Performance management has been broken for some time. But what if the reason it has been so unsuccessful is not because of the tools or the processes, but the alignment with the organization’s culture? Check out this finding from our 2016 Performance Management Study:

Culture plays a significant role in performance management success. Overall, 28% of respondents said their PM program was effective or very effective, but that number rises to 42% for organizations that say they have collaborative cultures, and 61% for organizations that say they have coaching cultures.

Wow. Companies with a coaching culture are more than twice as likely to have effective performance management than the average company.

The answer lies in the direction of performance management as a discipline. Our research shows it is not productive or constructive for managers to save up their feedback to blast the employee with 12 months’ worth of comments and criticism. Even 12 months’ worth of praise is not as help as praise given consistently to reinforce good performance and motivate future performance.

We’re seeing a slow growth of employee-focused activities that enhance the employee experience while still delivering value for the business. This includes everything from coaching and informal feedback to shaping managers into development advisors for their employees to help them grow and succeed. But there is still a struggle in determining how to provide structure and consistency while still keeping the employee at the center of it all.

Process vs. People: Creating the Right Balance

According to Brandon Hall Group’s 2016 Performance Management Study, nearly three quarters of organizations say their performance management process is more process-focused than people-focused. For instance, the goal setting, assessing, and review process is at the forefront instead of incorporating elements such as employee strengths, in-the-moment feedback, recognition, and rewards. Perhaps that is why just 28% of companies say their current approach is an effective method for managing employee performance.

Traditional performance management does not deliver value for companies and creates an adversarial relationship between employer and employee. By gathering information on how employees are performing once or twice a year, performance management seems more punitive than productive. In addition, traditional performance management is not tied to business outcomes or overall organizational success.

When surveyed about what has changed with existing programs, companies touched on some areas that clearly indicate a shift in the traditional approach.

• 18% supplanted annual discussions with informal, frequent feedback
• 14% eliminated use of a forced ranking system
• 11% replaced annual goal-setting with near-term goals

These three items are a stark contrast to the performance management processes of old: they are focused on actual business and individual performance. But, the percentage of companies actually doing this shows that much opportunity remains.

Case in Point: JDA Software

This focus on improving performance, instead of simply recording previous accomplishments and errors, is reflected in the direction JDA Software took with its program.

In a case study published last year, I examined how JDA replaced its traditional, lengthy appraisal forms and ensured frequent alignment between managers and associates so that they could constructively discuss performance, development and career aspirations in a series of connected conversations.

What about your organization? How is your current process working in terms of driving business results? Are you still doing the traditional once-a-year approach, or have you changed it to improve the employee experience?

–Ben Eubanks, HCM Analyst, Brandon Hall Group

@beneubanks

The post Performance Management and Cultural Alignment appeared first on BrandonHallGroup.

Consistency is a key part of a good training program, but when you have a significant amount of instructors leading multiple courses and classes, it can be difficult to ensure a consistent approach. One company I profiled in a case study last year, Opus Stewart Weir, was frustrated by what it referred to as “instructor drift,” where you can have multiple classes of a specific course occurring with different topics, conversations, and results simply due to differences in instructor knowledge or delivery. This can lead to inconsistent results, and that is certainly not the goal when it comes to specialized training or even compliance requirements. Consistency is key.

We’ve talked about some of the common problems with training lately, from poor examples of how to train the trainer to the forgetfulness of our learners. But what about this challenge of instructor drift?

Structure and Consistency

Using tools and a uniform methodology can help to reduce errors and standardize the training process. But even those can only go so far. Consider these four examples from a single company—Tata Steel—that were hampering the effectiveness of its classroom training.

