Recommendations UDOT University Organizational Effectiveness and Efficiency Study
Recommendation s Contents
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Introduction This document contains the final recommendations for the organizational effectiveness and efficiency study of the UDOT University and related UDOT training activities. The work associated with this project is contained and described in separate documents submitted during the course of this project as illustrated below. The benchmarking work encompasses 11 case study write-ups and a separate targeted literature search (see 3a and 3b below). The internal assessment and findings are contained in two documents that summarize internal data and information compared with external best practices.
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1. Recommendations 1. Structure (Governance, Staffing, Financial) 2. Strategy (Programs, Portfolio, Integration) 3. Infrastructure (Technology, Information, Facilities) 4. Operations (Actions, Pace, Priority)
2a. Internal Assessment
2b. Internal Findings
1. College Business Plan Review 2. Dean and Trustee Interview Summary 3. Stakeholder Survey 4. Financial Data Review 5. Systems Review 6. Job Title Mapping Review
3a. Case Studies
1. Wyoming DOT 2. North Dakota DOT 3. South Dakota DOT 4. Oklahoma DOT 5. City of Tucson 6. Motorola Solutions 7. Sprint University 8. Salt Lake County 9. General Electric 10. Disney Institute 11. Travelers Insurance
1. Introduction 2. Comparisons With Best Practices 3. Alignment Issues and Gaps
3b. Literature Search Report of Corporate Universities 1. Structure and Staffing Considerations 2. Infrastructure Insights 3. Partnerships 4. Needs and Results Assessments
4. Project Work Plan Goals and Elements 4.1. Analysis of UDOT training structure and staffing
4.2. Options for staffing alignment and performance indicators
4.3. Allocation of training related financial resources
4.4. Review training delivery methods
4.5. Review catalog and calendar functions
4.6. Recommend 4.7. Other best practices areas of for training review delivery
Finally, in this report, recommended action steps are provided first in a summary list, then in more detail in four sections, designed to address both immediate both needs and ongoing investment in the system of corporate training and development. Section 1: Structure, includes recommendations on governance, staffing and financial practices. Section 2: Strategy, includes programs, portfolio, and integration topics.
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Section 3: Infrastructure, includes technology, information and facilities. Section 4: Operations, includes action tasks, pace and priority.
Summary List of Recommendations A summary list of recommendations described in more detail in these sections is listed below:
Structure: Governance, Staffing and Financial Practices •
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Recruit and hire a Chief Learning Officer or equivalent, operationally reporting to the Deputy of UDOT with authority over and accountability for the strategy, infrastructure, and operations of the University under the guidance of the Board of Trustees.
Structure Goverance Staffing Financial Practices
Programs
Action tasks
Operations
Pace
Decisions, Policies, Processes: Led and Managed by Chief Learning Officer
Driven by Board of Trustees
Portfolio
Strategy
Integration
Priority Technology Information Facilities
Infrastructure
‘Formalize’ the role of the College Dean by making it a paid position (may be part-time), with clear roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities to the Business Unit Director and CLO.
Strategy: Programs, Portfolio, Integration •
Build a Program Plan for the University that addresses structure, strategy, infrastructure and operational (see diagram) elements covering the next five years. Such a plan will show how the university program will integrate various training activities/resources/expenses across UDOT to achieve enhanced learning outcomes.
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Align all major or core training and development programs (e.g., TransTech, Project Management Training, Asset Management Training, Leadership Development, and others) into a ‘portfolio’ of learning initiatives to achieve integrated monitoring, oversight and coordination through the University and the CLO.
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Develop and launch high-leverage University programs such as a trainer-oriented program within the University specifically to enhance the skills and competencies of embedded and adjunct training staff; teach curriculum development and assessment;, and support trainers using a wide range of learning modalities.
Infrastructure: Technology, Information, Facilities •
Conduct an assessment of infrastructure requirements to include information and facility needs supporting learning, attending particularly to differences in geographical and functional areas.
