Perspective on Training Outsourcing | Special Edition 2015 by Training Industry Magazine

SPECIAL EDITION I OUTSOURCING2015

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PERSPECTIVES ON

TRAINING OUTSOURCING - D OU G HARWAR D

Since launching Training Industry, we have been focused on understanding the global training outsourcing market and what drives corporate executives to source training services. Our research has provided us a deeper understanding of buyer behavior, best practices, who the top suppliers are, and how companies spend for training services.

THE GOOD NEWS IS THE DISCUSSION FOR TRAINING OUTSOURCING HAS MATURED.

What we’ve learned during this time is while some things have changed quite a bit, others have stayed the same. What hasn’t changed over the last 12 years are the basic services and capabilities that corporate training organizations are sourcing – training administration, content development, delivery, portfolio management, and technology support. But when looking at why companies are using outsource suppliers and the complexity and sophistication for which those services are being provided has continued to change. The fundamental driver for companies seeking a strategic partner for the management of their training activities use to be focused more on cost reduction. When we first started working with corporate leaders of training functions who were considering an outsourcing strategy, the conversation always began with a question about how much money could they save if they outsourced some or all of their training function. Unfortunately, many corporate leaders learned that reducing the cost of training didn’t get them more value – it simply reduced the spend

for getting less of what they were already doing. In addition, many confused the practice of outsourcing and offshoring, and often thought that you either outsourced or you didn’t. The good news is the discussion for training outsourcing has matured. Leaders understand that outsourcing and offshoring are two different strategies, and that everyone outsources, or in some way sources one or more processes or activities within the training function. Rarely does any large company outsource every part of the training function. The conversations around training outsourcing have become more about what companies can do to get more value from training and how can they transform the training function into one that drives value for the business. This shift has been great news for training suppliers who have continued to improve their capabilities while remaining efficient in cost. This special edition of Training Industry Magazine is a collection of perspectives on the best practices of training outsourcing and where the market is heading. You will learn about some of the challenges training leaders are experiencing in how to transform their training function into one that is viewed as a strategic part of the enterprise. Doug Harward is CEO of Training Industry, Inc. and a former learning leader in the high-tech industry. Email Doug.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS F E AT U R E S

PROVING YOUR RELEVANCE: HOW TO FLEX MORE MUSCLE THROUGH OUTSOURCING

‘I DON’T REALLY KNOW’ IS NO LONGER AN OPTION: WHY APPLYING BPO TO TRAINING IS THE RIGHT CHOICE

By Don Duquette & Heidi Milberg, GP Strategies The learning organization must shift its focus from the learner to the business.

By Edward Trolley, NIIT Business process outsourcing can help reduce costs and drive business value.

10 LESSONS FOR SUCCESS IN MANAGED LEARNING By Joanne Casson, Hemsley Fraser Organizations have a responsibility to choose their training providers with care.

BE THE CEO OF YOUR LEARNING ORGANIZATION

TRAINING AS A SERVICE

FINDING THE RIGHT TRAINING PARTNER TO MINIMIZE RISK

WHEN TRAINING IS NOT ALIGNED WITH BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

By Keith Forshew & Rich Mesch, PDG

By Hugh McCullen, MicroTek

By Dave Letts, Raytheon

By A.D. Detrick, Xerox

HIGHER VALUE OUTSOURCING

ENSURING A SUCCESSFUL SHIFT TO DIGITAL LEARNING

By Ray Matteson, Pearson

By Sivaramakrishnan Nochur, Cognizant

CHOOSING THE RIGHT TRAINING PARTNER AND MODALITY

TRANSFORMING L&D THROUGH TRAINING OUTSOURCING

SETTING THE ‘GOLD STANDARD’ IN VIDEO E-LEARNING

HOW TO SELECT A PROVIDER FOR OUTSOURCING TRAINING SERVICES

By Lynne Wagner, The Training Associates

By Simon Vuillaume & Wolfgang Stein, Cegos

By Tom Bronikowski, Expertus

By Ken Anderson, Skillsoft

A GREAT PARTNERSHIP By Sarbani Mukherjee, Tata Interactive Systems

OUTSOURCING SPECIAL EDITION

INFO EXCHANGE

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03 I PERSPECTIVES ON TRAINING OUTSOURCING Training outsourcing is a viable solution to add value to the business.

06 I INFOGRAPHIC The BPO market has the potential to touch every aspect of the L&D organization.

42 I WHATâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S ONLINE Find additional articles and information available only at TrainingIndustry.com.

Training Industry Magazine offers free electronic subscriptions to learning and development professionals. It connects you with thought leaders, best practices and the resources and solutions you need to manage the business of learning.

43 I COMPANY NEWS Keep up with the latest in the training industry by reviewing pressing news releases.

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OUR TEAM STAFF CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

EDITOR

Doug Harward dharward@trainingindustry.com

Taryn Oesch toesch@trainingindustry.com

EDITOR IN CHIEF & PRESIDENT

DESIGNER

Ken Taylor ktaylor@trainingindustry.com

Heather Schwendner hschwendner@trainingindustry.com

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

ADVERTISING SALES

Michelle Eggleston meggleston@trainingindustry.com EDITOR

Shina Neo sneo@trainingindustry.com

sales@trainingindustry.com East: Dan Weller dweller@trainingindustry.com West: Kristin Bolduc kbolduc@trainingindustry.com

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ARTICLE REPRINTS: To order reprints of articles, please contact Betsy White, bwhite@reprintoutsource.com.

PUBLISHER Training Industry Magazine is published by: Training Industry, Inc. 401 Harrison Oaks Blvd. Suite 300 Cary, NC 27513 Phone: 1.866.298.4203 Website: TrainingIndustry.com

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Be the

CEO OF YOUR LEARNING ORGANIZATION

USING BUSINESS TOOLS TO MANAGE YOUR LEARNING FUNCTION By Keith Forshew and Rich Mesch

We hear a lot about operating the learning function as a business. But what does that really mean? Managing the learning function like a business means aligning the learning organization with business goals and demonstrating its value using metrics that matter to the business. A few years ago, industry analyst Jack Phillips published research that dealt the training and development field some tough love. His poll of top executives at large global organizations told us something we may have already suspected: Business decision-makers have trouble understanding the value of corporate training. But Phillips’ research also offered some insight into how to solve that problem: Those executives said they would see the value of training if they understood how it drives success.

up, new projects appear on our to-do lists, or a major initiative that was scratched from the previous year’s agenda shows up on this year’s.

So how can you help executives understand how learning drives business success? By using the tools, processes and metrics of a business and managing your demand curve and supply chain.

Here’s how:

LEARNING DEMAND IS PREDICTABLY UNPREDICTABLE Remember the movie “Groundhog Day”? Bill Murray’s character lives through the same day again and again. At first, he makes the same mistakes each time, but eventually, he learns to adjust his behavior. Given the opportunity to learn, he does things differently and creates a better future. Sometimes running a corporate learning department feels like “Groundhog Day.” Every year, we try to plan for our organizations’ learning needs, and every year, unexpected demands come 8

If something happens every year, it’s following a predictable pattern. Once we identify that pattern, we can analyze and plan for it. That pattern will still have unpredictable elements, but we can build a system that accounts for unpredictability and allows us to deal with it quickly and effectively when it happens.

STEP 1: GETTING OFF THE ROLLER COASTER Like it does in most organizations, your learning demand curve probably looks like a roller coaster. Periods of high demand for learning resources may be followed by periods when demand flattens or drops, followed by additional periods of high demand. This curve can make resourcing difficult and create sleepless nights for learning managers. You can begin to tame the learning demand curve by understanding it. You probably think the high-demand periods are the best, because everybody wants your services. The truth is that your high-demand periods cost the most, either in staffing, use of contractors, or compromises on quality or delivery timeframes.

SOMETIMES RUNNING A CORPORATE LEARNING DEPARTMENT FEELS LIKE “GROUNDHOG DAY.”

STEP 2: SMOOTHING THE CURVE

Once you understand your demand trends, you can distribute your high-demand periods throughout the year, flattening your demand curve and requiring fewer resources to get the same amount of work done. Smoothing the demand curve means moving tasks around so that high-demand tasks are moved as much as possible into low-demand periods to balance the workflow and make the best use of your resources. You’ll never make your demand flat; your curve will always have peaks and valleys. But the smoother you can make your demand curve, the more efficiency you can build into the process.

STEP 3: FLEXIBLE RESOURCING Some organizations staff based on low-demand scenarios and then scramble for resources when demand increases; others staff assuming high demand and carry expensive resources when they’re unnecessary. Once your demand curve is smooth, you can predict demand and staff for “mid demand” – the amount of demand you will consistently have throughout the year. You can then use flexible resourcing to deal with high-demand periods by adding contract resources only when you need them. This approach will: º Reduce Unit Cost: Since you aren’t carrying expensive resources during lower-demand periods, you’ll save money by paying for flexible resources only when they’re used. º Increase Quality of your Deliverables: Instead of keeping full-time employees busy with assignments that might be out of their comfort zone, you can assign the most qualified people to exactly the right tasks, producing higher-quality deliverables.

STEP 4: THE RIGHT RESOURCES Flexible resourcing only works if those resources are highly qualified and a good fit. We’ve probably all worked with contractors who needed a lot of support to get their work done. They eat into your cost management and efficiency and risk the quality of your deliverables. How can you find the right resources? While there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach, here are some good guidelines:

ake sure your resources are qualified. M Find someone who fits your specific needs, whether they’re content knowledge, process experience, or competency in specific tools and techniques. Anything your resource can’t do when he or she shows up, you’ll have to teach.

Y our resourcing partner should be accountable for the performance of the staff they provide, take responsibility for correcting any gaps in their performance, provide them with the tools they need to do a good job and check in with them regularly to make sure they are succeeding. esources should be assessed for skills and R competencies up front. A strong resume tells you a candidate has the right skills, but a good assessment demonstrates capability and fit. If you don’t have assessments of your own, work with a partner who has a strong assessment program.

When choosing a learning resource partner, ask yourself these questions: ºD o they focus on corporate learning, or is learning just one of many things they do? ºD o they have processes and procedures for creating learning, or are they just a “body shop,” forwarding you the resumes they source? ºD o they have a long record of successful learning design, or is learning something they started doing recently? ºD o they hold themselves accountable for their people’s success, or do they think their success should be your responsibility?

DRIVING SUCCESS AND PROVIDING VALUE As times change, we are all asked to do more with less. Many of us have seen corporate learning groups reduced in size or given additional assignments. More than ever, the leaders of our organizations are asking learning departments to demonstrate their value. As a result, we need to reconsider the methods we use to get work done and drive business success. Corporate learning departments are businesses and must be managed accordingly. Two of the most basic business concepts are supply chain and cost management. Many people think managing costs means cutting resources, programs and initiatives. However, costs can be more effectively managed by using smart demand planning and having a reliable supply of well-vetted resources to address highdemand periods. Choosing the right partner means that you always have the right highlyqualified resource for every initiative, providing value to the learning department and, therefore, the organization. Keith Forshew is the president of Performance Development Group. Rich Mesch is the vice president of customer engagement at Performance Development Group. Email Keith and Rich.

