= ____________
SIMPLIFY YOUR EMPLOYEE
TRAINING PROGRAM
AN EBOOK
Brought to you by:
A COMMON NOTION
If it were easy everyone would do it . . . . How many times have we said or thought that about
complicated or compelling achievements? When we think about our organizations, this same
adage comes into play in a number of contexts.
We struggle to find ways to effectively train and educate our employees, and we’ve been
looking for better, more effective and more cost effective methods for decades. Why? Because it’s not easy.
Organizations must confront a work and business environment that is more complex today than
ever before. The pace of change continues to accelerate. Demographics change. Technology
changes so fast that the new systems of last year feel like they are obsolete even before we
have time to master their use.
All of these factors contribute to a sense that training our employees is like a never ending
game of “whack-a-mole.” Every time we think we’ve figured out a solution, a new factor
emerges that we didn’t see coming, and the whole landscape changes. Complexity and
ambiguity are the new normal. In such a world, it’s harder than ever to make sense of where to
get started and how to get a handle on exactly how to fix an employee training and development program that’s no longer meeting the needs of either our organization or our
employees. Can we simplify things? Can we find a unifying model to help find some sense of
order in the chaos and confusion?
We believe the answer is, “Yes.”
If you were one of the millions of people who were enthralled by Daniel Day Lewis’ portrayal of
President Lincoln in last year’s movie, “Lincoln,” you might remember an interesting reference to
Euclid. In the film, the character was using the reference to Euclid to help simplify a complex
social and political concept for his aides.
Euclid was a Greek mathematician who lived over 2,000 years ago and is sometimes referred to
as “The Father of Geometry.” Like nearly all early mathematicians, his work reflects an effort to
explain the apparent chaos of the natural world in clear, certain mathematical terms. In
“Lincoln,” the lead character talked about teaching himself geometry and referred to “Euclid’s
First Common Notion,” which states that if two things are equal to the same thing, then those
two things are equal to each other.
Although many of the results in
Elements originated with earlier
mathematicians, one of Euclid's
accomplishments was to present
them in a single, logically
coherent framework, making it
easy to use and easy to reference,
including a system of rigorous
mathematical proofs that remains
the basis of mathematics 23
centuries later.
Euclid’s Elements, Wikipedia
BIZLIBRARY.COM
This “Common Notion” is an accepted foundational law of mathematics. It helps explain and
simplify many things in the chaos of the world around us. One of the reasons effective and
lasting employee training is so difficult for many organizations, is that employee training,
learning, and development exist in such a complex, chaotic environment. There are multiple
stakeholders and many moving parts that make finding a “common notion” to simplify the
entire process seem nearly impossible. But we have to look for a way to brush aside the chaotic clutter and find clarity among all of the competing priorities, influences, pressures and problems.
We have to look for a simple solution to determine the fundamental way to design and analyze
employee learning and development programs. The place to start is at the end – the business
results.
Complexity IS the enemy. And the key to keeping everything simple is to maintain a relentless
focus on basic business results. Break your employee training and development challenges
down into simple, easy to digest chunks so the design and implementation of the program flows
naturally from the business results and business challenges you are addressing.
Here is a basic formula that you can apply to any training program. This formula will provide a guide for analyzing the steps and the information you will need to design and implement an
employee training program that will meet the needs of both your organization and employees.
The formula is based upon Euclid’s First Common Notions which says that if two things are equal
to the same thing, then those two things are equal to each other. With this “common notion” in
mind, the core formula for building an employee training program reads as follows:
In a world of learning and
development where complexity is
the enemy, BizLibrary has
developed a simple and nimble
approach to delivering high
quality learning, anywhere,
anytime.
Michael Rochelle
Chief Strategy Officer
Brandon-Hall Group
BIZLIBRARY.COM
Business Benefits Improved Employee Performance In Key Areas
That Support Or Drive Those Business Goals
Improved Employee Performance In Key Areas
That Support Or Drive Those Business Goals Improved Manager Skills
Employee Development in
Targeted Competencies
=
= +
COMPLEXITY IS THE ENEMY
COMPLEXITY IS THE ENEMY
So, let’s apply Euclid’s First Common Notion to these statements, and think of each element in
these statements as variables in this equation. Organizations will realize business benefits when
there is improved employee performance in key areas (competencies and skills) that support or
drive those business goals. And improved employee performance in these areas is equal to
improved manager skills PLUS employee development in targeted competencies. Therefore,
business benefits are equal to improved manager skills plus employee development in targeted competencies.
