Greetings and welcome to Smart Report

Volume 1 No 3, 28 February 2007

LEARNING MANAGEMENT

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”

Alvin Toffler

Learning and information, the focus for this edition of Smart Report, are the lifelines of the 21st century organisation. Global competition, the knowledge revolution and the growing expectations for performance drive every business to achieve more effective and efficient learning, and drive the development and management of its human capital.

A major focus for companies in recent years has been to reduce costs on a program basis (such as through technology-enhanced automation and delivery) and tighten alignment between skill-building programs and business objectives (such as via competency modeling or certification programs) managed via learning management systems.

Corporations realise their competitive edge is dependent, for the most part, on the knowledge and skills of their professional staff. Business needs are changing faster than ever, companies need to respond quickly to market demand, and people need to be prepared to respond to rapid change. Dynamic, growth-oriented companies need to invest in the dissemination of information to their employees, partners and customers now more than ever.

In order to address the need for knowledge at the speed of light, successful organisations today need to adopt an enterprise learning strategy. To do this companies will have to cease to think of training as a formal or structured occurrence, but rather as something that is taking place all the time. It is important to view learning as a process and not an event.




For learning to take place with any kind of efficiency students must be motivated. To be motivated, they must become interested. And they become interested when they are actively working on projects which they can relate to their values and goals in life.

HRsmart South Africa

- LEARNING MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS -

Skills development has been identified as a key requirement for economic growth in South Africa. As a result, the levy grant scheme, imposed by the Skills Development Act, 1998, and the Skills Development Levy Act, 1999, aims to expand the knowledge and competencies of the labour force . Improvements in employability and productivity will be achieved through new approaches to planning for training, learning programmes, incentives and an improved employment service. Participating fully in the scheme will allow companies to reap the benefits of a better skilled and more productive workforce.

In response to this challenge many SA companies have recognised the need to more efficiently manage their learning and training initiatives. To assist companies with this, HRsmart South Africa have introduced a world leading Learning Management Solution, LMsmart. This solution provides the technological tools and infrastructure that bring together and automate many of the key learning resources and processes. They integrate and standardise such things as learning assessments, course registration and delivery, content integration and record keeping across all boundaries of the business.

Develop your workforce
Leverage a common, reusable framework for describing learning objectives. Define competencies attained by learner. Automatically update competency profiles. Identify individual skills deficiencies and provide easy access for improvement. Allow employees to create personalised learning plans with automatic reminders and monitoring. Create learning paths and certifications to guide and manage your workforce learning and development.

Tie Training to goals
Measure the effectiveness of training initiatives. Meet the requirements of Workplace skills Development Plan.

Create a strategic Learning organisation
Ensure that appropriate learning programs are in place and that courses are completed as required. Automatically create a knowledge and skills inventory for the entire company. Effectively budget training by matching the right courses to the right employees. Empower employees to be proactive, organised and motivated learners.

Simplify administration through a unified catalogue
Create a single catalogue for all online and offline courses. Organise courses by topic and create curriculas for different areas.

Simplify administration by efficiently scheduling and managing resources
Place the right resources and equipment in the right locations. Define learning event needs only once. Ensure instructors possess the necessary competencies and experience. Consolidate training initiatives.

9 TIPS FOR TRAINING TRANSFER
 

Whether you facilitate training sessions or select them from others, these twelve tips should help you present sessions that work. The content, from sessions that apply these ideas, is absorbed by delegates and actually used to improve performance back on the job.

1. The trainer makes a difference
  The ability to train others is one of the most important indicators of training retention. Alternatively, participants react more favourably to trainers who have experience in their industry. They appreciate facilitators who have experienced and addressed the issues and situations highlighted in the training. The more closely the instructor can link the training to the delegates real life experience, the better for application of the information later on the job. Remember, retention is best when the learner is involved.
2. Present training as part of a consistent message from the company
  Classes must build on each other and reinforce the content learned in earlier sessions. Too many organisations approach training as a menu of available classes and sessions. When there is no interconnection between sessions and the information provided in the sessions, companies miss a great opportunity to reinforce basic shared skills, approaches and values. Training must reference earlier sessions, draw parallels and reinforce content.
3. Provide training in "chunks" scheduled over a period of time
  Generally, people learn more in training sessions that provide small amounts of content, based on a couple of well-defined objectives. Participants attend these sessions, perhaps a couple of hours per week, until the subject is learned. This allows for practice of the concepts in between sessions. This also afford people the opportunity to discuss their successes and difficulties in applying the training in their actual work session.
4. Train skills and information immediately applicable on the job
  “Use it or lose it,” is a common refrain about training. This is a true statement. Even with strategic skills such as listening, providing performance feedback, and teambuilding, set up situations in which practice is immediate and frequent, to help participants retain the training. In application-oriented training such as software training, don’t bother with the training unless participants have the software. In fact training is often more effective if they experiment with the program first, before attending the session.
5. Make use of session pre-work during actual training session
  Asking people if they “read the article” or “thought about” the concept is not enough! The best pre-training exercise that we have used…is to send out a list of focus questions. The only instructions provided were, “Answer the questions as completely as possible and keep the answers private.” When the participants arrive at the workshop, have them meet in a central location with a flipchart. On the flipchart write a message saying, "Feel free to discuss your questions and answers." After 20 minutes the trainer should enter and ask the group what they were discussing. Then you carry on from that point. We found out that if students were given a topic of discussion, presented from several viewpoints, and then allowed to "pre-discuss" the topic, the topic was better understood and better retained.
6. During the training session honour a variety of learning styles
  Recognise that a range of activities and information applications will appeal to participants’ varied learning styles. Use real life examples, analogies, case studies, small group discussion, presentation, and experiential exercises. Provide visual support materials such as films and transparencies for people who learn visually. Activities will appeal to your hands-on crowd. Ask participants to provide examples of the concept you are training from their experience. By keeping the training varied, exciting and stimulating, you help people retain the content. By appealing to the variety of learning styles in your group, you enhance participant learning. Examples and application exercises ensure people can connect new material to their current practice and what they already believe. This, in turn, ensures transfer and application on the job.


7. Increase trainee investment by engaging them in activity
  Provide easy ways for participants to take notes; periodically ask participants to jot down application ideas. Ask them to share these ideas in a small group. Ask people to underline the most important concept on a page; circle the ideas that most apply to their circumstances. Request that participants identify how their supervisor can help them apply the training. Make action planning an ongoing activity during the session, instead of a too often time-crunched activity at the end of the session.
8. Provide reference materials for review after the session
  Include participant input into the materials, making participants more likely to use the documents.
9. Discuss how to address real life scenarios
  Too often, training professionals don't prepare participants for the real world in which they will attempt to use what they learned in class. Trainers should work on performance barriers in the domain they can control, their classrooms. They can share data from the needs assessment on unearthing barriers and offer ways to overcome them. Trainers can also discuss with participants their managers' or co-workers' possible objections. The participants can practice their responses. They can share suggestions from participants who were able to transfer what they learned in training and who came up with successful approaches to get more computer resources, supervisory support, and so forth.
 

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance!
 

In addition to Learning Management, HRsmart also provide a range of other business solutions, including:
Applicant-Tracking, Career Development and Performance Management.
For more information, please contact kgordon@hrsmartafrica.com or visit our website www.hrsmartafrica.com
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