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KEY CHALLENGES IN LEARNING DEMAND PLANNING 1 Gaining realistic

clarity: Businesses don’t necessarily know what their learning demand is going to be. You need to ask the right questions. For example, if the business is planning to enter new markets or deliver a new product or service, will it be hiring new staff or require new skills?

2 S etting priorities: Help your business determine how to accomplish its goals and where it will get the biggest “bang for its buck.”

3 They don’t know

what they don’t know: Your stakeholders may be missing learning needs that would be more obvious to a learning professional. Just because they aren’t asking for it doesn’t mean they don’t need it. An outside view can be valuable by guiding stakeholders through organizational changes and initiatives that require learning and performance support.

Traditionally, training outsourcing providers have been focused on supporting corporate training needs by offering singularly focused or disconnected point solutions for training delivery, content development and design, virtual learning tools, training facilitation, project management, scheduling, etc. As such, negotiations and contractual agreements relating to these outsourced solutions are often laden with heavy details of delivery performance versus cost and penalty clauses for ineffectiveness. It appears that contracts are written to manage failure rather than promote success.

TRAINING AS A SERVICE: MAKING TRAINING MORE EFFECTIVE & PROFITABLE By Hugh McCullen

The training outsourcing industry turns 30 this year, and regardless of what side of the fence you’re on, as a business process outsourcing (BPO) provider or buyer, the industry has struggled to truly mature into one that offers real strategic advantages to companies while simultaneously enhancing learners’ experience.

So, how has this affected the BPO industry? Many would-be buyers have retreated from the BPO model completely. Others have continued to suffer through training outsourcing engagements only to be underwhelmed with training efficiencies and learning outcomes. This does not bode well for the industry that continues to realize decreasing customer satisfaction and loyalty resulting in less adoption, understanding, integration and promotion of products and solutions. How do we move from “more of the same” to revolutionizing training outsourcing services?

INTRODUCING TRAINING AS A SERVICE Training as a Service (TaaS) is a relatively new, largely unknown concept. From its inception, it was designed to be more creative and adaptive by avoiding the inherent flaws of traditional outsourcing. It provides a flexible model that promotes usage-based scalability of new and evolving training solution sets. Specifically, TaaS involves training delivery functions, classrooms, virtual training components, hybrid learning design and integration, cloudbased scheduling and registration functions. It also includes supplemental instructional resources and content development for blended delivery into synchronous and asynchronous learning environments. TaaS is grounded on two core concepts:

TaaS is learner centric: The model is designed

with the learner experience at its core. TaaS supports today’s extremely mobile workforce, who is often pressed for time and resources and distracted with a multitude of demands.

TaaS is business centric: This model also supports business objectives and time-to-market initiatives through consistent delivery execution with measurement. TaaS services

are nimble and can mold and flex with a customer’s individual needs, and can be easily customized, branded, and expanded or contracted depending upon demand. Becoming a TaaS organization is not a complex process and allows companies and suppliers to drive a model based on success components, rather than risk mitigation with financial penalties.

IMPLEMENTING TAAS Not all outsourcing companies are equipped to become a full-service TaaS, however all can contribute to the model. Approaching business practices using TaaS causes the outsourcing industry to: » Understand the importance of leveraging business partners into an OEM/White Label learning supply chain model and select one to two strategic TaaS supply partners. » Rethink how training content is delivered, innovating and leveraging technology to create delivery mechanisms that maximize knowledge transfer and provide hybrid models, which drive speed and support scalability. » Change delivery and design by utilizing agile approaches that allow customers to flex services as the demand for their program changes and provide modular-based training for customizable consumption.

BRINGING BACK TRAINING PROFITABILITY TaaS allows the outsourcing industry to help customers optimize their training programs by utilizing proven learning methodologies in a different cost model, resulting in increased profitability for the training provider over traditional services. With the arrival of the cloud, it only makes sense that training services would follow suit by offering the flexibility the industry needs in order to remain competitive. The key to success is capitalizing on the areas of training where TaaS makes the most sense. According to a recent study “Sourcing Training Solutions,” the top outsourced L&D services include: training delivery, content development, training facilitation, instructional design, LMS/CMS support, training strategy, project/program management, metrics/ROI and deployment logistics. A TaaS model that encompasses

WE SEE TaaS NOT AS A TREND OR A FAD, BUT RATHER A SOLUTION-BASED SERVICE THAT RESPONDS TO AND RESOLVES PROBLEMS QUICKER THAN TRADITIONAL TRAINING OUTSOURCING. and integrates these solutions in their entirety can allow for a more comprehensive approach to training outsourcing.

THE “SIX FIX” FOR TRAINING OUTSOURCING Introducing a new approach to training outsourcing with TaaS is already being welcomed by companies as an efficient and effective model that allows for ease of use through a flexible and adaptive design. By focusing on speed of delivery of new training and management of the learning experience, TaaS achieves both short- and long-term training goals. Providing TaaS begins with managing a customer’s learning program through a single point of contact and simple focus on problem resolution. To be successful in delivering TaaS, you need to be aware of all the components that comprise a learning program and then know how to leverage them to create a better learning experience and more training efficiencies.

1 | Create immediate value for the customer:

Improve with outsourcing, don’t simply maintain the status quo. Start with a small part of their portfolio.

2 | Outsourcing

is an investment to your customers’ growth: Displaced costs are just that, displaced costs. Focus on business gain, not cost reductions.

3 | Outsourcing

must support and drive time to market: Scale swiftly to provide quality training for market demand to remain competitive.

4 | An outsourcing company must be a real

partner, not just a supplier: Measurements

focus on relationship to supporting and driving business growth.

6 | At the end of the day, it’s about making the employee/customer better prepared: Anticipate customer needs by embracing just-in-time, just-enough, just-for-me.

WRAPPING UP TaaS is an agile and adaptive program of focused learning solutions from suppliers that share a vested interest in quick adoption and success with their customers. It is applicable for all vertical markets and geographic regions. In some markets, TaaS is already starting to have a measurable impact in business initiatives that require fast growth support. We see it not as a trend or a fad, but rather a solution-based service that responds to and resolves problems quicker than traditional training outsourcing. Developing, introducing and succeeding with TaaS is not a major redesign of service delivery for many training companies; rather, it is a simple reinterpretation for how programs can be delivered into a market that manages shorter cycles due to the acceleration of market drivers and customer requirements. Modular-based training in the just-in-time, just-enough, and just-for-me training world is no longer just a discussion point. With TaaS, it has become a reality and it is already changing the face of the traditional outsourcing market. Hugh McCullen is president of MicroTek, where he is responsible for expanding the company’s customer services portfolio and global presence while accelerating its ability to provide best-in-class training solutions designed to enhance the learner experience. Email Hugh.

5 | It’s

never all or nothing when it comes to outsourcing: Selective BPOs allow your

customers to focus their strengths on core activities while you compensate for their weaknesses.

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FINDING THE RIGHT TRAINING PARTNER

TO MINIMIZE RISK IN HIGH CONSEQUENCE ENVIRONMENTS By Dave Letts

Organizations face business risks every day that can negatively impact their bottom line and reputation, or afford the company a new opportunity to grow. For organizations that operate in high consequence environments, with a strong emphasis on risk avoidance, compliance, safety and security, effective training is a crucial component to ensure longevity and success in the marketplace. 12

Whether it’s a utility company preparing for a weather-related emergency, an aerospace company preparing crew members for a space mission, a health care organization ensuring regulatory compliance or a financial institution preparing against cybersecurity threats — high consequence training can prepare employees to meet the challenges of their job with confidence. Delivering an exceptional training experience requires diligent planning and execution. Internal resources may not always have the skills and tools necessary to effectively complete a project, so partnering with a knowledgeable supplier can be a practical solution. When utilizing an external provider to deliver a high consequence training program, organizations must ensure they select the right partner to meet their unique needs.

FINDING THE RIGHT PARTNER With the increasing challenges and complexities of the global marketplace, companies have been looking more to business process outsourcing (BPO) in recent years. While training outsourcing is now widely accepted in the market, there is still resistance among some organizations. Many business leaders are raising valid concerns: How will the training be controlled? What happens

to my staff? Can an external partner provide the quality and breadth of services my organization requires? What are the risks to my organization and customers? With so much at stake, finding the right training partner requires in-depth conversations to ensure fit for breadth and scope, capabilities, price, quality and speed. Training providers are not all created equal, so finding the right supplier in a sea of competition can prove challenging. It is important to consider factors such as industry exposure, cultural fit, geographic footprint and the ability to scale to meet your needs. Organizations that operate in high consequence, or high risk, environments have specific needs and objectives to consider when selecting an external training partner. Sources of organizational risk include risk to human capital, clients and customers, organizational resources and assets. The right training partner will understand the company’s value proposition and be able to execute on the goals and objectives of the organization. Training partnerships can create exceptional business value when orchestrated well. Ultimately, the supplier should be viewed as an extension of the company’s resources, not a separate entity.

INNOVATION IS DRIVING TRAINING OUTSOURCING In today’s competitive business landscape, training managers are expected to find new, innovative ways for training to add value. This involves using the latest technology to deliver just-in-time training solutions when employees need it most. Learning leaders need to establish peer networks as well as partnerships with a network of vendors to enhance exposure to innovation and a continuous flow of new ideas. For organizations that operate in high consequence environments, this not only means finding innovative ways to improve your training programs, but also ensuring that the programs and the associated content is distributed in a secure manner. With so many modalities available, organizations need to match delivery methods to learning objectives, and vary methods without compromising the integrity of the learning objective. Employees are increasingly finding information through informal means, leading many organizations to develop solutions that ensure employees are finding credible and business-approved content. In high consequence environments, this can be particularly challenging because employee-sourced information may not be in compliance with the strategies of the company. Understanding the environment in which training is being delivered and the risks associated with the environment are necessary to develop training programs that target the right objectives. Using a variety of techniques and software tools when delivering high consequence training can replicate realistic scenarios that employees may encounter on the job. An immersive learning experience allows participants to learn new skills in a risk-free and engaging format.

MEASURING TRAINING OUTCOMES Analyzing the effectiveness and impact of training involves looking at a variety of factors, including how the learners responded to the training, assessing whether the learning objectives were met, the rate of application of new skills to the job, and calculating a return on investment. With the onset of technology, comes the availability of analytics that can predict learner preferences and outcomes. Leveraging performance analytics is not just a nice to have in today’s fast-paced

business world, it’s a necessity in order to maintain a competitive advantage. Outputs of people performance need to have a direct correlation to yielding results for the business. If internal resources are limited, finding an external partner to leverage performance analytics can help organizations design more effective training programs. It is important to acknowledge that expectations for measurement have moved beyond Kirkpatrick’s Level 1 and compliance. Measurement criteria needs to be tied into the program from the start. Once the training program is over, it’s difficult to work backward.

THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS High consequence training can protect customers, employees and the integrity of the business when it matters most. With technology changing the way we do business, there is a growing emphasis on cybersecurity and data protection. Companies are struggling with how to protect their customers against fraud and hackers. For example, the recent data breach at Target, where up to 70 million customers’ personal information was stolen by hackers, is just one example where a company endured high consequences for a cybersecurity breach. Helping businesses protect their information and customers is critical in today’s business world. One costly mistake can destroy a company’s reputation and even put them out of business. At the core of most of these security breaches are employees, and helping them understand their role in protecting company assets is critical for the long-term viability of the company.