Remember – complexity is the enemy. We want to deliver bottom-line business results. Ideally,
we want a reasonably straight line from an employee training and development program to
business results. There is it. Now, let’s work on each element (variable)
– one-at-a-time.
According to the International
Data Corporation (IDC),
knowledge workers spend
approximately 10 hours a week
searching for data to bridge
knowledge and skill gaps.
In an organization with 300
employees making an average of
$60,000, the lost productivity could
exceed $2 million – or the
equivalent of 33 full-time
employees’ productivity!
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Business Benefits
Improved Employee Performance In Key Areas
That Support Or Drive Those Business Goals
Improved Manager Skills
Employee Development in Targeted
Competencies
When we are trying to solve logic problems or work our way through a complex puzzle, it’s frequently easiest to start with the end. This is certainly the case with employee training. We can
illustrate the value of this approach by showing how starting with the employee perspective
looks.
Let’s use a practical example:
Our organization sets a strategic goal of increasing per employee productivity by 5% in 12
months. From this organizational goal, we must understand the answers to the following
questions:
EXACTLY what activity (focus like a laser on performance), department by department, must
improve to see such an increase?
For each activity identified, what is the CAUSE of the difference in the current level of
performance and the desired level of performance?
If the cause in the difference in performance is related to skills, knowledge and/or
competencies, then our employee development efforts have a good chance of making an impact and delivering a true business result. For these identified areas of improvement, this
same level of analysis carries down through departments, teams and right down to individuals.
At the individual level, performance improvement plans are built around the delivery of training
and development. Educational resources are provided to each employee based upon the
actual needs of each employee. Now what we have is a focused program. There is little to no
wasted time, energy or effort, and we can deliver high impact business benefits.
The single most critical element of this variable of our equation is the verification that the desired
business benefit can be influenced or delivered through improved employee performance.
Otherwise, you are not looking at a challenge that a training solution will solve.
According to Bersin by Deloitte,
organizations with strong learning
cultures outperform their peers in
key areas including:
INNOVATION: 46% more likely to
be first to market
PRODUCTIVITY: 37% greater
employee productivity
TIME TO MARKET: 34% better
response to customer needs
QUALITY: 26% greater ability to
deliver quality products
SKILLS FOR THE FUTURE: 58%
more prepared
PROFITABILITY: 17% more likely
to be market share leaders
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Business Benefits
Once we’ve established that the business benefit we are seeking can be delivered by improved employee performance, the next important variable we have to identify to balance
the first part of our equation is to state clearly the broad or strategic areas of employee
performance we need to improve. On the surface of it, this sounds easy. It can be, once you
start asking the right questions.
The key is to focus your questions on performance. We can find countless ways and places we
could improve or increase the skills, competencies or knowledge of our employees. These are
all valuable objectives, too. But the ultimate key to unlocking the puzzle is to find the places
where improved performance will deliver improved business benefits.
Let’s work with a specific example. Most organizations believe that it’s more efficient to retain
current customers than to go out and win new ones. So let’s assume that our senior leadership team established a strategic goal for the next year of improving our client retention rate by 5%
by the end of next year.
The critical aspect of this element of your analysis is to keep asking “why” the performance is
not meeting the goals you’ve established. You keep asking “why,” until you cannot ask any
longer.
For most root cause analysis efforts, it takes five to seven levels of inquiry to get to the root cause
of a performance issue or challenge. When you reach that answer, you have likely arrived at
the ROOT CAUSE of the performance issue you have to solve. This will provide you an amazing
degree of focus for your training and development efforts, because you will be eliminating the
guess work about whether or not your training program and the content you plan to deliver are
targeted to improving the performance you need to deliver results.
Everyone performs better when
we play to our strengths. There are
no exceptions.
Think of great athletes in this
context. Would a great basketball
star achieve the same level of
greatness if he or she attempted
baseball? Do you remember
Michael Jordan’s failed attempt
to play professional baseball?
That’s because his strengths were
on the basketball court.
Our employees are no different.