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Define technology gaps to include limitations in facility and information resources that challenge learning opportunities or challenge training delivery.
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Build a technology plan to address these challenges, and create funding strategies to support the plan for the next 3 to 5 years, making short-term wins, where feasible.
Operations: Action Tasks, Pace, Priority •
The Board of Trustees and Deans should evaluate findings and recommendations from this study and participate in a facilitated strategic planning session(s) that results in creation of shared strategic direction, objectives, priorities and pace of progress.
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We recommend priorities and pace of action be driven around high leverage benefits to the organization (e.g., areas where swift or urgent operational changes are needed or in progress), or areas where significant internal/external changes and environmental factors are drivers (e.g., turnover, obsolescence, funding changes, etc.).
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This planning process should drive budget allocation for training and development expenditures and grant funding objectives.
Section 1: Structure The organizational structure of UDOT U is, at first look, a strong approach for a corporate university comparing to best practices. It has strong membership of senior leaders from all business units on the board of trustees, and they regularly meet with the Deans of each of the Colleges. Furthermore, each of the Business Units (BUs) is strongly represented in the University structure and receives some share of funding and other support through the University.
Governance We recommend UDOT create and fill the position of a Chief Learning Officer or equivalent, reporting to the Deputy, designed to replace the current part-time role of Provost. The CLO provides corporate-wide learning and training policy management, career and organizational development leadership, and has authority to plan and direct all aspects of UDOT's learning policies, objectives, and initiatives. This leadership (and authority) does not require centralizing reporting relationships of all regional trainers, or training-related staff, because the 'embedded' nature of regional trainers is a very useful model for technical training delivery. Centralizing policy, trainer development and evaluation, curriculum development, needs and performance assessment, and tools and technology deployment would, however, be required. Structurally, a more clear voice and role for the top two executives (Director and Deputy Director), particularly in articulating the 1) strategic vision the University serves for UDOT and its business partners and 2) the personal commitment they demonstrate towards getting those results. This may be accomplished through a strong CLO role.
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Clearly defined roles, responsibilities and authorities for the CLO and staff of the University, that speak to the unique range of expectations involved in a well-run university. It is essential to define and select the right quality of University leadership who can be successful at both crafting innovative and costeffective learning programs across diverse Business Units, and nurture and facilitate the creative ideas that come from the leadership of the University and the colleges where training and learning are being designed. The skill sets for this job are distinctly different than what may have been traditionally found in a training organization, an engineering design unit, or a project management division. Structurally and strategically addressing what's 'in and out' of the corporate university umbrella of training and development, learning and talent management for UDOT. The current structure -specifically around the separate TransTech training program, and routine 'incidental' training funded by business units -- leaves employees with mixed messages about the role, direction, scope, and importance of the University to UDOT. Ultimately, any statements about the importance of the University to UDOTs future success, ongoing stature, or other desired outcomes can be suspect in light of the misalignment.
Staffing The current full and part-time staffing levels for UDOT U reflect a staffing compliment more appropriate for a well-established University with mature infrastructure, fully established training and development programs, and proven coordinating mechanisms that work well across the diverse geography of Utah. In fact, all of these major success features still require ongoing development, implementation support and nurturing to achieve a stable, mature delivery process. Options recommended include: • Staff the University with a new hire Chief Learning Officer (CLO) plus learning resources program coordinator and develop strategy for infrastructure and program support through insourcing and outsourcing. • The CLO or equivalent position should be chartered with:
Leading the Corporate University platform including curriculum content, vendor management, and the learning management system; Responsibility for fostering a learning organization through collaboration with stakeholders, measuring training results and continuous improvement methods; Demonstrating and modeling strong talent management and learning management systems (LMS) implementation. Being a strategic business partner responsible for developing value-added talent development programs and processes that address strategic business needs. Managing execution of these talent management strategies and programs; Developing and implementing comprehensive strategies to identify, assess, develop and retain talent within the organization; Guiding the selection and implementation of a talent management suite to standardize learning processes; Actively contributing to the trustees’ board. Ensuring employee adoption and evaluation of new technologies and business processes for relevance and value. Promoting knowledge management strategies to meet organizational mission and vision. Page 7
Establishing and maintaining a learning/training assessment system in cooperation with internal and external training providers. Evaluating the effectiveness of learning outcomes. Implementing enhancements as needed. Demonstrating subject matter competency in adult learning theory and practice competency.