CREDIBILITY AND INTEGRITY ARE KEY BUSINESS DRIVERS IN THE MARKET, LEADING CUSTOMERS TO DO BUSINESS WITH A BRAND THEY TRUST.

We know that capitalizing on risk is a primary concern for all organizations. Effective training can turn risk into a competitive advantage and can set great leaders apart in all industries. Credibility and integrity are key business drivers in the market, leading customers to do business with a brand they trust and respect. As with all business deals, it takes time to build a trusted partnership. A successful training partnership can drive business value to ensure longevity and success in the marketplace for years to come. Dave Letts is vice president of Raytheon Professional Services. Email Dave.

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PROVING YOUR RELEVANCE: HOW TO FLEX MORE MUSCLE THROUGH OUTSOURCING ///////

By Don Duquette and Heidi Milberg

ONE OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES FOR TODAY’S LEARNING LEADERS IS TO DEMONSTRATE THE RELEVANCE AND VALUE OF THEIR LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS TO CORPORATE LEADERS. TRADITIONALLY, LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT (L&D) ORGANIZATIONS HAVE MEASURED THEIR SUCCESS BY HOW WELL THEY MEET LEARNER NEEDS. OFTEN, THE METRICS THEY ENDORSE INCLUDE THE NUMBER OF COURSES AVAILABLE TO THEIR EMPLOYEES, THE NUMBER OF COURSES DELIVERED, THE NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES WHO HAVE TAKEN LEARNING EVENTS AND HOW WELL THE LEARNING EVENTS RATED ON LEVEL 1 EVALUATION FORMS.

While there is value in making sure employee development needs are met, these measurements will not impress the senior leaders of an organization or provide them with the information they need to assess whether their investment in learning is making a business impact. In short, those metrics don’t speak the preferred language of the executive suites – business goals and their related outcomes. Therefore, learning leaders must become better at understanding and communicating the business impact of the learning decisions they make. To do so, the learning organization must shift its focus from the learner to the business.

USING A BUSINESS-CENTRIC APPROACH TO L&D Shifting the focus from the learner to the business means that any decisions regarding investments in learning should be directly tied to business outcomes. This shift doesn’t mean the needs of the learner are neglected in any way. Rather, it means the learners’ needs are redefined within the context of business impact. When a request for learning is made, business-centered learning leaders want to know the problem that is being addressed and the anticipated impact, in financial terms, that a successful intervention will have on employee behavior. Leaders also want to know

what impact the expected behavior change will have on the business. Does the behavior change help to increase sales, decrease costs, drive future revenue, improve customer satisfaction, reduce downtime, extend equipment life, or support or satisfy any other goals related to the organization’s bottom line? A program previously titled “Customer Service Skills” might instead become “Using Customer Service Skills to Drive Future Sales,” for example. Much of the content is the same, and the needs of the workforce are met, but the context of the training has changed to reflect organizational goals. Having a business-centered focus will provide the learning leader the tools needed to convey his or her department’s value using the information that matters most when it comes to budgeting allocations.

CONNECTING LEARNER IMPACT TO BUSINESS RESULTS When your focus shifts, so do your tactics. All organizations would love to have a cache of dedicated, seasoned employees they pay only as needed to meet the shifting needs of the business. In the real world, this system is not possible, so more companies are turning to a trusted outsourcing partner.

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The best outsourcing partners offer a flexible workforce that has: º Specialized knowledge and capabilities º Innovative thinking º Geographic availability of staff º A track record of success º An understanding of your need for business results º Experience working with other leading businesses similar in industry, size and complexity

THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION MUST SHIFT ITS FOCUS FROM THE LEARNER TO THE BUSINESS.

While outsourcing is often thought of as an allor-nothing proposition, today, most learning outsourcing strategies do not relinquish all learning functions to an external supplier. Companies are creating flexible, cost-effective organizations by retaining their best internal resources and blending them with the elite and skilled professionals provided by their outsourcing partner. When managed well, this approach creates a flexible workforce with proven processes, a deep knowledge of the business, and the learning expertise needed to efficiently and effectively produce results.

OUTSOURCING MODELS SHOULD ACCOMMODATE CHANGE Processes bring structure to an outsourcing engagement. However, organizations need flexibility within the process, because businesses evolve – sometimes very quickly – and changing business means changing tactics and continual realignment. Outsourcing providers that lock clients into stringent models and processes inevitably lead to misalignment, blocked innovation and low client satisfaction. Many times, a strong set of best practices and a thoughtful framework result in a more “model” model. Flexible outsourcing arrangements include strong governance and a formal communication plan but anticipate change and ongoing risk management. These foundational elements are critical to creating an agile learning organization. For example, in 2015, a large, global pharmaceutical company implemented a new operational model supporting its learning development, delivery and management needs. The new model leverages key internal talent with a scalable, global team of learning professionals from a best-in-class managed services partner. To date, this operational model has proven successful, and the company is on track to meet – and in some cases exceed – the business objectives defined for its learning organization.

MANAGED SERVICES OFFER SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE The best value gained from partnering with a learning outsourcing provider is the specialized skills and knowledge acquired from the 16

relationship. Speed to competency is typically a key objective in meeting business needs, and acquiring the ability to flex your staff up and down through your partner is the most efficient way to make it happen. Whether the goal of your learning intervention is to increase sales, reduce warranty claims, improve customer satisfaction or reduce downtime in your factory, you want to work with a partner who has the knowledge and proven experience to meet your specific need. As an example, sales organizations are challenged with bringing their workforce up to speed quickly on new product offerings with the goal of having an immediate impact on sales revenue. A leading global automotive company relies on its learning outsourcing partner to provide a team of more than 100 experienced, professional facilitators to keep the organization’s salesforce up to date on new products and, equally important, the new technologies in the products. Through handson activities and customer role-plays, facilitators prepare the salesforce to demonstrate and communicate about increasingly complex vehicles to customers.

FINDING A PARTNER WITH A TRACK RECORD FOR INNOVATION AND LEADING-EDGE CAPABILITIES A well-established managed services provider understands traditional and emerging learning modalities, brings new capabilities into the mix, and offers a robust set of tools and techniques tested around the globe. From microlearning and MOOCs to content curation and learning technologies, make sure you find a partner with an abundant, well-honed toolbox. You may not need all their capabilities today, but as business shifts and goals change, you’ll want to know you have the most effective options available to you when they’re needed.

ALIGNING TRAINING OBJECTIVES WITH YOUR BUSINESS GOALS The key to flexing your business muscle is picking the right partner – one who can comprehend and adapt to this shift in focus and is culturally aligned – to help you develop a new way of seeing and addressing your learning challenges. To flex the muscles of your learning organization, start by shifting your focus. Be prepared to put in the work on your end, but don’t do it alone. Look to an outsourcing partner to provide you with the strength and strategic bulk you need to transform your business. Don Duquette is the executive vice president of GP Strategies, where he is responsible for the company’s global training outsourcing practice. Heidi Milberg is the director of business development for GP Strategies. Email Don and Heidi.

LESSONS LEARNED when

TRAINING IS NOT ALIGNED WITH BUSINESS OBJECTIVES By A.D. Detrick

A large financial services firm was challenged with increasing credit card sales to their existing customers. They organized and delivered new training for their customer service reps, then validated that the reps had gained the knowledge expected from the new program. While on paper the financial services company did everything right, they experienced trouble â&#x20AC;&#x201D; credit card sales consistently declined in the two months post training. This left the training department scrambling, and management insisting that the training program be delivered a second time. This suggested that the problem was with the repsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; retention. Before having the reps attend the training a second time, frontline managers were 18

questioned for insights as to what may have occurred. Turns out, management was instructing the service reps to push mortgage loans, as the home lending department was offering cash bonuses for prospective mortgage customers. The deeper research spotlighted the conflicting objectives. The reps and their managers had additional incentives that very likely changed their behavior all unknown to the training department.

FIGURE 1

IT’S NOT A TRAINING PROBLEM In this case, improving content, increasing testing and changing the measurement protocol would not have affected the reps performance. This is a classic example of performance issues that were not related to training. A second round of training was not necessary and saved the company valuable resources and time. Fortunately, by launching a deeper investigation, we collected the correct data and insights. With these new metrics, the financial organization was able to make more informed and validated decisions to achieve their goal of increasing credit card sales.

WHAT’S IT ALL MEAN FOR YOUR COMPANY? The goal for companies is to build a partnership between training and the lines of business. If you are having difficulty finding the impact of your training programs and its correlation with overlying business objectives, consider a deeper investigation or bringing in others to help determine the cause. It’s important to understand that a variety of factors commonly affect your overall business goals.

GILBERT’S BEHAVIOR ENGINEERING MODEL

INFORMATION

INSTRUMENTATION

THE ENVIRONMENT

REPERTORY OF THE INDIVIDUAL

DATA

KNOWLEDGE

TOOLS

CAPACITY

INCENTIVE

MOTIVE

LEVERAGING GILBERT’S BEHAVIORAL MODEL Gilberts Behavior Engineering Model (see Figure 1) helps to put this story into context. According to this model, there are six areas that influence behavior, divided between an individual’s personal repertory of behavior and the environment where the behaviors occur. Typically, learning can only be accountable for one area – skills and knowledge. And it can only influence three others: expectations and feedback, tools and resources, and motives and preferences. Leveraging this model means that the financial services firm would have determined factors such as motive, incentive, and data were impacting the desired behaviors. While learning would have some influence on the outcome, it wouldn’t have had a direct impact.

IT’S A MULTI-STEP PROCESS STEP 1: Organizations need to identify the business metrics they want to achieve. STEP 2: They can map these metrics to elements leveraged across Gilbert’s model.

MOTIVATION

STEP 3: Organizations can then look at leveraging learning to accomplish or influence behavior to accomplish those objectives. In summary, successful learning programs typically focus on achieving actionable metrics at the business-unit level. So, establishing alignment from business objectives to Gilbert’s model, and validating metrics to achieve those objectives, can ensure that learning programs are likely to be successful, rather than the less successful attempt that we saw with the financial services firm. A.D. Detrick is a senior consultant for Xerox. Email A.D.

Custom-tailored learning services to drive business results. Xerox makes it simple. Your company objectives, your goals, your plans—these are all specific to your business. The tools and resources you use to keep your employees sharp and performing their best should be no different. From learning strategy and consulting to the measurement of learning outcomes, Xerox Learning Services tailors each solution to drive business results. 844.839.7988 xerox.com/learning

Ready For Real Business

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HIGHER VALUE OUTSOURCING:

MOVING TO AN INTEGRATED WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT MODEL By Ray Matteson

For years, corporations have made the difficult decision to outsource noncore activities and processes, no less in the learning world than in HR, finance or IT. From a business perspective, outsourcing supports strategic restructures, entry into new markets or geographies, operational improvements and, of course, cost reduction. From a learning perspective, outsourcing accelerates time to proficiency, improves access to expertise, reduces capital expenses and rationalizes learning vendor spend. However, traditional models for learning outsourcing don’t solve other persistent, mission-critical problems. Specifically, at many companies, workforce skills gaps make it difficult or impossible to achieve key business goals. According to Gallup, only 11 percent of business leaders strongly agree that graduates have the skills and competencies they need, and only 14 percent of Americans strongly agree that college graduates are well prepared for workplace success. To address these gaps, many companies have turned to outside partners. Yet the deficiencies remain – or are worsening. The nature of these skills gaps and the response to them vary by employer. Some may discover shortcomings associated with a specific competency. Perhaps it involves operating an automated manufacturing system or building mobile applications. Perhaps it involves customer service, team collaboration, change management, diverse workforce support, leadership development or another key skill for longterm business success.

