Hello,
I have been training for close to ten years now and have taken on my newest challenge. Building a Learning and Development department in a company that currently has nothing beyond a yearly Fire Safety assessment online.
I have huge dreams, but I know every successful venture begins with the right foundation. So I'm wondering, what would be your tip? If you had this chance, what is the key thing to ensure success long term?
I am working in a growing company of around 300 people currently, moving into more and more sites, providing health care solutions for those who have Chronic Disease or Mental Health issues. This may also change in the coming year, as we take on additional opportunities.
There is currently no leadership training, and I can't see that staff receive yearly performance reviews or any kind of formal one on one structure to raise issues or recieve coaching.
What are your suggestions?
7 Responses
Here’s my take: start small.
Here’s my take: start small. Aim for low hanging fruit – stuff that you can do easily and issues that you can resolve quickly. Take new employee orientation for example. That is a great starting point and has maximum impact.
Just dont bite off more than you can chew! I know that building the team from scratch would’ve gotten you all excited, but take one project at a time.
Hope it helps 🙂
khush1616 wrote:
[quote=khush1616]
Here’s my take: start small. Aim for low hanging fruit – stuff that you can do easily and issues that you can resolve quickly. Take new employee orientation for example. That is a great starting point and has maximum impact.
Just dont bite off more than you can chew! I know that building the team from scratch would’ve gotten you all excited, but take one project at a time.
Hope it helps 🙂
[/quote]
I would like to agree with this point. You should start with some quick wins, which offer strong value and solid impact. I have recently joined a 350 + company. A great culture and desire to improve, with a directionless L&D function.
Clearly there are L&D opportunities across the business and the danger is that you will be so filled with ideas and demands that you won’t see the wood for the trees. Agree the 2-3 key areas of focus you can affect quickly and get cracking. Once they have landed with your business, then you can scope out the bigger projects. It will save you from sleepless nights and awkward conversations with stakeholders; importantly, the quick landing should be felt by the organisation and grows your credibility.
My advice is to not rush in
My advice is to not rush in with anything until you understand the company. What you do in the first few months will be your reputation going forward.
Some suggestions:
– speak to the managers – find out their challenges with managing employees, what they’d like to see and need support on
– speak to the employees – find out how they are managed, what they’d like to see and need support on
– speak to the directors – find out their vision for the company and get them to confirm what support they will offer you to drive new initiatives.
– Review all the response – focus on those areas which will have a greater impact. The advice about low hanging fruit is good, if the solution is going to improve the situation.
– Review the impact regularly with the above groups. Maybe a group containing people from all levels could be good to give you regularly feedback.
Good luck.
There are some core elements
There are some core elements that have to be present in your Learning and Development Department to make it the most important department.
Learning and Development has to become proactive instead of reactive. The only way to do that is to bring new ideas and thought leadership to the organization.
Another important aspect is, if you are looking for bright spots and bringing new ideas to the organization, you will then have the ability to introduce innovation that aligns with learner demand.
Agree with Blake Henegan.
Agree with Blake Henegan. Wise words. Focus on a handful of key areas where the business needs to improve performance and try not to get drawn into attempting to solve every problem (including HRs!)
Take a head count on what resources you have available directly in your team and what subject matter expertise you might be able to develop in the line and ensure they all have the best ‘skills’ to do their job effectively and impact business learning transfer. you won’t be effective without a highly skilled team with you. Also, you might put some focus on quality assurance of your team i.e. live observation of delivery; assessment of quality design etc.
I agree with all of the other
I agree with all of the other advice but I would add; talk to end users about how they like to receive education – make sure that you don’t get stuck in a rut of delivering everything in the same way. In addition, talk to the people who influence your learners; line managers etc. You will only be successful if those people get involved in developing skills post learning intervention – try to break down a common perception that ‘training’ happens just at the learning event and talk about how you partner with influencers to help embed new learning.
Talk to the Chief Executive
Talk to the Chief Executive about their plans and objectives for the organisation. See what you can contribute to. Issue a training needs analysis (some free samples at http://www.abctrainingsolutions.biz/evaluation_skills_free_download.html) questionnaire to gauge the trends in needs. Then act quickly to put some of the popular needs into a training event.
Hope that helps
Bryan