1. Classroom training sessions were limited to the size and seating capacity of the classroom; this was a drawback given the size of the organization’s 36,000+ workforce. Training always took place on a large scale, and non-availability of space to train a large number of employees proved to be a training barrier. While training sessions were sometimes held in halls that could occupy 50-60 employees, there were venues that could accommodate only 15 to 20 employees.
2. The organization was cognizant of the high rate of dropouts in classroom training due to the high production pressure that employees were faced with. While a 3-day course usually started off with about 50 employees, only 30 employees would complete the course. This high dropout rate of close to 50% was attributed to high work pressure, inability to comprehend the trainer, and non-interactive classroom sessions.
3. Professionals associated with research/technology/scientific services at Tata Steel need to go through specific technical courses at a post graduate level – for which an employee needs to get himself/herself registered in a leading institute, and attend the course throughout the semester. This was not possible for a large number of candidates, and the organization wanted to make use of thoughtfully designed eLearning modules that would provide these employees with the required training on their desktop/laptop.
4. Oftentimes, one-day training courses would get extended over several days when employees failed to understand the subject matter and also due to extended interactive sessions. With the extension of these training courses, costs went up and productivity suffered.

The answer for Tata Steel was to move its training online through the use of a new learning management system provider, ultimately saving more than $5.6 million in the first year with a projected savings of $22 million over a four-year period. While that may be an option for some, it also presents yet another issue, because many employees don’t get the same experience from an online course as they do from a classroom event.

Replicating the Feel of Classroom Training

Due to cost constraints, many companies are looking for ways to move courses online, but people just don’t want to sit through another click-through course. One client reached out to us this week asking for ideas on how to make the transition without losing the “essence” of traditional classroom training. I think that’s important, but we need to define that “essence” to answer the question.

• Is it the social interaction provided by the classroom environment? We can replicate that to some degree with social learning solutions.
• Is it being able to measure what employees are really learning? Leveraging assessments before, during, and after the course can help to identify what concepts were understood and which may require additional attention.
• Is it the back-and-forth interactivity that allows for coaching and correction? That’s possible, too, through the use of video solutions and simulations that require the application of knowledge.

What I’m getting at is this: because of the sophistication of technology, we no longer have to walk, drive, or fly to a classroom to listen to a subject matter expert. We can do it comfortably and inexpensively from our own desktop or mobile device.

I would say that the best practice for this transition that all companies will eventually face is mixing up modalities and not relying on simply moving in-person lectures to an online format. While web-based training and eLearning are not new, being able to incorporate video, simulations, and assessments into a seamless experience for the learner is, and it’s a powerful combination.

—Ben Eubanks, Learning Analyst, Brandon Hall Group
@beneubanks

The post How to Replace Classroom Training appeared first on BrandonHallGroup.

A few weeks ago I had a flipped classroom learning experience, but not in the way you’d think. It started when I watched some video from the elementary school my children attend. Then I visited the school, and the teachers demonstrated the classroom technology, encouraging the students do a few exercises for us to show how they are learning.

It was an interesting feeling, because experiencing it is different from writing about it. It also reinforced the value of spending in-class time on more productive activities than lectures and PowerPoint slides.

In case you’re not familiar with the concept, I’ll use this great definition from my colleague David Wentworth’s previous blog on the topic:

Flipping classrooms, for the uninitiated, is a form of blended learning in which students learn new content online by watching video lectures, usually at home, and what used to be homework (assigned problems) is done in class with teachers offering more personalized guidance and interaction with students, instead of lecturing. This is also known as backwards classroom, reverse instruction, flipping the classroom and reverse teaching.

When David examined this topic a couple years ago, there were no case studies in our library focusing on learning programs that leveraged this method. But there certainly are today. One of the best is referenced below, because I would rather show you than tell you about how companies are using this to improve learning outcomes.

Using Flipped Classroom Elements at RiverSource Insurance

A 2015 award winner, RiverSource Insurance developed a flipped classroom approach to create an inclusive, yet extensive, training plan for its financial sales employees.

The flipped classroom of video lectures for technical and detailed product training before live training enabled the wholesalers to take the pre-recorded, short webinars over a three-week period to learn the technical details about the new products.

This opened up the live training, both in-person and via webinar, to have discussions with peers, product strategy stakeholders, and product development teams. The learners engaged interactively with each other and began problem-solving as a group.

How Philips Healthcare Incorporates Flipped Classroom Content in Onboarding

Philips Healthcare, a winner of our 2014 awards competition, was in the midst of revitalizing its call center onboarding program, and it used the flipped classroom element as part of an overall approach to get learners engaged with the program and up to speed as quickly as possible.