• A "funded" Dean's role in each Business Unit. This could simply be bringing more formality and funding to the individual role. The 'unfunded' volunteer aspect of the current role is difficult to sustain, and uneven in its application. For each college, the funding might range from part-time to full-time depending on the college’s learning objectives. The amount of time spent in the Dean’s role may be unique to each business unit. Significant duties should include: •
Developing an annual business unit education strategy including work planning and budgeting; Selecting and vetting learning partners (with CLO support) to achieve college goals; Approving training and development objectives and products; Selecting adjunct faculty, and approving trainer development plans; Directing/approving needs and results assessments, with support of the CLO; and, Marketing the college and university, as needed.
Recommend the centralized administration (supported by technology) of the cadre of training and development tasks and activities to include: assessing needs, developing training materials, scheduling learning events, assessing success, and managing transcripts (job-specific information.) This work could be a combination of in-house SME–led, plus outsourced contract support for routine program management.
Financial Practices •
The CLO should be responsible to identify and acquire new resources (new CU hires or vendor support to the CU) for a range of service delivery needs associated with project and program support as approved by the Board and Deans. The support work includes the administrative and technology tasks to design, deploy and maintain an accurate course catalog, transcript management data base, learning management calendaring and administrative scheduling.
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Funding for staffing the University needs to align (approximately) with the expenditures that are currently occurring or are budgeted/planned to be deployed to support investments UDOT has identified. The best designs can identify what we can 'stop doing' as well as what we need to ‘start doing’, and can align new tactics along a value stream of tasks that achieve results with a less stress.
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Recommended strategies to exploit under financial management include:
Consolidating funding and spending on ‘core’ skills development where possible to 1) best leverage use of resources, 2) get a standard message and outcome across the organization, and 3) target training and development of core skills in areas most needed. Focusing these resources into an organizational program with shared principles, objectives and outcomes
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would yield more consistent results for the spending. Topical areas to target might include leadership development, time management, supervisory skills, basic management, etc.
Create a vendor/supplier/consultant portfolio specific to training and development where ‘preferred providers’ or ‘certified experts’ can be highly leveraged across the entire organization both financially and tactically (schedule, knowledge transfer, attendance management, etc.).
Create dashboards to help manage and understand use of funds against planned budget, and tie spending on learning to planned performance outcomes of each business unit.
Section 2: Strategy Many stakeholders indicated the need for better ‘marketing’ of the current University within UDOT. We recommend that the foundation for such marketing is the creation of a five-year University Program Plan that addresses structure, strategy, infrastructure and operational elements. The Plan will show how the University program integrates various training activities/resources/expenses across UDOT to achieve enhanced learning outcomes. Having this clear, transparent program plan enables the CLO and staff, along with business unit Deans and their SMEs to ‘market’ various elements of the plan and services of the University more effectively. The following are recommended programs to include in the University program plan.