They will excel when they play to
their strengths.
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Improved Employee Performance
ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS
Here’s how you might see a root cause analysis flow as you investigate the source of a performance challenge in a client serv ice team
when working to improve client retention by 5%.
Q1: Why are we not retaining clients at our target of 90%? We are only at 85%.
A1: Because we do not talk to our clients often enough – maybe once every 60-90 days.
Q2: Why is that a problem?
A2: Because we’ve learned that when we talk to clients at least once every 30 days, they renew their contracts at a rate of over 92%.
Q3: Why do the client service professionals not reach out to their clients every 30 days? A3: Because they have too many clients, and even for those that have a manageable numbers of clients they do not always have
relationships with the key decision makers at the client company. Most reps have 80 or more clients. The optimum number is 50.
Q4: Why is having a relationship with the key decision maker important? Does this have any bearing or impact on client retention?
A4: Yes. We’ve learned that it’s not just the frequency of contact that matters. When we have a good relationship with the decision
maker, the renewal rate is 92%. When we communicate every 30 days AND have a relationship with the decision maker, the renewal rate is 96%.
Q5: Why do the reps have too many clients?
A5: Not all of them do. We’ve had recent turnover, and we expect to add one new rep in 30 days. In 60 days the book of business
should be balanced and manageable for the whole team.
Q6: Why do we not have good relationships with the decision maker at each and every client?
A6: Because the reps as a group are not adept at relationship building and establishing strategic partnerships.
That’s it – we can’t ask “why” any more. We’ve gotten to the root cause of the problem.
So – what did we learn in this exercise? There are two root causes of the problem: too many clients AND a performance gap in building and maintaining strategic partnerships with clients. The first cause of lower than desired performance in this area is NOT a training
problem, and it is being addressed with a staff addition and work load management. But – the second root cause IS a performance
challenge that we can address with employee development by teaching these employees how to build and maintain lasting, strategic
relationships with clients.
Had we just thrown customer service training at this group of employees, do you think the performance of these employees would improve IN THE AREA that would impact this specific client retention challenge? Probably not, even though the customer service skills of
these employees may have improved in other ways. The GOAL is NOT just to feel better by improving skills or competencies of
employees. The point is to improve performance is areas that will drive improved business results.
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So let’s quickly recap where we are in the development of our formula:
Business results – we’ve identified clear business results we are targeting, and we’ve developed a clear
understanding of the activity within the business that drives each specific result.
Improved employee performance – we’ve next analyzed the performance gaps we must fill with
employee develop initiatives to improve the overall organization performance in the activities we know
are linked to delivering the business results we are targeting.
Now we are ready for the next step in building out the analytical model that we can use to either start an
effective and targeted employee training program ,or analyze a current employee development
program.
Improved Employee Performance In Key Areas That Support Or Drive Those Business Goals
Improved Manager Skills Employee Development in Targeted Competencies = +
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Business Benefits Improved Employee Performance In Key Areas
That Support Or Drive Those Business Goals =
MAKING SURE YOU’RE STILL WITH US… THE
FORMULA
This next piece is to understand the managerial skills we need to improve that will support improved employee performance. While we begin to evaluate the competencies needed for
your organization’s managers, bear the following in mind:
Core Competencies – high level competencies everyone in your organization must possess to
one degree or another. These might be industry related or rooted in your organizational culture.
Job-Family Competencies – each business discipline carries its own set of critical competencies.
For instance, HR professionals might be guided by the competency model suggested by SHRM.
That would very likely be the same for your programmers, graphics artists, engineers, etc.
Job-Role Competencies – these are the competencies where your employees must possess the
requisite level of mastery to perform their jobs at the level needed to meet the definition of success set out by the organization for that specific job role.
It is impossible to effectively train and develop your current managers in all three areas. Your
succession planning program and leadership preparation program are the appropriate places,
times and venues for development or increasing mastery of core and job-family competencies.
The challenge at hand now – improving the performance of your employees – falls squarely into the job role competencies of your front line managers and supervisors.
No other relationship in your organization is as important to improve performance as the
relationship between employees and their manager. This single relationship, repeated many
times, is the single most influential factor in each of these vitally important areas that all yield
verifiable business benefits:
• Employee Engagement
• Retention
• Productivity
Managers have unique opportunities
in their daily interactions with
employees to empower them to
discover and develop their strengths.