All classrooms were flipped so the learners spent their time learning and practicing real-life issues with their cohorts in a lab-based, hands-on environment. The classroom focus is to enable the new hire to gain confidence, skills, and knowledge of the “Top calls” for the particular platform they are studying, so the day they leave the classroom they are productive, prepared, and self-assured to perform the job.

To flip the classroom, Philips had to first convert the lecture and how-to instruction material that was used in the traditional classroom environment to a self-study format. The team decided to go with video and put out a “call for presenters” to the Business Innovation, Service Innovation, and Technical Project Service Teams to help create the modular, bite-size videos which would be focused entirely on the knowledge and skills to resolve the top calls.

How to Flip Your Classrooms

What is great about this learning delivery method is that it relies heavily on the interactions of the audience. If you can generate the initial content, whether using pre-recorded webinars, podcasts, videos, or other methods like the examples above, then it is as simple as delivering it and providing an opportunity for the learners to interact, engage, and more fully explore the concepts.

Has your company ever used flipped classroom methods for learning? What has been your experience?

—Ben Eubanks, Learning Analyst, Brandon Hall Group
@beneubanks

The post Harnessing the Flipped Classroom Model appeared first on BrandonHallGroup.

Last year I wrote about the impact of the user experience on the ROI for HCM software. In Brandon Hall Group’s 2016 Talent Acquisition Technology Study, we saw some similar responses to what we already  know is true in learning technology: people are looking for tools that are easy to use and that mirror the sophistication of their consumer technology. According to the study, about 30% of organizations are planning to make a change in their software provider. The reasons vary, but the top reasons are important to note:

1. Need for an improved administrative experience (72%)
2. Need for an improved user experience (66%)

That first one is important from a recruiting perspective, but the second one could be costing you great candidates that simply aren’t willing to put up with your application process. A 2014 CareerBuilder study asked hiring leaders what level of candidate drop-off they were seeing. More than 50% of companies estimated that they were losing up to 25% of the people in their application process.

In several conversations during the SmartRecruiters user event last week, the topic of usability resurfaced as a key piece of technology selection decisions. It’s always interesting to get a peek into the selection mindset, so let’s explore two of those discussions as a way to get a grip on what matters most in the selection process.

Company A: 12,000-Employee Technology Firm

This company is currently using one of the big ATS companies for its recruiting processes, but its new leader of talent acquisition strategy is looking for something with a more modern look and feel. The HR leader told me that she is actually embarrassed by candidates applying for positions at the company, because as a technology firm should have an interface that looks clean and intuitive. Even with upgrades and customizations, the ATS simply can’t meet the needs of the business. That’s why she advocated a switch to the new platform.

Company B: 450-Employee Technology Firm

The recruiting leader from this company told me that he has used more than half-dozen applicant tracking systems, referral platforms, and other point solutions within the recruiting space. However, none has actually served the needs of the business and helped to deliver the value that it needs. When we talked about what made him switch to his current platform, he instantly said that the intuitive interface was key. He hires his recruiting team directly from college with no work experience, and anything that is hard to learn or clunky would just delay the process of getting them up to speed.

Does your organization prioritize usability within the selection process? Have you ever applied for a job at your company to see what the process is like?

—Ben Eubanks, HCM Analyst, Brandon Hall Group
@beneubanks

The post Talent Acquisition Technology: Usability Wins appeared first on BrandonHallGroup.

Talent acquisition is one of my favorite research areas, because the industry is growing by leaps and bounds. In addition, new technologies, platforms, and tools are changing the face of traditional recruiting practices. On April 26, I had the opportunity to visit with one of the companies leading the way in terms of recruiting innovation. SmartRecruiters held its first user event in San Francisco to help share best practices and expose its customers to their peers from across the user landscape. The event began with an analyst panel, and I had the pleasure of sharing some insights about the current and future trends affecting the function.

The general commentary that began the discussion was this: if the applicant tracking system, the core piece of recruiting technology for many organizations, is so despised, then why is it also so prevalent?

