These days, enterprise learning often means delivering a broad range of training programs to a diverse workforce across different locations. Teresa Russell talks to some pioneers in the field and details how they evaluate ROI on enterprise learning
These days, enterprise learning often means delivering a broad range of training programs to a diverse workforce across different locations. Teresa Russell talks to some pioneers in the field and details how they evaluate ROI on enterprise learning
Australian Trade Commission
“We’re not your average company. We are a government statutory authority, with a strong marketing and sales focus – but we are a not for profit organisation,” quips Kevin Jones, Austrade’s manager, learning and development.
Austrade employs just over 1,000 people, of whom almost 60 per cent work offshore. Some of those working in other countries are expatriate Australians, and most have been employed locally. Because of the diversity of its workforce, its global coverage and its unique profile, learning and development initiatives need to be delivered to Austrade’s staff in an equitable and timely manner.
Debbie Kerrins, Austrade’s capability development manager, says the organisation has always had an active L&D unit, but in 2001 it undertook a longer term strategic focus, creating the Austrade Institute (with RMIT) featuring alumni, research and education components. An increased focus on e-learning commenced, culminating in 2003 with the purchase of a learning management system with a content development tool, and bringing all exporting, business process and administration process e-learning development in-house. Austrade now offers over 250 online, workshop and blended courses to its staff.
The L&D team of four people creates programs for both Austrade employees and the organisation’s customers. “Knowledge sharing is a driver in the organisation. We capture the tacit knowledge, make it explicit to exporters, and then redeploy it. We know our business, speak the language and understand the organisation’s KPIs,” says Kerrins.
When determining the value of any proposed training, Austrade uses its own business planning proposal document, which seeks to demonstrate a business benefit, achievement of KPIs and/or ROI. “We use repeat business as a measure of customer satisfaction,” she says.
Kerrins and Jones say there are several elements to running a successful enterprise learning strategy. First, it should be embedded in the business, with strong sponsors throughout the organisation. They pilot programs with smaller groups, prior to any company-wide rollout. They work with suppliers that are flexible and can develop products to suit their needs. They also recommend working with suppliers that have a similar culture to that of one’s own oganisation.
“Above all, be pragmatic in your approach to the business, use minimal HR/L&D-speak, and understand the business. Always ask yourself, ‘What else can we do with this?’” concludes Kerrins.
ANZ Banking Group
At last count, ANZ had 400 online courses, 300 online assessments and 500 offline courses (anything facilitator-led or self-paced) on offer to its 30,000 staff in Australia and around the world. In the last four years, there have been over 750,000 online course completions.
Five years ago, there was a centralised budget and ownership of employee development. With the introduction of shared services in the last four years, L&D strategic direction, consultancy and budget were devolved into the bank’s 17 business units. There remains a people capital team that manages executive and leadership development, including 4–5 programs centrally. Shared services manages the entire infrastructure that delivers the platform and looks after all systems. It outsources entirely to two main partners.
John McLachlan, head of partners and vendors, people capital shared services, says that ‘top down’ ownership and support is a vital ingredient of all enterprise learning, despite the origin of the funding. ANZ’s cultural transformation program, called ‘Breakout’, is a case in point. It is sponsored by the bank’s CEO, but funded by the business units.
When any new program is being considered, the business case for its implementation must be justified within the business unit. Therefore, measuring results against predicted outcomes is also done within the business units. “Line managers do all the ‘after the event’ assessments to ascertain behavioural changes that have taken place. This can be a very hard thing to measure,” explains McLachlan.
ANZ has a 50/50 mix of external versus in-house training. “Personal development programs, sales, marketing and presentation skills sit better with an external supplier. They bring a lot of intellectual capital to these types of programs and the training can be benchmarked across industries,” asserts McLachlan. ANZ does most risk and credit style programs in-house, customizing them to ANZ systems and processes.
McLachlan believes the key to delivering a successful enterprise learning strategy is to clearly understand the change you are seeking (for example, behavioural or technical) and to provide exhaustive scoping of the requirements in order to ensure relevancy. “Don’t be afraid to seek all solution alternatives –don’t lock yourself into an online program or a workshop – a blended approach may well be the best option. Also, benchmark your solution.”
Qantas College
Qantas College, the L&D arm of Australia’s major airline, commenced delivery of online services in 1997. It now offers 80 competency, compliance and awareness based courses for both the personal and professional development of its 38,000 employees. Most courses have an online component, with some using a blended approach to include face-to-face learning.
Qantas’ L&D strategy, policy and guidelines are determined at the corporate level. Then, the nine employees of Qantas College project manage all the company training initiatives, content development, procurement and vendor management.
Natalie Mackenny, manager, learning and development programs, says the organisation is now accustomed to online learning. “Many of our employees, such as the flight crew and engineering staff are used to having to update their expertise, so they are very compliant with online learning,” she says.
Each L&D project is approved only after an individual business case for the project is justified, she adds. Much of the training stems from the need to comply with the requirements of a heavily regulated airline industry. A fatigue awareness program for employees, managers and supervisors, was launched recently as a result of a CASA recommendation in 2000. It is currently being rolled out to all employees and will be part of induction training in the future.
Regardless of the reason for any training, they go to market to price training after a business case is suggested. Qantas has a preferred supplier list of consultants who develop online courseware. “Because it is a growing field, we occasionally consider additional suppliers,” says Mackenny. “Qantas exclusively uses external vendors because they have the expertise (to develop the courseware), produce high quality adult learning products and have a fast turnaround time,”she explains.
Mackenny concedes that measuring the ROI for individual training programs is difficult to do, but they try to do it to the best extent they can. One of their key performance measures is customer satisfaction. They measure this through questionnaires at the end of every course, conducting focus groups after some, and performing a six-monthly audit of all online courses.
According to Mackenny, there are a few things that guarantee a good outcome in enterprise learning initiatives: “Always stick to strong adult education principles, provide a quality product at a reasonable cost and maintain good relationships with all key stakeholders,” she concludes.
