop the talent of theentire organization. User-generated content has its place,especially for time-sensitive or proprietary knowledge, but itis not as effective at providing for the needs of generalknowledge, industry certification preparation, externalthought-leadership, and similar topics. For these topics, accuracy, currency, appropriateness, production quality,tone, and instructional design matter.It is not enough just to provide learning content. You mustprovide current, relevant, authoritative content from respectedsources. And that content must be presented in a way thatresonates with learners, allowing them to visualize how thisnew knowledge will impact their work.Some curriculum developers and e-learning course designers“ignore the fact that the main goal of online instructionis to facilitate learning that will be beneficial for learners.Instead, too often, designers apparently see a project fromtheir own perspective, perhaps focusing on the technological‘bells and whistles’ and not through the eyes of the userswho want to achieve or complete successfully a particulartask.”5 Everyone has encountered bad training in some formor another. L&D professionals have an explicit responsibilityto provide high-quality learning content that rewards thelearner for his or her investment of time.

Time is the single most precious asset in today’s fast-paced business world. Business professionals must make the most of every minute of every day, even as demands on their time have increased exponentially. Staying informed is one of the most critical needs that business people have, and also one of the most time-consuming. This paper explores a new framework for delivering information in easily-digestible 10-minute nuggets that satisfy a range of informational needs. The 10x10x10 framework supports immediate problem-solving and the ongoing development needs of today’s leaders in a hyper-competitive, ever-changing world, ultimately driving higher levels of organizational performance and agility.

One best practice for cultivating a digital thought-leadership stream is by adopting a 10x10x10 framework. This framework is built on the premise that the people who would benefit most from rich breakthrough thinking are also the most time-challenged and difficult to reach population in an organization. They might not only be your executives, but your senior managers, your highly motivated key contributors, your high-potential employees, and large swaths of your general workforce who are highly engaged and desiring growth. The 10x10x10 framework is designed to reach all these populations with bite-sized, highly engaging content matched to the individual’s preferred learning style and time constraints. Simply put, 10x10x10 is all about providing a stream of world-class content that can be accessed on any Web device anywhere in the world by a busy professional who has just ten minutes to invest. Moreover, it is about allowing the user to select from a variety of modalities. A user may have ten minutes to read, ten minutes to listen or ten minutes to watch. This framework brings together assets from four independent SkillSoft content sources into a single leadership stream that can satisfy these needs.

Every professional in your organization understands the value of a book. In fact, if you were to conduct a poll, you would undoubtedly find a large majority of people lamenting their inability to read more books. Why? Because books provide not just facts, but context and texture. They provide a logic train with a starting point, middle and end. They provide deep insights and analysis. For most people in business today, books were the primary tool for formal skills transfer in their lifetime. Books are a time-proven treasure trove of contextual information. Today’s reality has reduced reading long-form books to a rarified luxury. But the information that continues to be captured in book form is no less vital. The challenge is unlocking this information is a way that is relevant and efficient for a time-challenged workforce, without sacrificing deeper context when needed. The first leg of the 10x10x10 framework is targeted at solving this problem of providing an opportunity to learn when someone has just ten minutes to read. By incorporating an online reference solution that enables users to instantly search millions of pages of vetted, business-relevant content. But content alone is not enough. Equally important is a search platform that can pinpoint the relevant sections hidden within these books so a busy professional can get to the very heart of the information quest while having the full context should there be a need to go deeper in any direction. Books24x7® BusinessPro™, from SkillSoft, is an ideal platform for satisfying members of your audience when they have just ten minutes to read. BusinessPro is arguably the world’s most comprehensive collection of business reference books aggregated online and accessible through an easy to use and fully integrated search interface. Via BusinessPro, a user can instantly search the content of more than 6,600 world-class books comprising more than 1.7-million pages covering every corner of business know-how from operationally oriented business processes like project management to self-improvement. There is also abundant content on higher-level business issues such as business strategy, sustainability and theory from the likes of Harvard and Stanford, to name just two of the more than 400 participating publishers.

Learning through listening is increasingly popular as time-challenged high performers look to maximize “blank space” in their otherwise crammed schedules. Examples include drive-time commutes, during workouts, while on or waiting for flights. And audio files are among the most universally portable format today as they can be played directly from any computing device including netbooks and tablets, copied to CD for playing in the car, or downloaded to an MP3 device including iPods for complete personal mobility. The second leg of the 10x10x10 framework targets the audio learner. Progressive learning organizations see these down periods as opportunities to provide rich, professionally-produced, name-brand audio content that broadens business perspective even as it entertains. ExecSummaries™, from SkillSoft, is an ideal content source for reaching the road warrior with mindful, business audio content. ExecSummaries is a hand-picked selection of the must-read business books that are truly distinguished through their ground-breaking business thought leadership. Each book is distilled into a compact “executive-style summary” designed to convey the essence of the book in a document that be read in about ten minutes. What’s more, each new summary is available in a downloadable “podcast” format that can be played on virtually any computing or music device. Examples of the more than 200 titles found in the ExecSummaries audio podcast collection include: • Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson • The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader by John C. Maxwell • What the Customer Wants You to Know by Ram Charan• Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott• Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Ten Minutes to Watch The third leg of the 10x10x10 framework is the modality of video. The advantages of video are obvious: compelling, engaging, and emotive. Video, as a medium, excels in its ability to quickly and efficiently allow learners and the world’s foremost business authorities and leadership gurus to connect where and when needed. And with more and more devices, including the new generation of smart phones, capable of playing standard video files, L&D organizations have more opportunities than ever to leverage this format. One of the challenges with video is time. Much commercial video production tends to focus on long-form story-telling, i.e. 30-minute sitcoms, 60-minute documentaries, 90-minute movies. It is a comfortable format, especially when it is event based with a user blocking the time to attend and participate for the duration. But how can video be used effectively to satisfy the ad hoc needs of your time-challenged workforce? How can you incorporate video into your leadership development stream in a way that appeals to today’s YouTube generation? More and more organizations are relying on the Leadership Development Channel ®, from SkillSoft, to deliver bite-sized video, called QuickTalks. QuickTalks are sophisticated, compelling 10-minute or less videos that capture the essential thinking from experts around the globe on specific topics spanning the full spectrum of business related topics in management, leadership, personal effectiveness, sales, marketing, strategy and much more. Relevant QuickTalks can be pinpointed through a simple search query, generally offering a choice of perspectives from multiple experts. By launching the video, it is as if the user just asked the expert, such as MIT management guru Michael Treacy, a question such as: “What can be done to improve and structure the invention process for competitive advantage?” The viewer then hears a thoughtful, response designed to inspire further consideration and action. With more than 1,200 QuickTalks available from more than 350 globally recognized speakers, this collection offers a deep and convenient video resource.