There are a few answers to that question. The first is to acknowledge reality. In Brandon Hall Group’s 2016 Talent Acquisition Technology Study, the ATS received a satisfaction score of 76 on a 100-point scale. While that equates to a grade of C, it was the highest score of all talent acquisition technology modules.

Another big reason companies fail to see much value in an ATS implementation is due to a lack of strategy. Companies with broken processes that try to implement technology on top quickly realize a common outcome: they become more efficient at doing the wrong things. It’s about getting the right process in place first.

Finally, we wrapped up the panel by examining the trends driving future innovation in this space. The most pressing areas that I’ve seen change in recent years include the growth of recruitment marketing, a higher demand for organizational results, and the steady increase of candidate experience as a business priority.

Recruitment marketing is a powerful tool. Brandon Hall Group recently published a case study examining the process used by Accenture to drive more than 54,000 resumes from a single branding campaign. With many companies in our 2015 Talent Shortage and Hiring Practices Study saying that finding talent is a challenge, being able to deliver those kinds of results is a game changer.

Speaking of game-changing tactics, companies are no longer content to settle for “time to fill” as a metric for recruiting effectiveness. It’s a measure of efficiency, maybe, but it says nothing about the results being driven by that new hire. Being able to talk in terms of organizational outcomes instead of simply reverting back to flat, lifeless metrics should be a core competency for any talent acquisition leader. For instance, in the Accenture case study mentioned above, the recruiting team was able to tie its results back to the specific spend on those branding dollars.

Another great example is found in the conversation I had this morning with a hiring leader at Atlassian, a global software company founded in Sydney in 2002. The company has a fanatical approach to culture fit, and its rapid growth in recent years could have superseded the importance of focusing on the right hire. However, the firm has “deputized” specific employees with the ability and responsibility to veto any candidates that are poor fits. Those “vetoes” are a measure of hiring success for the company, and the goal is to have zero applicants hired that are not a culture fit.

And last but not least, candidate experience is not going away. In the early days it was tough to determine if it was just another fad or if it was a true measure of recruiting performance. In a recent case study, I profiled De Facto Retail, a Turkish retail chain. The company wanted to improve transparency in its recruiting process, so it developed an online dashboard so applicants could see the status of an application at any point in time, improving the candidate experience. Many companies have workflows and process reporting for internal HR/recruiting stakeholders, but this company took it a step further and made that visibility open to candidates as well.

I say this is why we are seeing onboarding growing as a priority (it was number one in our 2016 Talent Acquisition Technology Study list of priorities). The onboarding process is the critical final step in sealing the deal for new employees and setting them up for success. It neatly caps off the candidate experience and opens the door for the employee experience, laying the foundation for lasting performance.

SmartRecruiters has brought together some great sessions and content to celebrate its inaugural user event. I’m honored to have been able to attend and look forward to seeing what else the company has up its sleeve.

–Ben Eubanks, HCM Analyst, Brandon Hall Group

@beneubanks

The post Hire Success: Reporting from the SmartRecruiters 2016 User Conference #Hire16 appeared first on BrandonHallGroup.

In the eBook embedded below we explore five companies that are going above and beyond with their onboarding efforts. The list includes the following firms:

• DeVry University
• LinkedIn
• International Finance Corporation
• Motorola
• Telus

One of my favorites is from DeVry. The company sees its program as part of a holistic talent approach, not simply a way to hand out tax forms and show people where the restrooms are. The educational institution specifically targeted a problem area (turnover) and developed this program to resolve it. After launching the new onboarding initiative, the firm was able to reduce voluntary turnover to less than half that of the industry average.

As you read through, consider which elements you might be interested in adding to your own onboarding initiative. And if you want to dig deeper and explore any of the case studies in their full text, just click here to download the eBook and within it, you will see buttons labeled “Learn More” where you’ll be able to download the case studies of your choice.

—Ben Eubanks, Learning Analyst, Brandon Hall Group
@beneubanks

The post Five Companies with Leading Onboarding Programs appeared first on BrandonHallGroup.