CURRENT APPROACHES TO SKILLS GAPS Often, the fastest way to teach the missing skill is to bring in a partner or off-the-shelf course, send an individual to a community college class or enroll a manager in an advanced degree program. While these tactical approaches may address immediate issues, they don’t solve the broader business

problems caused by the skills gap. It’s no wonder tactical solutions fall short. Today’s disconnects didn’t happen overnight: By the time new employees arrive, their skills gaps may have festered for many years, becoming difficult to overcome. Moreover, skills gaps affect employees across the seniority spectrum. Given the inherent difficulties of teaching skills in the workplace, companies must thoroughly understand the people they hope to teach. Today, employees are arriving with new learning styles and expectations, shaped by experiences both inside and outside the classroom. When companies choose “point” solutions for addressing specific skills gaps, their decisions often reflect the narrow capabilities of the vendors with whom they’re familiar. The result of such interventions is often suboptimal compared with what could be achieved by taking an integrated approach that addresses what a workforce actually needs. Obviously, companies can’t fully control the societal, educational and cultural factors that lead to disconnects between their needs and the workforce’s capabilities. Still, many try, making concerted efforts to work with community colleges, traditional and career (for-profit) universities, third-party certifying organizations, and K-12 schools. But without help, the challenge is daunting, especially for companies operating in multiple locations.

INTEGRATION CAN HELP COMPANIES MORE FULLY ALIGN DIVERSE LEARNING ASSETS. WE NEED A NEW PARADIGM

a more collaborative partnership

To fully leverage best practices to improve operational effectiveness and truly overcome skills gaps, companies need a holistic, integrated approach to leveraging third-party partners.

The organization can define a partnership in which both parties have a significant stake in the relationship’s success. Both the organization and the outsourcing partner are incentivized by how well they meet goals based on agreed-upon metrics. In this way, they move away from the more transactional relationships that constrain effective collaboration.

Integration can help companies more fully align diverse learning assets. A holistic model can cut across the silos of community colleges, higher education, certifying associations, alternative credentialing methods, off-the-shelf programs and internal training, thereby delivering greater value from all of these programs. The solution to skills gaps must begin before employees arrive, as companies shape their workforces. It should continue as they clarify what their people don’t know and how best to resolve disconnects in their skills and knowledge. And it should extend beyond the training experience, as companies assess what employees have learned, determine what those employees need to learn next and leverage experience to teach successive employee cohorts more effectively. These linkages are critical, and conventional training and outsourcing arrangements often fail to build them. For example, not every company has the bandwidth or core competency to coordinate with local institutions of higher education, or that responsibility may be spread across functions or business units. Either way, a company’s needs are often unheard by its education partners, who can’t help build appropriate educational pathways, don’t know whether their graduates are succeeding as employees and therefore can’t make improvements. When outsourced services are delivered through short-term “transactional” contracts, it is difficult to capture and apply knowledge gained from experience. And because the company’s internal team is swamped with growing day-to-day needs, it can be difficult to ensure that disparate partners align with strategy and with each other.

a trusted resource

The organization has a trusted source for thought leadership and advice on preparing for emerging trends and making strategic investment decisions. Drawing on its experience working with other sophisticated organizations, the partner may also offer insight on issues closely linked to training, retention and employee success, such as compensation, thereby providing even more value. Training outsourcing has already delivered many practical benefits, and organizations have come to depend on it. Now, it’s time to consider a more robust approach: a long-term, integrated partnership for building a highly competitive workforce that is a true competitive advantage for the business. Ray Matteson is vice president of learning solutions for Pearson’s Professional Division in North America. He has over 20 years of experience designing and implementing innovative learning engagements that help Fortune 100 companies obtain maximum benefit for their business. Email Ray.

ONLINE LEARNING CONFERENCE FEBRUARY 9–11, 2016 | AMELIA ISLAND, FL & ONLINE

A BETTER ALTERNATIVE: THE INTEGRATED WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT MODEL In the Integrated Workforce Development Model, the company forges a partnership to fully integrate all elements of the corporate learning ecosystem. This model doesn’t just optimize learning spend; it also promotes the development and maintenance of a workforce that remains aligned to changing business needs. The model’s benefits include: more coherent analysis and planning

Current and projected workforce skills and competencies will now reflect the organization’s changing business environment. The organization can operate at both the strategic and tactical levels and ensure ongoing alignment with strategy.

FEATURING KEYNOTE SPEAKER

LEARNING TRACKS

Paul G. Stoltz, Ph.D. New York Times #1 Bestselling Author and Founding Director of the GRIT Institute and Global Resilience Institute @DrGrit

K-12: Next Generation for Online & Blended Learning Managing the Online Program Professional & Corporate Insights Student Engagement & Retention

a nearly seamless training lifecycle

The organization now has convenient access to most of the skills and best practices it needs, where it needs them. The partner can take responsibility for delivering infrastructure, scale and reach – responsibilities the company previously had to manage internally. Crucially, the company now has a resource for helping to build external partnerships – for example, with K-12 schools and community and four-year colleges.

Innovative Models & Pedagogical Approaches

Virtual

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Five Steps

TO ENSURE A SUCCESSFUL SHIFT TO DIGITAL LEARNING By Sivaramakrishnan Nochur

LIKE ALL CORPORATE FUNCTIONS, ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING IS CAUGHT UP IN THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION SWEEPING THROUGH BUSINESS. Learning and development (L&D) teams, however, face specific challenges. For one thing, there’s intense pressure to deliver digital training solutions that meet the standard of sophisticated, personalized experiences that employees are already accustomed to in everything from social networking to online shopping and bill paying. For another, as more companies begin to view training as an investment in engaging and retaining talent – and a competitive advantage – L&D teams are under pressure to deliver results. Reaping digital’s potential takes careful planning. These five steps can help guide your transformation and create a solid foundation for results.

ADAPTING TO THE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM Going digital requires L&D teams to not only embrace digital infrastructure and solutions, but also connect with the entire organization. Digital puts an end to corporate silos. Information is fluid and easily shared. Feedback on learning programs, for example, can be instant and enterprise-wide: If employees 22

dislike the programs, the news ripples quickly across corporate social channels such as blogs and networking forums. If they embrace new initiatives, then the good reviews go similarly viral. (See Figure 1 on page 23.) The following five steps can help ensure your digital learning initiatives start strong, connect holistically with the organization, and generate superior results:

1 // R ETHINK DELIVERY MODELS

FOR MAXIMUM EFFECTIVENESS

To accommodate user preferences and changing product strategies, today’s businesses have to be more agile than ever. L&D teams need to be similarly flexible in terms of the training that supports the business. Digital delivery requires careful planning. For example, how will your organization ensure the effectiveness of digital learning solutions? What changes will need to be made to ensure solutions are cost effective and provide the desired outcomes? Before you build a new solution such as a sales training mobile app, it’s helpful to pilot a limited-feature version with a small group of users and then collect feedback on it before you develop the full application. In addition, new concepts such as Minimal Viable Product

L&D TEAMS NEED TO BE FLEXIBLE IN TERMS OF THE TRAINING THAT SUPPORTS THE BUSINESS.

that are helping companies to crystallize radical ideas in product development can also be applied to learning solutions, for example, through the creation of labs that foster co-development and project monitoring.

2 // INTRODUCE DESIGN THINKING Digital changes everything. Instead of cumbersome approaches to on-demand learning, organizations have the flexibility to adopt more customized omni-channel processes. The result? Holistic solutions that take into account a company’s industry, technology capabilities, and human factors. To accommodate that change, digital solutions elevate the role of design, making it a more integral part of human-centered processes and services. Design becomes an essential tool for addressing employee needs, motivations and requirements. Design thinking encourages teams to view problems from multiple perspectives, and training organizations are addressing it much earlier in the talent development and learning cycle than they did in the past.

3 // LEVERAGE INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY The rise of social, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC) technologies have redefined the learning processes. With the rise of social and video platforms, user generated content has become a major source for learning among employees. The proliferation of mobile devices empowers learners to share and seek knowledge at their convenience. Most organizational learning infrastructures and processes, however, are not equipped to handle this shift. But a strong technological foothold can enable innovative, cutting-edge solutions that deliver results aligned with organizational goals. For example, integrating open learning models such as MOOC into the corporate learning ecosystem.

4 // D RIVE CHANGE MANAGEMENT BY – AND FOR – L&D

Change management is an essential component of digital program success. Are the intended users prepared and ready to adopt the training? User acceptance is especially critical for socialdriven initiatives, in which program success rests on participants’ contribution and sharing of the content.

To evangelize programs and ensure critical mass, L&D teams should identify change champions to support the roll out of new programs. In addition, techniques such as gamification can help drum up interest in new programs and prepare users. Don’t forget the change management that needs to occur within L&D. Take stock of your L&D function’s digital skillsets. Does the team possess the skills needed for digital learning and program design techniques? Consider the advantages of training L&D staff versus hiring digital talent from the outside.

FIGURE 1

DIGITAL SHIFT IN LEARNING

DIGITAL EMPLOYEE

5 //ASSIGN ROI OWNERSHIP With the advent of SMAC technologies, training ROI is no longer a distant dream but a critical key performance indicator. Technology enables the tools, platforms, and solutions that breathe life into training evaluation models. For example, digital technologies allow L&D to measure the value of initiatives such as unifying learning platforms and gamification, and enhance the businessL&D alignment that’s an increasingly important success factor for large-scale learning initiatives. Analytics can help L&D process data and gain insight on training effectiveness and corrective measures that improve the learning experience. In addition, mobile apps can connect seemingly disparate learning processes, capturing and linking data points from the smart classroom to online programs and tracking systems. The best digital learning experience protects an organization’s interests, enhances employee productivity, and creates a modern, educated workforce. Don’t miss the opportunity to have your workforce become one. Sivaramakrishnan Nochur is associate director at Cognizant Technology Solutions, heading the business and consulting teams of Learning & Content Services, Digital Engagement Practice, which offers end-to-end advisory, custom content development, learning technology implementation and administration services to a wide range of customers across industry verticals. Email Sivaramakrishnan.

IMPLICATIONS ON LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT

ADAPTIVE LEARNING

SOCIAL LEARNING

GAMIFICATION

UNIFIED LEARNING

RESPONSIVE DESIGN

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‘I DON’ T REALLY KNOW’

IS NO LONGER AN OPTION WHY APPLYING BPO TO TRAINING IS THE RIGHT CHOICE By Edward Trolley

“I don’t really know” is an honest answer, but frankly, it’s inadequate. CEOs and executive teams of large organizations should have a handle on large annual investments. Yet, “I don’t really know” is the answer we’ve received from hundreds of senior executives over the past six years when we asked them what they spend annually on training. And these same executives embarrassingly provide the same response when they are asked, “What value are you getting from the investment?”