Programs Train-the-Trainer Training design and content development are not currently centralized, nor are they currently seen as the sole purview of the CU. It is not our recommendation to organizationally move existing training and development staff currently reporting to business units into or under the organizational direction of the CLO, since their effectiveness and service delivery depends, in large part, on being embedded in a specific business unit. However, the University should create policy guidance, distinct curricula and agenda designed to improve all training staff’s skill, create cross-functional opportunities, optimize resources and more rapidly deploy new programs and technology. The University then builds a community of practice for trainers and adjunct faculty from all business units. Communities of Practice The CLO would be part of designing and managing across-college communities of practice 1 that accomplish shared learning objectives critical to UDOT. Project and asset management are two such 1 Communities of Practice - defined as a group of people who share a craft and/or a profession. The group can evolve naturally because of the
members' common interest in a particular domain or area, or it can be created specifically with the goal of gaining knowledge related to their field. These groups are one of the most accessible and powerful learning modalities available to the CU. Leveraging well-functioning communities of practice for an organization's benefit has a number of similarities: 1) to achieve the breadth of the desired ‘community’ they are shaped by some degree of technology mediation, looking for a way to transcend distance; 2) they assume a high degree of self-regulation or independence on the part of the learner; and 3) they typically acknowledges the value of facilitation by an facilitator, agent, group leader or guide.
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topical areas that require strong financial, procurement, operational and leadership elements. Design and delivery of successful complex, comprehensive programs are difficult to accomplish within a college alone, or solely by the University. Therefore, the University serves as a coordinating mechanism and project manager with sufficient skill, authority and cross-organizational reach to accomplish objectives. •
The University should do an inventory of the existing Communities of Practice functioning at UDOT (AASHTO groups, for example), while simultaneously developing a set of policy/protocols for Community of Practice operation that would govern membership, funding, support, measurement, and facilitation.
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Identify the most successful Communities of Practice within UDOT and develop several tools to support them including web conferencing through Adobe Connect (including training), calendaring/scheduling tools, SharePoint or other team coordination sites, communication planning and marketing organization-wide (including image/logo, etc.), and provide support for these new standard practices.
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Provide brief orientation- type classes for individuals leading or starting new Communities of Practice to standardize approach, value, communication and measurement among all Communities of Practice.
Knowledge Transfer We recommend the University establish a knowledge transfer program centered on core technical competencies. UDOT employees have significant expertise that allows them to expand the influence of their knowledge throughout the organization. Knowledge transfer programs maximize the organization’s focus on uncompromising safety and innovative solutions. To preserve the expertise and institutional knowledge, it is recommended that a system be established to document and manage the knowledge transfer process. This tool will identify critical knowledge categories. The knowledge transfer program will result in an organized, measureable process to decrease ramp up time for new employees and preserve historical knowledge when employees leave the agency. This program will address these business issues: •
Onboarding new employees, employees new to roles or projects.
• Transferring knowledge, skills, and experience from soon-to-be retiring employees to those who will succeed them. • A repeatable, measureable method for knowledge transfer that can be used uniformly throughout the organization. • Appropriate change management to ensure knowledge transfer solution is integrated into dayto-day work processes. • Developing and piloting a “Training and Certification Program” to certify staff as competent to use the knowledge transfer system.
Portfolio Vendor, Supplier, Consultant Portfolio
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The CLO should centralize management of external vendor contracts associated with training, learning and development. This is to ensure consistency and optimization of these resources. The CLO should augment staffing through use of external resources where alignment with established learning goals and expectations are known. Also, the CLO should leverage external resources to maximize infrastructure. By centralizing these functions, it will be easier to select vendors/suppliers who can reliably meet UDOT’s needs.
Integration Build a five-year Program Plan for the University that addresses structure, strategy, infrastructure and operational elements. The plan should integrate various training activities/resources/expenses across UDOT to achieve enhanced learning outcomes for all employees. Achieve integration of all training activities at UDOT through coordinated work with the training SMEs. Implement programs designed to augment the skills of trainers, providing training design assistance, scheduling coordination, and needs and performance assessment. This will allow the University to become an influential guide in the work of learning throughout all levels of the organization.
