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Report suggests common factors among high-performing training organisations

US-based research and advisory firm Bersin & Associates has announced the availability of its latest report - "The high-impact learning organisation: What Works™ in the management, operations, and governance of corporate training."

The 160-page report looks at 12 factors that, according to the researchers, significantly impact the efficiency and effectiveness of a learning organisation.

"This research has helped us identify clear commonalities among high-performing training organisations," said Josh Bersin, president of Bersin & Associates.

"These critical factors are important to any organisation committed to employee training and skills development because they can help maximise investments in time, resources, and expertise. Training and HR executives can use this study to guide training-related decisions, refine budgeting processes, refine organisational structures, and work more effectively with business units throughout the enterprise."

The study, which is based on interviews with learning executives and surveys from 350 global companies, was sponsored by Peoplesoft, Wells Fargo, Plateau, and Saba.

According to Bersin & Associates, examples of factors that promote effectiveness and efficiency of corporate training include:

* Centralised budget management, often overseen by steering committees, eliminates the purchase of duplicate content and drives vendor consolidation. The most efficient organisations track all training dollars, whether spent centrally or by business units. A CLO or other high-level executive often manages the budget and may even penalise departments for unauthorised spending.

* The most effective organisations invest in e-learning and related technologies in order to increase reach, range, and impact – not to reduce costs. These organisations move beyond “courseware” to blended programmes, learning integrated into business workflows and learning on-demand.

* Organisations that spend the time and money implementing an enterprise-wide LMS have much higher effectiveness and efficiency. These LMS investments tend to take two to three years to fully implement and they are supported with a set of shared services for content integration and administration. Enterprise LMSs provide detailed data on the activity, efficiency, utilisation, and impact of training investments – providing the foundation for solid decision making.

On the flip side, Bersin & Associates say factors that can negatively impact a training organisation include:

* Centralised training organisations that are inadequately staffed and budgeted not only fail in meeting the needs of business units but often “open the door” to unauthorised and uncontrolled training-related spending by business units. In the long run, this approach can cost a company much more.

* A lack of focus on the development of enterprise-wide standards and templates for training significantly weakens a training organisation. The most effective organisations invest most of their resources into leveraging their instructional design skills and training experience throughout the enterprise.

* A failure to focus on a measurement strategy impedes decision making. The most effective organisations have a team member who understands assessments, analytics, databases, and business measurements.

Other factors evaluated include:

• Staff and resource allocation
• The designation of CLOs
• Organisational structure and management of training
• Use of shared services for technology, content development, and outsourcing
• Role of learning/performance consulting
• Measurement and reporting
• Partnering with HR
• Chargeback and allocation models
• The impact of steering committees or councils

External links

For more details about the "The High-Impact Learning Organisation," including a table of contents, visit: www.bersin.com/research/high_impact.asp

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