These answers are astonishing when the average 20,000-person organization invests $100 million per year on the direct and indirect costs of training. According to the Association for Talent Development and NIIT’s own research, companies typically spend $5,000 per person per year on training. And they do it year after year. What other investment of this size gets the “I don’t really know” response? Despite all the business-driven rhetoric, most corporate training organizations we have studied are evaluated based on activity levels and whether they stay within budget. But there is more to this picture. Many organizations spend more outside the corporate function than inside it. Everyone is in the training game. No matter how hard organizations try to contain it, spending at the corporate and business level continues unabated.

WHY HAS TRAINING REMAINED UNDER-MANAGED, UNDER-LEVERAGED AND UNDER-UNDERSTOOD? The reasons are many and varied: º E xecutives have always believed training is “a good thing to do” and have allowed their organizations a lot of latitude to do it. º Training has maintained a “sacred cow”

status and has often escaped the sharp eye of the CFO. ºC ompanies have convinced themselves that training is a core competence, even though it doesn’t receive ample capital investment and isn’t held accountable for delivering value commensurate with the investment it does receive; therefore, it is one of the first budget items to be trimmed in difficult times. º E lements of cost are pervasive across the organization, including dedicated staff and parts of finance, procurement and IT. º I t has not traditionally been run like a business, with a business’ requirements of cost management, customer service, quality management, responsiveness, measurement and reporting. º S cale is not fully leveraged because, at best, the activities, processes and technology can be leveraged only within the confines of the company itself, despite the fact that most of these factors are not company-unique.

HOW CAN TRAINING SHARPEN ITS FOCUS, REDUCE ITS COSTS, AND IMPROVE THE QUALITY AND VALUE OF ITS SERVICES? The answer is by applying traditional Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) practices

to the training function. Why? Because it offers many, if not all, of the improvement opportunities that companies define as the reasons they engage in BPO practices. This approach, which we call Managed Training Services, assumes responsibility for key elements of training’s value chain.

scale, leverage, and common technologies and processes.

Through the application of proven BPO systems, processes and technologies, the implementation of Managed Training Services includes:

So, does training outsourcing reduce costs? It does in transactional areas, and it may in more strategic areas, such as content development and delivery. Overall, the goal should be a reduction in the unit cost of training (costs per person per hour/day/year). In fact, when we dramatically improve the value of training, companies actually tend to spend more, not less.

º I nstalling and managing best-practice systems, processes and intellectual property

MYTH #2 NO OUTSIDER CAN KNOW MY BUSINESS LIKE I DO

ºP roviding a single point of accountability and clear service-level agreements

Outsourcing does not mean that you stop accessing the subject matter expertise of your business. It does mean that you begin accessing the resources and capabilities of other people who are professional and skilled at what they do. Companies have been outsourcing components of training for years.

º L everaging learning technology enterprise-wide º E xploiting economies of scale and purchasing power across multiple organizations º I nstalling comprehensive measurement systems º L everaging existing assets and capital investment º Transferring headcount ºA ttracting and retaining high quality talent Managed Training Services can enable organizations the opportunity, for the first time, to regain control of this critical function while simultaneously driving down cost and driving up business value.

IF MANAGED TRAINING SERVICES IS SUCH A GOOD IDEA, WHY DON’T MORE ORGANIZATIONS EMBRACE IT? Training leaders have been hesitant to embrace outsourcing as a viable option, concerned by outdated notions of what I call the ‘Five Myths of Outsourcing.’ It’s time to dispel those myths. MYTH # 1 OUTSOURCING CAN’T REDUCE COSTS Talk about extremes. How can we think so far apart on this important issue? In general, outsourcing has been shown to reduce costs across various functions, such as information technology, human resources, finance and accounting. Training outsourcers, particularly those who take on such transactional elements of training as technology, administration and vendor management, can reduce the cost of these activities because they, like their counterparts in other functions, benefit from

Providers work with their customers, both training professionals and subject matter experts, to develop learning solutions that directly address business needs. And because these companies understand how to design, develop and deliver training, they can apply those capabilities to the subject matter or business issue at hand. MYTH #3 STRATEGIC ACTIVITIES CAN’T BE OUTSOURCED

THE AVERAGE 20,000-PERSON ORGANIZATION INVESTS $100 MILLION PER YEAR ON THE DIRECT AND INDIRECT COSTS OF TRAINING.

This myth is code for “I don’t want to outsource anything.” However, the only part of the training value chain that should be up for debate when it comes to outsourcing is the process of determining a business’ direction, strategy, challenges and goals, and then determining how and where training can add value. Most companies choose not to include this process in the scope of outsourcing relationships, preferring instead to have their own employees perform this work. Beyond this activity, however, the rest of the value chain should be high on the list for outsourcing consideration. MYTH #4 PEOPLE DON’T LOSE THEIR JOBS AFTER OUTSOURCING The primary reason most companies outsource is to lower costs. It’s hard to reduce costs at the levels often required without eliminating jobs. Also, if cost is truly an issue and a company doesn’t outsource, it’s likely that jobs will still be lost, and the numbers may be higher. MYTH #5 OUTSOURCING MEANS LOSING CONTROL In many organizations, training continues to

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THE TOTAL COSTS OF TRAINING

PRODUCTIVITY COSTS

(work done while not in training)

COSTS OF POOR QUALITY

(rework due to ineffective training)

PARTICIPATION COSTS (salary, benefits, travel, etc.)

STAFF AND OTHER FIXED AND VARIABLE COSTS

FIGURE 1

INDIRECT COSTS

be one of the largest unmanaged spends. Training is pervasive, and much of the costs occur outside of HR. Very few organizations know how much they are really spending, and, as a result, they have little control over their investment. Outsourcing will typically bring improved control through a single point of accountability, rigorous service level agreements, and management of costs and quality.

THE FUTURE IS NOW The future of training with Managed Training Services is effectiveness and efficiency. Once training leaders realize they have been operating under these misconceptions, they can begin to turn around their organizations and realize real bottom-line results. With Managed Training Services, the results are as impressive as those of traditional Business Process Outsourcing: º Cost savings of 10 to 15 percent by leveraging activities and processes across multiple organizations

DIRECT COSTS

º F reedom to focus on high value-added activities Why is now the right time for Managed Training Services? While the opportunity has always been present, the solution is finally earning its place in the training industry, as evidenced by training outsourcing activity levels across the globe. The need to increase shareholder value has caused organizations to consider other ways to perform functions that are not core. A recent Horses for Sources (HFS)/KPMG study found that cost reduction coming from the C-suite is at an intensity never seen before. Some 90 percent of C-level executives now view cost reduction as an important to critical imperative for their operations.

MANAGING COSTS

º I ncreased variability of costs by utilizing variable versus fixed resources and services and by enhancing scalability

Therefore, it is essential to manage your training costs to acceptable levels and always in the context of the value you are delivering. Cost management will always be a priority. We need to be stewards of the business investments we receive and ensure that we are operating at an optimal cost level. Following these steps is critical:

ºR educed head count through reduction or redeployment

1 | Track every dollar. Know how much your

ºA bility to control annual investment and spending priorities through a single point of accountability º E nhanced value of training by significantly improving its relevance and business linkage 26

company is spending on training and where that money is going.

2 | Always look for ways to change fixed costs to variable costs. This shift will allow you

to pay for what you use, scale up and down without having to hire or fire, and

eliminate the unpopular allocation model for spreading training costs.

3 | Take aggressive actions. Use outsourcing

to reap the benefits of your provider’s best-practice processes, ability to leverage resources and offshoring.

4 | Manage the total cost of training, not just the direct cost, and eliminate hidden costs. FIGURE 1 illustrates all training costs,

many of which are overlooked. It is normal for the total costs to be three to five times the direct cost. A recent Corporate Executive Board study showed that eight out of 10 HR organizations will go through transformation. Just look at the human resources Business Process Outsourcing space. According to HFS (2015), the number of outsourcing deals in the past year grew 11 percent over the previous year. We can see the same trend in training. And outsourcing in general is not just about cost reduction; it is now the classic better, faster and cheaper solution. Managed Training Services is a unique solution that delivers a combination of efficiency and effectiveness. There’s finally an answer for how to realize the true potential that training has to offer. And it gives senior business leaders answers to the simple questions of cost and value without having to stare at their shoes. Ed Trolley is the senior vice president of consulting and advisory services for NIIT’s Corporate Learning Group. He is the co-author of the seminal book “Running Training like a Business: Delivering Unmistakable Value.” Email Ed.

8 in 10

HR Functions are completing or will soon undergo an HR Transformation. Are you one of them? Source: Corporate Executive Board

Transforming L&D can transform your HR strategy more than anything else. While organizations look broadly at HR, it is our belief that training and development should be at, or near the top, of your HR transformation strategy. If you are seeking to create transformative value from the investments your organization makes in training, discover how NIIT can help you Run Training like a Business. Explore how you can dramatically improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your training capability at www.niit.us/transformHR.

Running Training like a Business. Enabling the HR Transformation Strategy.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT TRAINING PARTNER & MODALITY TO ACHIEVE THE BEST RESULTS By Lynne Wagner

Even with the widespread acceptance of business process outsourcing (BPO) today, there are still companies reluctant to engage in this practice, or do so to a minimal degree. While every organization is unique, it’s unlikely that any company is efficient and effective at every business function. Insourcing, the practice of using an organization’s own personnel to accomplish a task, appears to make the most sense for a company’s core business functions. After all, your employees are the most aligned with your company’s goals and vision, and are the best suited to evangelize and sell your products or services. However, organizations that hold tightly to every business function may be doing themselves a great disservice - wasting valuable time, at sometimes greater costs, and often receiving inferior results. When it comes to the learning function, the tide is definitely changing in favor of outsourcing. In fact, a recent research study, “Sourcing Training Solutions: Best Practices for the Best Partnerships,” revealed that 55 percent of organizations outsource learning and development services as an established business practice. These companies are recognizing the real benefits associated with outsourcing learning services, including the ability to bolster learning effectiveness and reach, cost savings, providing competitive advantage, bringing new ideas into the company, ability to focus on core business functions, and offering course topics and learning modalities beyond the skillsets of in-house L&D staff. Subsequently, when these companies are faced with a learning initiative outside the scope of their in-house staff, their primary challenge is not deciding whether or not they should outsource to an external learning provider, rather how to select an external provider. So, how are companies finding external 28

learning providers? What types of providers and services are being sought and what is the selection process they use to ensure a successful outcome?

FINDING EXTERNAL PROVIDERS According to the aforementioned research study, companies are locating learning providers in a number of ways, with peer referrals and existing relationships topping the list. Companies are also finding providers through external intelligence gathering from sources such as industry conferences, web searches, thought leadership pieces, and webinars.