They also have the ability to position
employees in roles where they can do
what they do best every day.
When managers succeed in these
endeavors, their teams become more
engaged. Employees who feel
engaged at work and who are able
to use their strengths in their jobs are
more productive and profitable and
have higher quality work.
SOURCE: Gallup Study, 2013 State of
the American Workplace
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Improved Manager Skills
You should be selective and focus on the critical skills and competencies that will truly deliver improved employee performance results. We believe the following four critical competencies
will form an excellent foundation for your managers.
1. Emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to perceive, control and
evaluate emotions. It’s not intelligence per se, EI is a complex competency that involves our
ability to understand and monitor not only our own feelings and emotions, but also the feelings
and emotions of those around us. Then EI allows us to use this information to guide our actions
and thinking.
For a much more complete explanation of the concept, refer to a scholarly article by Peter
Salovey and John D. called "Emotional Intelligence” written in 1990. In the Book “Working with
Emotional Intelligence,” leading authority Daniel Goldman wrote, “Emotional Intelligence is the largest single predictor of success in the workplace.” Goldman describes Emotional Intelligence
as “managing feelings so that they are expressed appropriately and effectively enabling
people to work together smoothly towards their common goals.”
2. Coaching. A study conducted by Bersin by Deloitte showed that organizations with senior leaders who coach effectively and frequently, improve their business results by 21% as
compared to those who never coach. Some specific examples of coaching behaviors are:
• Taking an “Ask vs. Tell” approach. Coaches ask their employees questions and help
employees solve problems. They don’t tell employees what to do.
• There is a focus on the employee and not on tasks. So the focus is on the development of
employees.
• There is a structure for accountability, action and outcomes. The manager and employee
stay tightly focused on achieving goals using this structure.
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Improved Manager Skills
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Communication - Monitor and
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Good communication is the
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relationships.
For a free trial of these courses and
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3. Communications. This key competency flows very naturally from coaching. However, communication in today’s complex workplace also requires the application of EI (emotional
intelligence) so the communication message AND method are appropriate to the situation and
desired results.
Another critical aspect of communication skills and competencies many organizations tend to
overlook in their managerial employees is virtual communication skills. Many organizations now
have remote employees or multiple locations. We are more reliant than ever before on
technology tools to effectively communicate. In many instances we are forced to rely upon
these tools to supervise and manage these remote employees and locations.
Even if organizations do not have remote employees, how well prepared are managers to
communicate using current technology tools? The communication challenges for managers with remote employees are radically different. For instance, how do managers provide:
• Feedback
• Coaching
• Keep employees connected
• Maintain relationships
All of these things are possible, but these require a new and emerging set of communications
skills that require a high degree of comfort with technology.
4. Delegation. One of the hardest transitions for new mangers to make is to learn to delegate
tasks as opposed to simply doing them. For many managers, there is a feeling that they are
“dumping work” on their employees when they ask employees to do things. This mindset must
be shifted, and managers must master the competency of delegating to their teams.
Employees actually NEED to feel connected to their work, and they NEED their managers to
demonstrate confidence in them. So rather than “dumping” on employees, delegating to them
is not only appropriate, it’s necessary. The trick is in delegating the right tasks to the right people.
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Improved Manager Skills
For a free trial of these courses and
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The final step in the development of our formula is employee development in targeted job role competencies. When we combine this variable with improved managerial skills, we will realize a
true improvement in employee performance in those areas that we have identified as
improving business results.
The process of building effective employee development in these targeted job role
competencies follows the following steps:
Performance Analysis: If you’ve followed the formula so far, you have already done this
important work for the organization and generally for employees. Now you have to get specific,
and once again remember – complexity is the enemy. Ask yourself one simple question: What
does success look like for THIS employee? Once you can answer that question, you’ll know
exactly what you need the employee to DO. You can clearly identify the performance improvements you need, and you can move to the next steps with a logical framework and
focus to guide your efforts.
Establish Critical Job-Role Competencies: This is another step you can simplify by looking to the
things your current top performers do well. If you don’t know, find out. The odds are very good
that your top performers focus their activity on no more than three or four objectives, and they apply no more than three or four key competencies to deliver high performance results. It’s
those same activities you want to encourage, and those same TARGETED competencies you
want to develop.
