To bring in high rate of effectiveness, learning organizations must move beyond just managing training delivery and controlling the cost of learning activities. With technology being such a big part of the learning experience, it's crucial to achieve a high rate of LMS adoption - and that requires a user-centered learning portal or website, that creates learning 2.0 destinations that fits the interest of specific learner segments. For most managers the major objective while implementing an LMS is to deploy and measure training and to increase user return visits. However, in reality, most LMSs are too cumbersome for the typical learner. The solution is delivering information in the flavor, format and context that appeal to younger audiences for whom training is often designed. This can be done by developing a learning portal that acts as a front end to your LMS, offering the relevance, immediacy and usability of a Web 2.0 website. In addition to increasing user friendliness, learning portals offer other advantages. Portal technology means reduced support load on your IT staff, and decreased cost of ownership for the business. A portal also improves the user interface of the system at the front end, while providing administrators maintain a high degree of control at the backend. Although the objective is not to provide everyone with all information, it is to make the right information more accessible, when and where it's needed. Even for a centralized learning system, it's important to take a role-based approach to user access. This allows for capabilities such as informal learning. In recent discussions with leading CLOs and Training Directors, Expertus asked, 'What are the top learning challenges when you don't have a learning system portal?' The answers ranged from poor usability, inefficient search capability, unfriendly user interface, slow registrations, and sporadic customer training (check for the case for customer training portal development), to expensive and unnecessary customizations. One important recurring response was the need for learning organizations to cater to new modes of learning delivery and informal or corporate social learning. To learn more about this concept and to learn 6 ways to unlock the value of your learning technology, download the white paper. If you need advice on how to increase the training efficiency of your learning organization, feel free to contact me.

In a recent survey of training professionals, we found that 64 percent of responders felt their training technology was not effectively communicating with other applications such as CRMs.
 
Software systems of all types have always been required to talk to one another since 1960s when the mainframe computer systems first hit the market. Today, companies want to leverage their training technology, to get measurable business results by integrating LMS, eLearning, CRM, HRMS, portals and business intelligence software.
 
So why don’t learning technologies and other software systems talk effectively with each other? Answer: The business processes and learning initiatives are not aligned.
 
There are many communication protocols, tools and technologies on the market, which helps these technology systems speak the same language. But in the long term to achieve communication between systems, it takes two other things.
1. Assessing learning activities against  your business goals and current processes. Based on this assessment, long-term strategic plan may be to build channels of communication software systems and different groups of employees.
2. Adopt this plan to maintain or upgrade your technology infrastructure continuously.
 
Without this approach, learning tools may be underutilized. And finally, learning technology can do much “talking” that no one could hear.
 
If your organization is facing LMS consolidation problems or if you are interested in increasing the effectiveness of your learning technology infrastructure and your overall training efficiency, contact me.

 Recent conversations with learning executives, conducted through Expertus Learning Intelligence Forums, revealed that attitudes about learning measurements are changing for the better.

 Overall, executives are talking much less about traditional measurements and much more about business-related measurements. The Kirkpatrick measurement model is mentioned, but most often in reference to what organizations are NOT doing. 

 Getting visibility into the business impact of learning has become increasingly important because corporate learning is now widely viewed as a business service. The vast majority of training reporting is done for internal business customers, such as sales executives, call center managers, and business unit leaders. 

 One VP of learning said, we have to move from measurements based on training by the pound to those that are relevant to our business. Measurements such as total learning hours, pages accessed, class registrations, completions, and assessment scores have little if any value to internal customers ñ as well as to business-focused learning executives. 

 According to a senior director of education services, We can’t train just for the sake of training. We have to be able to answer questions about business impact. The Kirkpatrick model is great theory, but itís very expensive and time consuming to get to level five. Practically, you have to find a measurement system that uses what’s already in place. 

 Our many hours of discussion with learning executives can be summarized into a few simple guidelines for effective training measurement:

• Make sure your metrics are meaningful to your customers.
• Keep metrics simple and practical. The fewer the better.
• Invest time in identifying metrics up front, not after the fact.
• Go out of your way to communicate and explain findings to your customers and to senior management. Don’t wait for them to ask you.

 In addition to providing real insight into the value of your training programs, practical and meaningful metrics can help you educate your stakeholders and raise important business issues.  By taking a proactive and collaborative approach with your customers, you have a chance to define the playing field and establish realistic expectations. 

 If you’ve got questions about learning strategies or if you have a good example of measurements done well, contact us. We’d be happy to offer an objective and practical perspective.

For more information log on to www.expertus.com

www.trainingefficiency.com

 

Many executives that we talk to are still struggling to obtain meaningful metrics that support decisions and demonstrate to business leaders the impact of the training investment. In fact, in our most recent training challenges survey, 78% of respondents said the biggest weakness in their current reporting was providing information to support business planning and strategy.  

This same survey showed data accuracy, data standardization, lack of data, time constraints, and data access to be among the major obstacles encountered.  

Often, companies look to their LMS to solve their learning measurement challenge. But, our survey found that 84% of respondents were dissatisfied with their training reporting.  Respondents cited limited standardized reporting, learning technology integration issues, customization requirements, and usability as the primary areas of dissatisfaction.  

However, blaming all measurement problems on LMS technology isn’t fair. The challenges are more far reaching. In our first Learning Intelligence Forum, held in early April, learning executives were concerned about the difficulties of measuring informal learning, the need to efficiently correlate performance and learning, and the technical challenges involved in pulling data from multiple sources, such as HR and CRM systems.

We believe efficient, effective, and meaningful metrics are essential for successful learning operations management.  And we believe there’s a dearth of information and resources about this important topic. By facilitating discussions, gathering market data, sharing our experiences, and offering informational resources, we hope to do our part in moving the industry forward.

 I’d love to hear from you about your training measurement programs or if you don’t have one contact me for advice on how to build one.

For more information log on to www.expertus.com

www.trainingefficiency.com