L&D SERVICES AND TOPICS SOUGHT FROM EXTERNAL PROVIDERS External L&D service providers are being used to augment existing staff for expertise that is not inherent in the company’s inhouse staff (e.g., subjects, delivery methods, curriculum development, etc.), as well as for large-scale rollouts. FIGURE 1 (on page 29) displays the top services and topics cited for leveraging external L&D providers.

PREFERRED TYPES OF EXTERNAL PROVIDERS Interestingly, when it comes to selecting the type of service provider, the research revealed that 61 percent of organizations prefer to outsource to specialized learning providers as opposed to generalists or independent training contractors. These companies seek out external providers that specialize in specific L&D functions or services, learning modalities, subject matter, or industries.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTING EXTERNAL PROVIDERS The scale, scope, subject matter, budget, and time constraints of a company’s learning project are major considerations for selecting an external provider. Depending on the project’s complexity, many companies will solicit quotes or proposals from a number of external learning vendors where the downselection criteria generally includes cost, trust in the provider to deliver, quality of resources, industry expertise and reputation, culture fit, and the ability to customize solutions.

ORGANIZATIONS THAT HOLD TIGHTLY TO EVERY BUSINESS FUNCTION MAY BE DOING THEMSELVES A GREAT DISSERVICE. CHOOSING THE RIGHT LEARNING MODALITY FOR OPTIMAL EFFECTIVENESS AND REACH With so many methods of delivering training today, combined with multigenerational audiences, deciding on the “right” course of action is creating its own set of challenges for organizations. Some companies, especially those with a desire to be on the “cutting-edge,” may be quicker than most to adopt newer modalities such as gamification. However, some of these innovative modalities can be complex to develop, and, while they might appeal to Gen X and millennial learners, they may fall flat with baby boomers. Consequently, many companies are struggling with the adoption of these newer delivery methods. To illustrate, the research study, “Training Evolution: The Current and Future State of Corporate Learning Modalities,” showed comparatively low adoption rates of certain technology-based modalities. The two primary reasons for low adoption included a lack of understanding of when these modalities should be employed and a lack of internal expertise to develop and maintain them.

organization bring to the table. Selecting external providers that possess the resources, experience and flexibility to consistently meet your company’s L&D needs will provide your organization with many tangible and intangible benefits, and sustainable learning results. Lynne Wagner is the director of marketing programs at The Training Associates Corporation. Email Lynne.

Many companies tend to decide early in the planning stages which modality, or combination of modalities, they intend to use to deliver the training. While each learning modality has its own merits, each also comes with its own set of challenges - ranging from lack of internal expertise and time to knowing when to employ the modality, difficulty measuring impact and sourcing quality instructors. Understanding which modality(ies) will reach the majority of learners, with the greatest impact, and within the budget and time constraints of the organization, are important factors in the selection process. Here are some points to remember for learning outsourcing success: // Research potential learning partners thoroughly. // Select partners with the specialized experience to meet your needs. // Let your partner’s expertise guide you toward selecting the most appropriate modality and learning services to best meet your needs. Outsourcing the learning function isn’t easy for many companies. It requires an understanding of the value that experts outside of your FIGURE 1

TOP SERVICES AND TOPICS CITED FOR LEVERAGING EXTERNAL L&D PROVIDERS TOP FIVE OUTSOURCED L&D SERVICES

TOP FIVE OUTSOURCED L&D TOPICS

Training Delivery and Facilitation

Leadership/Managerial Training

Content Developtment

Compliance/Safety Training

Instructional Design

Soft Skills

LMS/CMS Support

Sales Training

Training Strategy

IT Training

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TRANSFORMING LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT THROUGH TRAINING OUTSOURCING By Simon Vuillaume & Wolfgang Stein

How can training outsourcing contribute to learning and development (l&d) transformation and performance? The primary motivation of L&D managers to opt for training outsourcing is cost savings. This is why the core offerings of many training outsourcing (TO) providers includes (1) standard training administration processes, (2) offshoring of training administration tasks, and (3) reduction of purchase costs (e.g., trainers, designers, learner management). Of course, TO providers propose a wider scope of services that includes consulting and support to assist organizations in defining and executing the L&D strategy. Cost reduction is always on the L&D managers’ agenda, but there are also other critical objectives that fall within their responsibility, such as: º I mproving the impact of learning on the business º Reducing time to competency º Expanding the global reach across the organization and external enterprise º Fostering a genuine corporate learning culture º Developing L&D’s agility to keep up with the corporate strategy and with the day-to-day needs of the business, teams and individuals º Taking advantage of learning technologies With so much to consider, how do TO providers best meet the expectations of L&D managers today? How should TO providers adapt their value proposition? In order to respond to these questions, the proposed approach estimates the potential impact of the TO provider both on the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and on the L&D performance. To illustrate, we will consider a typical large, multinational company where training is almost always delivered face-to-face by external trainers. The estimated TCO breakdown is summarized as follows: 30

º T rainers fees: 50 to 70% º Training room and materials: 10 to 15% º Governance, strategy, catalog management: 5 to 10% º Training administration: 5 to 10% º Travel: 5 to 10% º Design and customization: 5 to 10% º Learning technologies: Less than 5% We have reviewed seven levers to improve L&D cost effectiveness:

TRADITIONAL TRAINING BPO LEVERS 1| C ompetitive purchase: This is the lever we think of first when considering the weight of a purchase in the L&D TCO, which includes trainer fees, design, room rental, travel, materials and licenses. Nevertheless, we can see that its impact is less important than often expected, especially compared to the rationalization of the training offering. 2| E ffective training administration: It has several impacts on TCO, time to competency and learning culture: (1) Improving the sessions fill-rate from seven to 10 participants helps to organize less sessions, thus resulting in a 30 percent savings

on trainer fees and room rental, (2) Fulfilling the training needs more quickly means improving the time to competency while also having a positive impact on learning culture, and (3) The way the learners are managed can either improve their engagement, in turn, impacting their learning culture mindset, or it can decrease engagement, damaging the learner experience and the business impact.

ADDITIONAL L&D PERFORMANCE LEVERS 3| L ean and international learning offerings: Many large companies are becoming aware that their learning offerings are too abundant, not coherent enough to serve the population across their various business units and geographical locations, and they do not take advantage of the existing commercial off-the-shelf offerings available on the market. As an example, a large company has reviewed the soft skills courses used in all its divisions and countries. They finally succeeded in cutting their number of courses from 1700 to only 12. There is a double benefit in such a rationalization, including (1) savings due to better session fill-rate, higher volume of purchase and less maintenance work on the catalog, and (2) stronger business impact as a result of high-value learning solutions made available worldwide. The growing number of delivery formats as well as the multi-language factor is resulting in an exponential inflation of the design, customization and translation costs. The ability to re-use all of these learning objects is a key requirement for a cost effective, multi-modal and multi-language L&D approach. 4| B lended learning: The primary aim of blended learning is to reduce the proportion of in-room training and to improve the business impact of learning through the implementation of 70:20:10 and learning personalization principles. There are many examples where course duration has been cut from three to two days or from two to one days due to blended learning solutions that provide significant savings (e.g., trainer costs, room rental, travel, and participants’ time off ).

5| Virtual classroom training: Adopting virtual classroom training (VCT) results in dramatic cost savings on training rooms and travel expenses. Most importantly, VCT improves global reach, time to competency and learning culture by making learning available more frequently and to geographically dispersed workforces. 6| W orldwide innovative learning ecosystem: In the context of the ongoing L&D revolution, large international companies need to rely on a core team of genuine learning partners. They need to have strong capabilities in key areas regarding content, technology and delivery, and must be able to bring their clients a world-class blended learning offering in several key domains. Using this as the foundation, other providers can be employed as needed to form a solid learning ecosystem that fosters collaboration, innovation and transformation. This is the best way to quickly meet L&D manager’s expectations regarding global reach and agility.

TRAINING OUTSOURCING CAN MAKE A VALUABLE CONTRIBUTION TO L&D TRANSFORMATION AND COST EFFECTIVENESS.

7| E ngaging training professionals: Training is a people-focused business that not only involves the learners, but also the trainers, subject matter experts and instructional designers. The way you select, consider and manage these people makes a huge difference on the business impact of learning.

TAKEAWAYS Training outsourcing can make a valuable contribution to L&D transformation and cost effectiveness. Blended learning solutions and rationalization of the training offering are key to reducing L&D TCO while improving its performance. Virtual classroom training is effective at improving the global reach and the learning culture as well as reducing the TCO. Quality of content and trainers are the main enablers of business impact and learning culture. In regards to the evolution of the training outsourcing providers’ value proposition, pure purchase cost killing and a more traditional BPO approach have limited impact. The Master Service Provider model is likely to be more effective than the Neutral Vendor model. Simon Vuillaume is the international projects director at Cegos Group. Wolfgang Stein is the MTS manager at Cegos Group. Email Simon and Wolfgang.

Boost your L&D performance with Cegos’ International Outsourcing Training Services Want to do more with less while boosting the global reach and improving the business impact of your corporate training ? Take advantage of Cegos Group world class learning ecosystem to speed up your L&D transformation and performance. Contact : wolfgang.stein@integrata.de Download our 2015 ‘Learning and development function globalization and challenges’ survey on cegos.com/international cegos.com

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19/10/2015 13:18:17

SETTING THE ‘GOLD STANDARD’ IN VIDEO E-LEARNING By Tom Bronikowski

Empathos, an award-winning e-learning solutions provider in the field of suicide prevention, literally has a life or death mission - enabling professionals to be more effective, so that people at risk for suicide have better outcomes. That’s why they set out to convert a proven, in-person clinical intervention program into a video learning course in hopes of reaching more clinicians, at a lesser cost, with a greater impact. The result was “Managing Suicide Risk Collaboratively: The CAMS Framework” – an online, evidence-based, suicide-specific clinical intervention course that’s been shown through extensive research to effectively assess, treat and manage suicidal patients. “We chose to work with the brightest minds in suicide prevention, and assist in the transfer of science to service – that is, to move their evidence-based interventions from research journals to online videos where they could actually inform those in frontline practice,” Denise Pazur, Empathos’ director of strategic partnerships, explained.

to do something different because clinicians can connect with video better. And if it’s done properly, it should yield better results than live training because of its effective engagement.”

PROGRAM GOALS Empathos set out with three program goals:

2 | Lower

training and treatment costs: $159 video training costs (per person) vs. $1,500 for in-person training, and $3,000 for outpatient treatment vs. $10,000 for inpatient hospitalization.

CHALLENGE Prior to Empathos’ online course, clinicians wanting to learn the CAMS Framework had to attend in-person didactic training, which was inefficient, limiting and resource-intensive. “Seeing is believing. Data and case studies provide good info. But clinicians really need to see what you’re talking about,” Dr. David Jobes, CAMS’ developer and internationally esteemed suicidologist and clinician/researcher, said. “We were excited 32

hange clinician behavior via a more C accessible and interactive video forum that “highly motivates viewers to learn something they can retain and use to improve patient outcomes.”

E levate e-learning production by raising the bar for the training industry at large by delivering a highly engaging video with exceptional production value.

“ If you’re going to spend the time and money to create video-based e-learning, you might as well do something with the insight, goals and design to make it successful,” Dr. Jobes continued.