Executives and HR management have always been focused on basic talent management—acquiring, hiring and retaining talented employees. But, to drive optimal levels of success, business leaders need engaged, high-performing employees. The key to inciting a workforce to greatness is to align your talent management with company strategy, define consistent leadership criteria across all functional areas, and identify specific competencies (analytical, technical, education, experience) to cultivate for continuing growth. Business leaders who implement a the best talent management process are more prepared than their competitors to compete in the global economy and capitalize quickly on new opportunities. True success is only available when companies do more than adapt to long-term trends; they must be able to anticipate and jump on new opportunities before the rest of the market. A strategic talent management plan allows you to:Become "proactive" versus "reactive". Fill your critical talent management needs and address company and industry changes promptly;Identify essential skills to be developed in all employees, and minimize training costs by focusing on key development areas; andImprove your recruiting process by identifying high-quality candidates using job descriptions based upon the expertise of your high performing employees holding uniquely valued company or industry competencies.Align Individual Goals with Corporate StrategyThe best talent management plan is closely aligned with the company’s strategic plan and overall business needs. Goal alignment is a powerful management tool that not only clarifies job roles for individual employees, but also demonstrates ongoing value of your employees to the organization. When you engage employees in their work through goal alignment, you create greater employee ownership in your company's ultimate success; they become more committed to your company and achieve higher levels of job performance. To achieve "goal alignment" in your organization, you must first clearly communicate your strategic business objectives across the entire company. By allowing managers to access and view the goals of other departments, your organization can greatly reduce redundancy. Goal sharing also helps departmental heads find ways to better support each other, as well as identify areas where they may be unintentionally working at cross purposes. With everyone working together toward the same objectives, your company can execute strategy faster, with more flexibility and adaptability. Essentially, goal alignment strengthens your leadership and creates organizational agility by allowing managers to:Focus employees’ efforts on your company's most important goals;Understand more clearly all responsibilities associated with specific goals; andStrengthen accountability by assigning measurable and clearly articulated goals that are visible company-wide.

Adoption of eLearningAs a leading infrastructure conglomerate in India, GMR has been expanding its operations globally. Thecompany has approximately 15 branch locations including presence in Turkey, South Africa, Indonesia, Singapore and Nepal, with more than 4,000 employees. One of its major business need was to make learning independent of the locations and as per the convenience of the employees. They needed a more effective way to deliver uniform learning and track training offered to all its employees. Being a highly dynamic organization the GMR was on the lookout for a Learning Management System (LMS) which was not only agile but also robust and scalable.To make learning more effective GMR required an interactive scenario-based eLearning course that not just reflected the real life problems and situations but also enabled the learner to test his knowledge in a risk free simulated environment.eLEARNING INITIATIVE SHIFT FROM EFFICIENCY TO EFFECTIVENESS At GMR, blended learning evolved around the concept of 60-30-10. The integrated approach consists of 60%-on the job learning, 30% - learning through observation and 10% -formal training. To cater to this10% they wanted to introduce blended training over and above the classroom training. GMR selected 24x7 LearnTrakTM LMS to meet itsbusiness needs. The company implemented the learning platform solution in September 2007 and till date it has successfully offered more than 343 courses through its Virtual Management Development Centre, to its employees. This eLearning initiative with 24x7 Learning, offered more number of courses than what would have been conducted through classroom trainings. These eLearning courses addressed multiple work scenarios which the employees could apply in their day-to-day working.One of the most interesting elements of this eLearning initiative was the simulation based courses from 24x7 Learning which offered an opportunity to GMR employees to apply newly acquired knowledge to solve problems and seek solutions through simulations. Though this, learners were presented with real-life situations and were required to take suitable decisions to resolve the problems. 24x7 Learning also created Custom eLearning courses on internal policies such as Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, Values and Beliefs, Managing Performance keeping in mind GMR's requirements.SHIFT FROM EFFICIENCY TO EFFECTIVENESSThe solution offerings from 24x7 Learning brought in a phenomenal change that span across all the locations of GMR. 24x7 Learning solutions aided GMR to bring about a change in their learning culture and helped them embrace eLearning. The company benefited from 24x7 LearnTrakTM LMS, to reach a large and widely dispersed work force at 15 locations, making learning easily accessible.The employees were excited about the ability to take eLearning courses that improve their performance and advance their careers with the flexibility of doing it when it best fits in to their schedule. Over 5179 unique users have, till date, completed the courses and more than 3018 users are currently taking the online courses. The custom eLearning courses were well received and achieved the completion rate of 98%. Thus, 24x7 Learning solutions not only helped GMR to accelerate learning through the eLearning initiative at a substantially lower cost but also paved the way for the shift from efficiency to effectiveness.