In this blog, we will make public some of these reports (click on the links) as a way for non-members to familiarize themselves with our research:

• Research Summary: Learning Technology 2016
• Excellence Series: Leading Performance Management Practices
• Is Your Learning Technology Holding You Back?

One-Week Full-Access Trial Membership – FREE!

Our research is just one piece of a Brandon Hall Group Membership. Contact us at membersuccess@brandonhall.com for more information.

You may qualify for a free, one-week full-access trial membership!

Here is an overview of research released April 18-24:

New Research Reports

Research Summary: Learning Technology 2016

This report summarizes the top findings of Brandon Hall Group’s 2016 Learning Technology Study, completed in April 2016. The technology employed to deliver Learning and Development has grown increasingly varied and complex. The cloud, social tools, mobile technologies, and other advances have created a host of opportunities for new learning experiences – so much so that technology has become the top L&D priority. Exploring new and different technologies — especially social and mobile — surpassed even the learning strategy as the top focus over the next 12 months.

Excellence Series: Leading Practices in Performance Management

Traditional performance management does not deliver value for companies and creates an adversarial relationship between employer and employee, according to Brandon Hall Group’s 2016 Performance Management research. This Excellence Series report examines three companies with leading-edge performance management practices that break the paradigm: Sears Holdings, JDA Software, and Baker Hughes. These businesses implement and maintain structures that support and enhance employee performance. From 360-degree continuous feedback, to an increasing link between performance and results, the shift has positive implications for the businesses willing to make the change.

Award-Winning Technology Reviews

These technology reviews – winners of 2015 Brandon Hall Group Excellence in Technology Awards – were released for publication:

Xerox Creates Scalable Teaming Portal with Learning 2020

Xerox has a rich teaming relationship with EY for learning that has existed for many years. Well-positioned technology enablers enhance that relationship and Xerox’s ability to seamlessly work on team projects with EY counterparts. This includes deployment of EY laptops and network access credentials to Xerox employees working primarily on EY projects. In many cases, the culture and technology integration allows Xerox to seamlessly fit in with EY teams and projects for learning. The Learning 2020.net site was created as a secure and scalable teaming portal for EY and Xerox employees.

Web-based Crisis Simulation Response that Saves Money

The web-based Crisis Response Simulation platform, developed by Engineering & Computer Simulations, solves problems and addresses business needs by decreasing the cost of crisis training while increasing the frequency of training. Rather than perform live tabletop exercises annually, CRS grants organizations the opportunity to train more often, from remote locations, and at a lower cost. One of the product’s breakthrough innovations is the scenario-authoring tool. This allows customers to design CRS training exercises that are completely authentic to their organization.

Case Study-based Experiential Learning Solutions by Knolskape

AktivCase helps companies recruit and assess managers by having them solve rich multimedia case studies online, conducting role-plays and analyzing video solutions. The case studies are solved using core management frameworks, exposing users to how theory applies in the real world. Candidates can solve and submit case studies without having to travel to the interview location – saving time and money for recruiters and the candidates. What’s more, the platform developed by Knolskape has a built-in video recording engine that helps recruiters observe body language and confidence levels among other nuances to assess their candidates for the role.

Integrating Job, Language and Communication Skills at Ascentify

Canada-based Ascentify developed a workforce development platform that consists of training and assessment functionality, as well as language and communication skills. The Ascentify Player’s innovative way of leveraging advanced speech recognition technology and other technology/techniques creates an interactive training platform that improves the learner’s verbal, written, comprehension, and judgment skills.

Collaborative Knowledge Powers the Cisco Career Connection

Cisco Collaborative Knowledge is a knowledge platform that helps organizations solve real-world business challenges with real-time knowledge. At its core, it is a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service digital workplace solution. It connects and empowers everyone within an organization by providing the digital tools and technology needed to access experts, learning and knowledge in real-time, anywhere and anytime.