INNOVATIVE DESIGN Key components of Empathos’ innovative video design and production included: UNIQUE, REAL-LIFE PRODUCTION TO CREATE A COMPELLING ‘FLY ON THE WALL’ EXPERIENCE

“We’ve heard time and again from clinicianlearners that they rarely get to see an expert clinician in session with a suicidal patient,” Pazur explained. “So we decided to present Dr. Jobes and a ‘patient’ (Dr. Stephen O’Connor, who was actually his former graduate student) in a real-life clinical situation with multiple camera angles and cuts to give viewers a true ‘fly on the wall’ experience.” UNSCRIPTED STORYTELLING TO BOOSTING LEARNING RETENTION AND MAKE THE SCENARIOS SEEM REAL

“Having both worked with scores of suicidal patients over their careers, Dr. Jobes and O’Connor were confident in role-playing the scenes, basing their interaction on reallife experiences in clinical settings with patients,” Pazur remarked. “Not only did this save Empathos time and money, but it also enabled us to create an unscripted, true-tolife scenario.”

“IF YOU’RE GOING TO SPEND THE TIME AND MONEY TO CREATE VIDEO-BASED E-LEARNING, YOU MIGHT AS WELL DO SOMETHING WITH THE INSIGHT, GOALS AND DESIGN TO MAKE IT SUCCESSFUL.” – DR. JOBES

EXCEPTIONAL PRODUCTION VALUE TO CREATE EMPATHY

RESULTS

“Often, clinicians don’t have compassion and understanding for the suicidal desire. So if we only used one camera angle, our role players’ reactions, nuances and expressions wouldn’t have been conveyed as well to the learner,” Pazur said. (Note: They also employed state-of-the-art lighting, sound engineering and editing for “a new level of quality and detail for training videos”).

As for Empathos’ video e-learning program’s results, just a few months after it was launched they expect 77 percent of learners to change their clinical approach/behavior, predict a $246.05 million savings for U.S. and Canadian healthcare systems (over the next two years) and already won an award for excellence in video learning.

ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITIES TO KEEP VIEWERS’ ATTENTION AND PARTICIPATION

Empathos’ Instructional Designers edited 30 hours of video into 30 second to three minute “bite-sized” segments. They also added activities that tested knowledge gain and bolstered learner engagement. “Everyone learns differently. So we created a flexible design that allows viewers to pick their own learning path,” Pazur commented.

“Empathos aspires to be the ‘gold standard’ for suicide prevention training. We’ve set the bar high, and this first program in the CAMS Framework has proved to be an excellent start… a full realization of our goals and capacity to fulfill on our brand promise,” Pazur concluded. Tom Bronikowski is the senior director of strategic accounts for Expertus. He has more than 20 years of experience in selling enterprise learning initiatives. Email Tom.

EXCEPTIONAL DELIVERY To match the unprecedented quality of their video e-learning design, Empathos also wanted to ensure excellence for their program’s delivery. After reviewing several of the top learning management systems, Empathos chose Expertus’ ExpertusONE LMS to run their video e-learning program for four reasons:

1 | Easy to use and access user interface: “Our learners don’t have time to learn how to use an LMS.”

2 | Excellent scalability and global reach: “A cloud LMS enables

us to quickly and easily extend the program’s reach, as well as update course content and release new programs.”

3 | Video-friendly

functionality: “Not only does ExpertusONE run videos at high speeds, but it also supports mobile video viewing.”

4 | Robust

reporting: “Government and healthcare system funding is only available if behavior change can be shown. So it’s critical that our e-learning gets results, and that’s why we set out to measure this program rigorously.”

Experience the Future of the LMS Watch Demo Now

Working with Expertus, Empathos developed a comprehensive analytics program, including LMS-based reporting and universitybased follow-up evaluations, to monitor their course’s success and ensure that it was “being done in the correct, most effective manner.” “It took some work and planning to get to this point,” Pazur explained. “But one thing that made it easier was that our LMS provider (Expertus) actually worked with our university team to develop a reporting program that is best suited for our needs and end goals. So we’re all really excited about the capabilities of our LMS’ reporting.”

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10 LESSONS FOR SUCCESS IN MANAGED LEARNING By Joanne Casson

How can outsourcing be used successfully in learning and development?

To answer this question and promote best practices in training outsourcing, Hemsley Fraser recently conducted a qualitative research study involving 15 organizations ranging from private companies and public administration departments to multinational businesses and global corporations. Our study highlights the drivers behind the decision to outsource, the challenges practitioners face, the benefits they gain and the lessons participants have learned from the process. Let’s examine 10 specific lessons gleaned from the study.

WHAT IS OUTSOURCING, AND WHEN IS IT USED? The majority of organizations in our study use an external learning provider to source, book, administer and evaluate their training and to manage their training suppliers. Some also outsource other services, such as training needs analysis; development centers; the operation of their learning management system; and the design, development and delivery of specific courses. Typically, anything specific to the business (such as onboarding or new product training) or any core business-related technical training is delivered in-house. More generic programs – including publicly-scheduled management and leadership development, behavioral skills, customer service, finance, general IT, project management, change, health and safety, and diversity and language training – tend to be sourced, booked, administered, managed and evaluated by the external provider. In some cases, the provider also manages and administers the booking of blended learning programs, e-learning, video and virtual learning courses. While the term “training outsourcing” is sometimes used to describe this process, our study found that the word “outsourcing” can have a negative connotation among L&D practitioners, who seem to associate it with a loss of jobs or a loss of control. The process is more commonly referred to as “managed learning.” Interestingly, we also found that the market for this service is much more mature in the United States and the United Kingdom than in other countries.

OUTSOURCING LESSONS The participants in our study offered the following advice to others who may be considering managed learning:

BE VERY CLEAR ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATIONAL REQUIREMENTS.

Have a clear understanding of your current spend versus what you want from outsourcing. Where are your skill gaps? What is your organization trying to achieve, and what are its key priorities? How is your training currently procured and delivered? How are training needs identified? Who are your main training providers, and how much do you spend with them? Do you have data on attendance rates and training effectiveness? What IT constraints are in place? Only when you fully understand the current situation can you really assess whether managed learning is appropriate.

2 CREATE AN INITIAL BUSINESS CASE.

Securing the “go ahead” internally is the first challenge. Creating a business case will help you obtain that approval. Establish a project team of key stakeholders and decision makers. Involve your unions, if you have them. Consider who your key point of contact with the managed learning partner will be and what that person’s role is likely to involve. Next, define the scope and expectations of the

partnership. What specific locations or aspects of L&D will the provider cover? What are the challenges in providing learning in these areas? Consider how you want to work with your managed learning partner. What will the roles and responsibilities be? What are your expectations about using a learning portal? If you’re considering a shared service center, would it to be hosted by the provider or by you? How will you review activities? Highlight the benefits that can be gained by outsourcing, including streamlining processes, gaining greater control of training and achieving a significant saving on the training spend.

3 PREPARE THE ORGANIZATION FOR CHANGE.

If you have new processes and training arrangements, make them clear to employees. Discourage managers from booking training for themselves or their teams autonomously. Make sure the business is aware of why you’re making this change and what the new service can offer them. Try to get as many people on board as possible.

ONLY WHEN YOU FULLY UNDERSTAND THE CURRENT SITUATION CAN YOU ASSESS WHETHER MANAGED LEARNING IS APPROPRIATE.

UNDERSTAND YOUR OWN PROCESSES, AND BE CLEAR WITH YOUR SPECIFICATIONS.

Make sure you understand what you’ll do in-house and what you want your provider to do. Know where those boundaries lie. Know what management

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information you want, and set the service level agreement criteria. Be clear on how training needs will be identified and how training requests will be authorized, processed and confirmed. One participant said, “In the tender process, our provider told us a lot of things that they ‘could’ do, which we actually never really got. Be clear on what you will get and what you’ll have to pay for as a service.”

One participant summed up the importance of the relationship in this way: “Managed service providers sell themselves on the effectiveness of their systems and their administration processes. They’d be a lot better off selling the ‘quality of the relationship.’ We met a number as part of our tender process, and there were some we rejected straightaway because we didn’t feel we could work with them! Having a good relationship is very important to us.”

INVEST THE TIME TO ESTABLISH A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR MANAGED LEARNING PROVIDER. Larger organizations can benefit from having a member of the managed learning partner’s team working on site. One participant said, “Having our own person working on site increased the cost slightly, but getting that dedicated and personal account management from a consistent person is beneficial. That individual understands our organization because they’re here, and they’re interacting with our whole team.”

BE AWARE OF DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES FROM THE L&D AND PROCUREMENT TEAMS.

The procurement team will usually focus on the cost of the service and the future savings, whereas the L&D team will evaluate the technical aspects and whether the service is appropriate. This difference can create a challenge. One participant warned that their procurement team had driven them to change providers for a cheaper supplier, but they then had to invest a huge amount of time with the new supplier to build a working relationship similar to the one they had with their previous provider.

6 CHOOSE THE RIGHT PARTNER.

Find a responsive managed learning provider who can meet your needs and deliver what you want. Look for people you can work with – who fit your culture – and check their track record of managing complex training requirements. Consider the performance improvements the managed learning provider can deliver. Beware of providers who make promises they can’t keep. Make sure you understand how they work. With whom will you be working? Where will their service be managed? 36

Test the provider’s capabilities and systems. Some participants told us they thought they had agreed to work with a system that was more flexible than it turned out to be. Make sure the provider’s systems are easy to use and work effectively. Otherwise, you’ll have to adapt your processes to fit the system, rather than the other way around. Be clear on the provider’s governance processes and what courses they will book. If a delegate wants to book a course, will the provider make sure it is absolutely the right choice for them? Will they search to find the best value?

YOU HAVE A GOOD 7 ENSURE PROJECT MANAGER.

Managed learning providers will usually assign a project management team to manage the transition for a new client. Make sure you have confidence in the project manager assigned to you, and make sure you know who will manage your account after the transition. Some participants noticed a drop in the quality of the team once the initial project manager moved on to the next client.

TREAT YOUR MANAGED LEARNING PROVIDER AS A PARTNER AND PART OF YOUR TEAM.

The relationship with your managed learning provider is key. You’ll both benefit if this relationship is open, honest and productive. Invest the time to establish a good relationship. Keep them informed about your business objectives and goals. Design and develop the service together. Once you’ve appointed your partner, work to help them better understand your

processes, systems and culture. Don’t let them impose a pre-designed solution on you. Agree on the roles and expectations, and ensure that all stakeholders understand them. Decide on the processes, procedures and technical specifications, and determine how management information will be reported. Make sure you get the right management information and metrics you need to drive the right decisions, but don’t make the mistake of having too many metrics. Draft service level agreements, set key performance indicators and agree on the invoicing process. Work together to resolve any issues constructively. Be clear on the contract, and always look for additional value. Remember, a lot of negotiation might be required.

9 START WITH A PILOT.

Test the new service to ensure everything is working smoothly. Review whether the service is meeting the expectations and requirements of the business. Only “go live” when you’re ready. Once you’re up and running, celebrate your successes. Share success stories and highlight to the business the benefits and positive aspects of your relationship with the provider.

