Create a more agile organization through self-directed development

Transcription

1 HCM Organizational Agility Create a more agile organization through self-directed development How HR can keep pace with the speed of change It s a global truth that technology has made us autonomous and connected at the same time. We re information independent able to access what we need, when we need it, on any device, mobile or otherwise. We re now wired for instantaneous knowledge gratification on a 24x7 basis. Our self-directed efforts have cut out the middleman, allowing us to do everything from booking a vacation to buying a car to planning for retirement. At work, this self-service approach is changing the way we develop skills. The idea of the classroom evokes memories of a teacher or lecturer-directed experience in a physical place at a specific time, with the same content delivered to everyone, without regard to the individual requirements of the student. It seems like a quaint concept from the last century. And, for many progressive businesses, it is. Many modern HR professionals are using technology to transform the way learning and development opportunities are offered to employees, replacing traditional practices with innovative, continuous, self-directed approaches that tap into the autonomous and connected realities of our culture. And, while learning may be the immediate goal, a substantial byproduct is a more engaged and agile workforce that is adept at responding to change, a necessity for achieving sustainable organizational agility in an increasingly dynamic and complex world.

2 Organizational agility: You won t learn it in a classroom For organizations, learning and development programs have historically been time and labor intensive to plan and fund. For employees, periodic or single state-in-time learning events have often been disruptive to daily work processes. They ve also not been particularly effective at creating lasting changes in skills, or a positive and permanent impact on career path planning. According to the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, employees lose as much as 75% of the learning attained during state-in-time training within just six days of the event. 1 That s not an effective recipe for infusing agility into an organization or for creating a culture that is primed and ready for change. The shift to self-service development accelerates the speed of learning and makes it a readily available concept for every employee. More importantly, it empowers the individual to prepare for and direct his or her own career trajectory in a continuous and fluid way, instead of through sporadic, stop-and-start learning. Informal and frequent learn-as-you-go approaches are more in tune with today s employees, but to get subject matter to stick requires a broader organizational effort. Providing access to continuous learning and improvement is only one piece of the puzzle. The drive for knowledge does not exist in a vacuum. An organization must first be motivated by an internal principle that makes a consistent level of professional excellence a fundamental and necessary part of its culture. And then it must embrace the steps to get there. A culture of learning creates a dynamic and engaged workforce that is ready to accept and tap into continuous, self-service learning opportunities. This is how training sticks and how transformation occurs, leading to the nimbleness we call organizational agility. Employees lose as much as 75% of the learning attained during state-intime training within just six days of the event. 2

3 The modern dance of change: How to stay in step with a progressive marketplace We now live in a world where managing change is a constant and consistent competitive pressure for every business. Managing shifting market and customer needs is a modern dance that requires an accelerated level of performance and preparedness at every level of an organization. The marketplace is littered with companies that either couldn t anticipate change or couldn t move fast enough to remain competitive when their more nimble peers chose innovation over stagnation. That s why the concept of organizational agility is a much-discussed topic these days. Without it, businesses will almost certainly fail the test of a progressive marketplace. Unfortunately, there are still too many organizations that continue to maintain the status quo in employee development. According to the Association for Talent Development, in 2013, organizations spent $1,208 per employee on training and development, delivering an average of 31.5 learning hours for each individual. Of this training, 70% was instructor-led, with only 38% delivered using technology. 2 If an organization s ability to respond to change is directly proportional to the nimbleness of its workforce, then it s time to use 21st century practices to infuse agility into every employee. Tackling the learning curve: Time is not on your side Successful organizations today operate at a different cadence than in the past. They are more highly calibrated to perform with speed as an operational imperative. HR must reflect the rhythm of the overall organization and function as a partner in innovation, supporting the goal of organizational agility. Creating a knowledgeable, adaptable, and dynamic workforce requires a new view of what learning and development looks like in the modern workplace. And, the benefits are numerous. As Ron Friedman recently noted in a Harvard Business Review blog post, A labor force that s consistently acquiring new skills is likely to be happier, more invested, and smarter about their work by making it explicit that employees are expected to master new skills and by providing them with the time and the resources to do so, organizations can prevent boredom, improve intellectual firepower, and enhance their competitive advantage. 3 HR should feel competitively pressured to operate at the same speed as the rest of the organization, not just in meeting the specific development needs of employees, but also by assuming a leadership role in creating a culture inspired and fueled by knowledge. 3

4 Agility at work Through a self-service, technology-driven learning model, employees can access development tools anytime, anywhere, so there is no gap between the desire for training and the ability to engage in it. An easily accessible, continuous, and informal self-directed development approach is what fuels a learning-centered organization, infusing its workforce with the expectation that knowledge, curiosity, and professional goal attainment are the true competitive advantages. As noted by the Association for Talent Development, companies with strong learning cultures are 92% more likely to innovate. 4 That's the sign of agility at work. As noted by the Association for Talent Development, companies with strong learning cultures are 92% more likely to innovate. That s the sign of agility at work. 4

5 Learn more about how you can infuse your company with agility 1. Geoff McQueen, Do You Remember What You Did Last Tuesday? Neither Do Employees, Entrepreneur.com ( October 2, ATD Research, 2014 State of the Industry, ( Ron Friedman, Why Work Should Get a Little Harder Every Day, Harvard Business Review ( December 16, Ruth Palombo Weiss, View from the Learning Executive: Josh Bersin of Bersin by Deloitte, Association for Talent Development, ( November 14, Share this : Copyright 2016 Infor. All rights reserved. The word and design marks set forth herein are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Infor and/or related affiliates and subsidiaries. All other trademarks listed herein are the property of their respective owners Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY INF en-US