Section 3: Infrastructure Learning management systems, when used in conjunction with valid predictive assessments, and when correlated with an individual’s learning profile, can generate data for diagnosing skill gaps and prescribing experiences that link learning events with on-the-job experience. Individuals can monitor their own progress and determine what the next step in their professional development should be. A range of learning resources—individual objects, online or in-person communities of practitioners, professional advisors and mentors, and so on—should be available as needed by the learner. Learning management systems also give business managers ways to track returns on learning investments, time spent on learning tasks, and use patterns. An LMS makes it relatively easy to track course completion, task completion, resource use, and historical use data as well as assessment results and various qualitative evaluations. Ensuring employee adoption of new technologies means evaluating the technology in the context of their applicability to the business (e.g., usefulness within a snowplow or front-end loader). The CLO and team need to champion both the learning initiatives of the colleges and the use of innovative tools and technologies to achieve stated goals. A major objective is to establish and maintain a learning/training assessment system in cooperation with all the internal and external training providers. This will facilitate fluid assessment of learning outcome effectiveness. This will help SMEs implement learning modifications, as needed.
Technology Infrastructure needs assessment, gap analysis, followed by prioritization, business requirements, selection of tools and implementation are part of the work of the University that does not yet meet the standard of best-practice. The following recommendations are targeted at closing these gaps in the most practical ways possible:
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Scope and staff ongoing infrastructure needs analysis (which informs budget priorities) by outsourcing the work under UDOT U leadership to manage the outsource effort. Using either internal IT SMEs or external vendor SMEs to efficiently develop business requirements for the range of technology tools. Outcomes should be identified needs and technology gaps formatted in a business case analysis for budgeting purposes.
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The centralized administration (supported by technology) of the cadre of training and development tasks and activities to include: assessment of needs, development of training materials, scheduling learning events, assessing success, and managing transcripts (job-specific information.)
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E-learning Portfolio: In this highly connected, always switched-on world, eLearning makes more sense than ever before. It offers anyone who needs to learn a new skill, prepare for a new job, or pursue a new career the opportunity to complete training, get a certificate, or earn a degree. Elearning provides learners with more ways in which to participate in education, training, and professional development, on terms increasingly defined by learners themselves. “Virtual classrooms” are generally developed as distributed learning environments that can take advantage of synchronous experiences such as classes, seminars, and e-mentoring, as well as digital online courses and flexible learning content creation and deployment opportunities. Virtual classrooms are expected to grow in adoption across all vertical markets because of ease of use and increased awareness of the benefits of deploying learning management systems (LMS) and learning content management systems (LCMS) for managing many of the artifacts associated with virtual teaching and training activities. Attractive offerings, such as simulation-based, game-based, and mobile learning, are also expected to drive the future demand for more and higher quality digital content. The following are recommendations for the University to continue to develop its investments in Elearning (Adobe Connect, Lynda.com, etc.) include:
Build a strategy for implementing e-learning programs to best leverage tools, content, and audience (location, needs, and expectations). Examples include: •
Virtual classroom—the intention of virtual classrooms is to extend the structure and services that accompany formal education programs a learning center to learners, wherever they are located. Virtual classrooms include distance education programs to experiences where learners join in from a variety of distributed locations in a real-time class/meeting/workshop session via the Internet. The virtual classroom model includes places for posting papers for review and comment, completing tutorials, distributing class assignments, team review of files, and breaking away into study sections using web conferencing tools. Adobe Connect™ Pro and SharePoint are common tools to support this work.
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Rapid eLearning—a direct response to eLearning designs that once excluded nontechnical subject matter experts (SMEs) and learners alike, is now much more accessible through new multimedia learning tools. Rapid eLearning uses userfriendly tools to reduce the time it takes to produce rich, engaging learning content, allowing more nontechnical contributors, including SMEs and students, to share learning content (such as a stand-alone video).
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Online learning—Refers to courseware that is delivered over the Internet to learners at a variety of locations, where the primary interaction between the learner and the experiences of their learning occurs via networked computer technology such as that provided through Lynda.com currently in use at UDOT. Expanding the use of these tools where applicable should be part of the strategy.