10 TO BE INVOLVED.

REMEMBER, YOU STILL HAVE

Managed learning partners can remove the headache of booking, administering and evaluating training, but that doesn’t mean they’ll work in isolation. The L&D team will need to invest the time necessary to manage the relationship, monitor progress, review performance and improve the service.

CHOOSE CAREFULLY An important conclusion from our study is that not all managed learning providers are equal. The market includes a range of different providers with different strengths. Organizations have a responsibility to choose their providers with care. Regardless of how much help you need to meet the learning needs in your organization, these research findings can help you procure and implement a successful managed learning service. Joanne Casson is a managed services expert at learning and development specialist Hemsley Fraser. Email Joanne.

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‘

Supplier to over 60 of the Global Fortune 500 and recognized as one of the Top 20 Leadership Development & Training Outsourcing firms in the world.

HOW TO SELECT A PROVIDER FOR

OUTSOURCING TRAINING SERVICES ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

By Ken Anderson

WHEN IT COMES TO OUTSOURCING TRAINING SERVICES, THERE ARE MANY CHOICES AVAILABLE TO ORGANIZATIONS LOOKING TO STREAMLINE, AUGMENT INTERNAL CAPABILITIES, PROVIDE SCALABILITY OR EXPAND GEOGRAPHICALLY. MULTIPLE COMPETING FACTORS CAN MAKE THESE CHOICES DIFFICULT TO NAVIGATE, BUT A CLEAR VISION AND PLAN GOING INTO THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS WILL HELP DETERMINE WHAT MAKES THE MOST SENSE FOR YOU AND YOUR ORGANIZATION. Outsourcing can take many forms in the training market and involve content development, LMS and talent management platforms, and reporting, among other functions. The selection criteria for an outsourcing partner will vary based on your organization’s unique business needs, but they can typically be organized into four key categories: management, capability, capacity and price.

MANAGEMENT How you manage an outsourcing initiative depends on the nature of the engagement. Consider these questions: // H ow big will the project be? // A re all facets of project execution being outsourced? // W hat role will internal resources play in the project? // W hat is your organization’s track record in managing outsourcing agreements? Boutique firms that specialize in one particular area, such as content development, might be a good fit for smaller, discrete engagements. However, scale, cost and capability all need to be addressed as well, and smaller vendors typically

have less organizational experience to draw upon when dealing with other aspects of a project.

CAPABILITY Popular buzzwords abound in the industry today – responsive design, mobile-enabled, gamification, corporate MOOC and Cloud LMS are just a few – but completing a true capabilities analysis requires looking beyond the buzzwords. For example, intense, immersive, game-based content may be a great instructional idea for some elements of a project, but building such content to an exceptional standard quickly drains a budget and may be counterproductive for learners as well. Here are some questions to consider: // What is the most important factor from a design perspective? // D oes the prospective partner have experience in your industry? // H as the supplier completed a deployment analysis, especially for those organizations with infrastructure limitations, such as retail and quick service restaurant (QSR) organizations? // Which devices will be supported for content consumption?

// What instructional strategies are most effective for the target audience?

// Are there pricing implications and choices for different scaling scenarios?

Localization is an often-overlooked capability. The ability to plan and seamlessly deliver content in a culturally- and linguistically-appropriate way is critical for global organizations that are required to offer their learning in multiple languages. Larger companies have audiences that sometimes require 20 or more languages. Vendors with experience in localization can provide guidelines and best practices that will greatly reduce the cost of localization, from screen space for translated text to technical solutions that allow for script import and export, making it easier to integrate localized text and graphics.

Many suppliers offer offshore versus onshore or virtual versus on-site options – or blended solutions that incorporate both approaches. There are many companies that do an incredible job on small-scale projects with generous timelines, but if you have an aggressive timeline or a multitude of courses to develop, you need to select a partner with a proven track record.

Again, boutique vendors can be helpful for smaller or more specific projects. All-inone providers have the advantage of both development and platform experience, which is best for organizations that need a wide range of capabilities delivered deeply and broadly, especially at a global level.

CAPACITY Perhaps the easiest category to describe but also the most difficult to judge, capacity can be measured in a number of different ways. Platform-centric companies may have a great grasp on deployment, support and reporting, but unless the content meets the requirements of the project, these factors are meaningless. Conversely, development-centric companies can produce award-winning content with little regard for bandwidth and other deployment constraints, negating that benefit. Audience size and the amount of content needed will impact your choice of providers, as bottlenecks can emerge throughout the lifespan of a project, from initial design and development through to deployment. To combat these types of issues, capacity should be holistically measured and compatible with your needs. Consider: // Who is your audience? // Where does your audience reside? // How will learners consume the content? // How much content needs to be built and at what fidelity?

PRICE Price is obviously an important consideration in selecting an outsourcing partner, but it should not be the overriding consideration. Project costs are driven by the requirements provided to a vendor; however, be wary of bottom-line assessments of suppliers, and take the time to closely examine and understand the relative merits of all prospective partners. Consider the cost to the organization should the project fail: Was it worth saving 10 percent on the initial cost if the business objectives weren’t met in the end?

UNDERTAKING AN OUTSOURCING INITIATIVE One aspect of outsourcing that overarches all of these categories is the buying organization’s ability and aptitude to undertake such an initiative. Outsourcing doesn’t mean all aspects of an organization’s pain go with it. Most companies that outsource still need to provide a variety of touchpoints to interface with the supplier, and that interaction is a tremendous two-way responsibility that helps ensure the job gets done.

ENSURING YOUR INITIATIVE REQUIREMENTS ARE POLISHED WILL MAKE SELECTING A SUPPLIER MUCH SIMPLER.

Many organizations initially underestimate the amount of work involved, from the subject matter expertise required for building a curriculum to ensuring the infrastructure is ready to accept delivery – not to mention the time and effort required to coordinate with all of the various internal stakeholders throughout the project. Selecting an outsourcing partner can be a challenging task, and the choices are plentiful. The guidelines presented in this article represent an initial checklist you can use to quickly qualify prospective partners, but it’s not an exhaustive list of criteria.

// How do platform, content development, implementation and reporting converge, and what is the model for managing them together?

Above all, ensuring your initiative requirements are polished will make selecting a supplier much simpler. Don’t be distracted by shiny demos or theoretical models. Executing on a vision and a plan is where 90 percent of the effort will be, so make your outsourcing choices accordingly.

// What is a company’s approach to scaling, adding resources and meeting peak demand?

Ken Anderson is vice president of custom solutions at Skillsoft. Email Ken.

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3 RULES TO BEGIN A GREAT PARTNERSHIP WITH A CUSTOM E-LEARNING PROVIDER BY SARBANI MUKHERJEE

The jury is no longer out on this one - outsourcing of learning services is indeed here to stay. Whether your organization wants to bring efficiencies to the learning function, implement a flexible resourcing model, deploy best-in-class learning and performance support strategies, or increase focus on core business activities, taking that first step in your outsourcing journey is never easy. Decisions need to be made on how to select the right partner, finalize the budget, engage with a steering committee to define the outsourcing strategy, and liaison with procurement. The list is endless. In all of this, there is also the fear of the unknown. The uncertainty of working with a team you’ve never known before and, seemingly, have little control over. But this is where it gets better. If your organization is ready to go down this path, you clearly are not going where no man (or woman) has gone before. With training outsourcing now gaining maturity, there are several best practices to make your initial steps a little easier. Let’s examine three ground rules for a great partnership with a custom e-learning provider. Why e-learning? Simply because of the pace at which this industry is growing. An industry report indicated that the global market for e-learning was expected to cross $105 billion by the close of 2015. The 2014 Training Industry Report stated 29 percent of companies were planning to buy content development products and services this year. It would stand to reason, therefore, that for many this may well be the start of their e-learning outsourcing journey. But why custom e-learning? Due to the growing demand for solutions tailored to your organization’s needs, custom e-learning can bring higher returns on investment and translate to better learning enabling performance. 40

The ground rules are the same, whether you opt for an offshore partner or one who’s in your geography. These initial ground rules are for you to play by, no matter who the partner is and what their processes are. RULE 1: COMMUNICATE The partnership needs a significant investment of time from your side to make it work. And, one cannot stress enough on the importance of communication when beginning your partnership. Take the initiative to share information about your organization, its goals, branding and key messaging early on in the engagement. Most e-learning vendors have standard questionnaires that address all of these, but don’t hesitate to share additional resources that will help your partner understand your environment better. Ensure there’s representation from your team on every face-to-face interaction and conference call scheduled by your partner. Make it a point to clearly articulate your expectation from the engagement and give clear, actionable feedback at every stage of the engagement. Here are five action points to get started:

Help your e-learning partner understand your organizational structure, culture, immediate business drivers, and learning.

Share the branding and communication guidelines.

CUSTOM E-LEARNING CAN BRING HIGHER RETURNS ON INVESTMENT AND TRANSLATE TO BETTER LEARNING ENABLING PERFORMANCE.

rticulate your vision for the learning A solution and expectations from the engagement.

S hare feedback at every stage of the engagement.

articipate in review and catch-up calls P regularly.

RULE 2: MANAGE INTERNAL STAKEHOLDER EXPECTATIONS Accept the new reality. Your partner’s e-learning development team is new to your organization and its way of doing things. While you must expect nothing but the best quality from them, you need to set the right expectations with the internal stakeholders. To manage the softer aspects of outsourcing, socialize the importance of bringing in an external team. Encourage your internal stakeholders such as subject matter experts, project leads and internal content reviewers to ask questions about the partner. Share examples of your e-learning partner’s products with your internal team. Get their buy-in on the vision of creating a great learning solution using the help of external experts.

RULE 3: COLLABORATE The learning solution you create will impact your business and help support the development of organizational competencies. Yes, the e-learning product is as important as that. Work with your partner to get the content right. Encourage your e-learning partner to adapt their design and development processes to help you give feedback and do course corrections along the way. Define communication mechanisms to encourage collaboration, and talk to your partner’s content developers frequently during the analysis and design stages of the project. Work with them to translate your vision into a tangible design. Here are five action points to get started:

E ncourage your partner to involve you in the brainstorming sessions.

I nsist on doing interim reviews of content and design documents early on in the project.

S hare with your partner examples of solutions that represent your vision of the learning solution.

ork with your partner to finalize the W solution design.

I nvolve your team members and get their buy-in on design before you move to development.

Here are five action points to get started:

I dentify the people who need to be involved on this project.

learly communicate your expectations C from the internal team. For example, who is the prime SME? Who will support you with content reviews? Who will be your back-up when you’re out of office? How many hours would each internal stakeholder have to commit to the project?

elp your internal team learn enough H about the e-learning partner and their processes.

I nvolve your team members in some of the interactions with the e-learning partner early on in the engagement.

E nsure your team has a clear understanding of the learning solution and the related business requirement.

As the partnership matures, you will begin to benefit from this initial investment in time and effort. The benefits will show in the quality of solutions you deliver to your organization and, typically, in reduction of e-learning development cycle time for similar solutions. Many an engagement has gone wrong simply because these simple ground rules were not followed. Much was left to the expertise of the e-learning partner, without providing the support needed to make the engagement work. Play by these rules and set your partner up for success. The transformational benefits will follow. Sarbani Mukherjee is vice president and chief learning designer for Tata Interactive Systems. Email Sarbani.

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