Establish Job Role Standards: For example, we might expect a higher level of ability in the area
of communication from a senior leader than from an entry-level employee. Is this employee an
individual contributor, manager, or executive? What level of mastery of each critical
competency is required for current success? Once again, the key is to simplify the training
objectives and create focus.
Every organization will need to
evaluate the unique requirements
for their employees. For instance,
managers in certain industries may
require a unique set of
competencies such as regulatory
requirements in healthcare,
financial services, or transportation
organizations.
Regardless of the industry,
organizations will likely have some
unique requirements based upon
culture and specific organizational
goals or objectives.
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Employee Development in Targeted Competencies
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Employee Development in Targeted Competencies
Identify Skill Gaps: The difference between the desired and actual mastery levels is the Skill Gap. It’s the part we are going to work on in our training program, and this is exactly what we
are trying to impact. It’s where we can really help employees improve performance and deliver
better results.
Individual Development Plans: The identified gaps will help you develop an Individual
Development Plan (IDP) for each employee. These IDPs will help us focus each individual on
the specific development activities that will help them close the gap between their current
level and the desired level of competence in a specific performance area.
Assess, Measure and Adjust: The final step for improving employee development is to assess
their progress, measure results and help them make continual adjustments towards the
achievement of the performance goals you’ve helped them establish. Of the three elements in this final phase, the continual adjustment element is the most important. Make sure employees
and managers understand that the process of continually managing our own performance
based upon objective, verifiable goals is the best way to ensure that performance targets are
met, and we can see the impact on the business of our employee development efforts.
NETWORKING
Building trust
Emotional intelligence
Conversation skills
COLLABORATION
Organization and team
dynamics
Communication
Innovation
PRESENTATION SKILLS
Developing presentations
Verbal communication
Information design
DIGITAL LITERACY
Learning technology
Social technology
Content mastery
LEADERSHIP SKILLS
People development
Communicating vision
Motivating and engaging
KEY COMPETENCIES FOR LEARNING
PROFESSIONALS
A side note on how to balance the need for speed with the need for competence…
BALANCING THE NEED FOR SPEED WITH COMPETENCIES
• Have employees own their learning and development
• Provide information that employees can use in their
own way
• Hold them accountable
Complexity is the enemy. In this world where ambiguity and complexity surround us in virtually
every aspect of our business environment, we can deliver the optimum value to our
organization and employees when we can find ways to simply solutions to complex problems,
such as employee training and development. Mark Twain’s wonderful quote about the
difference in effort to write a short or long letter is a great comparison to our employee training
challenge. It’s much more challenging to take complicated processes and problems and bring
them to our employees in short easier to digest forms. Employee training is no different. It’s easy
to throw a big piece of technology into the mix, lots of classroom sessions, and mix in some e-
Learning courses. What’s challenging is to really dig into the “why” your organization needs
employees to perform at higher levels.
When we step up and decide to answer that “why” question, another series of even more
interesting and fun questions confront us about how to actually improve performance in areas
that mean something to both the organization and our employees. Complex training solutions
may make a few people feel good about having a program and delivering lots of content. But
in the end, it’s the delivery of an unfulfilled promise.
We here at BizLibrary simply refuse to accept such a result for our clients. Complexity is the
enemy, and we are dedicated to working with organizations who, like us, value the impact fully
engaged and educated employees can make. We value what that type of work environment
looks and feels like. Trust us – it’s wonderful. And the best part is that it’s achievable for each
and every organization willing to take complexity on as a true adversary. Euclid’s First Common Notion inspired us to develop the following statement or formula as a guide to simplifying the
development of an employee training program that can deliver business results.
Whatever training your employees
need, you’ll find it with BizLibrary.
Content and technology all in one
place. BizLibrary provides its clients
with the industry’s largest and
fastest growing collection of high-
quality training videos and
eLearning courses, covering 25+
topic areas.
Additionally, the cloud-hosted
LMS, Performance Management
and Social Learning applications
help smaller organizations
streamline and simplify important
talent management processes.
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Business Benefits Improved Employee Performance In Key Areas
That Support Or Drive Those Business Goals
Improved Manager Skills Employee Development in
Targeted Competencies
= =
+
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