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Mobile learning—Builds on the availability of ubiquitous networks and portable digital devices, including laptop computers, PDAs, MP3 players, and mobile phones. Mobile learning takes advantage of place-independent flexibility that comes from working away from the desktop and is particularly valuable for inspectors, and other field service technicians. Examples of this point-of-need learning include mobile learning and decision-support tools, interactive checklists, podcasts, and VOD (video on demand).
Information •
Performance Support Systems—Decision support tools, checklists, standard operating procedures, QA/QC controls, and other kinds of aids that are designed to bring workflow support to the point of need must be utilized. Performance support tools can be simple and straightforward or richly immersive, depending on need and criticality of performance. Putting these tools in eLearning deployment models (above) enhances their functionality and value
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Measuring Results -- sophistication in organizational analytics methods could correlate UDOT investments in training and development and technology and tools with UDOT success metrics such as project performance/quality, knowledge measurement, retention, and talent attraction. Design each modality (eLearning, communities of practice, classroom learning, etc.) so there is a foundation for performance monitoring. For example, the need and interests of individuals are linked to competency and accomplishment, and the needs of each business unit are tied to true business results.
We recommend the use of formal methods such as Analysis, Design, Development, Implement, and Evaluation (ADDIE) to clearly define what to teach and what is going to be of most value. With the directed use of learning management and analytics, ADDIE becomes a continuous process, instead of a once-per-curriculum type event. Learning Management Systems (LMS) MUST have integrated analytics and metrics, to allow continual evaluation of the training’s impact. More importantly, this must be integrated into a business’s full suite of applications, along with workforce analytics, to record exactly what the entire business gains from the investment in training, The first step, when developing a training program is identifying what business problem needs to be solved. By using analytics, one can then actively measure the key metrics related to the problem. This analysis stage is the A in ADDIE, which helps one determine who needs to be trained, and what training needs to be done. The Design and Development phases are up to the training expert to define and create. The Implementation phase is typically done within the LMS, when training is deployed to employees identified during the analysis phase. The Evaluation phase assesses the effectiveness of the training by looking at the impact on the initial problem. As before, the Evaluation phase is performed with an analytics package. With any methodology, it is always good practice to know: What are the business problems? Can the problems be Page 13
solved through training? Once the training has been delivered, was it effective? What was its impact?
Facilities Several issues related to facilities were identified in this assessment. These included the need for central facilities designed to be used for video conferencing. Such facilities would support better communication across the state, and provide more even access to learning opportunities, including communities of practice. Developing the library and adjacent facility at the 4501 South 2700 West building, along with comparable (but smaller) facilities in Southern and Eastern Utah, are possible options. A second facilities issue is the management of rented and leased facilities for training, as reflected in the spending spreadsheet. It is recommended that management of these expenditures could be better leveraged by inclusion in the vendor/supplier/consultant portfolio concept, where longer-term agreements are developed, and other internal (across business unit) options can be explored. Occasionally, the cost of a facility may be eliminated or modified by shifting the mode of training delivery. Learning how to have these discussions and evaluations would be the role of the CLO, with the cadre of trainers working in the trainer program.
Section 4: Operations Moving into Operations requires a shift in business practices that can be evident to all UDOT staff. The following action tasks are intended to reiterate those efforts most critical to convey a change in direction, a change in pace and/or a change in priority for the University.
Action Tasks, Pace, Priority •
Strategic and business planning by the Trustees and Deans in July and August 2014, resulting in selection of recommendations and direction to be adopted, establish pace and priority
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Announce new structure, strategy, direction including impacts on:
Provost position and Chief Learning Officer
Staffing within University including Training Coordinator and Administrative Support
Alignment of TransTech trainers and other ‘adjunct trainers/teachers’ to the University
Development of new priority programs, their purpose and objectives; e.g., trainer development program, community of practice program, knowledge transfer program, or others.
Project and asset management program support
Technology assessment
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