Blue Sky Broadcast’s Path to Recorded Learning Events

Path, by Blue Sky Broadcast, is a cloud-based approach to educational content management that is designed specifically for lecture-based learning applications. Optimized to deliver media content from educational and training events, Path allows you to manage all of your content, such as conference recordings, recorded lectures from live and virtual meetings, as well as traditional e-learning presentations, in an easy-to-use, rapidly deployed, digital library that enhances learning for worldwide audiences.

Webinars

Is Your Learning Technology Holding You Back?

We all know how quickly business moves, and technology changes even faster. Why then do so many organizations rely on outdated learning technology to support their business? Why do they use multiple LMSs from a variety of vendors across their global organization? David Wentworth, Principal Learning Analyst for Brandon Hall Group, and Michelle Sullivan, Marketing Director for NetDimensions, share insights into the challenges companies face with learning technology, and discuss best practices for creating a strategy to upgrade, as well as tips to prepare your organization and mitigate the impact change represents.

Questions from Members

One of the great things about membership to Brandon Hall Group is the ability to ask questions to our team of analysts, who will respond within 24 hours. Here are the questions answered this week:

• Do you have any information on how coaching needs shift as you go from senior levels down to the front line? Thanks you!
• What ROI models exist for LMS replacements?

Solution Provider Profiles

SmartRecruiters

This solution provider profile features SmartRecruiters and its Talent Acquisition Platform. It’s a complete recruiting OS that enables organizations to recruit like a high-performing marketing and sales function. The platform gives sourcers, recruiters, hiring managers, HRIT, and executives tools they need to attract the talent they need, collaborate closely to identify, vet and close candidates, and get the metrics ​they need. The profile includes insights from Brandon Hall Group Principal Talent Acquisition Analyst Daria Friedman.

Research-based Blogs

Strategy is About Solving Future Problems

Most companies don’t have HCM strategies. The tendency is to “fight fires” and jump from crisis to crisis. Without planning for the future, companies simply won’t be able to meet oncoming challenges without considerable difficulty. To read Ben Eubanks’ complete blog, please click here.

What’s Trending in Talent Acquisition Technology?

Brandon Hall Group’s 2016 Talent Acquisition Technology survey findings will soon be released, and Talent Acquisition Principal Analyst Daria Friedman provides a sneak peek at a few of the highlights. There is both good news and bad news. The good news is that organizations are prioritizing onboarding for 2016. Slightly over half (52%) are prioritizing optimization of the onboarding process, and 45% are looking for an onboarding technology solution. In terms of overall talent acquisition priorities and talent acquisition technology priorities onboarding was the top answer choice. To read the complete blog, please click here.

The post Brandon Hall Group Research Published April 18-24 appeared first on BrandonHallGroup.

My Brandon Hall Group colleague, David Wentworth, likes to point out a statistic from our learning technology research that highlights dissatisfaction with the LMS marketplace. In the study, we asked participants to rate various aspects of their current system. Number two on the list was “meets our current needs,” but all the way at the bottom of the list was “meets our future needs.”

In thinking about this, I considered just how much time we spend trying to solve today’s problems without ever looking into the future.

I often cite The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It in these kinds of discussions. The key principle in the book is that people who start small businesses are usually technical experts who want to work in the business. However, for long-term success, there needs to be a focus of working on the business as well, including marketing, sales, accounting, and other aspects. While all are not direct, revenue-producing activities, they enable business success and allow it to grow and flourish.

This tenet also applies in much larger organizations. The tendency is to “fight fires” and jump from crisis to crisis. Without planning for the future, companies simply won’t be able to meet oncoming challenges without considerable difficulty.

Training for Today and Tomorrow

Strategy is the foundation for virtually every business activity, and yet there are so few companies actually putting this into place:

• Only 55% of companies have a learning strategy (2015 State of Learning & Development Study, Brandon Hall Group)
• Just 25% of companies have a clear talent acquisition strategy (2015 Strategic Talent Acquisition Study, Brandon Hall Group)
• About two in 10 companies have a highly effective talent management strategy, meaning that the other 80% have ineffective or nonexistent strategies (2016 State of Talent Management Study, Brandon Hall Group)

The critical question is: With so many competing priorities, how do companies identify those future problems that need solving?

We can’t develop 100 disparate competencies in every worker, so how can we determine which trends are truly going to require a shift in the products/services we deliver as an organization?

For instance, back in 2003, Second Life was going to be “the next big thing,” but despite much fanfare it never really panned out in terms of broad appeal. Now we’re seeing services like Uber shake up multiple industries and many companies seem to be taken by surprise (including those unconventional ones from which Uber is snatching talent). I think it all comes down to the sources of information that companies use.

Customers and Competitors as Information Sources

For those looking mainly at competitors in the marketplace, they are jumping from trend to trend with no real strategy to actually prepare the employee base for the demands of the future. It’s like a game of whack-a-mole. Even if you hit a target, another one pops up almost immediately. That approach is expensive, and it is a grind for the employees who have to deal with this never-ending stream of fad programs with no true depth or cultural ties.

However, those companies that focus on customers and what they want are the ones that are on target to meet the coming changes head on, because they can start developing the right competencies to meet those customer needs. Listening to your customers isn’t a new idea, but few companies use that as the foundation for their employee competency planning. It’s a strategy that plays out for companies of all sizes and industries.

Take MasterCard, for example.  In talking with some of the learning leaders at MasterCard recently, the company is clearly defining itself as a technology firm. That’s because of the customer demand for solutions beyond a simple swipe terminal. From online retail to mobile payments, it’s just one example of how following the customer demands is going to make sure the company is targeting the right trends. That, in turn, feeds into the hiring and upskilling side of things. MasterCard needs to hire mobile developers and people to broker relationships with online marketplaces, but those wouldn’t have been skill sets the company was looking for in the past.

Consider your own organization and its approach to this timeless issue.

• Do you have a method for identifying and evaluating trends that will affect your business?
• How do you determine which trends are going to require attention and which will fall by the wayside?
• How does trend analysis feed into your competency and skill planning process?

—Ben Eubanks, HCM Analyst, Brandon Hall Group
@beneubanks

The post Strategy is About Solving Future Problems appeared first on BrandonHallGroup.

In Brandon Hall Group’s Employment Value Proposition Study, 31% of companies said that engagement is a strategic priority and linked to employee performance. If I asked you how you were intentionally working to engage your employees, what would you say? Maybe you are paying above-market wages and offering career development opportunities. It’s possible that you even have a robust benefits program and use incentives and recognition regularly.

But what if I asked you to take it to the next level? The two factors I would use include intentionality and intensity: how can we be more intentional in our approach to engagement, and how can we step up in terms of intensity over the standard fare?

For many HR leaders, it’s difficult to think about what offerings might drive engagement without other examples to spur them on. We recently published a case study on Viacom18, a $300 million, India-based media and entertainment firm with almost 800 employees. The firm won a Silver Award for its employee engagement strategy, and I am fascinated with the way the company approaches the decision to provide extra perks for its people. The company, known for its Comedy Central, MTV, and Nickelodeon brands, actively seeks out ways to add to the offerings it presents to employees. Now, I do understand the limitations of budget, and culturally some of these would not fit at other organizations. But my hope is that the following list gives you additional ideas about how you can show your employees the appreciation you have for their efforts beyond a paycheck and a 401(k).

Viacom18’s Employee Perks

The company boasts more than half a dozen pages of benefits. Here is a sampling:

1. Gifts to cheer up employees in case they are having a bad day or have just gone through a relationship issue.
2. Pay for an employee’s musical instrument purchase.
3. Free tax and finance consultation help desks.
4. A dating allowance and Valentine’s Day gifts for those in love. For those looking to find love, an online marriage/matching website subscription allowance.
5. For the furry family members, an animal grooming allowance.
6. A self-study center, which has hundreds of books, periodicals, magazines, videos, and self-learning materials available for free.
7. Through the innovative delivery of engagement initiative — which include branding, pre-launch feedback and teasers, promotional activities, post-launch feedback and buzz – V18 takes each initiative and program and ensures that it has the Viacom18 spirit stamped onto it. This cultural focus helps to maintain employee engagement with the company’s ongoing operations.
8. There is a training mascot, called “Rancho,” who informs employees about the training sessions being held.
9. Fan of tattoos? V18 will pay for part of the cost of the procedure.
10. Employees can plan their vacations with company-sponsored travel agent services.

The latest version of the V18 benefits guide has 38 perks in total. The company takes it a step further and extends these benefits to employees’ loved ones: their parents, children, spouse, friends, co-workers, and even their pets!

Engagement is Not the Target Outcome

Before you say it, I’ll save you the trouble. We are not going after engagement for its own sake. “Engagement” is not a legitimate business outcome. But I’ll tell you what is: employee retention and productivity.

Brandon Hall Group’s employee engagement research highlighted these two killer stats:

• 80% of companies that prioritize engagement have reduced turnover rates year over year
• 31% of organizations that prioritize engagement say that it drives higher productivity

I am convinced that one reason these widespread “engagement” initiatives are unsuccessful is because organizations are looking for engagement as an outcome. It’s hard to justify that cost. But when you can tie it back to revenue, retention, productivity, and other tangible measures, it’s much easier to see one of these programs succeeding.

So, how is it working out at Viacom18? Well, after winning numerous “best place to work” awards, corporate performance has continuously improved, and revenues are at their highest marks in the company’s history. V18’s program may not be for everyone, but it fits the culture and works for them. And it demonstrates that differentiating your company’s benefits from others can potentially pay off – not just in more engaged or more rewarded employees, but in the bottom line.

—Ben Eubanks, Learning Analyst, Brandon Hall Group
@beneubanks

The post 10 Employee Perks that Improved One Company’s Bottom Line appeared first on BrandonHallGroup.

Training has come a long way, but there is always room for improvement. Many of the conversations with learning leaders of late have been focused not on courses or classrooms, but on performance. In other words, is the training actually helping the employee to deliver higher performance?

There is a niche within the learning world that is focused on tools and technology specifically designed to help people in this way—performance support. The methods and learning modalities can be intuitive and simple or highly complex, as these examples from Brandon Hall Group’s Excellence Awards program illustrate:

On one end of the spectrum, 7-Eleven uses binders with pictures and simple descriptions to help staff understand how to prepare fresh food the right way. At the other end of the spectrum, the tools can be highly complex and enabled by technology, such as the onboarding toolkits developed by Canadian Tire.

There are even extended enterprise applications. MTAB, an Indian manufacturing technology company, embeds QR codes in its products so users can scan the graphic to access electronic help manuals, videos, and resources at the point of need.

Sample Food Preparation Performance Support Video

Source: KFC

Driving Performance for Employees and the Organization

Again, this discussion comes down to performance. Courses on ethics and company policies are necessary, but they are not set up to directly impact employee performance on the job. A few things set performance support apart from other training types:

1. Accessible at the point/moment of need
2. Embedded into the flow of work
3. Helps solve a specific problem

If you’re wondering if your current learning can be counted as, or adapted into, performance support, I have a simple question for you: does it support improved performance? Maybe it’s overly simplistic, but considering the average company spends just 4% of its training budget on performance support (2015 Brandon Hall Group Training Study), I think it makes sense to stop and ask the question.

Here are how some companies are putting this into place and measuring the outcomes, courtesy of case studies from Brandon Hall Group’s Excellence Awards program:

• MetLife: average productivity and ticket size for business sold by sales associates supported by the company’s Global Partner Learning Solutions initiative are 20% higher than their historical, classroom-trained counterparts.
• KFC: the fast food chain has seen increased same-store sales and an average 10% higher customer satisfaction ratings after putting its new simplified performance support model into practice.
• MTAB: mentioned above for its QR code program, the company has been able to shorten billing times, reduce support costs, and improve productivity of service engineers by embedding the mobile-accessible codes into its product line.

As you can see, there is a profound impact to be had from this experience that is rarely used relative to other learning types (training in job skills, compliance, leadership development, etc.)

Does your company leverage performance support tools? If not, why?

—Ben Eubanks, HCM Analyst, Brandon Hall Group
@beneubanks

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